Industrialisation and the Middle Class - Assignment Example

 Industrialisation and the Middle Class How does industrialisation as well as its consequences make a middle class visible in the first half of the 19th century? “It seems no coincidence that the first nation to experience industrialisation and mass migration from rural to urban areas should have developed such intense nostalgia for the countryside (Atchison et. al., 2000, Pg. 50)”. Introduction While things such as the Glorious Revolution, the French Revolution and the American Revolution are important to historians, The Industrial Revolution is one of more important to sociologists and economists since it was a major factor in the development of new socioeconomic and cultural changes in the 18th and 19th centuries. It started in Britain and depending on the speed of knowledge transfer in that age and time, it soon spread throughout the world in some shape or the other. Within a few decades, the socioeconomic system that was based on manual labour was to be replaced by a culture which was dominated by industry and manufactured goods (Hobsbawm, 1999). The Revolution Begins Hobsbawm (1999) suggests that the revolution started with the changes to the textile industries which were the first to start using machines. The creation of the machines themselves was based on the refinements in how iron was produced that allowed the creation of new tools and equipment. At the same time, other elements required for improved communications, delivery of goods and transport were more or less in place which helped to expand the trade between cities as well as countries. Waterways, improved conditions of roads and the presence of railways all helped in making sure that goods as well as people could move from one location to another without significant investments of time and money. Additionally, Mr. Watt had understood the genie contained in steam power and had unleashed it by 1760. Although earlier designs also existed he is credited with creating the first working steam engine which allowed machines to work much faster, better and at an untiring pace as compared to human effort. Steam power was also added to boats, ships and other means of transport but the effect it had on the workshops and industrial plants was the greatest in terms of how it would change the fabric of society (Wikipedia, 2007). The coming of The Enlightenment provided an established system which accepted the real business related applications of the growing body of scientific knowledge that had been accumulated by Britain. In fact, the development and perfection of the steam engine can be considered only a small part of it since the process of the Industrial Revolution was guided by scientific analysis and the development new political as well as socioeconomic systems (Hobsbawm, 1999). Many of the new thinkers and writers of the era were not a part of the landed gentry or even the nobility who had time and money to conduct scientific experiments or leisure time to think about their economic systems (Wikipedia, 2007). In fact, they were workers or a part of the middle class who found time to improve their as well as other people’s lives. Undeniably, the revolution can find its original causes in the way people and especially the thinkers of the era were working. For example, the ideas of the age of enlightenment and the scientific revolution certainly influenced the industrial revolution. It was correct to think that machines could be used to replace labour and that production as well as output could be increased while quality could be maintained at an acceptable level. The enlightenment of the era and the massive increases in productivity owes a lot to the idea of scientific management of a factory or a plant. The Development of Scientific Management Fredrick Winslow Taylor was born on the 20th of March 1865 in Philadelphia. He had rich parents who could afford to give him a good education that allowed his natural abilities to develop with time. As a child he displayed his skills at being inventive and could often be found counting and measuring things as well as trying to improve their efficiencies. He obtained a degree in engineering from the Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey. He held different jobs and while he was working at a steel company he pieced together a system to make the operations run smoother and with less wastage (Kanigel, 1997). The most unique ability of this management guru was to look at any given system or factory operations and give suggestions on how both the quality of the end product and the efficiency of the work could be improved. In fact, as one of the leading lights of the industrial age, he recognized that the people responsible for the management of a company have to cooperate with and consider the problems faced by the labour (Boddy, 2002). Taylor made it clear that without efficient planning or recognizing the problems of the workers, no management system could increase profitability. The Quest for Productivity According to the system devised by Taylor, productivity could be improved if the right person was found for doing the right job and that the person was to be given increasing rewards for increased performance. His systems and thoughts got popular enough in his own lifetime that he became the first recognized management consultant. He helped several businesses increase productivity while reducing labour costs to the extent that work which was previously done by hundreds of workers could be done with a few dozen (Nelson, 1980). His most famous work, The Principles of Scientific Management was written to describe a system which could be easily applied to many different companies at the time. Its usefulness is still accepted today since his ideas about improving both the lives of the workers and the performance of a company continue to remain important considerations for management personnel. The modern fields of organizational psychology, organizational behaviour and the scientific analysis of management techniques owe a lot to Taylor (Nelson, 1980). The Emergence of the Middle Class With the industrial revolution, the idea of a factory came into being which can be considered as the first end to end modernised production system. Raw materials came in from different areas and after useful work had been done on those materials, finished goods could emerge form the other side. Those goods were then sold at a profit and as long as the factory kept running, the owners of those factories would get richer and richer on a daily basis (Wikipedia, 2007). Of course, the factory system also created a huge demand for skilled professionals and semiskilled workers and as a migration from rural to urban areas started in earnest, the modern city also came into being. The mills and other industries of Manchester stand as a testament to that since it can be considered as the first city to experience the boom which comes with industrialisation. The owners of these factories and those who benefited from working within the factories became the middle class (Hobsbawm, 1999). The middle class of the times was neither at the top nor at the bottom of a social hierarchy and had no political power. However, with time the middle class came to be the intermediate social class between the titled nobility and the working peasantry of Europe. The nobles were a remnant of the feudal age, who owned the countryside, while the peasantry worked for them on agricultural fields and farms within the countryside (Wikipedia, 2007). The bourgeoisie which translates to town-dwellers took up the functions of acting as professionals, shopkeepers and industrial mill owners and there were occasions when individuals from the ‘middle class’ could claim to be the richest people in Britain (Wikipedia, 2007). However, unlike the nobility and the landowners of the times they could not use their money to get political power and had to settle for the same level of power which was given to the peasants. The Reforms The enlightenment of the times also extended to how governments should operate and how the will of the people should be mandated in the laws of the realm. The Reform Act of 1832 which is also known as The Representation of the People Act 1832 was a clear representative of the times and the ideas which were popularised by the growing rich elites. It brought about several important changes to the electoral system since it was created on the basis of correcting the problems which prevented a wider choice for adding members to the House of Commons (National Archives, 2007). The Reform Act itself was proposed by the Whigs in the house who were led by Prime Minister Lord Grey. The proposed legislation was met with strong opposition from the Tory party and almost no support from the House of Lords. It was only due to the public pressure on the government that the bill was passed and with it, seats were given in the House of Commons to the larger cities that had come up during the Industrial Revolution (National Archives, 2007). At the same time, the Act took away the seats which were with towns that had lost populations and had become rotten boroughs. Most importantly, the act increased the number of people who were permitted to vote thereby causing more voices to be heard in the government of the nation. The electoral size was more than doubled in a day but even then there were those who felt a lot more had to be done before democracy could take hold. The Act also specifically refused women the right to vote which laid the foundations of the coming of the British suffrage movement (National Archives, 2007). Conclusions The industrial revolution did not stop in Britain since it was soon taken to other nations of the world with the process of Global trade and international business becoming a part of the larger process of globalisation which is still changing the world we live in. There are still countries in the world that are working towards becoming industrialised nations and are waiting to reap the same benefits that Britain had obtained two centuries ago. While the British can take certain things of granted as a part of simply being British, developing nations may lack the infrastructure, the technical know how, the production facilities and even the highly skilled labour which is required to be on the road to being fully developed (Bardhan, 2006). Industrialised nations like America or the majority of the nations comprising the EU have gotten used to a certain level of quality production which developing nations may not be able to create in certain specialised products (Wannacott, 1996). I feel that industrialisation was a gift given to us by the people who were able to think out of the box and come up with creative solutions given the resources they had at their disposal and the needs of the times. In fact, Britain has been brought to a point in civilisation where industries have more or less lost their importance since the services sector of the economy is in the driving seat. It is not because industries have completely lost their importance; it is because the industries of the 18th and 19th centuries have given a solid foundations to the services sector which came up in the late 20th century. Today the UK is highly interested in the services sector since more than 70% of the British economy is based in services (Economist, 2005). We have not said goodbye to either the industrial sector or the agricultural sectors but we have simply grown out of the ages which they represented. As the future unfolds itself, it can be expected that things such as a knowledge economy will drive another revolution and bring more changes to our society. The changes may not be all good or they may not be acceptable to all individuals in the society but they are sure to come. Works Cited Atchison, C. et. al. 2000, ‘Leisure and Tourism Landscapes: Social and Cultural Geographies’, Routledge. Bardhan, P. 2006, ‘Does Globalization Help OR Hurt the World's Poor?’, Scientific American, vol. 294, no. 4, pp. 84-91. Boddy, D. 2002, Management: An Introduction. Pearson. Economist. 2005. ‘A world of opportunity’, Economist, vol. 376 no. 8443, pp. 14-17. Hobsbawm, E. 1999, Industry and Empire: From 1750 to the Present Day, Norton. Kanigel, R. 1997, The One Best Way. Viking. National Archives. 2007, ‘The Struggle for Democracy: Getting the Vote’, National Archives, [Online] Available at: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/citizenship/struggle_democracy/getting_vote.htm Nelson, D. 1980, Frederick W. Taylor and the Rise of Scientific Management. University of Wisconsin Press. Wannacott, R. 1996, ‘Free-trade agreements: for better or worse?’ Economic Review, vol. 86, no. 2, pp. 62-66. Wikipedia, 2007. ‘Industrial Revolution’, [Online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution Word Count: 2,124 Read More