Excerpt from Modern Economic History: With Special Reference to Australia

The economic world of today is in general the product of centuries of growth. But in its main features and chief problems it is especially the outcome of great changes which took place between about 1750 and 1850. These changes affected industry, agriculture, commerce, and finance; they reacted on politics. Their origins can all be traced back long before 17 50; but after that date they were so accelerated, so fundamental, and so disruptive as to be revolutionary. They produced a new economic and social order, difierent in appearance from that which preceded it. The difference is not entirely due to new tendencies. Modern economic life is marked by the use of capital at every point, with economic control in the hands of those who own that capital. We live in a capitalist system. Now capital had become fairly important before 1750, and the capitalist controlled those who worked in many industries. But the most fertile fields for profitable use of capital were commerce and finance rather than production. The period of change brought new knowledge, new machines, new sources of power, new markets, new products, new methods of production, new sources of wealth. In order to take advantage of these possibilities the capitalist had to abandon old methods and types of organization and erect a new structure to house them. He had to put big sums of capital into production as well as commerce. Capital was used in 1750; it is the economic technique, the way the capital is used, which is new.

Before outlining the chief developments of the economic revolution, and describing the conditions which emerged from it, let us glance in this chapter at the chief features of industrial and commercial organization on the eve of the great change.

The Domestic Workshop. The big factory, in which thousands of people may be employed, is essentially a modern product. In the 18th century the congregation of any large number of workers under one roof was so rare that travellers went miles out of their course to see this industrial curio. Further, the industrial town and the intense localization of industry in certain areas were almost unknown. The worker lived in the suburbs of towns which were predominantly commercial or political centres, in industrial villages, or in houses scattered broadcast over the countryside. Usually he had a few acres of land attached to the cottage, or possessed the right to turn live-stock on to some common pasture; hence farming was frequently a by-occupation, to which he could turn in spare moments or when the industrial market was slack. He had two strings to his bow, and his livelihood came from agriculture and industry alike.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.