Changes in the lives of the poor 1832-46 Flashcards
Describe the dull quality of life for factory workers
They worked six monotonous days a week as machine operatives
What made up for this?
Higher wages
Why were hand loom weavers suffering?
There were 10 thousand hand loom weavers who were traditionally highly paid for their skill. They couldn’t compete with the new machines and their subsequent fall in living standards was a tragedy
How does Boyd Hilton prove they were suffering?
He uses the example of the weavers in the West Riding of Yorkshire, whose earnings dropped to 4s 6d a week in the 1830s. Earlier in the century some hand loom weavers had been earning as much as 25s a week
Put 4s 6d into context
In today’s values it would equate to about 22p, this would hardly feed a family for a week, and meant that they could never afford meat
What do hand loom weavers lose as well as living standards as a result of the wage drop?
Self esteem
What was the consequence of the 1835 report from the select committee on hand loom weavers petitions?
It suggested hand loom weavers seek as different means of living
Why was their not parity in urban wages?
Some workers in the rapidly expanding sectors of industry like the railways would be better off than most of their urban contemporaries. They could rely on a steady wage, supplemented by well paid casual work on the railways
What was a more important question than wages?
Whether the quality of life was improving
How does Edward Royle phrase this question?
Were people any happier in the early 19th century than they had been 50 to 100 years later
How was Royle scathing about this question?
He suspects that it ‘would have been meaningless to the very poor’
What does Hartwell say had happened even as early as 1830?
English society had been much changed as a result of industrialisation
What did Hartwell say in the traditional view on the impact the IR had on workers?
That it benefitted the workers in both the short and the long term
How does Hartwell substantiate this viewpoint?
Because in the first half of the 19th century per capita income increased, there was no trend in the distribution of income against the workers, after 1815 prices fell and wages remained constant, the government increasingly intervened in economic and social affairs to raise living and working standards and the real wages of the majority of English workers were rising througout the IR
How does Hartwell deal with the counter arguements to this view?
Because he is not saying that the standard of living was high, nor that it was rising fast at any time before 1850, nor that there was no dire poverty, or no cyclical or technological unemployment. But to admit to the existence of distress is not to deny the upward trend in living standards, nor the opportunities created by industrialisation
