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.