Editing Industrial Revolution (section)

===Labour conditions===
====Social structure and working conditions====
Harsh working conditions were prevalent long before the Industrial Revolution. [[Pre-industrial society]] was very static and often cruel—[[child labour]], dirty living conditions, and long working hours were just as prevalent before the Industrial Revolution.<ref name="industrial4" />

The Industrial Revolution witnessed the triumph of a [[middle class]] of industrialists and businessmen over a landed class of nobility and gentry. Working people found increased opportunities for employment in mills and factories, but these were under strict working conditions with long hours dominated by a pace set by machines. As late as 1900, most US industrial workers worked 10-hour days, yet earned 20–40% less than that necessary for a decent life.<ref name="countrystudies"/> Most workers in textiles, which was the leading industry in terms of employment, were women and children.<ref name="Beckert_2014"/> For workers, industrial life "was a stony desert, which they had to make habitable by their own efforts."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Industry and Empire: From 1750 to the Present Day|last=Hobsbawm|first=Eric J.|publisher=Penguin|year=1969|isbn=978-1-56584-561-9|volume=3|location=Harmondsworth, England|page=65}}</ref>

====Factories and urbanisation====
[[File:Wyld, William - Manchester from Kersal Moor, with rustic figures and goats - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|''[[Cottonopolis]]'', an 1852 portrait of [[Manchester]]'s factory chimneys]]
Industrialisation led to the creation of the [[factory]]. The [[factory system]] contributed to the growth of urban areas as workers migrated into the cities in search of work in the factories. This was clearly illustrated in the mills and associated industries of Manchester, nicknamed "[[Cottonopolis]]", and the world's first industrial city.<ref name="Industrial city">{{cite web|url=http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/on-line/energyhall/page84.asp |title=Manchester – the first industrial city |publisher=Entry on Sciencemuseum website |access-date=17 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120309184810/http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/on-line/energyhall/page84.asp |archive-date=9 March 2012 }}</ref> Manchester experienced a six-times increase in population between 1771 and 1831. Bradford grew by 50% every ten years between 1811 and 1851, and by 1851 only 50% of its population were born there.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/britain-1700-to-1900/industrial-revolution/life-in-industrial-towns/|title=Life in Industrial Towns|website=History Learning Site|access-date=29 April 2021|archive-date=3 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210503015043/https://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/britain-1700-to-1900/industrial-revolution/life-in-industrial-towns/|url-status=live}}</ref>

For much of the 19th century, production was done in small mills which were typically [[List of watermills in the United Kingdom|water-powered]] and built to serve local needs. Later, each factory would have its own steam engine and a chimney to give an efficient draft through its boiler. Some industrialists tried to improve factory and living conditions for their workers. One early reformer was [[Robert Owen]], known for his pioneering efforts in improving conditions for at the [[Robert Owen#Philanthropy in New Lanark (1800)|New Lanark mills]] and often regarded as a key thinker of the [[Utopian socialism|early socialist movement]].

By 1746 an integrated [[brass mill]] was working at [[Warmley]] near [[Bristol]]. Raw material was smelted into brass and turned into pans, pins, wire, and other goods. Housing was provided for workers on site. [[Josiah Wedgwood]] and [[Matthew Boulton]] were other prominent early industrialists who employed the factory system.

====Child labour====
{{see also|Child labour#The Industrial Revolution}}
[[File:coaltub.png|right|frame|A young "drawer" pulling a coal tub along a mine gallery.<ref name="From Coal Mine Upwards: or Seventy Years of an Eventful Life"/> In Britain, laws passed in 1842 and 1844 improved mine working conditions.]]

The chances of surviving childhood did not improve throughout the Industrial Revolution, although ''infant'' mortality rates were reduced markedly.<ref name="Buer"/><ref name="Demographic Transition and Industrial Revolution: A Macroeconomic Investigation"/> There was still limited opportunity for education, and children were expected to work. Child labour had existed before, but with the increase in population and education it became more visible. Many children were forced to work in bad conditions for much lower pay than their elders,<ref name="victorianweb"/> 10–20% of an adult male's wage,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Child Labor {{!}} History of Western Civilization II |url=https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-hccc-worldhistory2/chapter/child-labor/ |access-date=2023-10-18 |website=courses.lumenlearning.com |archive-date=3 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231103180822/https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-hccc-worldhistory2/chapter/child-labor/ |url-status=live }}</ref> even though their productivity was comparable; there was no need for strength to operate an industrial machine, and since the industrial system was new, there were no experienced adult labourers. This made child labour the labour of choice for manufacturing in the early phases of the Industrial Revolution, between the 18th and 19th centuries. In England and Scotland in 1788, two-thirds of the workers in 143 water-powered cotton mills were children.<ref name="galbithink"/>

Reports detailing some of the abuses, particularly in the mines<ref name="Testimony Gathered by Ashley's Mines Commission"/> and textile factories,<ref name="The Life of the Industrial Worker in Nineteenth-Century England"/> helped to popularise the children's plight. The outcry, especially among the upper and middle classes, helped stir change for the young workers' welfare. Politicians and the government tried to limit child labour by law, but factory owners resisted; some felt they were aiding the poor by giving their children money to buy food, others simply welcomed the cheap labour. In 1833 and 1844, the first general laws against child labour, the [[Factory Acts]], were passed in Britain: children younger than nine were not allowed to work, children were not permitted to work at night, and the working day for those under 18 was limited to 12 hours. Factory inspectors enforced the law; however, their scarcity made this difficult.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Two steps forward, one step back - History of Occupational Safety and Health |url=https://www.historyofosh.org.uk/brief/ |access-date=2023-10-18 |website=www.historyofosh.org.uk |archive-date=3 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231103180823/https://www.historyofosh.org.uk/brief/ |url-status=live }}</ref> A decade later, the employment of children and women in mining was forbidden. Although laws decreased child labourers, it remained significantly present in Europe and the US until the 20th century.<ref name="archives"/>

====Organisation of labour====
{{See also|Trade union#History}}
The Industrial Revolution concentrated labour into mills, factories, and mines, thus facilitating the organisation of ''combinations'' or [[trade union]]s advance the interests of working people. A union could demand better terms by withdrawing and halting production. Employers had to decide between giving in at a cost, or suffering the cost of the lost production. Skilled workers were difficult to replace, and these were the first to successfully advance their conditions through this kind of bargaining.

The main method unions used, and still use, to effect change was [[strike action]]. Many strikes were painful events for both unions and management. In Britain, the [[Combination Act 1799]] forbade workers to form any kind of trade union until its repeal in 1824. Even after this, unions were severely restricted. A British newspaper in 1834 described unions as "the most dangerous institutions that were ever permitted to take root, under shelter of law, in any country..."<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Tolpuddle Martyrs|last=Evatt|first=Herbert|publisher=Sydney University Press|year=2009|isbn=978-0-586-03832-1|location=Sydney|page=49}}</ref>

The [[Reform Act 1832]] extended the vote in Britain, but did not grant [[universal suffrage]]. Six men from [[Tolpuddle]] in Dorset founded the Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers to protest against the lowering of wages in the 1830s. They refused to work for less than ten shillings per week, by this time wages had been reduced to seven shillings and were to be reduced to six. In 1834 James Frampton, a local landowner, wrote to Prime Minister [[Viscount Melbourne|Lord Melbourne]] to complain about the union, invoking an obscure law from 1797 prohibiting people from swearing oaths to each other, which the members of the Society had done. Six men were arrested, found guilty, and [[Convicts in Australia|transported to Australia]]. They became known as the [[Tolpuddle Martyrs]]. In the 1830s and 40s, the [[Chartism|chartist]] movement was the first large-scale organised working-class political movement that campaigned for political equality and social justice. Its ''Charter'' of reforms received three million signatures, but was rejected by Parliament without consideration.

Working people formed [[Friendly society|friendly societies]] and [[cooperative]] societies as mutual support groups against times of economic hardship. Enlightened industrialists, such as Robert Owen supported these organisations to improve conditions. Unions slowly overcame the legal restrictions on the right to strike. In 1842, a [[general strike]] involving cotton workers and colliers was organised through the chartist movement which stopped production across Britain.<ref name="archive5" /> Eventually, effective political organisation for working people was achieved through trades unions who, after the extensions of the franchise in 1867 and 1885, began to support socialist political parties that later merged to become the British [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]].

====Luddites====
{{Main|Luddite}}
[[File:Luddite.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|Engraving of ''Ned Ludd, Leader of the Luddites'', 1812]]
The rapid industrialisation of the English economy cost many craft workers their jobs. The Luddite movement started first with [[lace]] and [[hosiery]] workers near Nottingham, and spread to other areas of the textile industry. Many weavers found themselves suddenly unemployed as they could no longer compete with machines which required less skilled labour to produce more cloth than one weaver. Many such unemployed workers, weavers, and others turned their animosity towards the machines that had taken their jobs and began destroying factories and machinery. These attackers became known as Luddites, supposedly followers of [[Ned Ludd]], a folklore figure.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Byrne |first=Richard |date=August 2013 |title=A Nod to Ned Ludd |url=https://thebaffler.com/salvos/a-nod-to-ned-ludd |journal=[[The Baffler]] |volume=23 |issue=23 |pages=120–128 |access-date=2 August 2020 |doi=10.1162/BFLR_a_00183 |archive-date=9 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210809111005/https://thebaffler.com/salvos/a-nod-to-ned-ludd |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref> The first attacks of the movement began in 1811. The Luddites rapidly gained popularity, and the Government took drastic measures using the militia or army to protect industry. Rioters who were caught were tried and hanged, or [[Penal transportation|transported]] for life.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.marsdenhistory.co.uk/people/luddites.html#link4 |title=Luddites in Marsden: Trials at York |access-date=2 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120326170835/http://www.marsdenhistory.co.uk/people/luddites.html |archive-date=26 March 2012}}</ref>

Unrest continued in other sectors as they industrialised, such as with agricultural labourers in the 1830s when large parts of southern Britain were affected by the [[Captain Swing]] disturbances. Threshing machines were a particular target, and [[hay]]rick burning was a popular activity. The riots led to the first formation of trade unions and further pressure for reform.

====Shift in production's centre of gravity====
The traditional centres of hand textile production such as India, the Middle East, and China could not withstand competition from machine-made textiles, which destroyed the hand-made textile industries and left millions without work, many of whom starved.<ref name="Beckert_2014"/> The Industrial Revolution generated an enormous and unprecedented economic division in the world, as measured by the share of manufacturing output.
{| class="wikitable"
|+Share of total world manufacturing output (percentage)<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers|last=Kennedy|first=Paul|publisher=Random House|year=1987|location=New York|page=149}}</ref>
!
!1750
!1800
!1860
!1880
!1900
|-
|Europe
|23.2
|28.1
|53.2
|61.3
|62.0
|-
|United States
|0.1
|0.8
|7.2
|14.7
|23.6
|-
|Japan
|3.8
|3.5
|2.6
|2.4
|2.4
|-
|Rest of the world
|73.0
|67.7
|36.6
|20.9
|11.0
|}

====Cotton and the expansion of slavery====
Cheap cotton textiles increased demand for raw cotton; previously, it had primarily been consumed in subtropical regions where it was grown, with little raw cotton available for export. Consequently, prices of raw cotton rose. British production grew from 2 million pounds in 1700 to 5 million in 1781 to 56 million in 1800.<ref>Beckert, p. 86.</ref> The invention of the cotton gin by American Eli Whitney in 1792 was the decisive event. It allowed green-seeded cotton to become profitable, leading to the widespread growth of slave [[plantation]]s in the US, Brazil, and the West Indies. In 1791, American cotton production was 2 million pounds, soaring to 35 million by 1800, half of which was exported. America's [[Plantation complexes in the Southern United States|cotton plantations]] were highly efficient, profitable and able to keep up with demand.<ref>{{cite book|title= Empire of Cotton: A Global History|last=Beckert
|first= Sven|year= 2014|publisher =Vintage Books Division Penguin Random House |page=103}}</ref> The U.S. Civil War created a "cotton famine" that led to increased production in other areas of the world, including [[Colonisation of Africa|European colonies in Africa]].<ref>Ronald Bailey, "The other side of slavery: Black labor, cotton, and textile industrialization in Great Britain and the United States." ''Agricultural History'' 68.2 (1994): 35–50.</ref>