Argumentative text about the industrial revolution

The industrial revolution brought the birth of two new currents of thought, which were in antithesis between each other: socialism and economic science. About this last one there were four main characters that explained that line of thought: the first was Adam Smith, who wrote in 1776 Wealth of Nations; the second was Malthus with his Essay on population; the third was Ricardo who wrote Principles of political economy and taxation; the fourth was John Stuart Mill, with his Principles of political economy.

In this period a demographical growth was revealed, as a decay in the number of agricultural person in the other hand. This decrease was due to three main variations: the introduction of the enclosures, which limited the open fields; the small farms were implemented in big farms, so the number of farms was reduced dramatically, even though if those farms left were big; the elimination of the common-fields. There wasn’t just the negative effect on agricultural population, but there were improvements too. For example there was an improvement in the breeds of cattle, rotations of crops were introduced, the steam-plough, and were created agricultural societies. In the other hand there was a growth in industry too, which was determined by the invention of the spinning-jenny, the invention of the water frame, the introduction of the Crompton’s mule and the self-acting mule. However the most important invention to focus into were the steam engine and the cotton-mill engine by Watt and Boulton.

As for the Iron Industry, there were two main improvements: the smelting by pit-coals and the steam engine applied to the furnaces.

Other than mechanical improvements, there was an important upgrade which probably was the beginning of the actual state of connection between States, countries, and all over the world: improvements in the communication system. Those involved: creations of canal systems, roads, and the invention of the railroads.

All of those changes had changed worker’s lives. In fact they lost their independence as workers, and the factory system became more a domestic system.

As for the economy, the rise in rents was due to the investment of money in various improvements, the introduction of the enclosure system, the implement of small farms into bigger farms and the high price of corns, which were the main fount of sustentation of the time, ‘cause of the bread.

Money modifies one’s or a social class’ lifestyle, if not one’s social class directly. At that time a new class was born: the capitalists. Those persons stopped working with their co-workers and simply directed the works from the distance. Sometimes they didn’t even know who worked under them. Too much money brings vices, that’s a logical consequence, in fact the more they gained, the more they spent for wine, tobacco, luxury goods and so on. In the other hand, there were poor people, which really lived in misery. For example they saw their salary lower even more than what it used to be originally, they worked in unacceptable conditions -it wasn’t so hard to hear about deaths at work or because of strange ills. Other than that, the price of the cereal heightened, and that meant less food for them, or still too much to pay for their wallet.