FinleyJennings' Industrialisation Blog

The Cotton Industry Traditionally the cotton industry was primarily carried out in small workshops and at homes. This meant that production was slow, lacked quality control and provided little room for expansion. As the population grew the demand for clothes and textiles. Cotton was the easiest material to manufacture as it was cheaper, more comfortable and easier to wash. Cotton manufacturing was set up in lanarkshire and Lancashire as the rivers there were used to power the new machines that had been made such as the spinning jenny and the Arkwright water frame. Canal systems were used to connect the factories to the main seaports. The boom of the cotton industry had a ripple affect on other industries. The increase in factories meant that the demand for coal and iron increased drastically. In 1781 James Watt invented the rotary steam engine, which made the production of these resources quicker and more efficient but only a third of these were being used in the cotton industry

The Government system relies on representatives being voted into parliament by their local borough. However this system has a lot of issues. The number of representatives in each borough wasn't updated as industrialisation. Therefore declining market towns would still have two representatives while booming industrial towns would still have no representation. Every borough had different rules which qualified you to vote. However there were two common terms used for describing a borough. 'Pocket boroughs' were boroughs that were controlled completely by the land owners. 'Rotten boroughs' were boroughs that had very few franchised voters, meaning the vote could be easily rigged, but still had two representatives.

By 1783, Britain's government was based upon a Constitutional Monarchy. The Monarch (King George III at the time) was bound by an oath that restricted their power. The oath transferred the responsibility of law making, taxation, spending and external affairs to the government. The Monarchs income was also dependent on the government. The Monarch still had power, however. He could influence general policy and could choose his ministers, this encouraged mp's to agree with the King to get appointed. He could also dissolve parliament but a general election had to be called as they could not rule without a parliament. They could Veto decisions but this could risk their income if his decision wasn't popular. The house of lords was made up of the wealthiest elite. They had lots of  influence  and could block propositions made by the house of commons. The members of the commons were voted in by the small number of legible voters. They represented the interests of the local peop

Economic and Social Developments Robert Owen Working conditions for the lower class in factories, mines and such were universally poor during the industrial revolution. However, in 1800, Robert Owen took ownership of the New Lanark Mills. About 1400 people worked in the cotton mill and Robert worked to make working conditions better for them. The 500 children were housed, fed and educated in return for their work. This in turn led to reduced crime rate disease and death among the young. Industrial revolution England was a agricultural country for the most part but that changed rather rapidly. This was largely down to the invention of the railway. This meant that it was really easy and cost effective to transport goods across Britain. This also made more jobs for people to work.

The British political system c1783 William Pitt the younger    In 1781 William Pitt the younger was elected into parliament at the age of 21. In 1782 he became chancellor of the exchequer (chief financial minister). King George the 3rd hated Pitts political rival,Charles Fox, so much that he asked Pitt to form a government instead. So, at the age of 24, William Pitt the younger became Britain's youngest prime minister in 1783.   When Pitt was put into office, this raised alarm as he had no following and faced a large majority opposition, he comprised his cabinet out of Lords and was isolated from the rest of the commons. His administration was weak and couldn't pass any legislation's. people mocked Pitt and dubbed his tenure as the 'mince pie administration' believing that it wouldn't survive past Christmas. Pitt survived due to the backing of the King, his own ambition and determination as well as fox upsetting his own followers and losing support. Pitt w