Was Industrial Revolution good or bad for the level of life of english workers?

The question above deserves many-sided comparisons. However, people’s happiness and living standard are complicated to measure because, in this period, British society was experimenting multiple transformations and some effects of the revolution had set off with others. Besides, within different time extents we may get different conclusions for this issue. Therefore, this paper will covered aspects like working and living conditions, real wage, health, mortality, freedom and rights of english workers in long run, with the objective to have a good measure of their level of life.

The English Industrial Revolution (1760-1830) was characterized by the new technologies and the prosperity of textile industry and coal mining industry. In short, new production methods and high productivity reduced the amount of human forces needed in agriculture but also created a huge demand of labor for sectors that began to develop. Consequently, a lot of peasants, workers and artisans were obliged to move to industrial regions, and changed then completely the life style.

Traditionally, the goods were produced by families: women took care of the family while men were the main labor forces; and tasks of less importance were given to children according to their age. In this familiar productive unit, the leisure time was mixed with the working time. Moreover, the production pace is flexible. Peasants worked for aristocracy’ and had to pay taxes. Their sustenance depended on the harvest which varied with the season and weather. Artisans were more independents as they relied on their own skill and were supported by the guild. In addition, luxury products allowed a higher income.

In the middle of 18th century, the agricultural revolution discarded a ...

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...oint of view, the industrial revolution highlighted the importance of the working class by bringing huge changes in economic structure and tremendous growth. This made possible the latter system change and political transformation. In this period , the workers began to think about their own lives, to learn knowledge, and initiated a more organized and more systematic campaign to safeguard their own interests, came completely out of the no wisdom, petty and low image of peasants under under the old regime.

In my opinion, this tragic experience of English workers can be attributed to that people had not yet detached from the old concept (feudalism). But it was the impact of industrialization which has broken the original balance, and stimulates consequently the working people, in after a long struggle and exploration, to really have the ability to protect themselves.