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Industrial England > Economic developments 1832-46: The railway revolution > Flashcards

Economic developments 1832-46: The railway revolution Flashcards

1
Q

What had railways become by the 1840s?

A

One of the most important industries in Britain

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2
Q

What did the development of the railway bring with it?

A

A whole range of fast growing technologies, services and industries

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3
Q

What did the development of the railway create demand for?

A

Extra iron and coal to build and run the trains

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4
Q

How did the railway also boost the economy?

A

Railway development came with lots of indirect spin offs

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5
Q

What marked the start of rapid railway building in Britain?

A

The opening of the Liverpool Manchester line in Sep 1830, with its immediate success encouraging other entrepreneurs

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6
Q

What was the early vision for the railways?

A

That it would work on a large, national scale and would endure for the longer term

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7
Q

What was this aspirational vision evidence of?

A

The underlying confidence in the long term stability of the economy, as it required a huge commitment for investors

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8
Q

What did railway development to do Britain?

A

Improved its infrastructure and dramatically changed its landscape

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9
Q

Who are the three most well known engineers involved in the design and construction of the railway network?

A

George and Robert Stephenson and Isambard Kingdom Brunel

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10
Q

What did Robert Stephenson do?

A

He helped his father, George, design the rocket, the first locomotive on the Liverpool Manchester line. In 1837 he was appointed chief engineer of the London Birmingham railway

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11
Q

What did Brunel do?

A

He became chief engineer of the Great Western Railway and designed the highly acclaimed London Bristol line, with its mile long box tunnel

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12
Q

What profession developed hand in hand with industrialisation?

A

Engineering

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13
Q

What did engineers do at this time?

A

Applied new technology in the building of railway lines, tunnels, bridges, cuttings, viaducts. locomotives and engines

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14
Q

How did the profession begin to change in 1818?

A

The Institute of Civil Engineers was formed and this helped to shape the development of the profession

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15
Q

What did Stephenson and Brunel do for the institute?

A

Brought wealth and prestige

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16
Q

What did railway development mean there was increased use of and why was this beneficial?

A

It meant there was increased use of powered machinery, bringing new opportunities for mechanical engineers, which had a positive effect on the economy

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17
Q

When did much of the planning for the railway service take place?

A

The 1830s

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18
Q

What does McCord say existed in the development of the railways?

A

A time lag before they could actually be built

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19
Q

Why did this time lag exist?

A

Investors had to be found, subscriptions had to be raised, surveys of the proposed route had to be carried out, public meetings had to be held for affected parties to air their views and acts of parliament had to passed

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20
Q

Give an example of a railway investor

A

George Hudson

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21
Q

Give an actual example of this time lag

A

In 1836, 1000 miles of track were planned, but they were not completed until 1841

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22
Q

Why was the considerable financial outlay not that bad?

A

Because by the 1840s many of the railways were operating at a profit

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23
Q

What did this profitability motivate?

A

A mad scramble to build railways everywhere

24
Q

What did this reckless speculation mean?

A

It boosted the economy but was a disaster for investors?

25
Q

What did McCord and Purdue say was the consequence of this reckless speculation?

A

‘It illustrates one of the cycles that mark modern economies: a new invention, far sighted, pioneers, over optimistic investors, devious entrepreneurs like Hudson, a crash, but in the long term tangible gains

26
Q

What rose with the development of new lines?

A

The volume of traffic on the railways

27
Q

How many different railway companies were there by the early 1840s?

A

200

28
Q

What did this diversity of different companies mean in practise?

A

It created a situation where a passenger or a consignment of goods could use the facilities of several companies in the course of a single journey

29
Q

Why was this situation quite negative?

A

Because the allocation of revenues to the different companies became very complicated

30
Q

How was this resolved?

A

In 1842 the Railway Clearing House was set up and managed a system of revenue distribution among the separate railway companies

31
Q

What did the Railway Clearing House do?

A

Made sure that in instances like where a passenger bought a ticket at a station owned by one company, travelled on a train owned by one company, travelled on two stretches of line each owned by a different company and ended the journey at a station owned by a different company, each company received a fair proportion of each fare paid

32
Q

What made George Hudson a devious entrepreneur?

A

He tried to outdo competitors by offering unrealistically high returns for money invested. Financial irregularities were uncovered in his business activities and he was disgraced

33
Q

Give some statistics to show how railway coverage increased over time

A

It went from barely more than 100 miles in 1832 to nearly 2000 miles by 1843 and this had risen to over 4000 miles by 1846

34
Q

The what did the railway revolution do for the wider economy?

A

Stimulated it

35
Q

What impact did it have on the coal industry?

A

It continued to expand to provide fuel for the increasing number of locomotives

36
Q

What did it do for the iron industries?

A

It expanded to meet the ever increasing demands for rail tracks and rolling stock

37
Q

How did other industries benefit from the railway revolution?

A

They benefitted from being able to transport their goods more quickly and cheaply, giving them wider distribution. This resulted in cheaper goods

38
Q

Why did farmers oppose railway development despite the fact it boosted agriculture?

A

Because they feared the adverse effects trains rushing past their fields at 30mph would have on their cattle and crops

39
Q

How did the railway provide a boost to agriculture?

A

Fresh produce could be delivered to large centres of the population and be shared by many

40
Q

How did the railways provide a boost to trade?

A

Railways extended to ports and harbours, meaning export trade increased. Railway design and construction became an exportable commodity as France, other parts of Europe and South America invested in the British railway model

41
Q

What was the benefit of this subsequent expansion in economic activity?

A

It created many new jobs at a time when there was lots of unemployment

42
Q

Why can the railway system be seen as providing a boost on the national rather than local stage?

A

Because national newspapers flourished and the postal system was sped up

43
Q

How did it have an impact on politics?

A

It aided party politics and the development of TUs, as it improved people’s ability to organise gatherings and it facilitated communication

44
Q

What do McCord and Purdue say about its social impact?

A

That it is ‘impossible to separate the social and economic effects of railways’

45
Q

How did the reaction of the public to railways change over time?

A

There was initial opposition and an element of public hysteria about the adverse effects on the human body of travelling at speed, but very quickly the general public embraced the idea of travel

46
Q

Why did people begin to embrace the idea of travel?

A

It brought the possibility of mobility to search for a new job and freedom to explore new horizons beyond their immediate community - cheap days out to the coast became a popular activity for the masses

47
Q

What did Peel realise about the railway?

A

That it was valuable to both the economy and the people

48
Q

How did William Gladstone make sure that the railway system could benefit the people?

A

He was responsible for the 1844 railway act which stipulated that every railway company had to provide tickets for third class passengers at least once a day and that the fare should be capped at no more than a penny a mile. This was an important advance towards a less elitist society

49
Q

Why did canals and coaching companies not like the development of the railway system?

A

Because it stole their business

50
Q

Why did coaching inns struggle?

A

Because people abandoned coach travel

51
Q

Why did toll roads suffer?

A

Because they depended on regular traffic for their upkeep

52
Q

According to Mathias, why can the economic impact of the railway revolution not be restricted to the creation of new jobs and stimulating increased demand for iron and coal?

A

Because they enabled economic activity in all other sectors of the economy to expand

53
Q

Why do McCord and Purdue think that the early railway had more of an impact on people than goods?

A

Because it was not until after the mid century that freight transport receipts exceeded that of passenger support

54
Q

When do they say that railways became profitable?

A

In the late 1850s, when freight overtook passengers as the larger earner

55
Q

What do they say railways did to the country?

A

It made the country effectively smaller, more centralised and more uniform

Industrial England (91 decks)

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