of Age Equipoise - 1850s - Age of stability - England was only stable for some people - Britain possessed the only mature industrial economy in the world External changes that end the Age of Equipoise - Germany and United States are both industrializing - Need to import machinery and energies (coal, oil, iron, steel) - Britain supports the need for materials - Rail and steam bring the world together - Age of Globalization - Agricultural development - Now exportable because of rail roads - European military power open new trade routes - Navies open up China and Japan to further trading - Wool and cotton - Import cotton from southern United States - Import wool from Australia and New Zealand - 60% of bread and corn is imported from abroad - Agricultural employment declines greatly - 1851- 1.9 million - 1871- 1.4 million - Tea imports - India - Wine - Portugal Effects of expansion - Transformation of heavy industries - Coal - Production tripled between 1850-1880 - No revolution in technique or equipment - Size of coal mining labor force increases - Workforce doubled between 1851-1881 - Better out put per man - Men work harder - Conditions were very dangerous - 1856-1886- 1,000 miners died per year - Iron - Production grows more than threefold between 1850-=1880 - Hotter glass furnaces make it much hotter - Steel - Major innovations - Converter creates basic steel - Basic steel cheap, more durable than iron, caper over time
- Bessemer - Growth in employment - Unemployment is minimized they've been taking coal and iron -- Steel mills and Iron mills pay much better than agricultural jobs - Average lower class - Shipyard and engineering fields expand greatly before WWI Cotton Famine - Early 1860s - No imports from America during this time - Between 1850- 1860 coupled wit - 1880s total British farm growth - Balance of trade in Britain becomes unstable by 1890s - Importing became greater than exporting - Class Consciousness/ class formation - Lower classes wanted new rights - Hierarchy is replaced by triadic model of 3 classes - Imagined community, it's an idea- a not truth - Upper class - How much money - Where you went to school - Game hunting - Similar to aristocrats a hundred years earlier - Significant amounts of land - Already established sense of themselves - Fear of lower class - Revival of aristocracy - Ancient ceremonies - Jousting - Reinforce dominance and separation - Middle Class - Very wide range of wealth - Self-made man - Education - Wanted to be the upper class - Emphasis on family - Homes are to be safe haven from harsh economic society - Private sphere vs public sphere - Working class women did not stay in house like middle class - Support the man and the family, she is the glue of the family - Department stores and shopping give women a great sense of freedom - Women are becoming important in many different issues - Women want to be like the guys - Lower class
- Poor - Had working - Most likely to revolt - Electorate - 1 of 42 people vote - Representation
- Anticorn Law League - Middle class - Why didn't they like the corn law - Chartests - ?????????????????????????????????????
Middle Class Wings - National Reform Union - Manchester March 1864 - Middle class free trade ideals - Reversal of corn laws in 1638 - Chief spokesman was John Bright - Terrific public speaker - Household sufferage - Vote be given to householders who were personally liable for paying their own taxes - 35% of householders paid their rates indirectly - March 1864 - Gladstone Working Class - The League - February 1865, London - Backed by Junto, the trade unions - Some middle class people supported them, including the president who was a lawyer - Radical Parliamentary reform - Connections with the Chartest movement - Lord Palmeston dies October 1865 - Russell takes over with Gladstone - Russell- Gladstone Reform Bill - Householders paid an annual rent of 7 pounds - Residency needed for 2 years - After debate they make it 1 year residency requirement - Lodgers with room also get the vote - Electorate grows from 650,000 to 2,000,000 after 1867 Reform Act - In borrows the working class enjoyed a majority, and the vote