Edward Clark Industrialisation and the people 1790-1890

In Nottinghamshire in 1811 there was an outbreak of machine breaking. This was carried out by groups of men who thought that machinery used in the textile factories in the textile factories. The problem was that for stocking-frame knitters the factory owner was using a wide frame machine, this was faster and cheaper than using the traditional narrow frame but was poorer quality. The men thought that this reduced wages and put them out of work. This anger turned into violent action and a wave of machine breaking intimidation and rioting and was organised by a mysterious figure of Nedd Ludd. This caused the government alarm with also more machine breaking in Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cheshire which was linked to to the Luddites. The Yorkshire protests were against the introduction of the shearing frame which threatened the skilled croppers jobs useless. In the Lancashire cotton mills, power looms were attacked and smashed by hand-weavers. Yorkshire croppers did try and go through the dem...

In 1829 Peel as the Home Secretary founded the Metropolitan Police Force which was the first of it's kind, in his Metropolitan Police Act 1829. This was made to stop the upwards trend of the crime rates going up in London. This was also in line with his earlier Penal Code reform which was the removal of many capital offences. His theory that of there was a fully supported police force then it would create a crime deterrent but some saw it as a tool of the Tory government. The idea was not a success straight away but it improved on the system of just using parish constables and watchmen which were often corrupt and had no clear centralised maintenance of law and order. He the police started off with 1,000 constables in London. Some of the nicknames they were given were bobbies and Peelers and started off being very unpopular. This provided the foundations for the nationwide police force that would be found in all cities years later.  By 1857 all cities have to have their own police ...

 George Canning- He became Prime Minister after Lord Liverpool's resignation in April 1827. He was favoured by Lord Liverpool but he had very advance ideas for the Tories at the time which lead to people like Wellington to hate him and Peel refused to serve under him. This is because of Canning's support for Catholic Emancipation. The Tories were also critical of his liberal populist conduct of foreign policy during the Liverpool years and the aristocrats from both parties looked down on him from his background as his mother was an impoverished actress. The Whigs saw Canning as an ally when he invited four Whigs into his cabinet. Canning had the majority of support in the House of Commons from the Whigs and moderate Tories like Huskisson. George IV accepted Canning because he had the majority in the House of Commons. Canning term as Prime Minister was cut short as he died in August 1827 after a short illness. Lord Goderich- During Lord Liverpool being PM he was the Chancello...

These acts were created in 1819 in response to the Peterloo massacre to prevent anymore of these happening. Training prevention Act - A measure which made any person attending a gathering for the purpose of training or drilling liable to arrest. People that are found guilty of this offence could be transported for 7 years to Australia. Seizure of Arms Act - A measure that gave power to local magistrates to search any property or person for arms. That is partly why we still have strict gun control today. Seditious Meetings Prevention Act : This was a measure to prohibited the holding of public meetings more than 50 people without consent of a sheriff or magistrate. This was to prevent an uprising or revolution. The Misdemeanours Act : A measure that attempted to reduce the delay in the administration of justice. The Blasphemous and seditious libels Act: A measure which provided much stronger punishments including banishment for publications judged to be blasphemou...

Summary on Social change At the end of the 1700's the old social order was changing and being challenged. As industrialisation occurred the traditional bonds of society were disturbed and a new society was created which started to question the wealth and privileges of the old order.  Urban development brought prosperity for the newly emerging middle class and problems for the working population and caused deep divisions in society. In the rural areas the principal landowner remained in control and little changed. Agricultural labourers were poorly paid and had poor living conditions. There are differing views whether or not working conditions for ordinary people worsened with industrialisation.  Historians debate whether or not standard of living rose following mechanisation of industry.  The economic disruption caused by the war were led to a stagnation of average real wages and caused hardship for the labouring classes. Industrial dispute became increasingl...

  General overview The industrial revolution is said that it started around 1780 as the industries developed from small-scale production of goods that was mostly domestic, to much larger scale of production in factories and iron foundries in the City. This saw a large rise in the amount of exports and imports in the decades of 1780s and 1790s which increase the amount of economic activity. There was an unseen annual growth of industrial output of 3 to 4 percent. This shows that the decade of the 1780s was a turning point in Britain with the increase production of iron,coal and cotton. This made Britain famous for its quality and scale of manufacturing across the country. For example Cornwall was famous for tin mining used to manufacture many utensils and Birmingham who was famous for mining for coal ( that’s why it was called the black country) and for producing small metal goods. There was also a thriving overseas market with the major East India Company who was trading cotton,...

  Democracy and structure - Britain was for it's time a very liberal country. This was seen as their was a religous tolerance with a free press. The Franchise ( the people that could vote) was very limited to only three percent of the population could vote as you had to be a man with land and money and in some cases you had to be a potwalloper. The British constitution is broken down into three parts the Monarchy, the House of Commons and the House of Lords. By 1783 the King ( George III)  could not interfere with much legislation which was limited by the glorious revolution of 1689 the bill of rights. The king still had power to veto legislation. The House of Lords debated like the house of Commons and had the power to block measures from the House of Commons.  The House of Commons was full of wealth MPs and only 214,000 people out of 8 million could vote making the electorate very small. The America revolutionary war causes unemployment to fall as people joined the ...