British Industrial Research Articles

Redefining Family Relationships: The Impact of Disability on Working-Class Families during the Industrial Revolution in Britain

The Industrial Revolution traditionally has been seen in Disability Studies as marking a decisive shift in the lives of disabled people. It is argued that the rise of mechanisation, time discipline and standardisation made the industrial workplace a hostile environment for people with non-standard bodies. According to this view, increasing demands to work outside the home also meant that families were less capable of caring for older and disabled members, leading to greater institutionalisation. This view of increasing segregation of disabled people from home and work has dominated understanding of disability in the British Industrial Revolution, but it does not reflect the variability of disabled people's experiences at the time. Drawing on official enquiries, fictional literature, journalism and social commentary from the 1830s and 1840s – a time when the impact of industrialisation on the bodies and family relationships of workers became matters of public, political concern – this article shows the continuing importance of family in the lives of disabled people. The legal duty of families to care for sick and disabled relatives was an enduring social principle throughout this period. Interpersonal relations were tested and sometimes re-drawn by disability, forcing a change in traditional familial roles and expectations. For working people and their families, the potentials for poverty resulting from disability could be great. However, disabled people continued to play significant roles in the lives of their families, and where possible continued to contribute to the domestic economy. Taking a disability perspective on the history of the family highlights the interdependence between family members in industrialising Britain.

British Public Investment, Government Spending, Housing, and the Industrial Revolution: A Study of Governmental and Social Surplus Absorption

: When it comes to the British Industrial Revolution of the eighteenth century, much of the mainstream economics literature has tended to focus on how property rights, limitations on the crown or government, and changes in production techniques caused a big transformation in the nation’s economy. Marxian and other heterodox economics views acknowledge these developments but also emphasize the enclosure movement and the development of an exploited proletariat. Both sets of views acknowledge the role of the British government in facilitating the revolution, but in doing a review for this article, there is only a small amount of literature on how government investment and spending and the housing of workers may have helped spur the revolution. This is especially true within heterodox schools of thought, and this article aims to add to the heterodox literature by discussing how government investment and investment in housing assisted with surplus absorption during the Industrial Revolution, which in turn helped the British economy to achieve greater heights. Finally, it can be shown that this investment, in turn, would have helped business investment and spending in absorbing as much of the surplus as possible. Strong and sensible uses of government spending matter as much as free market ideology.

Atlantic Economy and the British Industrial Revolution : Rethinking the Debate about the Endogenous and Exogenous Factors of Industrial Revolution

Atlantic Economy and the British Industrial Revolution : Rethinking the Debate about the Endogenous and Exogenous Factors of Industrial Revolution

Inequality and the Industrial Revolution

In this paper, we propose a new theory for why income inequality can be conducive to early industrial development. Technological advances in agriculture and population growth increase land rents relative to wages and as the landed elites become richer, demand for manufactured goods increases, which in turn facilitates industrialization. Using data for Britain over the period 1270–1940, we show that increasing inequality was a major contributor to the expansion of the manufacturing sector. Taking into account the more well-known drivers of modern growth, we find that inequality is a major contributor to the British Industrial Revolution, alongside foreign trade, education, technological knowledge and, to some extent, institutions.

How has Myths Influenced Modern Capitalism?

This essay examines the complex relationship between myths and contemporary capitalism, demonstrating the significant impact myths have had on society norms and economic ideology. While the British Industrial Revolution is frequently cited as the catalyst for the formalization of modern capitalism, myths have always been a part of human civilization. In the opening section of the investigation, myths are described as sacred stories focusing on crucial moments of “permanent significance.” The distinctive characteristics of myths make it possible for them to be spread through educational channels, a convergence of the efficiency principles of capitalism and the educational value of myths. This essay examines how myths reflect and influence modern socioeconomic activity by analyzing them using Joseph Campbell’s monomyth structure. Beyond the realm of education, myths are entwined with cultural narratives, affecting society values and ambitions, which is particularly clear in myths like the “American Dream” and the “infinite growth myth.” The essay uses a case study approach to illustrate how the American Dream and the idea of unlimited progress are compatible with capitalist beliefs. Case studies are complemented by secondary research, which offers broader contextual understandings. This essay, while acknowledging its limits, fills the gap between socioeconomics and mythological consequences by providing insightful details about the dynamic interaction between myths and capitalism doctrines. The essay reveals the extent of myths’ influence on forming the outlines of modern capitalism and our perceptions of success, development, and the human experience by examining their continuous significance and far-reaching effects.

От Петти к Смиту: происхождение классической политэкономии в историко-научной и мир-системной ретроспективе

The article is dedicated to the anniversaries of W. Petty and A. Smith in 2023 and examines the legacy of the classics of English political economy in the context of the problem of the influence of the European Scientific Revolution of the XVII century on the British Industrial Revolution of the XVIII century. The historical significance of the heyday of British clock-making as a by-product of the Scientific Revolution of the XVII century and the prerequisites for the accumulation of human capital in England, necessary for a technological breakthrough into industrial civilization, are highlighted. Various interpretations by economists and historians of thought of the framework of classical political economy and A. Smith's attitude to the Industrial Revolution are compared. The W. Petty’s anticipation in the "Additions to the Political Arithmetic" of the role of innovative clockmaking and coal resources as British competitive advantages is noted. It is shown that the evolution of English political economy from balance-of-trade doctrine to A. Smith’s «system of natural freedom» reflected the conquest by England of the hegemonist position in the formed capitalist World-System.

Temperature and Textiles: Heat Management in British Industrial Mills

May 01 2023 Temperature and Textiles: Heat Management in British Industrial Mills Matthew Lopez Matthew Lopez Matt Lopez is a second-year master's student in the Design Studies program at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He uses architecture to explore abstract social questions in concrete terms that range from the history of construction technologies to the biopolitics of contemporary economics. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Matthew Lopez Matt Lopez is a second-year master's student in the Design Studies program at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He uses architecture to explore abstract social questions in concrete terms that range from the history of construction technologies to the biopolitics of contemporary economics. Online ISSN: 2572-7338 Print ISSN: 1091-711X © 2023 Matthew Lopez2023Matthew Lopez Thresholds (2023) (51): 164–169. https://doi.org/10.1162/thld_a_00800 Cite Icon Cite Permissions Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Search Site Citation Matthew Lopez; Temperature and Textiles: Heat Management in British Industrial Mills. Thresholds 2023; (51): 164–169. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/thld_a_00800 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentAll JournalsThresholds Search Advanced Search This content is only available as a PDF. © 2023 Matthew Lopez2023Matthew Lopez Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

The occupational distribution of foundling apprentices during the English Industrial Revolution

ABSTRACT This article presents a new analysis of the distribution of apprenticeships brokered by the London Foundling Hospital, England’s pre-eminent charitable foundation in the eighteenth century for orphaned and abandoned children. It explores the similarities and differences between charity apprenticeship and parish apprenticeship systems in supplying pauper children’s labour during the critical first phase of the English Industrial Revolution, within a wider European context. The results of this analysis illustrate that foundling children were set to work in agriculture, mainly in northern England, and in a variety of small manufacturing and retailing industries in the London area. For a short time, foundling girls were sent in batches to work in textile factories in the North and Midlands, but this practice was soon ended over concerns for children’s welfare. The extensive patronage networks of Foundling Hospital Governors and inspectors, the location of provincial branch hospitals set up to cope with the high volume of so-called ‘General Reception’ children, and gendered expectations of the life courses of the labouring poor were the most significant factors in determining where foundling children were sent as apprentices, and how they were employed.

The British Industrial Revolution in the Russian Empire: How the British Industrialized Eastern Ukraine during the 18th Century

The British Industrial Revolution in the Russian Empire: How the British Industrialized Eastern Ukraine during the 18th Century

The Diffusion of Knowledge during the British Industrial Revolution

AbstractWhile technological progress played a central role in the British Industrial Revolution, statistical evidence on how inventors and entrepreneurs engaged in the process of technological innovation has typically received minor attention. In this paper I use quantitative methods to show that counties with a relatively high number of informal networks −in the form of Freemasonry, friendly societies, libraries, and booksellers− experienced more innovation as measured by new patents and exhibits at the 1851 Crystal Palace World’s Fair. Qualitative evidence and propensity score matching suggest that the mechanisms highlighted here were an important part of British technological leadership. Economic factors cannot account for these patterns.

The Positive Influence of British Industrial Revolution on Women's Life

The British Industrial Revolution is one of the most important revolutionary events that profoundly changed the environment for human survival and development in the western economic and social history. In 1884, Arnold Toynbee delivered a lecture on the British Industrial Revolution, and pointed out that it was not only a technological revolution, but also a far-reaching social revolution. This view was generally accepted by the academic community and the society as a classic understanding of the phenomenon of Industrial Revolution. Since the reform and opening up, Chinese scholars have conducted in-depth studies on major issues in British history, such as the British revolution and the Industrial Revolution.[1] Since the publication of Mary Wollstonecraft's the defense of women's rights, British women have had their own voice. At the same time, they deconstructed the social discourse centered on the aristocratic language at that time by creating a family social circle, entering new factory labor, and directly or indirectly participating in political activities. It can be said that they play an important role in deconstruction. This paper focuses on the great role played by British women during the industrial revolution. And it is divided into two parts, namely, the impact of the British Industrial Revolution on women's economy and spirit, and the impact of the British Industrial Revolution on women's marital status.

The Industrial Revolution as a collective action problem: The House of Commons games patents of monopoly, November 1601

AbstractThe English economy during the sixteenth century was increasingly captured by monopolists, with dire consequences in aggregate. Yet, though many Members of Parliament owned patents of monopoly, on 20 November 1601 the House of Commons agreed, with no voices raised in opposition, to void all such patents. That collective decision helped shift the English economy from a non‐cooperative to a cooperative game, and thus from non‐competition to competition, so taking a key prefatory step towards the English Industrial Revolution.

Writing about Life Writing: Women, Autobiography and the British Industrial Revolution

AbstractFew historical problems have attracted so much attention over so many years as the social consequences of the British industrial revolution. For the most part, historians presumed that working people produced very little historical evidence that could be used to contribute to our understanding. However, projects to catalogue and encourage the use of the nation's scattered, yet extensive, archive of working-class autobiography have revealed that such evidence does, in fact, exist. The insertion of working-class autobiography helps to offer a new perspective, one which suggests a more positive interpretation of industrial life than historians have usually been willing to admit. Yet there remains a problem with the archive. During the industrial revolution, life-writing was a male art form. Women only started writing autobiographies in any number around 100 years after the conventional periodisation of the industrial revolution. This article surveys the autobiographical writing during and after the industrial revolution – around 1,000 items in all – in order to rethink the relationship between economic growth and social change. It confirms that industrial growth improved the position of working men in society, but concludes that female perspectives on this change are far more ambivalent.

British ghost acres and environmental changes in the Laurentian forest during the nineteenth century

This article explores the consequences of the environmental transformations of the Laurentian Valley on the timber trade uniting the Province of Canada and the industrialization of Great Britain during the nineteenth century. The notion of ghost acres used to describe the ecological footprint of resource consumption from abroad is extended to accommodate landscape transformations and enrich our understanding of the environmental impacts of imperial trade. Moving beyond the mere calculation of a surface area to assess the ecological ghost acres of British industrialization, we reconstitute the exchange circuits of wood products, from the extraction sites of different forest areas of the Laurentian Valley to their final destination in the British market, to identify the environmental consequences resulting from the insertion of the colonial forest economy into imperial trade networks. We also explore the adaptation of the British market to the material differences of North American pine and spruce compared with the familiar timber from northern Europe and how this, in turn, shaped the geography of extraction.

President's Page: Urban geophysics: Where geophysics meets society head-on

Today, 55% of the world's population lives in urban areas, consumes between 67% and 76% of global energy, and generates about 70% of global carbon emissions. In less than 300 years since the beginning of the British Industrial Revolution, many urban centers in the developed world have evolved from simple congregations of human labor with overcrowded tenements, frequent epidemics, inequitable resources, and insufferable sanitary or safety conditions to become “smart cities” that utilize cutting-edge technologies to enhance the advantages and minimize the inconveniences of urbanization for residents. Cities such as Tokyo, Japan; Zurich, Switzerland; and Auckland, New Zealand; have been consistently ranked among the smartest cities worldwide based on their technological smartness in the areas of health and safety, mobility, activities, opportunities, and governance. Residents in these cities enjoy advanced health care, affordable housing, superior mobility, excellent education, and abundant employment opportunities. On the other hand, urban slums such as Neza-Chalco-Itza in Mexico, Dharavi in Mumbai, India, and the favelas in San Paulo, Brazil, do not look much different from the early 19th century London streets.

Accounting, Religious Identity, Control and Discipline in the Quaker Lead Company, c.1800–c. 1860

Business histories of Quaker firms have generally presented them as enlightened employers and providers of industrial welfare. Quaker labour management and industrial welfare practices during the British Industrial Revolution (BIR) have been relatively neglected by accounting and business historians We conduct a ‘macro’ study of the roles of accounting in labour control and discipline and the provision of industrial welfare during the BIR in the religious, social and institutional contexts of the Quaker Lead Company. The research draws upon literature and data which present divergent views of the Company’s employment practices. The research finds that the historical construction of Quakers as enlightened employers and industrial philanthropists must be viewed with much caution. There was little that was uniquely and distinctively ‘Quaker’ in the Company’s approaches to labour control and discipline and its use of accounting in these respects.

The Settler Coloniality of Free Speech

Abstract Public and scholarly debates surrounding free speech often assume free speech is a public good and/or should be approached as a problem of “drawing the line” between free and regulated or benign and harmful speech. In contrast, this article provides a genealogy of free speech in which liberal freedom of expression has, since its inception, been integral to white supremacist settler colonialism in the United Kingdom and its former settler colonies, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The article argues that, far from a noble struggle against regulation, liberal politics around free speech establish oppositions between white “civilized” speech and its Indigenized racially darkened “others” as well as controlling or silencing Indigenous, Black and/or otherwise racially othered speech across the Anglosphere. The article first traces free speech through two significant moments in its emergence: early European Enlightenment colonial expansion (embodied in John Locke's “toleration”) and 1800s British colonial industrialization (embodied in John Stuart Mill's “marketplace of ideas”). The article then examines how this genealogy informs the contemporary case study of contestation over free speech in universities, showing that engagements with free speech across the political spectrum extend its settler colonial rationality.

Analysis on the Sharing Method of English Mobile Education Resources Based on Wireless Broadband Connection

The sharing of English educational resources has always been a research hotspot in the English industry. The traditional English educational resource sharing system has low resource sharing efficiency and no real-time contribution capability. Therefore, this paper proposes a method to analyze the characteristics of online educational resources. By comparing the main features of the IEEE802 wireless standard series, the IEEE802.16 protocol stack model is constructed by using the IEEE802.16 protocol, the business layer design and CS layer of the English education resource system are realized through the MAC layer and the CPS layer, and the mobile English education resource sharing system is analyzed. Live voting service: in order to improve the sharing speed of mobile English education resources, an NRTPS uplink bandwidth allocation mechanism is proposed, and the design of a mobile English education resource sharing system based on wireless broadband connection is realized. The experimental results show that the resource sharing efficiency of the system is high, and it plays an important role in the development of English education.

Interpersonal Interface System of Multimedia Intelligent English Translation Based on Deep Learning

Artificial intelligence is a very challenging science, and people who are engaged in this work must understand computer knowledge, psychology, and philosophy. Artificial intelligence includes a wide range of sciences; it is composed of different fields, such as machine learning and computer vision. In recent years, with the rise and joint drive of technologies such as the Internet, big data, the Internet of Things, and voice recognition, the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology has presented new features such as deep learning, cross-border integration, and human-machine collaboration. Intelligent English translation is an innovation and experiment of the English language industry in the field of science and technology. Machine translation is the use of computer programmes to translate natural language into a specific natural language. This interdisciplinary subject includes three subjects: artificial intelligence, computational linguistics, and mathematical logic. Machine translation is becoming more and more popular with the public, and its advantages are mainly that machine translation is much cheaper than manual translation. From this study, it can be seen that the accuracy rate of the traditional ICTCLAS method is 76.40%, while the accuracy rate of the research method in this article is 94.58%, indicating that the research method used in this article is better. Machine translation greatly reduces the cost of translation because there are very few processes that require human participation, and the translation is basically done by computers. It is also an important research content in the field of English major research. Due to the wide range of language cultures and the influence of local culture, thought, and semantic environment, traditional human translation methods have many shortcomings. Nowadays, the demand for translation is unsatisfactory. Based on this, this paper analyzes the application status of intelligent translation, the prospect of intelligent translation, and realizes the optimization design of the human interface system for the intelligent translation of English. Through experiments, it is found that the multimedia intelligent English translation system based on deep learning not only improves the accuracy of English translation but also greatly improves the efficiency of people learning English.

Travelers' Tales: Their Values and Virtues

Travelers' Tales: Their Values and Virtues