situazione in inghiterra 1700

Materie:	Appunti
Categoria:	Inglese
Voto:	1.5 (2)
Download:	66
Data:	07.12.2005
Numero di pagine:	3
Formato di file:	.doc (Microsoft Word)

STABILITY
After a period of religious and political conflicts with Queen Anne, Britain began a period of stability and prosperity.

AGRICULTURE
To meet the new demand of wool and to increase the breeding of cattle, necessary to provide the raw material for the growing clothing industry, the system of “Land Enclosure” was intensified. Moreover for the first time in Europe a new type of capitalistic mentality developed among farmers and merchants in fact now they spent money to earn.

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
The expanding market asked for more speed to transform wool into finished products, in fact in these years of stability the demand of goods increased very fastly. For this reason first small factories were built and the production process became more and more organized thanks to the introduction of the Specific job in which every worker did only his specific job. The demand for more speed was satisfied also with the mechanization that was one of the most important factors that helped the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. In Great Britain there were a lot of experienced technicians and thanks to them a lot of new technologies were built like the Automatic loom.
Another reason of this Industrial Revolution was the big layers of coal and iron, two minerals that were very important for the production because they provide the energy and the tools for industrial expansion.
With the Industrial Revolution the migration from country to city began, with the consequent increase of labour in cities.

NEGATIVE ASPECTS
Even if a lot of people’s life improved, other people’s life was twisted. After the land enclosure people, remained in the country, fell into poverty. To resolve this problem workhouses were built all over the country, but they were cruel institutions and workers weren’t even paid. Also these terrible conditions increased the movement from country to city where a lot of factories have been built. Into factories even if workers were little paid, they had to work in subhuman conditions. Moreover also women and children were employed and even if they worked same hours of men they were less paid.
Also living conditions were terrible for working people, in fact there wasn’t in houses any form of sanitation, with the consequent increase of infantile mortality and epidemics.

IMPROVE OF LIVING CONDITIONS
After this difficult period the quality of people’s life improved, thanks to the building of hospitals in a lot of towns with the consequent increase of life expectancy and thanks to a new tax called “rates” that was used to improve living conditions.
To escape from the hard work people began to drink alcohol, especially gin. The effects of drinking were devastating ,and a lot of families were ruined. Instead among upper classes Coffee ,brought in from colonies, became the favourite drink.
Coffee houses had a very important role in society in fact they became the favourite meeting places of culture people that spoke about politic, literature and business helping the exchange of information with the middle classes.

NEW MIDDLE CLASSES
With the agricultural and industrial revolutions middle classes became the driving force in Britain. They were farmers that have enriched themselves with the breeding of cattle more developed thanks to the system of land enclosure or merchants that could trade all over the world thanks to Britain colonial expansion. They arrived to these success thanks to their values like the entrepreneurial spirit, or the capitalistic mentality that appreciated the economic success, or the patriotism and the predisposition to work in fact they were puritans. They were helped also by Government in fact it assented to Land enclosure and it abolished indoor customs with the consequential creation of the first “free market” in the world. The last factor was the development of a network of large canals that were essential for the transport of goods.