How the Industrial Revolution Affected the Conditions of the Working Class in England
The 19th century can be characterized by the shift from accentuating the role of the humans in manufacturing and in the economic process to emphasizing the possibilities of machines for the industries’ development.
In his book The Conditions of the Working Class in England, Friedrich Engels discusses the effects of the Industrial Revolution as the main event of the 19th century for the workers in England, paying attention to the situation in Manchester and Liverpool.
Engels as one of the most influential social scientists and political theorists of the 19th century provides the complete discussion of the challenges which the working class in England experienced under the impact of the Industrial Revolution in 1844, and the significance of the work is in the fact Engels’s work is based on his own observations of the situation in England.
According to Engels, in spite of developing technologies with inventing the steam engine and jenny and contributing to the economic growth with increasing the gains, the Industrial Revolution influenced the society negatively, making workers the “slaves” in the industrial world where human forces were changed with machines. Thus, the inventions led to the “radical change in the state of English workers” (Engels 52).
First of all, to characterize the period of the Industrial Revolution from the point of its impact on the social and economic development, it is necessary to pay attention to the inventions which made the revolution possible. The changes in the technological process of many industries were based on the invention of the steam engine and jenny.
Thus, “the history of the proletariat in England begins with the second half of the last century, with the invention of the steam-engine and of machinery for working cotton” (Engels 50).
It was the start of the Industrial Revolution which further changed the basic principles of the English economic and social systems. The approach to manufacturing was changed significantly, and the industries’ productivity could move to the higher level.
As a result, the changes and improvements in the technological process led to the changes in the economic rates of the country. The new technologies contributed to making the process of producing goods faster and more effective. Thus, the public demands increase and the costs and prices decrease.
The industries’ productivity changed with using machines results in making the goods more available for the population. This situation becomes extremely influential for the economic progress of the country in which the main accents are made on commerce. It is important to note that the accentuation of the national wealth in the context of the successful free trade between countries can be discussed from several perspectives.
Although the economic growth dependent on the active usage of the new technologies as a result of the Industrial Revolution can be observed in Great Britain during the second half of the 19th century, Engels states that the positive effects of the revolution for the economy cannot be compared with the negative consequences of the process for the workers (Engels 64).
It is necessary to pay attention to the fact that in spite of all the positive effects of the Industrial Revolution for the country’s economy, the changes in the industry process led to the decline of the English society. The intensive development of industries resulted in people’s migrating to cities in search of work, but the hand-work were no longer required much because of using machines instead of people.
The working class was demoralized by the need to work almost for free under the pressure of employers (Engels 147). Engels pays attention to the fact that the workers became the slaves of the property owners under the impact of the economic competition developed as a result of the Industrial Revolution (Engels 114).
It was impossible to speak about the security for the workforce, and the workers suffered from different kinds of pressure which resulted in their mortality from disease the level of which was higher in cities than in the rural territories.
To look at the issue from the larger perspective and analyze the isolation of the workers from each other and any facilities, it is possible to refer to Engels’s words, “the dissolution of mankind into monads, of each which one has a separate principle and a separate purpose, the world of atoms, is here carried out to its utmost extreme” (Engels 69).
The Industrial Revolution is the most influential event of the 19th century which contributed to changing the principles according to which industries and economies developed and affected the conditions of the working class significantly, depriving them from jobs and any social guarantees.
It is important to pay attention to the Engels’s approach to discussing the problem because the theorist presents the evidences of the real social situation in England caused by the Industrial Revolution in 1844. Engels’s arguments are necessary to be referred to while discussing the positive and negative effects of the Industrial Revolution for the Western Civilization.
Works Cited
Engels, Friedrich. The Conditions of the Working Class in England. London: Penguin Books, 1987. Print.