Britain Booklet 2 Flashcards
How did industrialization impact the countryside?
Enclosure of open fields, commons and wastes
Crop yields increased by 40% in the 18th century, 2/3 of that came from more intensive land use
Land cost was £12 an acre, £5 a hectare
A strong agricultural sector would support rapid economic and population growth
How did industrialization impact the turnpike and canals?
22,000 turnpiked roads in England by 1836 - 20% of total mileage
London to Shrewsbury took 4 days in 1753, which became a day and a half in 1772, and by 1835 was only 12 hours
Bristol to London went from 30 hours to 16 hours in 1784
For every 16 miles of turnpiked road in 1836, one mile of river navigation had been improved
Number of annual passengers on the Forth Clyde Canal rose from 44,000 in 1812 to 200,000 in 1838
How did industrialization impact the railways?
Canal and rail industries fought over Liverpool and Manchester for 20 years
South West England and Scotland had no railways
Total Railway network by 1912 was 3x that of 1850
By 1838 there was 500 miles of railway track, by 1850 there was over 6000 miles
How did industrialization impact the towns?
Manchester grew from 50,000 in 1775 to 84,000 in 1801
Half of the 16.9 million population lived in an urban environment
Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Bristol and Leeds all had populations exceeding 50,000
London had a population of over 100,000
How did industrialization impact the industries?
Early spinning factories in the cotton industry were water powered
In 1801, half the population were engaged in industrial pursuits
South Wales and Monmouthshire, 100 furnaces built in 1796 and 1806 by which date 90% of British Pig Iron was being smelted in the 5 coal fields of Wales, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Yorkshire and Scotland
How did industrialization impact banking?
In 1808 there were 800 banks, before in 1784 there were only 119
In 1797 banks were granted to issue notes
In 1866 – there were 154 joint stock banks and 850 branches nationwide
In 1833 the actions of parliament allowed banks to issue checks, speeding up commercial transactions
The new inventions were expensive and therefore had to be purchased through accessible banking
Smaller banks were absorbed into larger joint-stock enterprises
What fraction of children died in their first year of life?
3/20
In Sheffield and Manchester what fraction of children died before their 5th birthday in the 1830s
1/2
In 1801-1871 what percentage did agriculture and fisheries working population decline?
35% to 15%
By 1811, how much were British manufacturers producing and how much of that was exported?
£130 million of goods, of which £40 million was exported
How much money did Richard Arkwright die with in 1792?
£500,000
What was the new industrial middle class?
The middle class were mainly the factory owners and entrepreneurs, they rented their land from the upper class and built their factories on them
Before the 1833 Factory Act how many hours on how many days a week would men work?
6 days a week, 14 hours a day
What are some examples of punishments for workers?
10 Minutes late, fined 2 hours’ wages
Being caught talking, often fined 1 shilling or 1/5 of the daily wages
Which advancement made mines slightly safer in 1815?
Davy safety lamp
Between 1770 and 1850, by how much did coal production increase by?
6 million to 55 million tons
What were the working hours like in mines?
6 days a week, 12 hours a day
Where was the first major cholera outbreak and how many people died within a year?
Sunderland, 1831, 32,000 died within a year