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4.1 Industrial Revolution: Consumption and Industriousness - Coggle Diagram
4.1 Industrial Revolution: Consumption and Industriousness
Consumption-driven Industrial Revolution
Consumption goes with the idea that industrialisation is not possible without people wiht sufficient taste and disposable income to consume manufactured products
Rostow's 5 stages of growth ends with mass consumption
Consumption is a
demand-side explanation
for industrial transformation
Also fits into the impact of industrialisation on society and living standards: how is consumption distributed, is it equitable
Conception of negative impact on the environment - "dark satanic mills"
Period of splendid consumption alongside Dickensian poverty
Consumption is a matter of taste and fashion, and not necessarily acquired needs
Putting consumption into the Industrial Revolution
Trickle-down effect from elite spending, rising wages for all. Improving nutrition and end of periodic famines, not all disposable income had to go to food
This theory doesn't fit with the data - wage growth over 18th century was static and even negative. Nutritional quality dropped
Decreased calorific intake at the start of the industrial revolution inspired Malthus to write his essay on overpopulation. Greater diversion of the workforce away from agriculture towards marketable activities
Impact of imports instigating a manufacturing response for exports
Impact of imports
Foreign imports remedied the food situation, especially after the repeal of the corn laws
Since 1840s, the UK has been a net importer of food. By 1870 most British wheat consumption came from abroad
Import Substitution Industrialisation
Introduction of addictive tropical products leads to "drug foods" and tobacco. Relaxed moral attitudes to luxury leads to fashion and emulation
"Industrious revolution" leads to shift to marketable activity to afford consumer products. Shift away from leisure to pay for new products
Composition of manufacturing in British imports shifts from 31% to 8%: foodstuffs and raw materials dominate
Many foreign foodstuffs were addictive ex-luxuries, now necessities, like tea and sugar
Addictive - sense of psychological and well being. Tea time become a domestic ritual for middling classes, then a break for working people. Coffee houses became hubs of social and economic activity
Many foreign imports were obviously superior: Chinese porcelain, Indian textiles
Mercantilist policies, i.e. war, monopolies and scarcity, raised prices
When price was not an issue, demand could outpace supply. Substition industries were incentivised
In Netherlands, development of Delftware (a cheap pottery looing like porcelain) and cheap tobacco
Textiles:
Legal restrictions placed on imported Asian cloth to protect wool and silk industry
Poor quality european cotton yarns compared with Indian imports
Much of "cotton" cloth up to 18th c were in fact linen-cotton mixes called "fustians". European cottons less vividly coloured
Improvement in the printing of white cottons meant Europe could rival India by mid 18th century
In the end, European manufactured cotton-on-cotton textiles dominated everywhere, including Asia. Not necessarily cheaper but nicer and looked better
Working classes were spending 3/4 of their budgets on food from 1787-1796. Middling classes consumed new products
Food price decreased with increasing imports. Money also spent on housing, clothing and services
Proto-Consumerism
Debate on attitudes to luxury dates back to classical antiquity - restrictions on taste through sumptuary laws
Arguments for relaxation of attitudes to luxury made firstly on a moral context (Mandeville - personal freedom) and eventually as part of a political economy argument (Hume, Smith)
Resistance and resentment remained, both in popular press and in early socialist thought. Development of aggressive advertising
Local fairs and markets remained and proliferated
Pedlars and hawkers continued to travel the countryside, even when there were many shops
Shops were flourishing, sophisticated and varied, including proto-department stores like the Royal Exchange, which were centres of leisure as well as consumption
How did consumers find the income for these products?
Industrious Revolution (Jan de Vries)
People shifted from leisure to more work due to the increased utility of monetary income
Paradox of flatlining ages over 18th century explained by increase of working hours
Production shift to marketable and exportable goods
Proto-industrialisation
Rural production in a domestic economy (putting out)
Raw materials and tools occasionally provided by external merchants
Longstanding system, especially for textiles, metalworking, firearms
May have already been producing some surpluses for national and international markets before 1750
Production of industrial goods became increasingly systematic, often using slack times of the agricultural year
Labour intensive, regionally concentrated
Old narrative of new industrial products drivng demand is now out of favour
Demand is suggested as driving supply
Industriousness may be the bridge between the two
Import-substition industrialisation, fashion, and dependency on new products, and new modes of consuming them
Consumption is not just glamour products. Any consumer revollution may have been a highly regional, class-specific phenomenon. Took place against a backdrop of worsening poverty for most of the population