What did the Industrial Revolution ever do for us?

Perelandra

Just something I wandered across this evening, and I thought it might be of interest.

The website in this link (I have no affiliation) appears to have real-earnings data going back to the 13th century:

http://www.measuringworth.com/datasets/ukearncpi/

I put in 1265 to 2010, and then charted the results in Excel.

Not surprisingly, real earnings shoot up after the industrial revolution (eventually), but fascinating to see how for 600 years they stayed at the same level...

and at a point considerably lower than today's poverty level.

I have very glad I live in the 21st century, and not the 19th (or earlier)!

Generali

Wages are likely to be related to the amount you can produce and the industrial revolution, by matching capital to people and unleashing the energy stored in coal and later oil, massively increased what people could produce.

I'm just getting over a mild eye infection. A century ago it may have blinded me; I just used eye drops for a few days.

pqrdef

Most people were farm labourers, and the real earnings of a farm labourer were typically bed, board and beer money. That was it. That was life.

The only highlights were the annual feasts, when the entire population of several villages would congregate to consume a cow.

StevieJ

Perelandra wrote: »

I have very glad I live in the 21st century, and not the 19th (or earlier)!

This is worth a read to get a feel for working class life in the early 20th century (1905-1908), sort of a mix between satire and real life. It is often quoted by early socialists as having a real influence on them. It is Tom Sharpish and some of the situations are uncanny in that they are oft repeated in our current economic situation. BTW it is not kind on the workers,strangely enough. Do you recognise this

'It's us what's got to find the money,' they said. We're the ratepayers and why should we have to pay them more wages than we get ourselves? And why should they be paid for holidays more than us?' (the poverty stricken private workers having a go at the ever so slightly less poverty stricken public workers urged on by the employers)

‘Some books seem to batter their way to immortality against all the odds, by sheer brute artistic strength, and high up in this curious and honourable company must be counted The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. Robert Tressell’s unfailing humour mixes with an unfailing rage and the two together make a truly Swiftian impact.’ Evening Standard

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Ragged-Trousered-Philanthropists-ebook/dp/B0082R9UDQ

Kennyboy66

Perelandra wrote: »

Not surprisingly, real earnings shoot up after the industrial revolution (eventually), but fascinating to see how for 600 years they stayed at the same level...

and at a point considerably lower than today's poverty level.

I have very glad I live in the 21st century, and not the 19th (or earlier)!

Very interesting but one flaw is that Labour markets then were micro-local.

Agricultural wages in areas of Dorset were cut 3 times in the couple of years before 1834 (from a close to starvation rate of 9 shillings a week to 6 shillings a week), which led to the Tolpuddle Martyrs being transported to Australia - wages were higher in the mill towns of the North West at the time which were booming.

Then in 1860's there was the "cotton famine" which depressed mill wages and caused mass unemployment - 7000 people unemployed in Stalybridge alone.

neverdespairgirl

Generali wrote: »

Wages are likely to be related to the amount you can produce and the industrial revolution, by matching capital to people and unleashing the energy stored in coal and later oil, massively increased what people could produce.

I'm just getting over a mild eye infection. A century ago it may have blinded me; I just used eye drops for a few days.

I wouldn't have been born before Casesarians became routine - I'd have died, and probably my mother, too. And my younger siblings therefore wouldn't have been born either.

neverdespairgirl

pqrdef wrote: »

Most people were farm labourers, and the real earnings of a farm labourer were typically bed, board and beer money. That was it. That was life.

The only highlights were the annual feasts, when the entire population of several villages would congregate to consume a cow.

Perelandra wrote: »

Not surprisingly, real earnings shoot up after the industrial revolution (eventually), but fascinating to see how for 600 years they stayed at the same level

You can't summarise so much economic and social history quite like that.

There is a fascinating book on the subject that I read recently, called Making a Living in the Middle Ages.

There were real changes in the 600 years before hte Industrial Revolution, and great gains in efficiency, too.

zagubov

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

You can't summarise so much economic and social history quite like that.

There is a fascinating book on the subject that I read recently, called Making a Living in the Middle Ages.

There were real changes in the 600 years before hte Industrial Revolution, and great gains in efficiency, too.

I studied a Masters in the History of Science, and one thing that was very clear was you could have transported someone from the start of the Roman period and bring them forward 1000 years to the end and they could have recognised and handled all the technology perfectly easily.

If you took someone from the start of the middle ages and tranferred them 1000 years to the end, they'd have been amazed and baffled at how different everything was and how many mechanical and material improvements there were.

It wasn't a stagnant period at all.

Perelandra

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

You can't summarise so much economic and social history quite like that.

There is a fascinating book on the subject that I read recently, called Making a Living in the Middle Ages.

There were real changes in the 600 years before hte Industrial Revolution, and great gains in efficiency, too.

You may well be right- but it doesn't look as though it translated too well into real earnings?

I wish there was an accompanying breakdown of household costs over this time, though. For example, where there are housing costs to speak of; what were taxation levels and so on.

I actually find this chart to be very encouraging. I'm generally quite pessimistic about the future economic prospects, but this data would imply that our current situation is, historically, exceptionally good for most of the population.

StevieJ

Perelandra wrote: »

I actually find this chart to be very encouraging. I'm generally quite pessimistic about the future economic prospects, but this data would imply that our current situation is, historically, exceptionally good for most of the population.

I agree but we seem to have pressed the reverse button

Generali

StevieJ wrote: »

I agree but we seem to have pressed the reverse button

Only by a few years. You have to go back 50 years to see genuine absolute poverty in the UK.