Activities

Complete the following notes. They will give you an outline of the information contained in the passage. The main points, relations of cause-effect, illustrations etc. are clearly indicated in the text by logical connectors. Look out for them.

• (par. 1) The Industrial Revolution
The substitution of medieval regulations which had controlled the production and the distribution of wealth until the nineteenth century led to growth of two systems of thought:

1) Economic science 2) Socialism

a) Adam Smith substitution of industrial freedom for a system of restriction. Aim: the producion of wealth.
b) Malthus causes of poverty in a theory of population
c) Ricardo ascertain the laws of distribution of wealth
d) John Stuart Mill distinction between laws of production and distribution of wealth (how wealth ought to be distributed


• (par. 2-3) Facts of Industrial Revolution.

1) Growth of population
2) Decline in the agricultural population


• (par. 4) Decrease in rural population.
causes: 1) The destruction of the common-field system of cultivation
2) The enclosure, on a large scale, of common and waste lands
3) Consolidation of small farms into large

• (par. 5) Agricultural advance.
cause — more scientific approach:
e.g.

Breed of cattle improvement
Rotation of crops introduction
Steam-plough invention
Agricultural societies institution

• (par. 6-7) Growth of industry.
causes;
1) mechanical inventions in textile industry
e.g.

Spinning-Jenny (1770)
Water-frame (1769)
Crompton’s mule (1779)
Self acting mule (first invented by Kelly in 1792 and improved by Roberts in 1825)

most important:
Steam engine
Engine for a cotton-mill

2) mechanical revolution in iron industry
e.g.

invention of smelting by pit-coal (1740/1750)
application of the steam-engine to blast furnaces (1788)

3) improved means of communication
e.g.

the canal system
a thousand additional miles of turnpike road were constructed
rail-road

results: 1) increase in commerce
2) substitution of factory system for domestic system.

• (par. 8) Revolution in distribution of wealth:
rise in rents caused by

1) an enormous rise in rents
2) the effect of the enclosure system
3) the consolidation of farms
4)enclosure system
4) high price of corn
social changes in country life:

• (par. 9) Social changes in manufacturing world: a change in the balance of political power and in the relative position of classes. The farmers ceased to work and live with their labourers, and became a distinct class.
consequences:
1) labourer became a distinct class
2) more money coming into their hands
3) class conflict.

• (par. 10) Misery of working people often caused by:
1) high prices
2) wages were steadily falling
3) loss of common-rights

Conclusion:
The effects of the Industrial Revolution prove that free competition may produce wealth without producing well-being.