IT 107 Organization and Management

HandOut #003

The Nature and Scope of Industrial Revolution A revolution is a profound and radical change in the economic, social., or political structure. It is a process of transformation in the economy, society, and political systems. While it may appear sudden or spontaneous, the process of revolution actually covers a period of time. Suddenness of change is more associated with coup d'etatthe sudden seizure of political power by the military. The Industrial Revolution is the process of change from an agrarian, handicraft or feudal economy to one dominated by industry. The Industrial Revolution cannot be treated as a definite period of time in history. Although the Industrial Revolution started in England and first spread to Belgium and then France, it cannot be asserted that it is over with the passage of the 18th and 19th centuries. It is still on-going as a process in our time and will continue to go on with Technological Revolution, It was the result of gradual succession of change over a long period of time. Some of its elements can be traced back from the medieval period. With the hindsight of contemporary history, we can even say its embryonic roots can be traced what Alfin Tofler calls the First Wave of CivilizationAgricultural Revolution which supplanted the Hunting Stage. Agriculture was revolutionary because: The acquisition, possession, enjoyment and ownership of land gave rise to wealth. And with wealth came power economic and political. Agricultural improvements made possible excess production over subsistence level, thus making possible provision of food for larger non-agricultural population. This enabled non-agricultural workers to engage in crafts and production of goods and services. It enabled the creative and innovative to produce arts, literature, and culture, It gave rise to trade and commerce. First Situs of Industrial Revolution England is the birthplace of Industrial Revolution. Why England? Because scientific, technological, political, legal, economic, social and cultural environment in England was favorable to industrialization: At the end of 18th century, continental Europe was for ahead in pure research in the physical and chemical sciences. However, the English excelled in the application of scientific knowledge to practical affairs, particularly in industries. Technological revolution accompanied the Industrial Revolution as traditional methods of productionthe domestic handicraft system of manufacturingcould not provide adequate response to market conditions as primary cause of industrialization. It led to factory-based mechanization. Political liberty and individual rights were guaranteed. The right to life, liberty and property), the right to due process and freedom from illegal persecution were protected and recognized. The sanctity of property rights and sanctity of contracts were held in high regard. A patent law protected the intangible rights of inventors and the creative. The Agrarian Revolution in England centered on land use which increased production more than what improved technology could do. The Enclosure Movement of the 18th century increased the efficiency of farm lands as common pastures and fields were replaced by more compact and easily farmed private holdings. Farmers were motivated to experiment with new forms of husbandrynotably root crop rotation and convertibility between cultivated and pasture landthat increased productivity. England had the domestic capital or wealth saved and accumulated from land and international trade, Banking and insurance services were available. Every inventor who needed an entrepreneur with capital and vision to exploit an innovation could easily find such financial backer. England was richly endowed with coal and iron ore. It had wool. Its colonies had iron, cotton, dyewoods, lumber and naval stores. It had adequate transport system. Roads and canals were built. Railroads extended transportation network. These in addition to traditional British merchant marine which was the largest in the world at the time. Social mobility, as a result of economic changes in social relations in the means of production, was common and open. This became an incentive to savings and accumulation of wealth and capital. The Demographic RevolutionBritain's population in the 1700's doubled again by 1850provided stimulus to increased demand for food. Population growth in developing countries today tends to retard economic development. But Britain in the 18th century was a wealthy country with a standard of living well above subsistence. Thus the population explosion from 1750 enlarged the effective demand for consumption. Since the population generally had the purchasing power, the population explosion had a beneficial effect on economic development. The shippers and traders and most of all the merchants saw the market opportunities. Hence, the increasing demand for improvements in the process of manufacturing or the production of goods. The Protestant Ethic, as Max Weber calls them, of hard work, saving, sacrifice (forego today's Comfort for to morrow's security), honesty, trustvalues conducive to economic progresswere widely lived up to and practiced outside the confines of churches and even after religious services.

Main Features of Industrial Revolution The main features of the Industrial Revolution were technological, economic, social, and cultural. Technological features: The use of new basic materialsiron and steel. The use of new energy sourcesboth fuels and motive powersuch as coal, steam engine, electricity, petroleum, and internal combustion engine. The invention of new machinesspinning jenny and the power loom that permitted increased production with smaller expenditure of human energy. The new organization of workthe Factory Systemwhich entailed increased division of work and specialization of function. (Note that F. W. Taylor's School of Scientific Management is based on the study of work- in the Factory System.) Developments in transportation and communicationssteam locomotive, steamship, automobile, airplane, telegraph, and radio. The increasing application of science to industry. These technological breakthroughs made possible massive use of natural resources and mass production of manufactured goods. Socio-Economic and Cultural Features of Industrial Revolution Agricultural revolution produced surplus production for consumption of industrial, commercial and other nonagricultural population. Economic shift from land to industry resulted in broader distribution of wealth, especially among the bourgeoisie, the new middle class. Political changes reflected shift of economic power. Hence, new laws and state policies reflected the economic interests of new power holds. Sweeping social changesgrowth of cities, development of working class movements, and emergence of new patterns of authority. Cultural transformation of broader order. The worker acquired new and distinctive skills and relation to task shifted. Instead of craftsman with hand tools, he became a machine operator, subject to factory discipline. Psychological changeman's confidence in his ability, to use resources and to master nature was heightened. Agricultural Developments Changes in agriculture were an integral part of the Industrial Revolution. Agricultural production had been increased by the use of fertilizers and the rotation of crops, by more careful and scientific cultivation of fields, and by an improvement in the quality of livestock through selective breeding. A tendency toward larger holdings which could be farmed more profitably was evident in Great Britain and in the US and Australia. More spectacular was the application of machinery to farming processes, and there the United States took the lead, the steel-blade plow-share and the reaper being invented there in the 1830s. Farming also developed a division of labor, certain areas concentrating on specific products, such as the Danish specialization in dairy products. Farmers concentrated on growing cash crops for an unknown or distant market rather than for their own consumption. The Industrial Revolution also brought transformations in the capitalist economy. Capitalism had originated long before the Industrial Revolution, and investment capital had been one of the prerequisites for industrialization. Despite the important role played by capitalism in the Industrial Revolution it would be wrong to equate the two: there have been forms of capitalism at other times without any industrial change. And the U.S.S.R. and China were to undergo Industrial Revolutions in the 20th century under an avowedly anti-capitalist system. Repercussions of Agricultural and Industrial Developments The Industrial Revolution changed the chief source of capital accumulation from land, commerce and banking to industrial production, and also changed the area and forms of capital investment. Industry had long outgrown the domestic stage, for power-driven machinery was too cumbersome, too complicated and too expensive to be owned by peasants and artisans and operated by them in their own homes without superintendents. It soon out-grew the small, one-owner factory as the need increased for capital investment in more complex machinery and more far-reaching enterprises. Because these enterprises required more capital than any one man possessed, ownership passed from individuals or partnerships to joint stock companies, or corporations. The growth of corporations was further stimulated by the realization of the principle of limited liability through legislation passed in England and France during the 1950s and 1860s. Extension of corporative ownership meant that wealth was no longer invested primarily in land but in industrial securities. Corporate ownership also changed the relationship between owners and employees. Early industrial capitalists were likely to know personally all the employees of their small factories. But when the enterprise became a large corporation with many absentee owners there was little direct contact between owners and employees. The owners were usually represented by a managerial group that did not necessarily own a share of the business. This managerial function assumed increased importance in industrial enterprise the 20th century. At the same time, the "depersonalization' of the industrial enterprise made the workers feel alienated from the owners and contributed to their grievances. Commerce and banking were also enlarged by the Industrial Revolution and became truly worldwide in scope. To keep the factories running smoothly and steadily there had to be a regular flow of raw material as well as permanent channels for the sale of merchandise to the consumer. In addition, consumer demand grew because of the greater specialization of production. Formerly the rural toiler had produced most of what he consumed; now the factory worker was forced to buy nearly everything he needed. Commerce was further stimulated by the fact that increasing population meant that there were more consumers. The

task of supplying the growing population with the elementary needs of food, clothing and shelter provided a stimulus both to industrialization and to agricultural production. Not only were there more people, but the European peoples in some places improved their standards of living, demanding more in the way of productions. The expanded needs of trade and industry also led to the growth of banking enterprises for accumulating capital and savings, for transferring funds and for providing manifold exchange activities. Socio-Cultural Aspects The socio-cultural accompaniments of the Industrial Revolution are closely interrelated to its technological and economic aspects. Not only did the Industrial Revolution enable man to produce more, travel faster, and communicate more rapidly, but it also provided him with more material conveniences. In its early stages, however, the Industrial Revolution seemed to have deepened man's poverty and misery. In the domestic system of manufacture, the laborer usually had a garden to provide him with food, even when there was no work to be done. With his removal to the city, the worker became entirely dependent upon the functioning of the machine for his subsistence. This, coupled with the fact that the specialization of labor forced the worker to perform the same task continually, gave rise to the charge that the Industrial Revolution reduced man to a machine and made the machine the master, rather than the tool, of man. Workers labored long hours for miserable wages and lived in ugly, unsanitary tenements. The working day was 13 hours or longer. The workers seldom saw daylight, for gas illumination enabled them to work from before daybreak until after dark. Above all, the workers were insecure. The presence of a large pool of laborers, caused partly by the employment of women and children, partly by the influx of workers from overpopulated rural areas, meant that industrialized society was faced with a new social phenomenon: chronic mass unemployment. In addition to those who were unable to find work were others who were thrown out of work by temporary shutdowns, depressions or business failures. Some were unable to work because of old age or impaired efficiency. Still others lost their jobs because of technological improvements that enabled one machine to do the work of many men. In the early years of the Industrial Revolution, some workers had sought to wreck the machines that were putting them out of work. In 1779, for example, many textile mills were destroyed during serious riots in Lancashire. Despite the possibilities of economic advancement in a society where competition and economic freedom were stressed, the average workingman had little chance to escape poverty. The harsh exploitation of workers was not lost upon some of the humanitarian spirits of Victorian England. The famous Sadler report of 1832 exposed the brutality practiced within factories and stimulated the movement for reform and the passage of Factory Acts that removed some of the worst abuses. Much of the writing on the Industrial Revolution has been affected by this picture of the appalling conditions of the factory workers. Socialist theorists claimed the exploitation of the workers was inevitable under capitalist competition. Others, including romantic writers with a nostalgic medievalism, condemned both capitalism and industrialism. In the 20th century this "pessimistic" interpretation achieved a scholarly foundation in the works of J. L. and Barbara Hammond, who viewed the early days of industrialization as the "bleak age," and in the writing of Lewis Mumford, who claimed that the Industrial Revolution produced a new barbarism" wherein civilization shifted from an interest in human values to measuring life in material and pecuniary terms. Some economic historians, notably T. S. Ashton, attempted to "rehabilitate" the Industrial Revolution, claiming that many of the economic and social evils usually blamed on it antedated the mid-18th century and that industrialization raised real wages in certain areas of the economy. The transition from countryside and cottage to city and factory was bound to create social stress. Besides, many of the social strains were actually the result of wars or other dislocations and would have occurred even had manufacturing remained undeveloped. Finally, Ashton points out that had the population increased without an Industrial Revolution the European countries could not have provided minimum living standards for the great mass of the population. Instead, Europe would have been subject to the same miserable conditions prevailing in Asian countries that suffer from overpopulation and underdeveloped industrialization. There is some validity in these varying evaluations of the Industrial Revolution, depending upon whether one adopts a short-range or long-range point of view, and upon the yardstick used for comparison. Conditions under the early factory system appear dismal when compared with an idyllic medieval agrarian system with the early modern domestic system at its best, or with an idea situation. On the other hand, these conditions seem an improvement when compared with the seamy reality of medieval lifethe domestic system at its worst, or the living conditions of the masses in certain Asia countries. Furthermore, it is increasingly evident that not all the workers suffered under the factory system, and that in some cases their conditions were improved. Nevertheless there can be no doubt that in the early phases of the Industrial Revolution human gains were small in comparison with the great strides made in technology. Viewed in the larger perspective of the development of western civilization, however, it may well be that the sufferings of the early 19th century factory workers are outweighed by the possibilities of greater material goods and the conquest of man's physical environment that have brownout out of industrialization.
By JinAd