Question

What are the main effects of the industrial revolution on World Trade? What are the major differences between post-industrial World Trade and the past?

Answer 1

The Industrial Revolution was a major turning point in history which was marked by a shift in the world from an agrarian and handicraft economy to one dominated by industry and machine manufacturing. It brought about a greater volume and variety of factory-produced goods andraised the standard of living for many people, particularly for the middle and upper classes. However, life for the poor and working classes continued to be filled with challenges. Wages for those who laboured in factories were low and working conditions could be dangerous andmonotonous. Children were part of the labour force. They often worked long hours and were used for such highly hazardous tasks as cleaning the machinery. Industrialization also meant that some craftspeople were replaced by machines. Additionally, urban, industrialized areas were unable to keep pace with the flow of arriving workers from the countryside, resulting ininadequate, overcrowded housing and polluted, unsanitary living conditions in which disease was rampant. The conditions for the working-class gradually improved as governments instituted various labour reforms and workers gained the right to form trade unions. Know about the positive and negative impact of the Industrial Revolution through the 10 major effects of this world changing event.

The factory system was a child of the Industrial Revolution and developed and advanced during its course in the 18th and 19th century. It replaced the cottage industry which wasmore autonomous with individual workers using hand tools and simple machinery to fabricate goods in their own homes. The invention of the water powered frame by Richard Arkwright in the 1760s led to the formation of the first factories along the rivers in Britain. In 1771, Arkwright built his first factory at Cromford. He built many small cottages close to it to employ labour from far and across, preferring weavers with large families so that women and, especially their children, could work in the factory. By 1779, he had over 800 people with timed jobs, shifts and factory rules. The factory system generated a fortune for its few owners and his template caught like wild fire. Improvements in the steam engine and power loom further incentivised cheaper energy and better machines; and this positive loop fed the Industrial Revolution.

Capitalism refers to an economic system based upon private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. With political control over the colonies and rise in technological innovations, Capitalism was on a rise in Britain. Factory owners and others who controlled the means of production rapidly became very rich and had more money to invest in technology and more industry. In those times only the wealthy could vote in Britain with about 3 percent allowed to vote. Industrial capitalists gradually replaced agrarian land owners as leaders of the nation’s economy and power structure. With economic and political power they were in many ways the new rulers of the nation.

The rise of cities was one of the defining and most lasting features of the Industrial Revolution. In pre-industrial societies almost 80% of people lived in rural areas dependent on farming and animal husbandry. The growth in population due to the agriculture revolution and the rise in industry had reduced the opportunities in the rural areas causing large migrations to the industrialized cities.

For many skilled workers, the quality of life decreased a great deal in the first 60 years of the Industrial Revolution. Skilled weavers, for example, lived well in pre-industrial society as a kind of middle class. They tended their own gardens, worked on textiles in their homes or small shops, and raised farm animals. They were their own bosses. The Industrial Revolution was the shift of primarily agrarian societies to industrialized societies. The contrast was stark especially for the first few generations of factory workers who knew of life in the country as compared to life in the industrial cities. With almost no laws for the new age and power centred with the wealthy; the new working class in the factories suffered. Their neighbourhoods were bleak, crowded, dirty and polluted.

Pre-industrial typically have predominantly agricultural economies and limited production, division of labor, and class variation.

Pre-industrial societies are societies that existed before the Industrial Revolution, which took place in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Some remote societies today may share characteristics with these historical societies, and may, therefore, also be referred to as pre-industrial. In general, pre-industrial societies share certain social attributes and forms of political and cultural organization, including limited production, a predominantly agricultural economy, limited division of labor, limited variation of social class, and parochialism at large. While pre-industrial societies share these characteristics in common, they may otherwise take on very different forms. Two specific forms of pre-industrial society are hunter-gatherer societies and feudal societies.

A hunter-gatherer society is one in which most or all food is obtained by gathering wild plants and hunting wild animals, in contrast to agricultural societies which rely mainly on domesticated species. Hunter-gatherer societies tend to be very mobile, following their food sources. They tend to have relatively non-hierarchical, egalitarian social structures, often including a high degree of gender equality. Full-time leaders, bureaucrats, or artisans are rarely supported by these societies. Hunter-gatherer group membership is often based on kinship and band (or tribe) membership. Following the invention of agriculture, hunter-gatherers in most parts of the world were displaced by farming or pastoral groups who staked out land and settled it, cultivating it or turning it into pasture for livestock. Only a few contemporary societies are classified as hunter-gatherers, and many supplement their foraging activity with farming or raising domesticated animals.

The Information Age is a concept that characterizes the current age by the ability of individuals to transfer information freely and have instant access to information that would have been difficult or impossible to access in the past. The idea is linked to the concept of a digital age or digital revolution, as most of this information is instantaneously available online. It carries with it the ramifications of a shift from an industrialized economy to an economy based on the manipulation of information, or an information society.