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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FACTORIES AND COTTAGE INDUSTRIES 617 So long as cottage industry lasted, the workmen had some- Ap. 177s thing to fall back upon when times were bad ; but under the —!8%0- new conditions the fluctuations were much more violent aohite his than they had ever been before, and the workman had no Huctuating means of improving his position. The prosperity of the mass’ of the population no longer rested on the solid basis of land, but upon the fluctuating basis of trade’, The age of invention then was not merely concerned, as There was might at first sight appear, with the improvement of particular [7 , arts, it effected an entire revolution in the economic life of progress the country; for this reason it is not quite easy to weigh against one another the loss and gain involved in such a fundamental change. We see on the one hand the signs of marvellous economic progress; an immensely increased com- mand over material resources of all sorts and an extraordinary development of trade and wealth, with the consequent ability to cope with the schemes by which Napoleon endeavoured to compass our ruin, On the other hand we see a loss of this ta- stability of every kind ; England as a nation forfeited her self- ony oe sufficing character and became dependent on an imported *****- food supply; and a large proportion of the population, who had been fairly secure in the prospect of shelter and employ- ment and subsistence for their lives, were reduced to a condition of the greatest uncertainty as to their lot from year bo year or from week to week. Over against the rapid advance of material prosperity must be set the terrible suffer- ing which was endured in the period of transition; and while we congratulate ourselves on the progress that has taken place, we should not forget the cost at which it has been ob- ;ained, or the elements of well-being that have been sacrificed. 246. There were, however, certain sections of the com- Machinery munity which were able to take advantage of the period of {unis For change, and to adapt themselves rapidly to the new conditions ; #¢ 7% a class of capitalist manufacturers came into great prominence, and they were soon able to exercise considerable influence in Parliament. There had of course been wealthy employers in certain districts®, especially in the iron trade, and in the 1 Massie, Plan, p. 69. See above, p. 577. t Compare the iron, glass and brass works mentioned by Rudder, Gloucester- shire. 601.

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