Class 2/15

The Industrial Revolution was unprecedented and no one really knew what to expect... 

What were David Ricardo and Thomas Malthus saying? 

David Ricardo and Thomas Malthus were essentially saying the same thing. They both warned against the effects of the growing population in Great Britain. However, both were proven wrong because industrialization drastically improved productivity. 

Malthus argued that "a rapid growth in population would lead to disaster" because there will no longer be enough resources available for everyone. The common person is just beginning to get used to having a little extra as wages have increased. Increased wages allowed for many to afford these extra purchases in contrast to spending all their money on only necessities. Malthus theorizes that if men and women marry later in their lives, this would result in a smaller number of children. However, his theory was not put into practice by enough people to have the lasting effect he had hoped for. 

Ricardo had a very similar mindset about population growth as Malthus. He proposed the Iron Law of Wages which stated that if the population continued to grow, everyones wages would drop. Right now, the wages for workers are high. Wages will sink as a result of the rising population because people become more expendable and there is less dependence on human work as factories become industrialized. Ricardo's thoughts are theory but he also attempted to put his theory into practice through the Iron Law of Wages. 


So about this level of industrialization graph...

(I tried to insert the graph here but as you all know I'm technologically challenged and couldn't do it... refer to section called "National and International Variations" for graph...) 

Basically, all the countries on the graph are being compared to Great Britain, who kicked off the Industrial Revolution. The graph depicts how most of the countries were slow to adopt Great Britain's technologies in the beginning, especially, which allowed Great Britain to keep a substantial lead for a while. Eventually, some countries picked it up while a couple went backwards. However, the rate of industrialization is different for each country. For example, the United States increased the fastest, followed by Germany. On the other hand, France was pretty slow but eventually made some progress. Great Britain lost their lead when people started sneaking out of the country and spreading their technological knowledge. 








What helped industrialization to spread?

(1) The banks: There are more investors in the bank who are not responsible for paying the money back to the bank if their investments fail(limited liability) so the bank is much more willing to lend out money to people. 
(2) The government: High tariffs protect domestic industry by essentially encouraging their citizens to buy goods from the country which they are in instead of from outside countries. 
(3) Entrepreneurs: John Cockerel built a center for people to gather and transmit industrial information in Belgium. This helped information to spread- the more people who are knowledgable about the subject,the faster industrialization will spread. 







Did the government respond to the child labor issues?

Yes, the Factory Acts were passed and well enforced. The Factory Acts limited the number of hours children of certain ages could work and also implemented hygiene and safety requirements.The fact that the number of child workers decreased dramatically is proof that these Acts were well enforced by the government.