The Industrial Revolution

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1027928145

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-159926

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Cunningham, William http://d-nb.info/gnd/128907487

Title:: The Industrial Revolution

Place of publication:: Cambridge

Publisher:: The University Press

Year of publication:: 1922

Scope:: xxii S., S. 404-886

Digitisation:: 2021

Collection:: Economics Books

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THE HUMANITARIANS AND ROBERT OWEN 745 ft was little wonder that population sprang forward apace, or A-D. 1776 that the truth of his doctrine was so terribly confirmed, when ’ the death-rate of the factory towns, and the visit of the cholera, demonstrated the potency of the positive checks. In but left the so far as his teaching induced a sense of hopelessness, and a ee feeling that no real amelioration was possible, it was very tt mischievous; it gave the capitalist an excuse for disclaiming any responsibility for the misery among his operatives, and necessarily raised a barrier against all attempts at improvement by legis- uti lative enactment. This was, as we shall see, the most disastrous result of the laissez faire attitude taken by the exponents of economic science; the labourers were ignorant, though not so ignorant as was alleged, and their favourite projects would probably have proved injurious to the country; the landlords were selfish, though there were many plausible excuses for main- taining the old policy as they tried to do; but it had ceased to be beneficial, and it was rightly condemned. Unsym- pathetic criticism that has a basis of truth is much less harmful than exaggerated approbation; and it was most unfortunate that the most advanced science of the day should insist on free play for the capitalist, as a right, while it provided him with excuses for neglecting his responsibilities. IV. HuMAN WELFARE. 966. During the twenties, and still more in the thirties English and forties, a considerable change came over public opinion ns on industrial questions. Unexampled progress had been made during the last decade of the eighteenth, and the beginning of the nineteenth century, but there was no reason to believe that Englishmen were either better or happier. There seemed to be no result that was worth having; and the detached attitude which economic experts pssumed was not reassuring. They appeared to confine themselves to the study of ways and means, without en- deavouring to form a clear and positive conception of the end to be pursued. The economist of the early part of last century was ready to explain how the greatest amount of

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