Industrialisation of space & time: the railways 1830-1914 Flashcards
What did the emergence of railways contribute to in Europe?
- Economic development
- Military security
- Political unification
In what ways was the development of the railways part of the transport revolution?
Due to the development of:
- steel tracks
- high pressure engines (Trevithick & Stephenson)
When did the railways open in Britain?
- The first locomotive-hauled public railway opened in 1825.
- Oldest in the world
What sort of economic impact did the railways have?
- Huge stimulus for the coal & iron industries (railways dependant on ‘elasticity’ i.e. cheapness of ‘supply industries’ i.e. coal, engineering & metallurgy)
- Propelled technologies e.g. engineering (mechanical & civil), locomotives
- Enormous employment opportunities (in construction & operation)
- Enabled fast & reliable movement of goods & people
- Contributed to long-term stability & economic globalisation
In more specific terms, how did the railways impact the supply industries? (i.e. backward linkages)
In Britain 1844-51:
- Coal: 6-10% of output for railways
- Engineering: 20% of output for railways
- Metallurgy: 39% output for railway building
In more specific terms, how did the railways impact the demand on downstream industries? (i.e. forward linkages)
Railways provided stimulus for:
- national & global capital markets (initially in Europe; global from 1850s)
- new financial institutions (mixed banks)
- unification of national markets (Germany, Italy, USA)
- commercialisation of agriculture: ‘railway milk’ ( late 19th c. production of milk London was collapsing & demand could only be met by bringing it in from further afield –> so rail began to play a major role)
- Unification of European market development of big business (e.g. large firms, specialist jobs, concentration of economic power –> so connecting countries not just internationally)
In particular, how did the railways impact Scotland during the 19th century?
- At this time ca. 13,500 miles of railways
- Impact difficult to quantify
- No significant impact on backward linkages (i.e. supply industries)
What sort of social & cultural did the railways have?
- Annihilation of space
(increasing importance of distance & space as railways as new transport method developed) - Subversion of urban space
- Establishment of big hotels (situated near stations)
- First experience of the machine age
- standardising time
- a sense of ‘loss’ of the old world (anomia?)
How did the railways subvert urban space?
The railway permitted:
- the creation of specialist quarters
- creation of suburbs
- city to become divided
- creation of traffic
Why is there first experience of the machine age, due to railways, significant?
- German scholar, Wolfgang Schivelbusch is the one who attributes railways to creating this ‘first experience of the machine age.’
e. g. railways create new landscapes, contrasting with ‘natural’ coach travel - John Ruskin, prominent English social thinker introduced idea that railways introduced the traveller as a ‘parcel’, part of a spectacle & consumption like department stores.
- railways gave way to the practical routines of timetables & business travel.
How is the development of the railways significant to the standardising of time?
- Initially separate ‘railway time’ existed for each rail company (different between companies & time in local towns on same rail route)
- Railway Clearing House, 1842 in Britain begins to coordinate time nationally
- Glasgow & Edinburgh adopt standard time 29 Jan 1848 after lobbing by rail company - GMT adopted widely 1880s in UK, 1893 for Germany.
What is the key cultural/social impact of the railways?
- Sense of ‘loss’ in old world.
- Novelist, William Makepeach Thackeray stated that the railways had ‘shut off the old world’.
