Industrial Revolution: Textile Industry, Poverty, and Welfare

Posted on Mar 18, 2025 in Modern Philology. English

Textile Industry

Wool Production:

Carding: Traditionally done by women and children at home.
Spinning: Primarily done by women at home.
Weaving: Typically done by men at home or in a workplace.

Exporting cloth proved more profitable than exporting raw wool, leading to a focus on cloth production.

The spinning process was significantly slow until the invention of the Flying Shuttle (John Kay), which automated the shuttle movement from side to side.

A multiplied spinning wheel was invented, known as the ‘Jenny’ (James Hargreaves).

To boost the cotton industry, Richard Arkwright invented the ‘Water-frame’, powered by water. This was revolutionary for two reasons:

It spun yarn strong enough for both warp and weft, enabling the production of all-cotton fabric.
Its need for greater motive power than hand spinning led to the development of the factory system.

Samuel Crompton created the ‘Mule’, combining the Jenny and the Water-frame. This machine produced yarn that was both strong and fine.

With the inventions of the Jenny, the Water-frame, and the Mule, weaving lagged behind. Edmund Cartwright invented a mechanically driven loom to address this.

By 1820, the factory system had largely replaced the domestic industry.

Iron, Coal, and the Steam Engine

A shortage of timber led to the discovery of coal as a new fuel source.

Advances in Pain Management

1800: Sir Humphrey Davy discovered laughing gas, used to stop toothaches.
Robert Liston used ether to induce sleep during amputations.
Dr. James Simpson used chloroform during childbirth.

In 1865, Joseph Lister prevented wound infections by covering them with carbolic acid (antiseptic).

Poverty During the Industrial Revolution

Causes of Poverty

Process of Enclosure: Farm laborers became unemployed and lost access to common land.
French Wars: Reduced grain imports led to corn shortages in the 1790s.
Agricultural workers were particularly affected.
Unemployment due to trade depressions, old age, sickness, and disability.
Severe drop in living standards.

The Old Poor Law of 1601

Based on the Elizabethan Poor Law Act.
Each parish was responsible for its poor.
Householders paid a special tax, the ‘poor rate’.
Overseers of the poor collected the Poor Rate and distributed relief.
Two types of relief: indoor (workhouses) and outdoor (relief in own homes).

The Poor Law Report

The government was alarmed by the rising cost of Poor Relief.
The government was shaken by the Swing Riots in 1830.
Realization that the Poor Law wasn’t working.
1832 Commission of Inquiry to report on Poor Laws and recommend changes.
Findings were written up by Edwin Chadwick, secretary to the Commission.
The Poor Law Report was published in 1834.

The New Poor Law of 1834

Aims: to save money, reduce the number of paupers, restore self-respect to working men, and make the system uniform.
National Level: Poor Law Commission in London, with three members to instruct on workhouse management.
Local Level: Parishes grouped into unions, each with a Board of Guardians elected by rate-payers to run workhouses.
Board of Guardians were often rate-payers, interested in keeping costs low.
Allowance systems were ended; only indoor relief was offered.
Life in the workhouse was made unpleasant to discourage all but the most destitute (‘principle of less eligibility’).

The Welfare State in the 20th Century

Children

1906: School Meals Act (daily cooked meal).
1907: School Medical Service.
1908: Children’s Charter (prohibited children from begging, entering pubs, or being sold cigarettes; children sent to borstal instead of prison).

The Sick

1911: National Insurance Act – Part 1 (workers earning less than 160 pounds per year were insured against sickness, contributing 4d weekly, with employer and government contributions).

Unemployed

1909: Labour Exchanges (job vacancy details).
1911: National Insurance Act – Part 2 (unemployment benefit for workers in shipbuilding, iron founding, and construction, with contributions from workers, employers, and the government).

Ignorance

1944: Education Act (every child had a right to the best education).

Squalor

1947: Town and Country Planning Act (local councils provided more low-rent housing, resulting in prefabs and council estates).
1946: New Towns Act (allowed new towns to be planned and built by development corporations).

Want

1945: Family Allowances Act (25p per child per week, excluding the first child).
1946: National Insurance Act (small weekly contribution provided benefits for sickness, unemployment, or retirement – men aged 65, women aged 60, plus funeral and maternity benefits, applicable only to those working).
1948: National Assistance Act (covered those not working).

Disease

1946: National Health Service (free medical treatment and medicines for all).

Welfare Reforms in the 1940s

Terrible poverty and unemployment followed World War I.
Reformers (especially in the Labour Party) believed more had to be done.
Social services were muddled, with different benefit rates for the sick and unemployed.
Many young children were evacuated from cities to rural areas in 1939.
Middle-class village people were shocked by the condition of dirty, deprived, badly clothed city children.
A feeling developed that Britain should be a better place to live after the war.
In June 1941, the National Government asked Sir William Beveridge to create an insurance scheme covering the entire population.
The Beveridge Report was issued in December 1942.

Main Features of the Beveridge Report

The government should provide a Welfare State, taking charge of all security from cradle to grave.
The plan would conquer the Five Giants.
Previous schemes would be replaced by one complete scheme covering all citizens, regardless of income.
Everyone would pay a single weekly contribution, recorded by a stamp. In return, benefits would be paid in cases of sickness, unemployment, and old age.
In 1945, the Labour Party won the General Election with a large majority, promising to introduce the Welfare State.

Consequences of the Welfare State System

All branches of the health service were heavily used.
Drain on funds.
Private medicine expanded rapidly since the 1960s due to long National Health Service waiting lists.
Poverty still existed, with the South generally prospering and the North suffering from poverty and unemployment.
Pressure on the system from a population increased by the post-war baby boom and longer life spans.
Soaring inflation in the 1970s and increasing unemployment raised questions about funding the Welfare State.