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The English Industrial Revolution and Chartism

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The English Industrial Revolution and Chartism MARXIST STUDY COURSES WORKING CLASS HISTORY tha Errqllrh id- a-bn ind-. It. Clwtra Ma-t, rndtamq=*d* History of the Working CT--1 LESSON XI. THR ENGLISH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND CHARTISM LONDON - MARTq U~~~ -.LT-Dm .+ - d. I . u LESSON I1 THE ENGLISH INDUSTRIAL REVOLU AND CHARTTSM h OF WORK I. THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLWTZQN IPI ENGLAND AN ckara&r-Ik-c#bsq1~mtrcgs--Why did tAs idus#& revohtiwr bah fib$rsi in Englad ?-Why was Y tc accom$a~hi@ a $ow& revolution ? A 41. TEE CHARTIST MOVEMENT, ITS CHARACTER, AND TI[B MOST IMPORTANT STAGES OF ITS DEVlZLOmNT - Ir. The labour movement in England before ChiT 2. The Chartist movement : T& 4arkY of mwd of bka ch&ib'md. III. CAUSES OF THE DEFEAT OF CHARTISM-ITS HfSTO I CAL SIGNIFICANCE XV, TEST QUESTIONS h*~~~atyfO?bAbdmb$hmi~fkng& solJs~~ct~,wM~fAs@ocm of bks @'dim awmm&h of caw," whd EO~CYS~i#book, d what mdand SW~fe folhwd +ma bkb rmWm. F-, we sku# inpi76 dm% the 9@UY80~chdSM,~&Ed#wdM&X iuw~fw~~$irwag ~~U#asi3.sgocrl tb $&we of power in i&ow# class in.hwds. I* Swspp-trg th8 &d s#&.o~o $M$iwclar BirW h thu fm'bb midim oftattlffptsmd ih$~oM- ad- of bkQ $tasa&y. A wm$ariSon is wm& bdwms bks itrrdwstkk&'m of EmgM md the me- s$ondiwg @ms b & dhtw @'uci#aZ wpWist cwm- h,d id is &mtsd with sm'akt &&~6rr~atisrrBiote in the So& Ukm ad#he #&OM of th fiasw $hW6. I* wwkiwg th sdsgEdrgEdrm, tk? should 'H& bow tb wwking &s fred dbs1IfjFott9 & in- ##ha bwgm.sig & rmtkae*&fwide@uw duss &im. H# skoukl mmi~tks iddqy of ROW ~rPaskishb~on*~~&~t. Tb ck-t ~'hof mbof th tkw w'olls ofChadmsMkwW,asdasthei~~b &w&d by fks CWhbo MY#oWd phiffm, tke Chwkw. Th sh&d shLd aku di&'wb, dhi~th t&dcoq508i$m of~C~~,~~'~J dighaces of *.nr'Vn, wk (IS b #Yqgmtlsf106 adM'cs, ? amwg the ckdsts (the re$r#sw by Loud, O'Cmor, QBh, mil Hay). 1% Wrd sd'm itha iddaddumw admi3 ccatrtmic mmapoby of EmgM &stma s#m'ai a&dm ; Thecspitalistarderof~ameoatofa ~tiamoftheoIddiystemd~d old~~tio~Thischqeoamdatdi&rent ~in~~tcouatries.h~the~ eapitd&sgstem~wap~kthaainothercountrk andthere~its~~~ ~~~taEststindastry-~in~datthead ofthe~cen~~begrtntotakethe placedbandla~,~~~dga~wayta mdmW EnglandI a dass of phtdms wa~,larg% newtownsgmYap,rxew~ofmmm~tionweee &abkh%d, What wnditiona were nwasq for the. qibIbt modeofgmda~to~ph?x.ThepmmceoX l~0lpMt08BtEarge~us~co~goiag;8.- pawsenoe of "h"laoar pQwe-gtfree" dm oP m?mrshipofthenmeansof~nandof~ in land. Obvimdy btb these cl-eated to an adequate dmt at one doped pdaalIy m the coarse of a &od 6 WORKINGCUSS HISTORY called the of the primitive acmmulation of *This prwess of primitive accumulation was not, however, a mmth, peaceful, and pureIy economic development, as bwrgeois historians are wont to de- sd'be it. On the contrary, the rise of capitatism was accom~by a social revolution, " the most san- guinary revolution horn to the history of mankind." Wm.1 Dealing with the seizure and plundering of mIonies in the period of primitive capitalist accumulation, Marx me: " The discoveries of gold and silver in America ; the extirpation of the indigens [natiw], in some in- stanoes, their enslavement and their entombment in the mines, in others ; the beginxungs of the conquest and loow of the East Indies ; the transformation of Afri~into a precinct for the supply of the negmes who were the raw material of the slave trade-these wathe incidents that characterised the rosy dawn of fhe era of capitalist production. These were the idyllic processes fhat formed the chief factors of paimaFgr acmmnlation. In England at the end of the sevmteexlth century, they were systmatically asmnbled ia the colonial system, the national debt @em, the modem system of taxation, and the modern system of production. To some extent they rested upon hte force, as, for hstaace, in the WWsystem. One and all, they relied upon the power of the State, upon the concentrated and organid force of society, in order to stimulate the transformation of feudal production into capitatist production, and in order to shorten the period of Mtion."l 1 Karl Marx, C@kJ. Vol. I. Alien and UP^, rga8, p. 832-3, J. M. Dant (" Evaymaq" Seria), 1930, and Inbrna~~h~. The rehmccs ta Cwd throughout m to these edhona, duch have the same pagination. craftsman were changed into prolet work, wheonly property is their labour @my phase that is traversed immediately before the history of capitalism hghs, immediately befun the &abli&ment of the method of production pmpa to capitalism. The immediate producer, the worker, muId not dis- pose of his own person until he had ceased to be hd to the soil; he had cased to be the slave, serf, or s bondman of another person. .. But, on the other hand, these newly liberated ns do not come to the market in order to rthemselves mtil they have ken robbed of all the means of production, and of all the safeguards of existence which the old feudal institutions provided for them. The history of this expropriation is written in the annals of mankind in letters of blaod and fm."1 The subetitution of capitalist for feudal ~~ within srociety, the disappearance of the dtenant before the large farmer, the e.xprupriatioo of the paantry, had begun in England as early as the ad of theMtemthcentnrg; buttowardsthedoseofthe eighteenth century it became parkhh1y wi-. In the period from xpo to r760 335,oa-o acres of land were enclosed, while from q60 to 1843 seven mdbn wmacbstd. The English landowners fmd it * more profitable, for example, during the rapid develop Capird, p. 70a to drive the geasants from the land and to turn arabIe land into sheep pastures. " Men are being swallowed up by sheep," wrote Thomas More in 1516. The State lent vigorous support to the landowners, by giving legal sanction, through Acts of Parliament, to the en- hum of common lands. Backed by these laws, mteh, " the landlords took to themselves as their private property the land belonging to the people." large numbers of peasants had to make way for sheep and go to the towns in search of work Of the 180,000 mallholders in England at the end of the seventeenth ceptwy, practically none was left a century later. The histwian Toynbee wrote : " A person ignorant of our history dnring the int- period might surmise that a great extermhatory war had taken place, or a violent social revolution which had caused a transfer of the property of one class to an~ther."~ Thew, profound changes in the amtryside tore thousands of peasants from the sod and created an army of wage workers for industry. The q@an mlutian, which cleared away all vestiges of the old viUage institations (e.g. divided holdings and common land), helped forward the development towards inten- sive dvation, the change from the threefield' system to that of crop rotation, the introduction of I machines. It was also of great importanEE% exbwion of the home market for industry. So long as the peasant stnck to his piece of land, he himself produced the greater part of the thine he needed, buying but Iittle on the market. This situation changed, with the expropriation of the peasantry. The number) of those mnsuming the products of industry grew, . ENGLISH INDUSTRIAL w~thepdnctsof~~ ing extent aommdtiw prod& for the " The break-up of the peasantry," Lain w&e:i~ r8gg, "mates the home market for cam Among the prer sectiuns fhere grows up 4he market for consamption adich {things for their awn use). The rtrral proletariat constmm less fhan the middle peasant, and consumes products of a poorer quality (das potatoes instead of bread), but he buys more." Th disappmme of the dam of middle pasah, their forcible expropriation, gave a pwdd imptm to the &on of the hoxzpe market and at the same time mated a mass demand for pods ; it thus inmeasel the division of labour more and hastened the victory of ~indu&yand~.Oneresultofall thee~wasthegreatinmeaseinthe~ trade and in the importance of foreign mark&. The technical revoIution--a number of dbmvd~ ia~gandwea~,and~ly*~ of the steam ~~t~ the chmgwvw to machine prduction. Bowgeah histwians qd db coveries as the accidental work of highly tddd indivldaah. That isincome&; fwthemostpartdh co~hheconomicand~~~. Madinmy &ted a tr;emendous change in the atire socidarderof~d, "Before the mtmhction of machinery," Engels wmk. in r845, '*the sphhg and weaving of raw materials was on in the workingman's home. Wife and daughter spun the yam that the father wow. .. These weaver fadies bedin the country, xo WORKINGCLASS HISTORY in the neighbourhoad of the towns, and could get on fairly well with their v.. " So the workers vegetated throughout a passably camfortable existence, leading a righteous and peatx+ ful life in all piety and probity, and their material pition was far better than that of their snc-rs. They did not need to ovawork ; they did no more than they chose to do, and yet earned what they needed. They had leisure for hdthful work in garden or W,work which, in itseif, was recreation for them, and they ddtake prt bides in the recreations and games of their neighburs. Their children up in the fresh country air, and, if they could relp their parents at work, it was only occasionally." (Engels : Codisdm 01 the Workkmg Ckss dx E~gland in trw, pp.
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