Industry, Urban Life, & Manufacturing a New World Economy

From Early Modern to Modern Era (ca. 1750)

• Legacies of Atlantic Revolutions and the push for deeper, more inclusive visions of equality.

• Industrialization and its impact on the manufacture and distribution of goods, as well as the reallocation of global wealth and power.

• The significant role of colonialism, slavery, and the slave trade.

• Industrialization begins in this distinctive period of global history.

• Shift into the modern age in the West.

Slave Trade and Industrial Growth

• The slave trade generated a significant proportion of the capital invested in industrialization.

• 1761-1780: Africans produced 8.3% of the value of export commodities in the Western Hemisphere.

• Slavery and empire provided capital, raw materials, and markets.

• Produced goods like sugar, coffee, and tobacco, which helped Western nations invest in new innovations.

• Innovations were enabled by the wealth generated from the colonies.

• This wealth was continuously accumulated.

Context of South & East Asia in Expanding Global Economies

• One of the world’s wealthiest empires.

• A strong, centralized state at the center of a global market for goods.

• Ca. 1600: Allowed Dutch and English merchants to dock at Indian ports.

• The beginning of commercial entanglements and eventual colonization.

• Opium: A drug extracted from poppies, used as a painkiller (morphine, codeine, heroin). Primarily farmed in India by the British.

• Desire to access more trade spheres.

• Early 16th century: Mughal empowerment led to Dutch and English access at Indian ports, forming commercial networks.

• England’s East India Company (1600): Became a major trade power, establishing monopolies over communities and trade goods, and bringing wealth to Britain.

Qing China (1644-1911)

• Shift from the Ming to Qing Dynasty.

• Trade and commerce flourished, leading to population growth (160 million in 1700 to 350 million in 1800).

• Early regulation of maritime trade with Europeans.

• Violent internal struggles and invasion by the Manchus led to the fall of the Ming dynasty.

• Qing approach: careful restriction of European trade to maintain self-sufficiency.

Opium Wars (1839-1842 & 1856-1860):

• The Qing Dynasty succumbed to British commercial and military aggression.

• Treaty of Nanjing, 1842.

• Britain exploited opium demand in China to gain access to Chinese markets and goods.

• East India Company monopolized opium exports from India, fueling trade imbalances.

• Britain acquired Hong Kong and direct trade rights with China through five ports.

19th-Century Europe: Overview of Economic Trends

Economic Production: Industrialization

• Transition from agriculture to industry.

• Rapid development from small businesses to larger corporations.

• Modern capitalism redefined work, life, and wealth.

Industrialization

• Economic transformations in the 19th century affected society, work, family life, gender roles, politics, labor movements, and social psychology.

• Patterns of industrialization emerged in Britain, France, and Germany.

  • Began with new agricultural methods, textile factories, and steam-powered manufacturing.

  • Introduction of the steam engine and the railroad.

  • The mechanization of labor contributed to urbanization.

Urban Social Hierarchy: 19th Century

Rise of the Middle Classes

• Middle-class life expanded, ushering in the “bourgeois century”.

• Increased demands for social and political representation.

• Gendered division of labor: Emergence of “Separate Spheres.”

The World of Work

Industrial, unskilled, and child labor:

• Poorly paid, dangerous factory conditions, and the "deskilling" of work.

• Rise of labor movements and eventually unions.

British and Opium: The Story of China

• By the mid-1700s, the British established a global trading network in India.

• China had high demand for tea, making it a crucial trade item.

• China’s self-sufficiency limited European trade.

• By the 1790s, opium trade with China began increasing.

• The East India Company profited by creating a triangular trade involving Indian opium and Chinese tea.

Opium Wars

• The East India Company smuggled opium into China despite public outrage.

• Opium addiction became a social crisis in China.

• Chinese authorities destroyed British opium stocks, leading to military conflict.

• The British outgunned Chinese forces, leading to the Unequal Treaties.

• The treaties forced China to cede territory, open ports, and pay damages in silver.