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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588 LAISSEZ FAIRE AD.1776 causes and remedies of these evils, and petitions for redress —18%0- of grievances, for economy and for parliamentary reform, poured in on all sides.” There was a bitter irony in the fact that the success of England, in foiling the attack on her commercial prosperity, should be marked by “urgent symptoms of suffering which broke out over the whole face the sountry and in almost all classes of the community.” though The various international struggles had far-reaching results ruccessful . . , usin speculators on the business habits and economic condition of the country. bad gained. Phe laissez faire policy had led to a practical abandonment of industrial regulations of every kind, and manufacturers were much more free to expand their business, and take advantage of fresh openings, than would have been possible in the old days. The man of enterprise had his reward, and the in- dustrial and agricultural revolutions were doubtless accelerated by the political events of the time. The ultimate result was the triumph of England; and the gain to the country, as measured by the volume of trade and the increase of shipping, was immense. But if we take the welfare of the community as a criterion, the subject assumes a very different aspect; pauperism abounded and the burden of poor rates was a heavy charges. The increased rapidity of the transition was in itself an aggravation of the misery it entailed; the specu- lative character which business assumed was inconsistent with the steady maintenance of a standard of comfort, and the occasional interruptions from which the various textile trades suffered in turn were most disastrous. To con- iemporary observers much of the suffering of the time, and specially the distress after the peace, was inexplicable; though the teaching of Adam Smith might have given them a clue to explain the main features of the situation’ England had become a great commercial nation; her prosperity had ceased to depend primarily, as it did in the sixteenth, and even in the seventeenth century, on the prosperity of the landed interest’. It rested on the fluctuating basis of trade. This the com- munity as 3 pf A wifered Annual Register, 1816, Preface iv. ' The Government was thus enabled to obtain an enormously increased revenue from customs; these increased from £3,948,000 in 1794 to £10.321.000 in 1810. Reports, 1828, v. 610, 625. 3 Revorts. 1x. 139. 4 See above, p. 596. § See above, pp. 112. 386.

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