Labour

Let us look at the textile industry a little more closely. In earlier times, the spinning of yarn and the weaving of cloth occurred primarily in the home, with most of the work done by people working alone or with family members. This pattern of production lasted for many centuries. In 18th century Great Britain a series of extraordinary innovations reduced and then replaced the human labour required to make cloth. Each advance created problems elsewhere in the production process, which in turn, led to further improvements. The most important thing about these changes was enormous increases in the output per worker.

The movement of people away from agriculture and into industrial cities changed traditional way of life and livelihood. Traditional handloom weavers could no longer compete with the mechanized production of cloth. Skilled laborers sometimes lost their jobs as new machines replaced them. All those who had earned income from spinning found the new factories taking away their source of income.

In the factories, people had to work long hours under harsh conditions, often with few rewards. Factory owners and managers paid the minimum amount necessary for a work force, often recruiting women and children to tend the machines because they could be hired for very low wages. The factory system was based on heavy machinery which the capitalists owned and the specialized work done by the wage labourers. The hours of the repetitive and monotonous work had an alienating effect on the worker. Soon critics attacked this exploitation. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (see Lecture on Friedrich Engels: Lecture10 and Lecture 11) through their writing and engagement with the working class movements gave voice to the exploitation of the working classes.

Moreover, the history of the Industrial Revolution is closely related with the history of colonialism and slave trade in different parts of the British Empire.

The exploitation of the masses manifested themselves in social upheavals and protest movements.