THE FALL OF THE BRITISH ECONOMY

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the first industrial revolution the rise before the fall

Movement of PopulationThe Industrial Revolution bought about many changes to Britain. As the number of urban factories increaed, people began to move from the countryside, which was previously high in primary employment, to the towns. The wages of a farm worker were considerably lower than that of the factory, luring people towards the urban areas. As well as this, there were fewer jobs available on farms because of the invention and use of new machines such as threshers, creating unemployment, thus, people seeked employment elsewhere. Also thousands of new workers were needed to work the machines in mills and factories and to lure people in furthermore, the factory own-ers built houses for their employees, increasing the interest in this sector of work. At the start of the Nineteeth Century approximatly one-fith of the British population lived in urban l areas, yet this dramatically increased and by 1851, half the population of rural areas had relocated to London alone.

1850

Labour ForceMany of the factory workers were children, mainly due to their small size. They worked long days and were often treated badly by the supervisors or overseers. Sometimes the children started work as young as four years old, yet, despite working long days, a young child could not earn much, but even a few pence would be enough to buy food for the day. This meant that factories has access to cheap, mass labour, and therefore, the British economy could produce and export mass goods abroad. This created the rise of the British economy as the exports overwrote the imports. Despite the high level of child labour, many children could not get such work, and with some with-out parents, hordes of dirty, ragged children roamed the streets with no consistant income and no home to got to. The children of the streets were often orphans with no-one to care for them and the death rate for these children was low. They stole or picked pocket-ed to buy food and slept in outhouses or doorways. Some street children did minor jobs to earn money, for example, they could work as crossing-sweepers, sweeping a way through the mud and horse dung of the main paths to make way for ladies and gentlemen.

New TechnologiesThe industrial Revolution was a period that was defined by a major and rapid transi-tion from an agricultural and commercial society, an economy based on manual labor, into a modern industrial society dominated by new technology power machines. This was an economy based on complex machinery. New technolo-gies meant that products could be produced faster, more efficently and accuratly. New technology also improved the transportation system with the use of steam-powered machines, fueled by coal, giving rise to trains, steam ships and also the invention of cars. The first Canal Act was passed by the British Parliament; this led to the construction of a national network of inland waterways for transport and industrial supplies. By 1830 there were 6,500 km / 4,000 miles of canals in Britain. New technologies therefore meant that not only could mass production occur, but these products could also be delivered quickly.

the decline in health the negatives of the benifits

1858 `great stink´ of London

DiseaseIn spite of the technological and socioeconomic advancement during this era through mechanization of agriculture, factories and transportation system, it was during this Industrial Revolution of urbanization, and industrialization that also gave rise to dreadful sanitary and public health conditions in which people had to live and work. The explosion in urban growth created unforeseen sanitary and public health problems that was as a result of overcrowded cites by large number of people moving from the rural areas. This dense population of people living in cities cause the widespread of diseases such as Tuberculosis and Cholera thus, creating epidemics especially among the poorer class. The cities didn’t have a proper planned sewage and garbage collecting system. The cities were also covered by layer of dirty black smoke (from burning coal that was used to heat water so as to create steam to run the machines) often covered the streets. The factories chimneys would continually belched out these dark, dirty and poisonous smoke into the atmosphere, polluting it. This blocked out most of the Sun’s light giving the city a bleak and gloomy look. Due to this rapid urbanization that led to overcrowd cities it caused a health crisis. Water pollution carried water borne disease, Cholera manifested and spread over the population killing thousands.

the technological revolutionthe invention of Electricity and Chemicals

The TelegraphIn 1836 Samuel F. B. Morse invented the telegraphhe. The practical importance of the telegraph was obvious, and in 1846 a new business, the Associated Press, began using the rapidly spread-ing telegraph lines to send dispatches to newspaper offices. Election results were gathered via telegraph and in the following year AP workers stationed in Halifax, Nova Scotia, begin intercepting news arriving on boats from Europe and telegraphing it to New York, where it could appear in print days before the boats reached New York harbor. This new technology meant that information could be sent and recieved quickly.

The Translantic CableIn 1866 Cyrus Field lays the first successful transatlantic cable so one country can commu-nicate to another across the atlantic. This improved communica-tion, reuslting in the increase in Globalisation.

In1876 Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone, improving communication further.

The Bessemer processThis was the first inexpensive industrial process for the mass-production of steel from molten pig iron. Its inventor Sir Henry Bessemer, revolutionized steel manufacture by decreasing its cost, increased the scale and speed of production of this vital raw material, and decreased the labor requirements for steel-making. The process named after its inventor Sir Henry Bessemer, revolutionized steel manufacture by decreasing its cost, from £40 per long ton to £6-7 per long ton dur-ing its introduction, along with greatly increasing the scale and speed of production of this vital raw material.

Ford production lineElectrification allowed the final major developments in manufacturing methods of the Second Industrial Revolution, namely the assembly line and mass production. The importance of machine tools to mass production is shown by the fact that production of the Ford Model T used 32,000 machine tools, most of which were powered by electricity. Henry Ford is quoted as saying that mass production would not have been possible without electricity because it allowed placement of machine tools and other equipment in the order of the work flow. Not only did Ford improve the production of products, he also allowed people to improve their daily lives by having such products within their home.

The crash of the economythe fall after the rise

Miners StrikeIn 1926 a General Strike arised a from coal dispute leaving many Minors refusing to work. Not only did this effect individuals, communities were effected and deflated.

The wall street crashThe development of more intricate and efficient machines along with mass production techniques greatly expanded output and lowered production costs. As a result, production often exceeded domestic demand. But the advent of consumer installment credit in the Roaring ‘20s was the mechanism that shifted business into overdrive. Among the new conditions, more markedly evident in Britain, the forerunner of Europe's industrial states, were the long-term effects of the severe Long Depression which had followed fifteen years of great economic instability. Businesses in practically every industry suffered from lengthy periods of low — and falling — profit rates and price deflation. The decade that led up to the Crash was a time of wealth and excess. Despite the dangers of speculation, many believed that the stock market would continue to rise indefinitely. Stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.”. The optimism and financial gains of the great bull market were shaken on “Black Thursday”, October 24, 1929, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) abruptly fell. In the days leading up to the crash the market was severely unstable. Periods of selling and high volumes of trading were inter-spersed with brief periods of rising prices and recovery.

1900

The Great DepressionThe Great Depression was a period of national economic

downturn in the 1930s, which had its origins in the global Great

Depression. It was the largest and most profound economic

depression of the 20th century for the United Kingdom. A major

cause of financial instability, which preceded and accompanied

the Great Depression, was the debt that many European coun-

tries had accumulated to pay for their involvement in the First

World War. This debt destabilised many European economies as

they tried to rebuild during the 1920s.

UnemploymentThe economic crisis in the 1930’s left millions unemployed. Companies throughout Britain, though

primarily in the industrial zones, went bankrupt and workers were laid off in their thousands. Unemployment affected nearly

every family. Industry went on a three-day week because of strike by power workers and miners.

ThatcherThe Conservative politician Margaret Thatcher became prime minister in 1979. She introduced free-market policies. For instance, in 1981 the Thatcher government began a programme of privatisation of state-run industries.

IRAHigh unemployment in 1983 caused unrest in UK inner cities, continuing violence in Northern Ireland. In 1984 the IRA at-tempted to assassinate Thatcher in her hotel in Brighton. Several people were killed and injured by a bomb blast, but the prime minister escapes unhurt. She later resigned in 1990 after she fails to defeat a challenge to her leadership of the Conservative party. John Major took over as prime minister.

Oversea’s workersDue to cheap labour, companies started to depend on over sea labour to produce goods cheaply. Despite cramped conditions and low wages, foreign employees were willing to work. For example, the wages for a Chinese employee is 20-50% lower than that of a British employee. This resuls in further unemployment as the British loose jobs as the foreign gain them. The main products produces are clothing and technological media equiptment. Big brands such as Disney, Lego and Marks & Spencer pay only a fraction of the shop price of products to the factories that make their toys. This meant that the British company owners profited and benifited but the popular were left with mass unemplyment and little industry left within Britain.

2000

BankingIn February 2008 the government nationalised the troubled mortgage lender Northern Rock. Funding problems at the bank in the second half of 2007 triggered the first run on a British bank in more than a century. In 2008 October the government part-nationalised three leading UK banks with a 37 billion pound rescue package. It also pumps billions into the UK financial sys-tem after record stock market falls precipitated by the global “credit crunch”. In December the FTSE 100 ends closes down by 31.3% since the beginning of 2008, the biggest annual fall in the 24 years since the index was started.

During the beginning of 2009 the Bank of England cuts interests rates to 1.5%, the lowest level in its 315-year history. The government announces a second package of measures to help Britain’s ailing banks, amid surging unemployment and deepening economic gloom.

the rebuildbritains economy rebuild

Looking UpThe End of the RecessionIn 2009 the United Kingdom’s economy came out of recession, after figures show it grew by 0.1% in the first quarter of 2009, following six consecutive quarters of economic contraction - the longest such period since quarterly figures were first recorded in 1955. Braitin attempts to improve the economy through employment and business schemes.