The present article consists of a research about the feature of child labour during Industrial Revolution.

First of all, before I analyze the article, I have to read and understand child labour’s definition. So, what is child labour ? Child labour refers to any work or activity that deprives children of their childhood. In effect, these are activities that are detrimental to the physical and mental health of children and that hinder their proper development.

Now I’m able to search out the article’s thesis, which coincides with the title, asserts that Industrial Revolution was powered by child labour.

First of all, it is reinforced by statistics (“by the early 19th century, England had more than a million child workers (including around 350,000 seven- to 10-year-olds) – accounting for 15 per cent of the total labour force”) and by the causes of the employment of children in industries:  “Early factory owners  that local labour was scarce and that those agricultural workers who were available were unsuitable for industrial production” and so “ They opted to create a new work force composed of children, tailor-made for their factories”.

Moreover, children, who started to work fell from eleven and a half (prior to 1791) to 10 for the period 1791-1850, were cheap - they weren’t paid – and fast-learning:  during the 18th century only around 35 per cent of ten year old working-class boys were in the labour force while the figure for 1791-1820 (Industrial Revolution’s start) was 55 per cent, rising to 60 per cent for the period from 1821 to 1850.

In addition to that,  Industrialisation removed rigid social control over young people's lives and allowed them therefore to get married much younger: this led to to a rapid population growth.

By the early 19th century, lots of families were being abandoned by fathers because  accidents, epidemics and wars: "This process further increased pressure on mothers to send their young children out to work,".

In conclusion, I think that child labour has been fundamental for the process of industrialization, but it is also true that children would have missed out on having fun early in life, not be taught how to save money, and therefore never save money to pay for a later education, and child labour may have lead to a more uneducated workforce which will decrease the efficiency of the workforce.