Industrial Revolution Consequences - Essay Example

Moving in hoards towards the cities led to the creation of large-scale slums as well as change in change in the family system. Working men and women started to live alone for the first time in history without their families. Rural men came to work in factories while rural women migrated in huge numbers to the cities as domestic help (Tilly & Scott, 1987).

B. The first industrial revolution created new forms of investment. It made the merchants emphasize more on manufacturing than ever. A swarm of inventors sprung to action creating huge machinery replacing the labor force in the factories. This led to uncontrolled capitalism. The laborers were forced to work without questioning because of the fear of replacement. This phase of the industrial revolution can be referred to as the mechanical revolution (Fischer& Hackett, 1996). The merchants became much more profit-oriented than ever during this period.

C. The industrial revolution which started in the late 18th century can be classified into three phases.
• Phase 1 – From 1780 to 1820 with Britain as its headquarters
• Phase 2 - From 1840 to 1870 where the industrial revolution spread to France, Germany, and the U.S.A.
• Phase 3 – From 1890 to 1914 when the revolution spread as far as Russia and Japan (Trebilcock, 1981).

The first-generation workers in the phase accepted ruthless capitalism. Their demand grew during the second phase. The workers were ready to compensate for their demands and rights for high wages. This trend started by the US workers spread quickly to the other parts of the world. Any incongruence was met with contempt by the workers themselves. As E.P. Thompson (1991) mentioned “the working class made itself as much as it was made”. The third phase workers mainly easterners were the first to demand basic rights as well as fair pay sowing the seeds of communism for the first time.

Excessive growth in the manufacturing sector paved way for huge factories involving thousands of workers. The talent of the workers became a resource to the company. The competitors tried to lure skilled labor with more salaries. Their inevitability made the worker community revolt against the management and negotiate for their basic rights as well as good pay introducing communism. One such first recorded upraising was the 1831 first Canut Revolt in France and the most famous one is the Revolution of 1905 in Russia which created the Saint Petersburg Soviet worker's council the forerunner for most communist revolutions.

Differences between Capitalism and Communism
1. The west continued to retain the phase 2 industrial revolution mindset securing their capitalist motives. Capitalist merchants still give importance only to profit. They do it in an inveigling way luring the workers with money. Profit is the determining factor in capitalism. Eastern countries like Russia demanded the workers be given full rights as they are the basic unit of the factory's income. The government-controlled capitalists looked upon them as a source giving employment to the workers. The worker's welfare is the key factor in communism.

Capitalist countries give importance to surplus production and constant expansion as they need new markets to buy their products. So they even gave and give more facilities to the workers than the communist environment to retain their talent. Communist countries lack behind in continuous expansion. They retain the workers by giving them a decent lifestyle and guaranteeing job security. Stringent rules restricted expansion and earning more profits making the workers stay in a secure environment with little growth and facilities (Fischer & Hackett, 1996).

2. The resources and production entirely lie with the private owner or the investors in capitalism. The profit is also shared only among them. The perks they give to the workers are included in the manufacturing cost and regained through cost fixation of the product. In communism, the resources and the profit are common to the working class. There is no private owner. The society in common is the benefactor of the profit. The production is entirely controlled by the worker unions as there is no particular major investor. This allows gives them the freedom to manufacture high quality products at an affordable cost. But, since the competition is low, innovation and vigor to make their products better than other companies is not widely evident. Read More