Organisation Of Labour: -
The Industrial Revolution concentrated labour into mills, factories and mines, thus facilitating the organisation of combinations or trade unions to help advance the interests of working people. The power of a union could demand better terms by withdrawing all labour and causing a consequent cessation of production. Employers had to decide between giving in to the union demands at a cost to themselves or suffer the cost of the lost production. Skilled workers were hard to replace, and these were the first groups to successfully advance their conditions through this kind of bargaining.
The main method the unions used to effect change was strike action. Many strikes were painful events for both sides, the unions and the management. In England, the Combination Act forbade workers to form any kind of trade union from 1799 until its repeal in 1824. Even after this, unions were still severely restricted.
In the 1830s and 1840s the Chartist movement was the first large scale organised working class political movement which campaigned for political equality and social justice. Its Charter of reforms received over three million signatures but was rejected by Parliament without consideration.
Working people also formed friendly societies and co-operative societies as mutual support groups against times of economic hardship. Enlightened industrialists, such as Robert Owen also supported these organisations to improve the conditions of the working class.
Unions slowly overcame the legal restrictions on the right to strike. In 1842, a General Strike involving cotton workers and colliers was organised through the Chartist movement which stopped production across Great Britain.
Eventually effective political organisation for working people was achieved through the trades unions who, after the extensions of the franchise in 1867 and 1885, began to support socialist political parties that later merged to became the British Labour Party.
Other Effects: -
The application of steam power to the industrial processes of printing supported a massive expansion of newspaper and popular book publishing, which reinforced rising literacy and demands for mass political participation.
During the Industrial Revolution, the life expectancy of children increased dramatically. The percentage of the children born in London who died before the age of five decreased from 74.5% in 1730–1749 to 31.8% in 1810–1829. Also, there was a significant increase in worker wages during the period 1813-1913.
As living conditions and health care improved during the 19th century, Britain’s population doubled every 50 years. Europe’s population doubled during the 18th century, from roughly 100 million to almost 200 million, and doubled again during the 19th century, to around 400 million.
The growth of modern industry from the late 18th century onward led to massive urbanisation and the rise of new great cities, first in Europe and then in other regions, as new opportunities brought huge numbers of migrants from rural communities into urban areas.
The greatest killer in the cities was tuberculosis (TB). By the late 19th century, 70 to 90% of the urban populations of Europe and North America were infected with M. tuberculosis, and about 40% of working-class deaths in cities were from TB.
Q.4. What do you mean by industrialization.
Related Questions -
Q. How did Industrialization help the bussiness? (AKTU. 2011-12, 12 - 13)
Ans. ‘Industrialization is the process of social and economic change whereby a society is transformed from a pre-industrial society into an industrial one.
Industrialization is the process of converting to a socio-economic order in which industry is dominant. It is an economic and social system based on the Development of large-scale industries and marked by the production of large quantities of inexpensive manufactured goods and the concentration of employment in urban factories. In other words it is an economic system built on large industries rather than on agriculture or craftsmanship.
It is a part of a wider modernization process, where social change and economic development are closely related with technological innovation, particularly with the development of large-scale energy and metallurgy production.
It is the extensive organization of an economy for the purpose of manufacturing. The methods used to increase productivity in areas other than manufacturing, such as agriculture or administration.
Characteristic features of industrialization are
(i) the application of scientific methods to solving problems,
(ii) mechanization and a factory system,
(iii) the division of labor,
(iv) the growth of the money economy, and,
(v) the increased mobility of the labor force—both geographically and socially.
