A.D. 1776 —1850. LAISSEZ FAIRE the expense of production, and diminish the sale of the goods; while the low rates of wages were in themselves an obstacle to improved production; it seemed to be a vicious circle, from which there was no escape. III. AGGRAVATIONS OF THE EVILS OF TRANSITION. The inevitable a of tran- niton 256. All periods of rapid transition are likely to be times of difficulty, especially to the poorer classes of the com- munity ; under no circumstances could such sweeping changes, as were involved in the Industrial Revolution, have passed over the country without inflicting an immense amount of suffering. Some pains were taken to minimise the trouble, especially where it affected the women and children who practised spinning as a by-employment; and the strain of the times was partially alleviated by the expedient of parish allowances’. With this exception, however, the cir- cumstances of the day were such as to aggravate the inevitable evils of transition. These arose far less from the introduction of new machines, than from the fact that the labourer had come to be so entirely dependent on the state of trade, for obtaining employment, and for the terms on which he was ere vated remunerated. Fluctuations of business were fatal to his hy the well-being in every industry, whether it had been affected by Lions of the introduction of new processes and appliances or not. The Si commercial development, which had been going on so rapidly, was not checked by the secession of the colonies, and during the half-century from 1775 to 1825 English trade increased enormously. The Industrial Revolution had been occasioned by the commercial expansion of the earlier part of the eighteenth century, and it led in turn to an unprecedented extension of our trade’. But the political complications with France and America, at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries, were incompatible 1 See above, pp. 638 and 656, also below, p. 718. 3 The tonnage of the shipping belonging to Great Britain in 1780 was 619,000, and in 1790 it had increased to 1,355,000. The shipping of Great Britain and Ireland was 1,698,000 in 1800; 2,211,000 in 1810; 2,439,000 in 1820; 2,201,000 in 1330; 2,584,000 in 1840; 8,565,000 in 1850; and 4,659,000 in 1860. L. Levi, op. cit. op. 50, 146. 246 and 412.