Modern Capitalist Exploitation: The Industrial Revolution
hello I'm Historical Method Man and this is a three-part Supercut of the Industrial Revolution series please enjoy all three videos put into one place together For Your Entertainment and educational benefit British entrepreneurialism's greatest success during the Industrial Revolution was the rapid development of new technology before most other nations and this Evolution saw the fewest immediate and negative effects she products were not a success of the Industrial Revolution because they came at a massive human and societal cost entrepreneurs also Justified exploitation by transforming cultural attitudes to favor individualism over combination this transformation was not a moral success but a business one because it disempowered the worker and drove costs down because the development of new technologies had the fewest human externalities it was one of entrepreneurialism's only successes during the British Industrial Revolution progress only exists if the human cost is severely less than the material reward but entrepreneurs did not care the only marker of their success was profit the textile industry was the first industry to be industrialized and entrepreneurs sought to substitute Indian cotton Imports to do so they had to eliminate bottlenecks at every step of the cotton production process from field to fabric John K's flying shuttle made weaving the most technologically advanced part of the production process and it eliminated the limitation of an arm's length to the width of a cloth Richard Hargrave spinning jenny Richard ackright's water frame and Edward Cartwright's Power Loom made the creation of twine and the powering of multiple Looms with one power source possible Eli Whitney's cotton gin also eliminated a bottleneck of Labor in the harvesting of cotton what had taken 2 000 hours in the late 18th century dwindled to only 135 hours in 1825. these Technologies made the British textiles industry boom and they facilitated the creation of more complex and beautiful garments than any humans had ever seen previously furthermore fabric became more affordable because of the economics of scale streamlining of the production process was an indisputable success of British tinkering and technology and it went beyond textiles into glass iron chemicals and Machine Tools entrepreneurialism also gave way to a consumer boom which was successful in the eyes of the entrepreneurs sadly the exploit of Labor needed for the consumer Revolution plus the destructive effects of its products prevents consumerism from being considered an achievement in the industrial revolution some believed in the idea of man as a consuming animal with boundless appetites who was capable of driving the economy to new levels of prosperity so some believed consumerism was a sign of economic welfare others like Adam Smith questioned the morality of consumption in the theory of moral sentiments Smith stated the Curiosity of a toothpick of an ear picker of a machine for cutting the nails or of any other trinket of the same kind is not so obvious in a consumer economy people turn to stuff for fulfillment rather than more complex means and stuff separates them from others and their natural world more products do not equate to a better off Society in reality they lead people to work longer hours for more superficial and unfulfilling wants unhealthy consumerism in the lower classes led to the destructive industrious Revolution that did little to increase the Public's Health and Welfare all classes redistributed their spending towards sugar caffeine tobacco and chocolate over nutritious food addiction to these comstibles affected the lower classes the most men women and children work longer hours in exploited factories to increase their household incomes and fill their addictions the conditions of these workhouses were inhumane and children quote at the Mill aptly called hell's Bay for two months at a time they not only worked regularly from 5 AM to 9pm but for two nights each week work through the night as well that is from Hammond and Hammond the town laborer a new civilization 1760-1832 female and child careers slaved back-breakingly pulling coal tubs from underground towards the surface of the mines Even Adam Smith pity the workers that made cheap Goods possible he stated of the division of labor the man whose whole life is spent performing a few simple operations naturally loses and generally becomes as stupid and ignorant as it is possible for a human creature to become cost of cheap Goods negates any sense of success from this achievement some entrepreneurs would consider their ability to justify this exploitation a success and while it was a win for business this justification was destructive to society and people as a whole Andrew yuray lied to his middle class female audience to justify child labor that was so severe it made slave owners blush he lied stating I never saw a single instance of Corporal chastisement inflicted on a child they seem to always be cheerful and alert taking pleasure in the light play of their muscles enjoying the mobility natural to their age Andrew yuray the philosophy of Manufacturers Yuri's propaganda was nothing short of fiction as working children suffered incomprehensibly during the Industrial Revolution yuray was not the only to justify exploitation Samuel Smiles peddled the ideals of self-control and individualism as a Panacea for working class issues entrepreneurs profited from these lies and rhetorics as British working-class movements of combination and unionization were unfocused small and ineffective against the firms that exploited them so heavily the entrepreneur's use of rhetoric to prevent combination and unionization was an accomplishment for the entrepreneurs but it was a moral failure of the Industrial Revolution because it perpetuated the oppression of the working classes in conclusion because the development of new technologies saw the fewest immediate and negative externalities for all classes it was one of the few successes of the Industrial Revolution the ability of firms to create cheap Goods for the masses was seemingly beneficial but the effects of The Superficial consumer Revolution and the oppressive forces of the industrious Revolution invalidated the achievement factor of cheap Goods finally while the entrepreneurial class effectively lied to their societies about the benefits of their positions this should be considered a shameful Act of propaganda not a Triumph of business the only acceptable definition of societal progress is when human benefits outweigh the human costs sadly the Industrial Revolution was defined with suffering instead of prosperity entrepreneurs during the Industrial Revolution preyed on the working classes and subjected them to discipline for no other reasons beyond the potential for profit Factory owners used laborers families and de-skilling as leverage to tie them down to the factory system and britons began to think about wages through a family income the iron law of wages kept working-class wages to subsistence level yet the entrepreneurial class peddled the myth that hyper-individualism and self-reliance can take the poor from poverty these attitudes ingrained themselves in the minds of the British working and middle classes so British working-class movements were weak and unable to sway the government until the 1830s finally the managerial class cemented discipline into workers through the commodification and manipulation of time overall entrepreneurs used leverage over miserable workers and influenced the way they thought about themselves and the world to keep them compliant a majority of the workers in the industrial revolution were women children and unfree laborers some women and children came into factories alongside their husbands and fathers and the firing of the father meant losing their entire household income so the family workers had to stay disciplined to retain their ability to work eat and live women who worked in the putting out system were generally desperate widows because they had no other options they had to put up with unbelievably low wages unpaid working children received corporal punishment adults as well in fact the cattle Nine Tails Whip was invented to discipline laborers as corporal punishment was standard practice in most factories threats of firing and pay cuts also loomed over the heads of those operating the very looms that built the consumer Revolution Factory owners also preyed on orphans immigrants and people from the English poor houses and because they had nowhere else to go they were forced to be disciplined and accept their exploitation factories were initially concentrated in the Midlands Yorkshire and Lancashire where agriculture was poor and Rural labor was desperate male laborers were overwhelmingly migrants from the Celtic Fringe and they were threatened with the deportation of them and their families to Georgia or New South Wales for the sake of their loved ones these men were desperate for work so they accepted their exploitation children and teens from poor houses were apprenticed forced to work without pay until age 21 and they were sometimes marched out hundreds of miles away from their families these poor children lost their families their homes and their spirit so they had no other choice but to work EP Thompson's time work discipline and Industrial capitalism proves quite well how Factory owners and disciplinarians used time to keep oppressed workers in their place some employers of used workers through the clock not letting their employees know the time and forcing the mechanical clock to run slower this was nothing short of cheatery and oppression and it gaslit the workers under the hierarchical rule of the factories schools trained children for adult lives and factories according to Thompson once in attendance they will be under military rule the superintendent shall ring again when on a motion of his hand the whole school rise at once from their seats on a second motion the scholars turn on a third slowly and silently move to the place appointed to repeat their lessons as the Industrial Revolution continued and schooling became more available it turned children into adult robots ready to do what the factory owners commanded moreover through the division of labor entrepreneurs de-skilled their workers to simultaneously increase output and gain leverage over them when one man draws out the wire another straight sip a third cuts it a fourth points it a fifth grinds it at the top for receiving the head the workers have no transferable skills before the Industrial Revolution Guild members Farm hands and town laborers were generally skilled they knew how to weave to forge to plant and construct the division of labor separated workers from the products they made and it turned the cultivation of hard skills into the monotony of so-called peculiar trades when workers were fed up with their employer they would leave as inexperienced as they came and their pay would stay low throughout their career the de-skilling of laborers took away bargaining power from the individual and the already weak combinations of workers Economist David Ricardo explained the true iron law of wages during the Industrial Revolution he stated that the natural price of wages no such thing gravitates towards subsistence level it makes sense that Parliament never instituted a minimum wage when their darling Economist argued quote like all other contracts wages should be left to the fair and free competition of the market and should never be controlled by the interference of the legislature David Ricardo the iron law of wages 1817. it is easy for Elites to accept this for they use so-called natural laws without having to be concerned with social betterment to Ricardo progress is unnatural through economists the entrepreneurial class caught the ear of Parliament and prevented the institution of reforms and minimum wages until the 1830s it makes sense that a society incentivized by profit would prey on children immigrants widows and prisoners for their labor Factory owners had a special type of Leverage over each of these groups and most workers in the factories had no other choice but to work or Star the de-skilling of workers and the iron law of wages kept class Mobility to a minimum both throughout a worker's Lifetime and the lifetime of their subsequent Generations because the working classes were desperate they had to accept their discipline and their punishment I'm Historical Method Man and this is demand the force of the Industrial Revolution technological change does not exist in a vacuum for entrepreneurs create new products and production processes in the aim to sell Goods that customers will actually purchase the supply of new Goods in the English Industrial Revolution was a response to the economic forces of demand because the English guaranteed markets abroad through mercantilism and Newfound consumerism that drove demand within England the Crown's mercantilist Monopoly assured an Atlantic market for textiles and its other Goods the consumer revolution in the upper and middle classes of the English was focused around Fashion while the lower classes demanded addictive products like sugar and tobacco consumerism fostered the industrious Revolution that encouraged laborers to work long hours increasing the supply of labor and further fueling production mercantilism the consumer Revolution and the industrious Revolution were all signs that demand was the cause of the Industrial Revolution before and during the early industrial revolution British products tended to be poor in quality so the basis of over 50 percent of their wealth was maintained by the re-exportation of goods to their colonies the British mercantilist Monopoly assured markets in the Americas and the Navigation Acts of 1651 proved how tight a grip Britain had on American markets and these acts prohibited Americans from buying goods from countries other than the British Empire Thomas Munn an East India Company Trader described how a proper Merchant ought to know what goods are prohibited to be exported or imported in the said foreign countries through the mercantilist doctrine of limiting who can buy what products from whom Britain guaranteed a massive Market within their empire while these markets do not matter unless people demand new products they are an incredibly important precondition of the Industrial Revolution the Western Hemisphere was incredibly profitable for the British Empire not all only because they provided a market for finished goods but also because they were a massive source of raw materials and cash crops sugar tobacco silver Lumber and coal created wealth by either being re-exported to the east or transformed into aforementioned finished goods the size of the English middle class doubled as the British Empire exploited the people and resources from the Western hemisphere in a society where the nobility were tastemakers via the sumptuary laws the enlarged middle classes sought to emulate the upper classes the middle classes and upper classes Envy drove consumption in fashion novelty became an irresistible drug the artificial market for luxury clothes and goods drove Innovation most visibly in the textile industry block printed Cottons and patterned cloth demonstrated the Precision and the technological prowess of the time as the advanced machines that wove these complex patterns into fabric were precursors to the first mechanical computers similarly Norwich textile firms unveiled new chemical colors into the brocade patterned silk the dresses of the Victorian upper classes showcased the we buy it because we can attitude of wealthy consumers outfits were constructed to flex class through intricate patterns not to be comfortable because these products were not made for necessity The Innovation and Supply followed Demand only when entrepreneurs knew that fashion and taste was lucrative in Furnishings wedgewood's jasperware shows the intersection between marketing luxury and consumption Josiah wedgwood's London showroom hosted day-long tea tours that gave interested consumers an experience in reality wedgewood's dishware was poorly constructed but his company noticed a demand for luxury so they artificially increased demand through marketing and let their supply follow the demand in Britain's 27 North American colonies imitated England's demand and from 1740 to 1763 the white upper classes in the Atlantic bought 120 percent more British consumer goods the American and British Markets for luxury goods and fabrics were so large that investors would have been foolish not to support technological innovation consumer desire is equally infiltrated the British working classes for Newfound addictions fostered the industrious Revolution that increased the supply of labor and total output during the Industrial Revolution wages did not go up for individual workers but the putting out system and the encouragement of the entire family to work increased household income this industrious Revolution led to a redistribution of spending and the working class spent more of their money on sugar chocolate tobacco caffeine and Spirits over nutritious subsistence as people developed addictions to these products they began to work longer hours and fewer holidays historian Jan DeVries coined this intensification of Labor the industrious Revolution households made decisions that increased both the supply of marketed Commodities and labor and the demand for goods offered in the marketplace the industrious Revolution lessened the bottleneck shortage of Labor that held back production in this way demand increased Supply as more worked in factories for longer to fulfill their wants some historians wrongfully believe that Supply preceded demand during the Industrial Revolution technological historian T.S Ashton influentially argued that the efforts of a few diligent tinkerers totally streamlined production processes across all Industries but his thesis completely ignored the all-powerful force of demand in Ashton's words the growth of production was associated with new forms of power new Machinery or new knowledge derived from science Ashton failed to realize that entrepreneurs would not invest into production if the demand was not a given and this simple fact discredits nearly his entire argument the fact of the matter is that the demand cited argument realizes that Supply was in effect of consumer demand the supply cited one acknowledges neither demand nor labor the preconditions of the Industrial Revolution were all concerned with demands the consumer Revolution dominated all classes of British Society the rich sought fashion while the workers found Vice this consumerism was equally apparent in the 27 North American colonies and the mercantilist trade policies of the British Empire guaranteed a strong market for producers to supply I'm Historical Method Man and this is why demand was the force behind the Industrial Revolution foreign [Music]
2023-06-18 16:02
