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Why did the industrial revolution start from the textile industry? Why not start with export commodities and smelting industry?
First, after the bourgeois revolution in17th century, British capitalist handicraft workshops developed rapidly. By the middle of18th century, Britain had become the largest capitalist colonial country in the world. With the continuous expansion of foreign markets, workshop handicraft production can no longer meet the growing demand. In order to increase the output of goods, it is necessary to improve the production technology, so Jenny spinning machine and hydraulic spinning machine came out one after another in the 1960 s, and the appearance of hydraulic loom in the 1980 s greatly improved the weaving efficiency. Of course, using water to drive the machine will be limited by natural conditions, and the use of the machine needs more convenient and effective power, so Watt made an improved steam engine. 1785, this kind of steam engine was used to drive the textile machine, and from then on, mankind entered the "age of steam".
The second reason is that handicraft industry was the main industrial market at that time, and the efficiency of manual work was low, so people tried to meet the needs of the market at that time. 1In the sixties and seventies of the 8th century, the yarn spun by Jenny's spinning machine was thin and brittle. Although more than a dozen yarns could be spun at the same time, the efficiency was not satisfactory. Until the 1990s, the appearance of hydraulic loom greatly improved the weaving efficiency, but it was driven by hydraulic power and limited by natural conditions, so the use of the machine needed more convenient and effective power. So the improved steam engine drives the textile machine.
The third reason is that since Jenny spinning machine, hydraulic spinning machine and hydraulic loom came out, there is no machine with simpler structure than these machines, so Watt's improved steam engine starts with these simple machines first, and then uses the steam engine to drive other machines after the market stabilizes.
Later, metallurgical, mining and other industrial sectors also quickly adopted machine production and steam power. /kloc-in the first half of the 0/9th century, large machine production basically replaced the workshop handicraft industry. Britain completed the industrial revolution.
Some important inventions before and after the industrial revolution were invented by inventors.
17 12 years, an Englishman named Thomas Coleman obtained a patent for a slightly improved steam engine.
1764 james hargreaves Jenny spinning machine
1778 Joseph Bram bathroom
1796 Seinfeld lithography
1797 Henry Maudslay spiral cutting machine tool
178 1 year, james watt improved the Newcomen steam engine, and the modern steam engine took shape.
Fulton steamship 1807
18 12 trey Vissec kearney boiler
Stephenson steam locomotive
18 15 Han Dawei miner's lamp
1844 Cheng Yilan Kaixia County Boiler
The role of industrial revolution in social change.
The role of industrial revolution in transforming society often exceeds that of political revolution, but it does not produce strong shock waves like formal political revolution, causing great turmoil in the situation. The unexpected development of productive forces and the great transformation of the factory system replacing handicraft workshops have shown a new look of the capitalist social mechanism and promoted the rapid evolution of the whole society. Over the past decades, the economic system with agriculture and rural areas as the main body has become an economic system with industry and cities as the main body, which has greatly changed people's lives and the economic geography of the country. The rise of new cities, the improvement of old cities, the general trend of population flowing from rural areas to cities, the trend of the country moving towards an urbanized society, the phenomenon that industrial output value far exceeds agricultural output value, and so on. Ordinary people and politicians are greatly surprised, sad and happy in their situation, but they can only adapt and make up their minds.
This comprehensive and profound social change is, in the final analysis, the manifestation of the transformation of human society from agricultural civilization to industrial civilization. The latter embodies the spirit of creation and enterprising and the sense of competition, which is more challenging than the former. With irreversible momentum, it has changed people's traditional customs, value orientation and even job selection standards. In the process of social transformation, accompanied by serious exploitation and oppression, the situation of "several happy families are worried" is very obvious. As a result, the social structure and class structure have changed and combined into some new social interest groups. Among them, the most important thing is of course the formation of the industrial bourgeoisie and the industrial proletariat.
Compared with the bourgeoisie composed of businessmen in the workshop handicraft period, the industrial bourgeoisie has stronger enterprising spirit and consciousness of seeking development in free competition. Its achievements based on machinery industry are far from comparable to those of the old bourgeoisie. The ability of industry to transform agriculture, the ability to absorb free labor, the influence on the whole society, and the competition in the international market all make capitalism play a leading role in the trend of world history and quickly change the contrast between capitalist and pre-capitalist forces. /kloc-the bourgeois revolution and reform in the 0/9th century swept the world, and the initial formation of the capitalist world system in the middle of this century is the embodiment of this historical change. Feudalism and the social system before feudalism can only give way to capitalism.
The proletariat, that is, the industrial workers, is another brand-new social interest group. It is different from the workers in manual workshops in the past. It has no small plots of land, traditional production tools and patriarchal clan system. This is purely a hired worker. The working conditions of using the machine and the centralized working environment connected with the machine make it centralized, unified and disciplined. Before long, they gradually realized that their group had the same fate and the same wishes and requirements. This is usually called class consciousness, knowing that you belong to the same group. Later, under the guidance of scientific theory, the concept of class consciousness was realized. Of course, these are only advanced workers. As a social group, workers struggle for their own interests and social status, thus forming a historical trend and adding new content to world history. It is this trend that promotes the development of socialism from utopia to science in the ideological field. With the gradual combination of socialism and the workers' movement, this trend has become stronger and stronger, and it has become one of the historical trends in the19th century.
The formation and development of the two social classes and the exclusion of competitors by the machinery industry have divided and reorganized the original middle class. The so-called middle class, also known as petty bourgeoisie, includes small business owners, shopkeepers, craftsmen and vendors. A few of them, squeezed by the machine industry, went bankrupt, and a large number of them were forced to be employed in factories and become part of the working class. Most people still exist, but many people feel precarious and face the threat of bankruptcy. Although more people have not yet faced the crisis, they are also worried about the prospects. Therefore, it has become another social interest group, eager to gain a place in the great social changes and strive to maintain and improve its social status. /kloc-there are many schools of petty-bourgeois socialism in the 0/9 century, and its root lies in this. Among them, the tendency of anarchism generally reflects the mood of the bankrupt; The theory of vigorously advocating the retention of small private ownership is often reflected by the petty bourgeoisie with anxiety. The petty bourgeoisie is keen to participate in the democratic movement because they are eager to improve their social status.
The industrial revolution enabled the limited land area to support more people and stimulated the population growth in Europe in the19th century. From 1800- 19 14, the population of Europe increased from1900,000 to 460 million; During the same period, the population of the United States increased from 5 million to about 654.38 billion. Closely related to population growth, more and more people flock to cities, and western society is constantly urbanizing. In Germany, there were only two cities with a population of about 65438+ million in 1840. By 19 10, there were 48 cities. The demographic statistics of Britain 190 1 show that the population engaged in agriculture only accounts for about 20% of the employed population in industrial enterprises. About 40% of Americans live in industrial areas.
The industrial revolution enabled the limited land area to support more people and stimulated the population growth in Europe in the19th century. From 1800- 19 14, the population of Europe increased from1900,000 to 460 million; During the same period, the population of the United States increased from 5 million to about 654.38 billion. Closely related to population growth, more and more people flock to cities, and western society is constantly urbanizing. In Germany, there were only two cities with a population of about 65438+ million in 1840. By 19 10, there were 48 cities. The demographic statistics of Britain 190 1 show that the population engaged in agriculture only accounts for about 20% of the employed population in industrial enterprises. About 40% of Americans live in industrial areas.
Before the industrial revolution, the social structure of Britain had many obvious characteristics.
First of all, agriculture is still the most important economic sector in China. Most people live on land and live in rural areas. The traffic is backward, the news is blocked, and I live an idyllic life. On the surface, it seems to be no different from the Middle Ages. But deep changes have taken place under the surface. First of all, the aristocratic landlords changed the way of exploitation and adopted capitalist management methods. Some nobles themselves are farmers and agricultural reformers. They used advanced technology to develop agricultural production and made a lot of profits. Lord Townsend, known as "Radish Townsend", is the representative of this group of people; Even King George III of England wrote the Agricultural Yearbook under the pseudonym of "Farmer George" and advocated technological reform. There are also many people who divide their land into small plots for rent, which leads to a large number of small and medium-sized farms and farmers renting out land, and they make their own profits. Defoe once recorded that there is an "excellent pasture" in Arisbury, which is rented at an annual rent of 1400; There is a rented meadow near Aymis bury, and "pasture alone" costs twelve pounds an acre. Because of the importance of land, the big land aristocracy is the richest and most powerful group in the country. For example, the income of the Duke of Newcastle is not less than 1 00000 pounds a year, and the income of the smaller land nobles is also around100000 pounds. In order to adapt to the capitalist mode of operation, the Parliament has passed the Territorial Decree since Queen Anne's time, depriving farmers of their rights through violence, making them become hired laborers or leave the land. But at this time, the land has not been circled, and there are still a large number of open-field systems. Farmers can still graze and collect grass in the fields according to traditional practices to supplement their families.
Handicraft industry has been quite developed, the most important of which is wool industry. But except ironmaking and mining, all handicrafts are scattered all over the country. Small city; Apart from London, in the eyes of modern people, they are only towns and villages. In addition to the deep-rooted guild tradition, the handicraft industry at this time was characterized by businessmen controlling production. Craftsmen receive raw materials from commercial capitalists, process them, return a certain number of finished products within a certain period of time, and receive wages. Businessmen often rent out production tools at a discount. In this form, craftsmen seem to be independent on the surface, which is no different from the Middle Ages. In fact, the products have been owned by the merchants, and the craftsmen scattered all over the country are only employees of the merchants.
In fact, commerce was the most active economic sector at that time. Hundreds of mainland vendors, carrying their bags, rush about on rugged paths, bringing raw materials and goods into manufacturing areas, taking away handmade products of various households and transporting them to London, Bristol and Liverpool ... and then being transported to the sea by bigger businessmen, extending the tentacles of British capitalism to the whole world. Without an active merchant class, Britain would still be a fragmented medieval society with no unified market.
If the squire is the master of the country, then the businessman is the master of the town. 1739 appeared in a booklet saying: "Britain has no ports and few inland towns. There are no such adventurers: these people export a lot of goods and do business directly with most European and American businesses. " On the ladder of social wealth, except for the big land nobles, businessmen are the richest. It is almost an irrefutable truth that a person from humble origins must do business if he wants to get rich. Mercantilism theory prevails, and commerce "doubles the number of rich people, making our real estate much more valuable than before. On top of real estate, plus another kind of property, it is as valuable as the land itself." Commerce has also brought "extra empires". That's how people looked at business at that time.
The government has formulated a series of economic measures to protect commercial interests. Navigation laws, laws and regulations restricting colonial trade, laws prohibiting seafarers from working in foreign merchant ships, and policies to vigorously develop the navy are all manifestations of mercantilism. Walpole made it clear that his economic policy is "to make the export of manufactured goods in China and the import of goods used to make them as simple as possible, so as to maintain the trade balance, increase shipping in China and make a large number of poor people in China obtain employment." William Pitt Jr. also said: "I want to tell you the importance of America;" This is a dual market: both a consumer market and a supply market. "It can be seen that successive governments attach importance to business!
Commercial interests and land interests collude with each other to form an oligopoly. Many nobles engaged in huge overseas trade or business activities in London, and their youngest son worked in the East India Company. Many businessmen even set aside their own dividends and bought land to become landlords as a stepping stone to political promotion. Marriage communication is more frequent; After several generations, it is almost impossible to distinguish between landlords and businessmen. Count lonsdale is the great-grandson of a Turkish businessman; The daughter of John Short, a London businessman, married Lord Conway and walpole. Even William Pitt, the famous prime minister, came from the giants of the East India Company. His grandfather was a rich governor in Madras, and his own name was Lord Chatham. As Defoe said: "Here, business is far from incompatible with gentlemen. In short, business makes a gentleman in Britain. Because, after a generation or two, the descendants of businessmen, or at least their grandchildren, have become as outstanding gentlemen, politicians, parliamentarians, cardinals, judges, bishops and nobles as those with the highest birth and the oldest birth. "
Blackstone, a jurist, praised such an oligarchic society, saying that it was "designed so intelligently, cultivated so strongly and achieved so brilliantly that it is difficult to describe it accurately and appropriately with beautiful words." These words really express the voice of Shanglu Group, which fantasizes that this system will last forever. But just four years after Blackstone's English Law Review was published, 1769, the rumble of steam engines broke their dreams forever.
(2)
The result of the industrial revolution can be attributed to the change of three proportions, namely, the proportion of industry and agriculture, the proportion of handicraft industry and large industry, and the proportion of urban and rural areas. Among them, industrial overtaking agriculture is the most profound and fundamental change for an agricultural country to become an industrial country.
The change in the proportion of workers and peasants is first manifested in the reduction of agricultural population. From 65438 to 0696, Gregory King estimated that among the 5.5 million people in China, the rural population was 4 10/00000, accounting for about three quarters of the total. Arthur jan said in 1769: In a "prosperous country" like Britain, "half the countries are in cities." The figures he provided are: 3.6 million landlords and farmers, accounting for a little more than 40% of the total population, plus parishioners and priests who need agricultural support, which is about half of the total population. This is very different from Kim's time. But in the19th century, it changed even more. According to the official census report, in 183 1 year, there were 96. 1 10,000 households in China, including landlords, farmers, yeomen and employees, accounting for less than 30% of the total number of households in China. Men over 20 years old, in 183 1, 30% are engaged in agriculture, and about 40% are engaged in industry and commerce (including handicrafts). By 184 1, only 25% people were engaged in agriculture, and the proportion of industry and commerce rose to 43%. According to The Victorian Local History of Buckinghamshire, because the lace industry in this county is developed, it reaches about 1800, "there are no women engaged in agricultural production in this county."
Judging from the importance of industry and agriculture in the national economy, the conclusion is the same. The following table shows how the industrial output exceeds agriculture and becomes the largest economic sector, while the importance of agriculture is decreasing day by day.
Table of national income by department (in million pounds)
In the next twenty years, laziness will be more prominent. At this time, the income of the industrial sector is more than twice that of agriculture, reaching 243.6 million pounds; Commerce and transportation also surpassed agriculture, reaching10.307 billion, while agricultural income was only1.18.8 billion.
In this way, at the end of the industrial revolution, Britain became the first industrial country in the world and won the title of "world factory".
The proportion of wool industry and large industry has also changed significantly, which can be said that the emergence of large industry has caused the change of the proportion of workers and peasants. Big industry first means steam power and mechanization. In this respect, the cotton textile industry has the fastest pace. 18 13 years, there were 2,400 power looms in Britain, reaching14,000 in 1820, 55,000 in 1829, and 100000 in four years. During the twenty-five years from 1775 to 1800, Watt and Bolton installed 289 steam engines in Britain, of which 84 were used in cotton textile mills. But other industries are gradually adopting steam engines. According to statistics, there were 1953 steam engines and 1297 water turbines in Britain and Ireland in 1835. With the textile industry, all production departments are mechanized; Even the slowest and most difficult agriculture began to use threshers around 1790. By the time the mechanization process was basically completed in 1950s and 1960s, there were only a few thousand manual weavers left in China. On the other hand, the emergence of machinery industry can be regarded as an important symbol of mechanization. When Watt invented the steam engine, there were few mechanics, so Watt had to run by himself. To repair the steam engine he sold. But in the19th century, the strength of mechanical workers can not be ignored. 1824, they organized the "Steam Engine Manufacturers Association", 1826, and established the "Steam Engine Manufacturers Union". 185 1 year, they organized the earliest, richest and most famous so-called "new model" trade union-"Mixed Trade Union of Mechanical Workers" (A.S.E). The output of the machinery industry has also grown quite rapidly, not only to meet domestic demand, but also to increase exports rapidly. 1After the ban on machinery export was lifted in the 1920s, the export volume increased from110/0.6 million pounds to 250,000 pounds in 1829 in just seven years.
In addition to mechanization, large-scale industry also means the emergence of factory system. Originally, except for iron smelting and mining, which required relatively concentrated manpower, all the manufacturing was carried out by hand at home, and even the appearance of Jenny machine could not change this decentralized state. However, the advent of 1768 hydraulic spinning machine has brought a brand-new industrial organization form. Because according to Atlette's design, if you want to use hydraulic machines, you have to build a house by the river, install many machines in it, and find many workers to operate at the same time. In this way, the factory was born. The use of the steam engine caused another change, because since then, factories can be built anywhere with coal supply, without being restricted by rivers, which led to the rapid development of the factory system. From 177 1 to 1835, there were 1262 cotton textile mills in China, more than half of which were in Lancashire. In 1820, hand weavers were almost twice as many as factory weavers (240,000 and126,000 respectively), and in 1840, factory weavers were more than twice as many as hand weavers (260,000 and123,000 respectively). Thousands of years of peaceful and quiet rural scenery, like meeting Aladdin's magic lamp, disappeared in an instant. Chimneys and whistles suddenly appeared in Britain. Farmers who were driven out of the land and craftsmen who were deprived of their jobs flocked from the wild bees in the countryside and organized a huge team under the eaves of the factory. In this factory, there are rich factory owners on one side and poor proletarians on the other. The confrontation between the two armies and the strict barriers determine the future development of British history. But before talking about the changes in class relations, we should also look at the changes in the proportion of urban and rural areas.
1760, except London, only Bristol has a population of more than 50,000. But by 183 1, Glasgow has become a large industrial city with a population of more than 200,000, with 328 steam engines distributed on more than 60 steamboats and 107 textile mills. 184 1 year, the population of greater London is 2.239 million, three times that of 80 years ago. There are 9 cities with a population of over100000, and 24 cities with a population of over 50000. Among all the towns, small towns with factories as the center have developed very fast. For example, Odom increased from 300 to 400 in 1760 to 38,000 in 183 1, and Bradford increased from 180 1 13000. 1801-1year, most of the cities whose population more than doubled were these emerging industrial towns, such as Bolton, Ipswich, Preston and stockport ... In addition to these emerging industrial towns, the population of industrial metropolises such as Leeds and Manchester also grew rapidly. In this way, with the development of industry, medieval, idyllic and idyllic Britain is gone forever.
(3)
The above-mentioned three proportional changes were later reflected in the political field; Especially in the parliamentary reform movement, they are more aware. It should be added here that no matter what kind of changes are made, it will take a long time, say 80 years, to complete quite slowly. Such a fact can explain why the reform movement has experienced ups and downs-from immature to mature, from young to powerful, from failure to success.
But now let's see how these changes in proportion cause changes in class relations. In fact, industry has surpassed agriculture, which shows that the economic strength of the industrial bourgeoisie has overwhelmed the aristocratic landlord class; The disintegration of handicraft industry by big industry means that factory owners crowd out businessmen's control over production, so commercial capital gives way to industrial capital; The rise of factories and the prosperity of cities indicate the birth and growth of the industrial proletariat.
The industrial proletariat is undoubtedly the fastest growing class in this period. The enclosure movement has contributed to this trend. Due to the stimulation of the industrial revolution, the enclosure movement reached the last and craziest climax at this time. In the 50 years before 1760, 400,000 mu was circled; In the next 50 years, it will be surrounded by 5 million acres. At this point, the yeoman class, as the pride of the British nation in the Middle Ages, died out. Most of these people became proletarians, which greatly increased the number of proletarians. 184 1 year, there are 3.259 million male and female workers employed in the industrial and transportation sectors, accounting for 46.8% of the national working population (excluding domestic workers1244,000). In addition, there are1600,000 unemployed men and over 5 million unemployed women. Even if women are not counted (considering their housework), this is a large labor force reserve. In addition to the large number of people, another feature of the working class is organization, and the emergence of the factory system has made workers highly concentrated. 1835, there were 170 workers in every cotton mill in China. Some large cotton mills are very large. For example, in Robert Peel, the author of 1802 Factory Law employed more than15,000 workers (including manual temporary workers) in and around Burry Town. Concentrate on making it easier for workers to organize. They organized more than 7,000 fraternity and aid groups in 1800. According to the official report, 18 15 has 925,000 members, saying that they are "composed of workers in the same industry on many occasions; The habits and opportunities of association ... undoubtedly facilitate associations that raise wages and all other illegal purposes. " This kind of collective strength can be seen from the fact that the wages of factory workers are fixed relative to those of hand-woven workers. 1840' s report on hand weavers once explained: "This is because manufacturers find it much more difficult to reduce the wages of thirty or forty people who work in the same factory and are connected with each other, compared with thirty or forty outdoor weavers who are isolated from each other and ready to sell to each other at any time because of manpower surplus."
But in any case, this huge team was not mature at that time, which was first manifested in the large number of manual workers among them. Even in the cotton textile industry with the most developed factory system, this is still the case. 1829, on the eve of the climax of parliamentary reform, the number of factory weavers was only three quarters of that of manual weavers; Until 1840, "Although the competition of power looms is fierce, in this branch of textile industry, not only many hand looms are used, but almost all the evidence shows that there are as many hand looms as before ..." In addition, tailors and shoemakers in London alone are more than all miners in northumberland and Durham combined, and the coal mined by these miners is a quarter of that in England and Wales; There are far more domestic maids than women workers in cotton mills. This huge number of manual workers has greatly affected the political consciousness and class strength of the proletariat. Even real industrial workers, people who have just come out of manual workers or bankrupt farmers, can never organize a mature class. At that time, the Friendship Association and the Economic Association all over the country were only emergency organizations, and their activities were mainly limited to accumulating membership fees to help members tide over the difficulties. They exclude people without apprenticeships and have strong guild habits. 18 12 Luther movement is actually a movement of manual workers against the modern capitalist mode of production, which is precisely the immature performance of the proletariat. 1824, the parliament abolished the bill prohibiting workers' association, but 1825 imposed new restrictions, which actually abolished the right of trade unions to strive for higher wages and improve working conditions, making them lose the means of economic struggle. In this case, the working people only vaguely feel the necessity of participating in the political struggle. But the first step taken by the industrial proletariat in the political struggle is to form an alliance with their twin enemy, the industrial bourgeoisie. This will be clearly seen in the subsequent parliamentary reform movement.
It was these people who were pushed to the peak of power by the industrial revolution. Most of them have no business, let alone nobles, and have no prominent family background and strong backing. Their grandfather used to farm, their father went bankrupt, and they themselves were down and out, wandering for half their lives. In the storm of the industrial revolution, they can obtain invention patents only by their own creation, set up factories by shrewd calculation and ruthlessness, and climb higher and higher on the social wealth ladder, becoming remarkable huge wealth. They are often called "nouveau riche" or "middle class"-but this is compared with the largest aristocrat, and in fact their property has already surpassed that of the rich squire; Their role in the national economy is indeed increasing day by day, and they will eventually become the mainstay of the national economy. This can be seen from the change of national tax revenue.
After the "Glorious Revolution" and the whole18th century, there are three kinds of national taxes: land tax, customs duty and domestic tax. The amount of various taxes is often influenced by the changes of the government and policies in peacetime, so we can only see the rise and fall of the economic strength of all classes in wartime. Because only the ruling class in wartime will have to distribute taxes basically in proportion to wealth. In this way, we can see that the year before the end of the augsburg League War, 1696, the land tax was 2.528 million pounds, which was more than the sum of customs duties and domestic taxes; 17 12, the penultimate year of the Spanish throne war, the land tax was 2152,000 pounds, which was still the most. Customs duty 148. 1 ten thousand pounds, domestic tax1805 thousand pounds. Land tax and customs duties add up to twice the domestic tax (don't forget that the domestic tax at this time is taken from handmade products). Since then, domestic tax revenue has become more and more important, especially after the 1960s, which can be said to have increased rapidly. Since the Seven-Year War, this kind of tax has been kept at the sum of land tax and customs duty. On the other hand, land tax is becoming more and more irrelevant. For example, in 18 14 (the last year of the Napoleonic Wars), the domestic tax was 27.5 million pounds, and the customs duty was/kloc-0.4 million pounds, while the land tax was only 7.9 million pounds, almost half of the customs duty. If we remember that land tax is mainly levied on landlords, customs duties are taxes of importers and exporters, and domestic taxes are borne by manufacturers, then the above changes will be well understood. Moreover, from the perspective of the growth of domestic tax revenue, it is also divided into two stages. In the fifty years before 1760, it increased from 2 million pounds to 4 million pounds; In the fifty years after 1760, it increased from 4 million pounds to about 27 million pounds, and the shadow of the industrial revolution can be seen here. Later, with the growth of the political power of the industrial bourgeoisie, the proportion of domestic tax revenue gradually declined. It is no accident that this process has just begun in haskell's financial reform era. We can also see why the industrial bourgeoisie is keen on parliamentary reform.