Chapter 4 - Social developments

Question 1

What was the traditional social order in Britain based on?

Answer 1

A small, wealthy, landowning elite comprising the monarch and aristocracy in authority over the rest of the population

Question 2

What caused changes to the traditional social order in Britain during the early industrial revolution?

Answer 2

Rapid population growth, the effects of agricultural change, shift of population to urban areas, industrialisation

Question 3

What emerged with the growing urban centres during the early industrial revolution?

Answer 3

A strong and growing middle class

Question 4

Approximately what proportion of the population did the middle class make up in 1800?

Answer 4

25%

Question 5

Who ran and organised the new industrial world during the early industrial revolution?

Answer 5

The middle class

Question 6

How did the middle class mimic the upper classes during the early industrial revolution?

Answer 6

By building large town houses and adopting a pattern of social behaviour that mimicked the upper classes’

Question 7

When did the Friendly Societies Act come into place?

Answer 7

1793

Question 8

In what years were the French Wars going on?

Answer 8

1793-1815

Question 9

In what years of the 1790s were there poor harvests in Britain?

Answer 9

1795 and 1796, then 1799 and 1800

Question 10

When was the income tax first introduced during wartime and who was it unpopular with?

Answer 10

1798, the wealthier classes

Question 11

When did Robert Owen take charge of New Lanark mills?

Answer 11

1800

Question 12

When did the Combination Acts come into force?

Answer 12

1799 and 1800

Question 13

What did the Combination Acts do?

Answer 13

Made it illegal for working class men to meet together to demand better wages and working conditions, as well as allowing people to be dealt with by magistrates instead of a jury

Question 14

What class were the majority of the population in urban centres during the early industrial revolution?

Answer 14

Working class

Question 15

When was the Speenhamland system of poor relief first introduced?

Answer 15

1795

Question 16

What was the Speenhamland system of poor relief?

Answer 16

It supplemented wages with an allowance that varied according to the price of bread and the size of a labourer’s family

Question 17

Why was the Speenhamland system ultimately a failure?

Answer 17

It became an unacceptable burden on parish rates

Question 18

What 2 types of worker was the industrial workforce comprised of during the early industrial revolution?

Answer 18

Skilled craftsmen and unskilled labourers

Question 19

What type of wage did the industrial workforce receive?

Answer 19

An hourly one, which would be higher than that of agricultural workers

Question 20

Who usually subscribed to Friendly Societies?

Answer 20

Skilled craftsmen

Question 21

What was one disadvantage shared by all classes of the new urban society during the early industrial revolution?

Answer 21

A lack of political rights and representation

Question 22

What was the result of the lack of political rights for the urban population during the early industrial revolution?

Answer 22

A flourishing of enlightened ideas and an establishment of a scope for radicalism, demands for reform and disturbances in major cities

Question 23

What had made rural landowners even more prosperous during the early industrial revolution?

Answer 23

Enclosure, agricultural improvements and excavation of mineral deposits, such as iron and coal, on their land

Question 24

Who controlled most political, economic and social activity in rural districts during the early industrial revolution?

Answer 24

The landowning classes

Question 25

Who made up the majority of the rural population during the early industrial revolution?

Answer 25

Landless agricultural workers

Question 26

Who were the lowest paid section of the rural population during the early industrial revolution?

Answer 26

Landless agricultural workers

Question 27

What were landless agricultural workers resentful of during the early industrial revolution?

Answer 27

1. The privileges of their landed proprietors 2. The prosperity of the tenant farmers 3. High rents 4. Payment in kind 5. The game laws preventing them supplementing their diet 6. The fact that they often had to fall back on parish poor relief

Question 28

Who started up the New Lanark mills in 1784?

Answer 28

David Dale

Question 29

What did Asa Briggs suggest helped offset the tougher conditions in new factories?

Answer 29

Higher wages than under the old domestic system

Question 30

What did the male workforce of the new factories resent?

Answer 30

The factory owner, the machinery that was running their lives and usually the factory owner who was making money from their hard work

Question 31

What caused poor working conditions in the factories?

Answer 31

They were built with the machines, not the workers, in mind

Question 32

What made workers prone to lung infections in cotton factories?

Answer 32

The air had to be kept humid to prevent the threads snapping, and there was little ventilation

Question 33

What percentage of the industrial workforce were children during the early industrial revolution?

Answer 33

At least 20%

Question 34

How long did workers work per shift and week during the early industrial revolution?

Answer 34

12 hours or more per day, 6 days a week

Question 35

How young could worker in factories during the early industrial revolution be?

Answer 35

6 years

Question 36

What is an example of a job in a cotton mill which could only be done by small children?

Answer 36

Crawling under the machines in order to pick up pieces of thread

Question 37

Who made up the main part of the workforce in cotton mills during the early industrial revolution and why?

Answer 37

Women and children, because they were cheaper to employ and easier to discipline

Question 38

Was the employment of children in factories a new invention?

Answer 38

No, they had been employed in the old domestic system or on the land in conditions just as bad as in factories for many years

Question 39

What are some examples of why factories were unpleasant and/or places to work during the early industrial revolution?

Answer 39

There were no safety regulations in place, no guards on the machines, wooden machines could catch fire easily, discipline was harsh, workers could be fined for being late or slow, workers had to keep to a strict timetable

Question 40

What often happened to pauper children during the early industrial revolution?

Answer 40

They were taken to work in factories far from their home parish

Question 41

What was the average price change from 1788/92-1809/15?

Answer 41

+74.1%

Question 42

What was the average price change from 1809/15-1820/26?

Answer 42

-29.3%

Question 43

What was the average wage change from 1788/92-1809/15?

Answer 43

+63.1%

Question 44

What was the average wage change from 1809/15-1820/26?

Answer 44

-10.6%

Question 45

What did the war with France from 1793-1815 cause in terms of wages?

Answer 45

A stagnation of average real wages

Question 46

What compounded bad harvests in the mid-to-late 1790s?

Answer 46

The war making it difficult to import grain from Europe

Question 47

What was the price of grain in Britain in the early 1790s?

Answer 47

~£2.70 per quarter

Question 48

What was the average price of grain in Britain between 1811 and 1814?

Answer 48

~£4.70 per quarter

Question 49

What did the British grain price peak at in 1812?

Answer 49

£6.30 per quarter

Question 50

What was a burden on the poorer classes between 1793 and 1815?

Answer 50

Taxation being raised on consumer goods

Question 51

What unpopular suggestion did Pitt make when the war with France helped push up bread prices?

Answer 51

That labourers eat meat, which was beyond most of their means, instead (and that the rich import their food)

Question 52

What created hardships for the lower classes during the war with France?

Answer 52

Food shortages, price rises and the unsteady job market

Question 53

What were Friendly Societies?

Answer 53

Groups of workmen who provided insurance for themselves and their families against sickness, old age or death

Question 54

What did the Friendly Societies Act of 1793 do?

Answer 54

It gave members of Friendly Societies legal rights to hold meetings and have their funds protected

Question 55

What were trade societies?

Answer 55

The forerunner of modern trade unions, they were made up of members who paid a subscription, and were part of a network which kept them in touch with the job market and gave them help in sickness or unemployment

Question 56

What was the main destination of people moving from small market towns, villages and farms during the early industrial revolution?

Answer 56

The expanding industrial towns of Northern England

Question 57

What was a result of the trade societies starting to adapt to different working conditions?

Answer 57

Improved efficiency and organisation and them becoming less localised, bigger and more powerful

Question 58

What type of society began to spring up in London and most large industrial towns in the wake of the French Revolution?

Answer 58

Corresponding Societies

Question 59

Who were typical of the men who joined new Corresponding Societies after 1789?

Answer 59

Journeymen and Artisans

Question 60

Why did the government outlaw Corresponding Societies in the late 18th century?

Answer 60

Legally on the basis that they were 'unlawful combinations', but really because the government was nervous of republican plots

Question 61

What was discussed at Corresponding Societies in the late 18th century?

Answer 61

Events in France, as well as ideas of freedom and democracy

Question 62

In 1799, what pushed the government into further tough action, and ultimately led to the Combination Acts?

Answer 62

A petition presented to the House of Commons by the master millwrights of London, complaining about their journeymen threatening to strike

Question 63

Was there any opposition to the Combination Acts in parliament?

Answer 63

No- Fox's Whigs were scared of radicals too