The Industrial Revolution THE RISE OF FACTORIES

Cottage Industry Before the industrial revolution there were no such thing as factories, instead people used there own houses to run a business. It was called the cottage industry. The cottage industry had good and bad points. Good you can stay in your village at home while supporting your family, and you get income. Bad anybody could be a weaver or spinner, you didn't get paid much and you had to work for hours but you didn’t get much pay. There were many people selling the same products as other people so they sold there products in small prices. ( The Law of Supply and Demand) There were only a few people selling rarely sold items so a lot of people didn’t get paid much.

The Factory Age Inventions from the industrial revolutions made the cottage industry a lot less popular to the consumers. most of the inventions were to big or needed to much power that people couldn’t get there hands on. Ex. The water frame was too large to fit in a cottage and couldn’t be powered by strength. Factories were built so the machines could have a place to work in. Factories affected thousands of people in Britain some better, some worse Arkwright was one who benefited from the factory system. He built many factories and controlled every part of them. The poor were people who didn’t benefit from the factory system because they didn’t get enough pay and were exposed to danger and pollution.

Child Labor Many of the people who suffered from the factory system were children Many kids went into labor because they didn’t have much choice; there families needed everyone to be working because they couldn’t pay for what they needed. It was so convenient because kids didn’t need an education to work. Children were useful for the jobs with little space to work in. Ex. The textile industry, mines and chimney cleaning. They could fit into small spaces and had little hands so they could do small but tough jobs. They suffered form there home and factory environment. They were exposed to pollution from the industries such as burning coal fumes and fluff from the textile industry.

Factory Acts Throughout the eighteenth and the nineteenth century many social reformers didn’t like how the workers lived and tried to change it. But parliament was controlled by the rich and powerful and didn’t like the thought of it. They rejected many thoughts of improving the lot of workers. Enough members of parliament didn’t like how parliament were doing things so they passed the “Factory Acts” The workers benefited from this but the children had it the best. 1802 children couldn’t work more than twelve hours straight in cotton mills. 1819, children under nine were not aloud to work in the textile industry but there wasn’t anybody to inspect to make sure rules were obeyed. In 1824 workers associations became legal. The upper class thought that workers didn’t need leisure and that they might get bad habits such as drinking, and gambling.

Machines gave people less work and were more efficient. The Rise of Factories POSITIVE The positive effect of factories is that the people made money and products faster. Machines gave people less work and were more efficient. Anybody could get a job and people could choose there work. NEGATIVE The workers pay was awful and they had to work for hours. Machines cost people jobs because with a machine less people had to work. People were dying or getting sick because they were inhaling poison and working in a dangerous environment children were worked really hard factory owners didn’t care about there workers much.