The Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution, or First Industrial Revolution, occurred roughly between 1760 and 1840. It was the shift from hand production methods to machines, the use of chemicals in manufacturing, new iron smelting processes, and the application of steam and improved water power technology. This period also saw the advent of machine tools and mechanized factory systems.
Textile production was the dominant industry in terms of the number of people employed, the profits to be made and the amount of capital invested. The textile industry was also the first to use modern production methods. The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain and many of its advances were British in origin.
It was the Industrial Revolution which, in large part, powered the growth of the British Empire. In turn, it was the raw materials and cheap labour provided by the colonies along with Britain’s restrictive, monopolistic trade agreements which fed the British engines of industry.
By the mid 18th century, Britain was a global trading empire and the world’s largest economy, backed by the supremacy of the British Navy, the administrative and military might of the East India Company and Rule of Law.
Economic historians largely agree that the Industrial England: Tales of a Time Traveler 3.11 Revolution was the most important event in the history of humanity since the domestication of animals. Its effect on virtually every aspect of daily life was profound. Whether or not it improved the quality of life is up for debate. On the one hand, wages rose significantly and some, for the first time, had access to a wide range of goods unimaginable in years prior. As well, people had steady work which was not subject to the unpredictability of harvests. On the other hand, factory work was often mind-numbing and dangerous, the working day and week were insufferably long, air quality in cities was deplorable, health care and leisure activities for workers were nonexistent and child labour was common. Numerous poor, displaced from farms by the Enclosures Act, were drawn to the cities where they were subject to the whims of self-interested employers and hard-nosed overseers. Generally, the owners got rich; the workers simply survived.
Although the First Industrial Revolution brought with it significant economic and social change during the 1840s and 1850s, the new technologies were not sufficient to drive high and sustained rates of growth. Rapid economic growth really began after 1870 as a second generation of innovations in steel making, mass production, assembly lines, machine tools and steam power were employed. This era became known as the Second Industrial Revolution.
Yet even by the 1830s, the impact of mechanization was massive. Cotton spinning machinery increased a worker’s output by a factor of 500, the power loom by a factor of 40, the cotton gin, which removed seed from cotton, by a factor of 50. Efficiencies in steam
engines reduced energy consumption by up to 90%, the use of coke instead of charcoal significantly reduced the fuel costs of iron-making and the introduction of machine tools led to more precise, sophisticated production machines.
As the power of James Watt’s steam engines improved, Manchester became the epicentre of cotton textile production, largely because of its existing, extensive canal system which could transport the finished product economically.
In 1772, 2000 tons of cotton were being imported per year. By 1816, that figure had risen to 45,000 tons. In 1816 there were 86 cotton mills in Manchester; by 1825 there were 110. Even in this early stage of the Industrial Revolution, the output capacity of these mills was staggering. Edward Baines wrote:
“We may see in a single building a 100 horse power steam engine [which] has the strength of 800 men, set in motion 50,000 spindles. The whole requires the service of but 750 workers [who]…produce as much yarn as former could have … spun [with] 200,000 men….”
Quakers were well equipped to succeed in the new Industrial Age. Quaker schools provided their young men and women with superb educations, unmatched anywhere at the time. Those who chose business as a career could often count on the financial backing of a Quaker bank, family or friends to turn ideas into reality.
Once up and running, Quaker businesses held a significant advantage over their non-Quaker competition — they operated unfailingly from their religious principles. Customers and suppliers had complete confidence that doing business with a Quaker guaranteed one honesty, fairness and quality. Persons working for a Quaker could expect fairness in wages, respect, gender equality and good working conditions. In short, Quaker businesses of the 18th and 19th centuries were lightyears ahead of the times.
Thus, Quakers, some of my family included, thrived in industrialized Britain. Many became wealthy and in return (and contrary to many wealthy non-Quakers), to a person, they gave back to their communities — to their Quaker community as well as the greater community. They provided relief to the poor and lobbied decades on end for abolition, women’s rights, prison reform, worker reform, and the cessation of trade in opium.
By the early 1900s, cities of the midlands region of England — Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, and Birmingham — had collectively become a global manufacturing powerhouse which both contributed to and benefited from the rise of the British Empire.