14. Victorian period

VICTORIAN PERIOD

AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION 1750s

- bigger fields with less people working on them

- common land – rural household economy

- late 18th century – Industrial revolution

- textiles

- raw cotton to clothing/material

- having more and better food – cheaper

- huge population explosion – people were living better life

- weavers – cottage industries, small family factories

- huge explosion of criminality

- squatters rights – you take land, after 10 years you own it, it is yours

- farming was more profitable, but they needed less workers in the countryside

- it leads to urbanization

- Enclosure Act – small farmers were pushed out – farming more profitable

- 18th century, happened in Tudor period 16th century

- you steal food – punishment

- industrial revolution – work force in cities, work is needed

- people are unemployed

- cotton replaces wool

- weavers – industrialization – kicked off

- steam powered machines

- profit is lower, factories produce more and faster

- Luddife riots

- Nedd Ludd – smashing up machines, destroying

- rebellion, plan the operations

- lost work because of the machines

- back to back housing – shifts, 1 family worked throughout the day, other in the night

CHILD LABOUR

- in early stages 16h/day

- many families relied on child labour – source of income

- chimney sweeps – děti je čistily zevnitř, they could fit them inside

- hard conditions

- child prostitution

- from 1760s children working from age of 6

- industrial environment, not alongside of their families

- injuries

- coal mines – boys especially

- employers often preferred child labour because they could pay them less and they fit into small places, so they could clean under the machines

- child labour created discipline and hard work – some people believed this

- match factories in London – removing lower jaw

- low child life expectancy

- there were groups that were against child labour and they wanted children to have education and have an actual childhood (that was a new concept). But the general consensus, at least at first, was that child labour was necessary

- childhood is a new concept

- women in mines – semi naked, topless, shocking – boys of 11 saw women “naked”, hypocrisy

LAISSEZ FAIR ECONOMICS

= non state intervention, let it be

- economic system/philosophy

- regulation, control and privileges don’t exist

- liberalism in economy, classical liberalism

- we should have capitalism untouched and then everybody will have enough of everything

- capitalism will deal with everything else

- practical terms – people can be exploited easily, no rules, law, no guarantee of work conditions

workhouses – loop, desperation, hard to escape – they work and got food and shelter in exchange

- families were separated, tight schedule, Sunday – resting day

- kids were taken away from parents

- created in 1840s – early Victorian period

- people could leave, but have not got place to go/live/no money

- if you were poor, it was your fault, you did not work enough