Life Before the Industrial Revolution:

Rural villages
o Subsistence: Farming communities
o Poor living conditions
o 200-400 people per village
o Life expectancy was around 40 years old
o 1 out of 3 babies born will make it past age 1, 1 out of 2 will make it past
age 21
o Women tended to marry as teenagers
o Bride had to bring dowry
o LIFE REVOLVED AROUND FARMING
o Life was communal around nature
o Every village operated in the same way:
A pasture, a grain field, oat/barley field, and fallow (unused) field
so the nutrients and the soil have time to replenish itself they
would rotate every couple of seasons the fallow field
The fields were divided equally so every farmer would have the
same amount of land
o Disadvantages to the farming system:
Land use was inefficient
Time wasted, time spent to travel to one land to another land that
youre farming
Common pasture, cattle grazing togetherdiseases could spread
No fences- animals could leave the pasture
Need for coordination- they had to do whatever everyone else
wanted
o Changes occur in the 1700s:
Enclosure movement- cut out some farmers
Started from the land owner, the land owner decided to reorganize
the farm land, the farmers could then choose what to farm, farmers
decided to farm wool
Because of enclosure movement, farmers could play with farming
technique to increase production
Crop rotation- rotate the crops at the end of every growing
season
New farming technology: Jethro Tull Seed Drill
Decreased the amount of seeds needed to sow an entire
field by 80%
Ensured a greater success for each seed
Impact of New farming techniques
Population growth because more crops is produced meant
more food, more food for the livestock meant more for the
people, healthier livestock meant healthier soil meant
healthier food
o Cottage Industry:
Textile industry (clothing industry) begins to have a boom because
there is a larger population
Before the industrial revolution:
o They worked out of their home
o Cottage industry worked with a middle
man=merchant
o Merchants acted as coordinators between buyers
and sellers while various groups of skilled rural
workers manufactured cotton and woolen cloth
before the industrial revolution
o Merchant buys large amount of cotton or wool
o Rural carders prepared wood to be spun and
spinners
o Rural works weave the yarn or thread into cloth
o Workers dye or bleach the cloth
o Merchants sold to wholesalers or to customers to
sell the clothing
o Cottage industry could not keep up with demand for
textile
People invent machines to make textiles faster
o Richard Arkwright invents the water frame- weaved
the clothes 10x as fast
o Spinning Jenny
o Need for new energy source
o Each invention spawns the need for more inventions
o Factories where built near rivers, rivers were the
source of energy
o These new machinery were too big for peoples
homes so they were put into factories
Steam engine- coal used to heat water creating energy
Power loom
New machines often too big for homes, were put in
factories
Factories located near power source (coal, water)
Rise of the factory system:
Effects:
o Mass produced textiles cheaper than hand produced
items
o Textile industry increased enormously
o Majority of villagers forced to leave to fin work in
urban factories
Revolution in transporation:
Problems:
o Need to transport goods quickly and cheaply
o Pre-industrial society used horses, mules, and dirt
roads- weather was a big impact
o Travel was slow
o Goods were damaged
o Limited to nearby areas
Transportation:
Roads (they were private, people had to pay to use them)
o From 1760 to 1830, they go from 0 paved roads to
20,000 paved roads
o With roads, people could travel through rain
Canal:
o Easier to go upstream
o Connected different waterways
Loch- water elevator
o Smelting Iron- a way of creating energy
o Huge increase in production creates a need for transportation
Railroads:
o A steam engine on a cart
o A contest was held to see who can invent the best
steam engine on a cart
o Effects of Transportation:
Railroads expanded rapidly throughout Britain- railroads were
cheaper to build than canals/roads
In 1830:70 miles
By 1840: 4500 miles
By 1870: 15,000 miles
Cheaper transportation
Increased production and productivity
Railways fueled other industries
Coal industry
Building the railways industry
Iron industry
Steel industry
Speed of transportation
Life is clearly improving for a lot of people, goods are becoming
cheaper to buy because of mass production, life changed for the
individual, average person was a factory worker
Factories:
o As soon as the steam engine emerges, factories no longer needed to be on
the rivers, factories could be anywhere if they were near a coal source, an
emergence of factories seen everywhere
Working class:
o People were losing their jobs and if you were a farmer who moved to the
city to support your family, life working in a factory was dangerous and
not healthy, you worked 10-14 hour days with one short 30 minute wait
for lunch
o Majority of the working class children worked
o Every member of the working class family had to work
Capitalists= wealthy folk able to pay for the business, they invested and built factories
ever, their goal was money, they hired the people who they could pay the less (women
and children)

Child death rate increases throughout the industrial revolution

Middle class emerges
o Managers of the factories
o Merchants were upper middle class
City life begins to emerge because people are moving towards the cities to find
work, people were working long hours, they are stressed outalcohol
consumption increases,
People were in debt so they turned to crime to support their family or
frustrationcrime increases
Mass production drives the prices down
Sanitation and health improved