CHAPTER-3
THE AGE OF
INDUSTRIALISATION
In 1900, a popular music publisher E.T. Paull produced a book that had a picture on the cover page announcing the
‘Dawn of the Century’
• At the Centre of the picture is a goddess-like figure,
the angel of progress, bearing the flag of the new
century.
• She is gently perched on a wheel with wings,
symbolizing time.
• Her flight is taking her into the future.
• Floating about, behind her, are the signs of progress
railway, camera, machines, printing press, and
factory.
Picture on the pages of trade magazine
It shows two magicians.
The one at the top is Aladdin from the orient who built a
beautiful palace with his magic lamp
The one at the bottom is the modern mechanic, who
with his modern tools weaves a new magic: builds
bridges, ships, towers and high-rise buildings.
Aladdin is shown as representing the East and the past,
Two Magicians, published in Inland Printers, 26 the mechanic stands for the west and modernity.
January 1901.
Analyze the images
Triumphant account of the modern world.
Modern world is associated with rapid technological changes and innovation, machines
and factories, railways, and steamships.
The history of industrialization thus becomes simply a story of the development
Unit-1 Before the Industrial Revolution
Industrialization Growth of factory industry
When we talk of industrial production we refer to factory production. When we talk
of industrial workers we mean factory workers. Histories of industrialization very
often begin with the setting up of the first factories.
Problem with such idea
Even before factories began to dot the landscape in England and Europe, there was large-scale
industrial production for an international market.
Proto-industrialization
Proto-industrialization in practice
Merchants from the towns in Europe began moving to
the countryside
Supplying money to peasants and artisans, persuading them to produce for an
international market.
With the expansion of world trade and the acquisition of colonies in different
parts of the world, the demand for goods began growing.
But the merchants
could not expand
production within
towns
Why merchants could not expand production with in towns???
Urban crafts and trade guilds were powerful.
These were associations of producers that trained craftspeople, maintained
control over production, regulated competition and prices, and restricted
the entry of new people into the trade.
Rulers granted different guilds the monopoly right to produce and trade in
specific products.
Therefore, it was difficult for new merchants to set up businesses in
towns. So they turned to the countryside.
How production took place in the countryside during proto-industrialization???
• poor peasants and artisans began working for merchants.
• Open fields were disappearing.
• Cottages and poor peasants who had earlier depended on common lands for their
survival, gathering their firewood, berries, and vegetables had to now look for
alternative sources of income.
• Many had tiny plots of land which could not provide work for all members of the
household.
Therefore, in this situation merchants provided an
alternative source of income
How production took place in the countryside during
proto-industrialization???
New words:
Stapler- A person who ‘staples’ or sorts wool according to its
fibre.
Fuller- A person who ‘fulls’- that is, gathers cloth by pleating.
Carding- The process in which fibres, such as cotton or wool,
are prepared prior to spinning.
Proto-industrial system
Network of commercial exchanges.
It was controlled by merchants and the
goods were produced by a vast number of
producers working within their family
farms, not in factories.
At each stage of production 20 to 25
workers were employed by each
merchant.
The coming up of the Factory
Factories in England came up by 1730’s to late 18th century
The first symbol of the new era was cotton
In 1760 Britain was importing 2.5 million pounds of raw cotton to
feed its cotton industry. By 1787 this import soared to 22 million
pounds.
This increase was linked to a number of changes within the process of
production
Reasons for the increase of cotton consumption
A series of inventions in the 18th century increased the efficacy of
each step of the production process[carding, twisting and
spinning, and rolling]
They enhanced the output per worker, enabling each worker to
produce more and they made possible the production of stronger
threads and yarn
Richard Arkwright created the cotton mill.
Countryside [manual] Towns [mills with machines]
• Within the mill, all the processes were brought together under one roof and
management.
• This allowed a more careful supervision over the production process and the
regulation of labour.
The pace of industrial change
First The most dynamic industries in Britain were cotton and metals
Cotton Metal
• Growing at a rapid pace, cotton • With the expansion of railways, in
was the leading sector in the England from the 1840s and in the
first phase of industrialization colonies from the 1860s, the demand
up to 1840s. for iron and steel increased rapidly.
By 1873 Britain was exporting iron and steel worth about £77 million, double
the value of its cotton export.
The pace of industrial change
Second The new industries could not easily displace tradition industries
Even at the end of the 19th century, less than 20 percent of the total
workforce was employed in technologically advanced industrial
sectors.
Textiles was a dynamic sector, but a large portion of the output was
produced not within factories, but outside, within domestic units.
The pace of industrial change
Traditional industries too had development, they were not
Third
stagnant
Seemingly ordinary and small innovations were the
basis of growth in many non-mechanized sectors such
as food processing, building, pottery, glass work,
tanning, furniture making, and production of
implements.
The pace of industrial change
Fourth Technological changes occurred slowly
New technology was expensive and merchants and industrialists
were cautious about using it.
The machine often broke down and repair was costly.
They were not as effective as their inventions and manufacturers
claimed.
Example: The case of Steam Engine
