6. Industrial revolution in England. Chartist movement.

The mid. 18-begin. l9 cent. — the indust. Revolution in Brit. Br. was a highly developed ind. country in Europe. Napol. wars stimulated heavy ind. , textile ind. , etc. The expansion of international trade? The growth of the home market made it imperative to revolutionize ind. on a new basis. The manufactories of the previous cent-s c. no longer satisfy the new demands. Large-scale machine production became an urgent necessity and the factory was to become the main economic unit of production. Changes in indust. life were also marked by dif. engineering and textile inventions. Yet it was not the new technology alone, but the new ind. system which ih implied, that was revolutionary. Engl. became a world leader in producing cotton goods. It was the 1st where they started to build railroads. In 1829 thelst bus route was introduced in Lond. In factories and plants they started to replace manual labour by machinery.

The development of ind. gave birth to new conflicts in the country. There appeared 2 classes: proletariat (workers) and capitalists (owners, bourgeoisie). The position of workers was terrible. The employers exploited people as thy wished. 2/3 of the adult male workers were replaced by women and children. Ch. were flogged. There were acts of Par!, that limited night labour for ch. under 18; a law that forbade 12-hour working day for the ch. under 9. The workers began to demand the limitation of their working days. The laws that limited working hours were passed by Parl. gradually.

Hand-workers were losing their jobs to the new mechanics and machines. In the end of 18 cent, there emerged a movement associated with the destruction of the machines. In 1779 the weavers of Manchester, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire gathered and began to destroy the looms - the movement known as Luddism, people-Luddites (after Ned Lud). It spread quickly all throughout the ind. centers of Engl. . It reached its peak in 1811-1816. In 1812 the Parl. passed the law to punish machine-racking with death.

Lord Byron's speech in Parl. - Maiden speech - the Is' speech of a new member of Parl. in which he defended Luddites. It is an example of oratory and included onto the text-books in Br. He addressed Lords accusing them for passing death sentence for the people they called "mob". He said that this mob had created everything in Br. and the Lords achieved everything thanks to them. Byron was in minority. The law was passed and 17 workers were executed. The situation was tense. The workers realized that in order to change their position they had to have their own representatives in Parl. Thus, they w. affect legislature, besides they sh. have political demands. These representatives sh. support people who elect them and be in close contact with them to know their demand. Liberal bourgeoisie also realized the necessity of pol. changes. By the 19 cent, it became clear that reforms sh. be introduced. They supported the demands of the workers.