The Industrial Revolution CHAPTER I ENGLAND IN 1760-AGRICULture, manufaCTURES, POLITICS Sec. 1.-Definition. Owing to the unity of all history, we are compelled to define arbitrarily and set limits when any special field is undertaken. Industrial History is the story of man's labour with tools and mechanical and power appliances for the satisfaction of his wants. By the Industrial Revolution we mean that great transformation which has been brought about during the past one hundred and fifty years, by discoveries and inventions which have altered fundamentally all the methods of production and distribution of the means of life, and consequently revolutionised all the economic functions of society. Man, who through the long centuries had toiled with his hands, aided by crude implements, to wrest a pitiful subsistence from Nature, suddenly discovered that the blind forces against which he had been struggling could be chained to do his work. Through the countless ages, humanity had been the helpless prey of the vulture elements-consumed by fire, drowned by flood, struck down by lightning, frozen in the winter storms, eliminated by pestilence and famine. Man's first action was then defensive. He sharpened a bit of wood, polished a flint, kindled a flame-Industrial History was begun. The millions of years which separate the eighteenth century from primeval dawn did not produce, however, as many mechanical and scientific triumphs as have been brought forth in the last century and a half. Sec. 2.-Mechanical and Social Phases. The Industrial Revolution has two phases: one material, the other social; one concerning the making of things, the other concerning the making of men. A man's work and the conditions under which it is performed are tremendous factors in determining his character. Though the Industrial Revolution opened the way for the production of the means of life without the consumption of all human energy, man, startled and stunned by the sudden changes in the methods of working and living, was unable to organise his life so that all might share in the benefits of the new inventions. The Industrial Revolution, with its factory system, and its increased facilities for intercourse, wrought wonderful changes in the social organism. It brought with it long hours, overwork, over-crowding, and other evils. It called into existence suddenly the factory towns, with their want of corporate life, their vile sanitary conditions, and filthy, hovels. Men were forced rapidly into new relations, in which the old formulæ, maxims, and moralisings became useless and void. The old economic order and basis of life were swept away, and in the confusion-" the wreck of matter and crush of worlds "-it seemed as if man had become utterly powerless to adjust himself to the new conditions, to conquer and control them as he had the forces of Nature. For a while after this industrial convulsion, and the demolition of the old order, man seemed paralysed. Economists, moral teachers, and social leaders groped in darkness amid confusion. Man had become a machine-a producer of things, a commodity to be bought and sold. His character, his powers of love and joy and admiration, his desire for freedom from misery, pain, and wretchedness, were made secondary to the production of marketable commodities. However, the bitter wrongs which called forth the scathing denunciations of Carlyle, Kingsley, and Ruskin were the result not only of the new mechanical developments, but also of the want of a reorganisation of society upon the basis of the new achievements. This process of reconstruction is now going on, and corporate society is the hope of the future. From the standpoint of achievement of human brain and hand, the mechanical revolution possesses a lasting and constantly increasing fascination; but being inseparably interwoven with the life and labour of the people, it has an interest as deep and abiding as the problems of human health, happiness, character, and power. Sec. 3.-England in 1760. To realise the magnitude of the change wrought in industry, politics, and social organisation, we must turn to England of 1760, and examine the old order. What a strange panorama unrolls before our eyes! We see not the England of -day, but a quiet, rural England yet unawakened by the roar of traffic and industry. At the middle of .he eighteenth century man produced the necessaries of life-food, clothing, and the like-by the labour of his hands, almost unaided by machinery. The flail, the primitive plough, the spinning wheel, the hand loom, and a few other rude appliances assisted the manual worker in his tasks, while the horse and water furnished the power used to turn the wheels of some small factories. The commodities so produced were transported by slow and tedious methods to the markets. Man seemed to be a helpless pigmy, confined and overawed in his activities by the tremendous forces of an apparently uncontrollable natural world. The great manufacturing cities had not yet sprung up; there was no "Black Country," with its forest of chimney stacks, pouring, forth cloud's of sulphurous smoke to darken the sunlight; there were no volcanic blast furnaces to make the night hideous; no trains shrieking and thundering across plain and under mountain; there were no vast armies of workers even, collected in great factories, stifled by heat and dust, and deafened by the dull, monotonous roar of machinery. Sec. 4.-Extent of Agriculture. In 1760, one-third of the workers of England were agricultural labourers, and a large number of those engaged in regular manufacturing industries continued to work in the fields during certain portions of the year. It is estimated that 3,600,000, out of a population of 8,500,000, lived in the counrry, and that their income was £66,000,000, out of a total national income of £119,500,000. While these figures are not exact, they show that agriculturalists had more than their proportionate share of the income. This was probably due to the fact that machinery was not yet employed in manufacturing to any great extent, and a large number of workers was required to turn out a comparatively small product. We have no very reliable information as to the amount of land which was |