economic and social developments 1812-32

coal industry growth

·        Increased rapidly – output doubled between 1800 to 1830.

coal industry technology change

Little technical change – mainly manual cutting.

·        Still dangerous but Humphrey Davy lamp created in 1813 to prevent explosions due to methane.

cotton industry output growth

Output doubled between 1810 and 1830.

cotton industry technology change

Improvement of Cartwrights power loom for weaving and iron loom developed by 1822. The number of power looms grew from 2400 in 1803 to 100,000 in 1833.

cotton industry exports

Exports increased by 50% between 1810 and 1830.

iron industry

·        Output of pig iron doubled between 1815 and 1830.

·        Greater efficiency in use of coal.

agriculture technology change

·        Threshing machine developed.

However threshing machine slow to be used because capital cost high, needed a power source, wages were low and workers attacked them

agriculture changes

·        Could be considered an industry because a capitalist organisation, wage labourers work for tenant farmers, respond to profits and prices.

·        Farming boomed during the Napoleonic wars as couldn’t import food so demand for home produced food increased.

development of railways

·        First steam locomotive introduced in 1812 and was used to transport coal in Tyneside coal field.

·        George Stephenson developed the best locomotive at the Rainhill Trial 1829 which was used for the Liverpool to Manchester railway of 1830.

impact of railways

meant improved efficiency of transport as faster and cheaper, construction meant demand for workers, employment effects, allowed expansion of urban areas.

rural labourer living standard

continued to experience poor living standards because excess supply of labour in rural areas combined with low mobility of labour, low productivity due to mainly manual work, some mechanisations begins to reduce demand for labour eg threshing machine, inability to form unions so low bargaining power.

growth in urban areas

·        Urban areas such as Liverpool and Manchester grew rapidly because of rural-urban migration, migration from Ireland and natural increase due to high birth rates.

result of urbanisation

·        overcrowding in cramped dwellings which spread disease, inability of sanitation arrangements to cope, tough conditions and long hours in factories, lack of educational provision, poor relief couldn’t cope, crime.

gov action on urbanisation

failed to act - lack of local government infrastructure and old boroughs were small and corrupt. National gov had no real idea of the scale of problems or how to fix them. They had little understanding of the importance of sanitation and had a lack of funds to pay for improvement since it would have to be raised from local rate payers and town councils were not set up to deal with such things.

emigration

Between 1816 and 1830 total of British emigrants grew from 13,000 to 103,000. Suggests that social conditions must have been low to make such a trip, cost of emigration fallen, rising incomes allowed people to afford basic costs, rising levels of information about opportunities abroad

standard of living for middle and upper classes

rose for middle and upper class since prospered with industrial revolution creating greater wealth.

social unrest

Grew because of damaging effects of industrial system, enclosure, bad living conditions in urban areas, economic conditions, rising bread prices, technical change etc

reason for luddism 1811 upsurge

·        Technological unemployment – eg effected weavers, threshers. Development of bigger stocking frames which produced cheaper, poorer quality stockings than those made on traditional machines by skilled labour.

·        Bad standard of living in 1811 due to rising food prices and wage cuts.

luddism impact

Between March 1811 and February 1812 they smashed about a thousand machines at the cost of between £6000 and £10000

luddism growth

gradually spread from Nottingham to Yorkshire, Lancashire, Leicestershire, and Derbyshire

rawfolds mill incident

attack on rawfolds mill in april 1812 after local croppers were losing their jobs due to mechanisation, failed to gain entry and 2 croppers left mortally wounded

a week later luddites killed a large mill owner william horsfall, 100s of suspects were gathered and 3 executed for murder of horsfall and 14 hung for attack on rawfolds mill

1816 luddite revival

revival of violence and machine breaking following a bad harvest and a downturn in trade. On the 28 June luddites attacked 2 mills in Loughborough where they smashed 53 frames at a cost of £6000

issue with luddites

were attacking economic growth, created possibility of revolution and were attacking business property

luddism as economic movement

not directly a threat to the state or social order and not an explicitly political movement. No national organisation, men were merely attacking what they saw as the reason for the decline in their livelihoods so no political motivation. Peak years of luddite activity were those of acute economic hardship and when economic conditions improved from 1813 luddism died away

luddism as political movement

early outbreaks happened during the French wars and were seen by the gov as clear evidence of disaffection. Gov was especially fearful because large part of army was overseas, country was also fighting the americans, England was experiencing worst trade depression since the 1760s

luddism triggers to gov

·        triggered the question what could/should the government do about the economic causes? The issue was one of paternalistic government intervention versus laissez faire.

·        Luddism seemed to possess a degree of regional organisation, directly alarmed the government in the context of the pressures caused by the war with France, luddites seemed to enjoy support of many in the local community

legislative response to luddism

Local authorities incapable of stopping attacks so gov felt obliged to introduce special legislation. Machine breaking was a capital offence in 1721 and in 1812 the destruction of stocking frames specifically was made punishable by death. In 1811 a special watch and ward act was passe to secure the peace of Nottingham

force response to luddism

12000 troops were deployed in the north and midlands to suppress the luddites

informative response to luddism

June 1812 lord sidmouth became home secretary and parliament set up secret committees for the examination of evidence from the disturbed areas.

middle class philosophical radicals

educated supporters of change which promoted liberal freedom and good government. They wanted reform of most British institutions with a view to improving efficiency and increasing scope for individual initiate eg political reform to extend the ballot

working class radicals

more popular radical leaders who championed the political rights of the working class as a means for seeking redress of grievances such as low wages, unemployment, and inadequate poor relief.

hampden clubs

political campaigning and debating societies formed in the early 19^th century as part of the radical movement

hampden clubs origin

Concentrated in midlands and northern counties. Original founded in London in 1812, thought to be founded by John Cartwright

hampden clubs actions

Members paid a penny per week subscription so middle class, Met weekly for political discussion and debate

In January 1817 regional Hampden clubs sent 70 delegates to a convention at the crown and anchor tavern in strand London, a well known meeting place of radicals.

gov response to hampden clubs

Clubs were regarded with suspicion by the authorities. Gov began to introduce legislation eg 1817 seditious meetings act which made it difficult for political clubs to meet.

impact of gov response to hampden clubs

The Birmingham Hampden Club founded in September 1816 had 300 regular attendees, but by the following January could not find places to meet as publicans were pressured not to permit club meetings on their premises, so by April 1817 regular club meetings were suspended.

enclosure as cause of swing riots

Enclosure acts of rural England – between 1770 and 1830 about 6 million acres of common land were enclosed. This meant that landless farmworkers were solely dependent on working for rich neighbours for a cash wage.

enclosure not as cause of swing riots

However when the swing riots broke out in 1830 the heavily enclosed midlands remained almost entirely quiet, and the southern and south east counties which were little affected by enclosure that the riots were concentrated

poverty as cause of swing riots

Basic aim of the labourers was to attain a minimum living wage to end rural employment. Grievances eg corn law, low wages, tithe, unemployment

technological unemployment as cause of swing riots

Introduction of horse powered threshing machines which could do the work of many men. Threatened the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of farmworkers, threshing accounted for about 25% of the entire annual labour demand of a cereal growing farm. It reduced demand for labour in the autumn and early winter (after the harvest), a time when other farm work was in short to supply so to lose the work of threshing was a serious blow to the labourers.

swing riots tactic

normally included threatening letters signed by captain swing to magistrates or wealthy farmers which called for a rise in wages, a cut in the tithe payments and for the destruction of threshing machines, or the people would take matters into their own hands. Local farmers would gather often in groups to 200-400 and break threshing machines, attack workhouses and tithe barns.

response to swing riots

farmers agreed to raise wages, and some landlords reduced the tithes and rents. But many farmers reneged the agreements and the unrest increased. Many people included earl grey advocated political form as the only solution to the unrest, however the prime minister wellington replied the existing constitution was perfect and there could be no improvement

melbourne response to riots of 1830-32

·        He announced a reward of £500 for those helping to bring rioters and incendiaries to justice.

·        Blamed local magistrates for being too lenient and the gov appointed a special commission of three judges to try rioters in several counties.

landowing class response to swing riots

felt severely threatened by the riots and responded with harsh punitive measures. Nearly 2000 protesters were brought to trial between 1830-31 and 252 were sentenced to death (only 19 actually hanged), 644 imprisoned and 481 were transported to penal colonies in Australia

william cobbett

spread the political register, a newspaper for the radical poor and made speeches in defence of the rural labourer. The authorities attempted to prosecute him but was acquitted in his trial in 1831.

legislation banning slavery

1807 the trade of slaves by British citizens and ships was made illegal and in 1833 the abolition of slavery act made slavery illegal in the British colonies

evangelical christian consciousness reason for slavery ban

early late 18^th century saw development og a more earnest, passionate, moralistic Christianity. This rise was linked to the rise of the middle class. In this climate the moral criticism of slavery increased.

·        General growth of evangelicalism gave a sharp edge through the activities of anti slavery campaigners. Attack on slavery was one of the first major issues to engage this new middle class, they published pamphlets denouncing the cruelties of the slave trade and brought the issue before the educated classes.

decline in importance of slave trade for economy as reason it ended

Britain industrialising meant new source of trade emerged from manufactured goods, west Indian trading interest declined in importance so was less able to impose its view on parliament

william wilberforce

friend of Pitt, was the spokesperson for banning slavery. He regularly proposed motions condemning slavery in the house of commons and won support from a large number of influential MPS including Pitt, Fox, Grey and Canning

methodism

religious movement founded by John Wesley in Oxford in the 1740s. It advocated strict codes of living, fasting, charity, visiting the poor, opposition to luxury and pleasure. They sought to revive spirituality within the Church by emphasising an evangelical enthusiastic faith in god and salvation and an active role for the ordinary church laity

methodism location

flourished in the north midlands and the north, as well as wales and cornwall. It was weaker in the southern counties

methodism followers

most attractive to members of the working class, especially the skilled working class. Almost two thirds of methodists in the first 30 years of the 19^th century were drawn from the ranks of the skilled working class

methodism growth

grew rapidly, in 1781 there were 38,000 methodists, but by 1831 there were 305,000

impact of methodism

raising the moral tone of England and upholding the social order

socialism

viewpoint that the wealth of society should be shared much more equally among the members of society.

robert owen and new lanark

Robert Owen purchased four textile factories in New Lanark where he created a new type of community. Over 2000 people lived in the New Lanark village when he arrived, so he built a school and created rules for workers living in New Lanark housing. These included order, hygiene and regulation, he expected obedience and paternalistic relationship from workers

robert owen beliefs

human character is formed by circumstances over which individuals have no control and cannot be properly praised or blamed. So the correct formation of people’s characters is to place them under proper influences from their earliest years

robert owen key concern and how he combatted it

condition of treatment. When he arrived in Lanark children as young as five were working for 13 hours a day in the textile mills. He stopped employing children under 10 and reduced the labour of older children to 10 hours a day. Young children went to nursery and infant schools Owen had built, older children worked in the factory but also had to attend his secondary school for part of the day. The institute for the formation of character was built to educate the adults and children

robert owen legacy

hoped his example would encourage other factory owners and wrote books such as the formation of character in 1813 and a new view of society in 1814.

robert owen impact

His work contributed to the 1819 cotton mills and factories act which stated that no children under 9 were to be employed and that children 9-16 were limited to 12 hours work per day. However this only applied to cotton factories so most children kept working.