How Britain started its own factories
The factory system was a new way of organizing labour made
necessary by the development of machines, which were too large to
house in a worker’s cottage and much too expensive to be owned by the
worker. One of the earliest factories was John Lombe’s water-powered
silk mill at Derby, operational by 1721. By 1746, an integrated brass mill
was working at Warmley near Bristol. However, Richard Arkwright is
credited as the brains behind the growth of factories, specifically the
Derwent Valley Mills.
Between the 1760s and 1850, the nature of work transitioned from a
craft production model to a factory-centric model. Textile factories
organized workers’ lives much differently than did craft production.
Handloom weavers worked at their own pace, with their own tools,
within their own cottages. Factories set hours of work and the machinery
within them shaped the pace of work. Factories brought workers
together within one building to work on machinery that they did not own.
They also increased the division of labour, narrowing the number and
scope of tasks.
The early textile factories employed many children. In England and
Scotland in 1788, two-thirds of the workers in 143 water-powered cotton
mills were children. By 1835, the share of the workforce under 18 years
of age in cotton mills in England and Scotland had fallen to 43%. The
eventual transition of child workforce into experienced adult factory
workforce helps to account for the shift away from child labour in textile
factories. While child labour was common on farms and under the
putting-out system, historians agree that the impact of the factory
system and the Industrial Revolution generally on children was
damaging.
Marriage during the Industrial Revolution became a sociable union
between wife and husband in the labouring class. Women and men
tended to marry someone from the same job, geographical location, or
social group. The traditional work sphere was still dictated by the father,
who controlled the pace of work for his family. However, factories and
mills undermined the old patriarchal authority. Factories put husbands,
wives, and children under the same conditions and authority of the
manufacturer masters.
The factory system was partly responsible for the rise of urban living, as
large numbers of workers migrated into the towns in search of
employment in the factories. Until the late 19th century, it was common
to work at least 12 hours a day, six days a week in most factories, but
long hours were also common outside factories. The transition to
industrialization was not without opposition from the workers who feared
that machines would end the need for skilled labour.
One of the best-known accounts of factory worker’s tragic living
conditions during the Industrial Revolution is Friedrich Engels’ The
Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844. Since then, the
historical debate on the question of living conditions of factory workers
has been very controversial. While some have pointed out that living
conditions of the poor workers slowly improved thanks to
industrialization, others have concluded that in many ways workers’
living standards declined under early capitalism and improved only
much later.
KEY TERMS
putting-out system
A means of subcontracting work, historically known also as the workshop system and
the domestic system. In it, work is contracted by a central agent to subcontractors
who complete the work in off-site facilities, either in their own homes or in workshops
with multiple craftsmen.
spinning jenny
A multi-spindle spinning frame, one of the key developments in the industrialization of
weaving during the early Industrial Revolution. It was invented in 1764 by James
Hargreaves in Stanfill, Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire in England. The device reduced the
amount of work needed to produce yarn, with a worker able to work eight or more
spools at once.
Luddites
A group of English textile workers and self-employed weavers in the 19th century that
used the destruction of machinery as a form of protest. The group was protesting the
use of machinery in a “fraudulent and deceitful manner” to get around standard
labour practices. They were fearful that the years they had spent learning the craft
would go to waste and unskilled machine operators would rob them of their
livelihood.
factory system
A method of manufacturing using machinery and division of labour, first adopted in
Britain at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century and later
spread around the world. Use of machinery with the division of labour reduced the
required skill level of workers and increased the output per worker.
Rise Of the Factory System
Prior to the Industrial Revolution, most of the workforce was employed in agriculture,
either as self-employed farmers as landowners or tenants, or as landless agricultural
laborers. By the time of the Industrial Revolution the putting-out system in which
farmers and townspeople produced goods in their homes, often described as cottage
industry, was the standard. Typical putting-out system goods included spinning and
weaving. Merchant capitalists provided the raw materials, typically paid workers by
the piece, and were responsible for the sale of the goods. Workers put long hours
into low productivity but labour-intensive tasks. The logistical effort in procuring and
distributing raw materials and picking up finished goods were also limitations of the
system.
Some early spinning and weaving machinery, such as a 40-spindle spinning jenny
for about six pounds in 1792, was affordable to cottagers. Later machinery such as
spinning frames, spinning mules, and power looms were expensive (especially if
water-powered), giving rise to capitalist ownership of factories. Many workers, who
had nothing but their labour to sell, became factory workers in the absence of any
other opportunities.
The factory system was a new way of organizing labour made necessary by the
development of machines, which were too large to house in a worker’s cottage and
much too expensive to be owned by the worker. One of the earliest factories was
John Lombe’s water-powered silk mill at Derby, operational by 1721. By 1746, an
integrated brass mill was working at Warmley near Bristol. Raw material went in at
one end, then smelted into brass to become pans, pins, wire, and other goods.
Housing was provided for workers on site. Josiah Wedgwood in Staffordshire and
Matthew Boulton at his Soho Manufactory were other prominent early industrialists,
who employed the factory system. However, Richard Arkwright is credited as the
brains behind the growth of factories and, specifically, the Derwent Valley Mills. After
he patented his water frame in 1769, he established Cromford Mill in Derbyshire,
England.
The Soho Manufactory, J. Bissett’s Magnificent Directory, 1800.
This early factory was established by the toy manufacturer Matthew Boulton and his
business partner John Fothergill. In 1761, they leased a site on Handsworth Heath,
containing a cottage and a water-driven metal-rolling mill. The mill was replaced by a
new factory, designed, and built by the Wyatt family of Lichfield, and completed in
1766. It produced a wide range of goods from buttons, buckles, and boxes to
japanned ware (collectively called “toys”) and later luxury products such as
silverware and ormolu (a type of gilded bronze).
Working Practices
Between the 1760s and 1850, the nature of work transitioned from a craft production
model to a factory-centric model. Textile factories organized workers’ lives much
differently than did craft production. Handloom weavers worked at their own pace,
with their own tools, and within their own cottages. Factories set hours of work and
the machinery within them shaped the pace of work. Factories brought workers
together within one building to work on machinery that they did not own. They also
increased the division of labour, narrowing the number and scope of tasks. The
work-discipline was forcefully instilled upon the workforce by the factory owners.
The early textile factories employed many children. In England and Scotland in 1788,
two-thirds of the workers in 143 water-powered cotton mills were children. Sir Robert
Peel, a mill owner turned reformer, promoted the 1802 Health and Morals of
Apprentices Act, which was intended to prevent pauper children from working more
than 12 hours a day in mills. Children started in the mills at around the age of four,
working as mule scavengers under the working machinery until they were eight.
They progressed to working as little piecers until they were 15. During this time they
worked 14 to 16 hours a day, often physically abused. By 1835, the share of the
workforce under 18 years of age in cotton mills in England and Scotland had fallen to
43%. About half of workers in Manchester and Stockport cotton factories surveyed in
1818 and 1819 began work at under ten years of age. Most of the adult workers in
cotton factories in mid-19th-century Britain started as child laborers. The growth of
this experienced adult factory workforce helps to account for the shift away from
child labour in textile factories.
Societal Impact
While child labour was common on farms and under the putting-out system,
historians agree that the impact of the factory system and the Industrial Revolution
on children was damaging. In the industrial districts, children tended to enter the
workforce at younger ages. Many of the new factory owners preferred to employ
children as they viewed them as more docile and their wages were lower (10-20% of
what was paid to male adult workers, while adult women made about 25% of an
adult male salary). Although most families channelled their children’s earnings into
providing a better diet for them, the physical toll of working in the factories was too
great and led to detrimental outcomes for children. Child laborers tended to be
orphans, children of widows, or from the poorest families. Cruelty and torture were
enacted on children by master-manufacturers to maintain high output or keep them
awake. The children’s bodies become crooked and deformed from the work in the
mills and factories.
Prior to the development of the factory system, in the traditional marriage of the
labouring class, women would marry men of the same social status and marriage
outside this norm was unusual. Marriage during the Industrial Revolution shifted from
this tradition to a more sociable union between wife and husband in the labouring
class. Women and men tended to marry someone from the same job, geographical
location, or social group. The traditional work sphere was still dictated by the father,
who controlled the pace of work for his family. However, factories and mills
undermined the old patriarchal authority. Factories put husbands, wives, and
children under the same conditions and authority of the manufacturer masters.
Factory workers typically lived within walking distance to work until the introduction of
bicycles and electric street railways in the 1890s. Thus, the factory system was partly
responsible for the rise of urban living, as large numbers of workers migrated into the
towns in search of employment in the factories. Until the late 19th century, it was
common to work at least 12 hours a day, six days a week in most factories, but long
hours were also common outside factories.
The transition to industrialization was not without opposition from the workers, who
feared that machines would end the need for highly skilled labour. For example, a
group of English workers known as Luddites formed to protest industrialization and
sometimes sabotaged factories. They continued an already established tradition of
workers opposing labour-saving machinery. Numerous inventors in the textile
industry, such as John Kay and Samuel Crompton, suffered harassment when
developing their machines or devices. However, in other industries the transition to
factory production was not so divisive.
The Leader of the Luddites, engraving of 1812, author unknown.
Although the Luddites feared above all that machines would remove the need for
highly skilled labour, one misconception about the group is that they protested
against the machinery itself in a vain attempt to halt progress. As a result, the term
has come to mean a person opposed to industrialization, automation,
computerization, or new technologies in general.
The overall impact of the factory system and the Industrial Revolution more on adults
has been the subject of extensive debate among historians for over a century.
Optimists have argued that industrialization brought higher wages and better living
standards to most people. Pessimists have argued that these gains have been over-
exaggerated, wages did not rise significantly during this period, and whatever
economic gains were made must be offset against the worsening health and housing
of the new urban sectors. Since the 1990s, many contributions to the standard of
living debate have tilted towards the pessimist interpretation.
One of the best -known accounts of factory worker’s living conditions during the
Industrial Revolution is Friedrich Engels’ the Condition of the Working Class in
England in 1844. Engels described backstreet sections of Manchester and other mill
towns, where people lived in crude shanties and shacks, some not completely
enclosed, some with dirt floors. These shanty towns had narrow walkways between
irregularly shaped lots and dwellings. There were no sanitary facilities. Population
density was extremely high. Eight to ten unrelated mill workers often shared a room
with no furniture and slept on a pile of straw or sawdust. Disease spread through a
contaminated water supply.
By the late 1880s, Engels noted that the extreme poverty and lack of sanitation he
wrote about in 1844 had largely disappeared. Since then, the historical debate on the
question of living conditions of factory workers has remained controversial. While
some have pointed out that living conditions of the poor workers were tragic
everywhere and industrialization slowly improved the living standards of a steadily
increasing number of workers, others concluded that living standards for most of the
population did not grow meaningfully until the late 19th and 20th centuries and that in
many ways workers’ living standards declined under early capital
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