• in an organic economy, if higher wages lead to a lot of population growth, wages will decrease again
• in England until the mid 18th century, if population growth was faster than .5% per year, wages decreased
• but once the industrial revolution got going, population increased more quickly and yet wages kept going up
• coal and technology get the economy out of the problem of having only a limited amount to go around
  
• today the connection between population and economic growth is weak because technology can replace people (technology increases productivity)
  

what affects population growth?
What caused population to grow substantially in England in the industrial revolution
how could population grow and yet wages didn't go down
where in an organic economy wages determine population growth

why do higher wages cause population growth?

• people didn't start families until they had saved some money
• if you have more money you might choose to have kids closer together (but how)
• better nutrition reduces mortality, particularly in childbirth
  

• in England couples did not marry until they could set up an independent household
• half of marriages happened around the time of the annual hiring fair (often Michaelmas on Sept. 29 in agricultural areas, Martinmas Nov. 11 in the north)
• as the industrial revolution increased wealth, female age at first marriage dropped from 26 to 24

fertility:

• from the late 17th to the early 19th century the number of children per woman rose from 1.99 to 2.72
• stillbirth and death of the mother during birth decreased significantly, though the death rate of infant mortality after the first month did not decline
• this might be the result of better nutrition
• women are trying less to avoid getting pregnant?
  

mortality:

• for 1661-90 life expectancy was 33.8 years, for 1801-30 it was 40.8 years (p. 151)
• death rates in childhood have a large impact on these numbers, but they do measure how many women live to reproduce
• mortality during the first month of life fell, deaths later in the first year stayed the same, death rates later in childhood fell a little, adult mortality fell
• water supply systems in cities began to be built in significant numbers in the 18th century--some improvements in sanitation in the more established cities
  

industrial revolution brought high population growth

• wages don't go down so population continues to grow
• population in rural areas stayed fairly steady, so the additional people were moving to cities
• the key here is not that population increased, but that wages did not then fall
• population increase with steady wages means more demand for products
• if population is increasing, a larger percentage of the population are children
• how might that encourage child labor?
• families with more children need the the children to work in order to afford basic necessities
  
• what workers are available for jobs--disproportionately young people
  

• Wrigley says 75% of those age 15 to 25 worked as servants or agricultural laborers for another family in the early modern period (p. 145)
  
• children helped at home until about age 12 and then often went into service or into an apprenticeship
• workers in the earliest factories were "apprentices" from orphanages (in 1784 1/3 of workers in mills were apprentices)
  
• once the steam engine made possible larger factories in towns, youth were hired to work in them--they were paid but this was also seen as the best way to train workers
  
• only 4.5% of the cotton workers were under 10, but 54.5% were under the age of 19 
• 1841 the three most common occupations of boys were Agricultural Labourer, Domestic Servant and Cotton Manufacture with 196,640; 90,464 and 44,833 boys under 20 employed, respectively. Similarly for girls the three most common occupations include Cotton Manufacture. In 1841, 346,079 girls were Domestic Servants; 62,131 were employed in Cotton Manufacture and 22,174 were Dress-makers. 
  
• In 1842, the proportion of the work forces that were children and youth (under 20) in coal and metal mines ranged from 19 to 40%. source
• mandatory schooling laws were not passed until 1876
  

what social services were there?

• the new industrial cities lacked community structures
• Poor laws, which provided minimal welfare but intended to make it humiliating
• people who could not support themselves were generally required to live in poorhouses, which were not much better than prisons
  
• attempts to reform the poor laws sometimes made things worse
• there were no laws to protect workers, no law requiring workers compensation for injury on job
  
• voluntary associations, which focused on creating community (leading to criticism that they spent money on funerals, not basic needs)
• there were some existing structures for collective action--traditions of riot by the poor and associations (unions) of skilled workers

• Luddite movement--beginning in 1811, a few gangs of home textile workers burned factories and smashed machines because they saw that the factories were putting them out of work.  This pretty much disappeared after the "Frame Breaking Act" of 1812 made smashing machines a capital offense.  One of those executed was a 12 year old boy named Abraham Charlston.
  
• before 1832 only landowners had the right to vote, so the government tended to act in the interest of the rich and middle class
• 1832 reform act reapportioned parliamentary representation based on population and gave the vote to heads of household with at least 10 pounds net worth or renting land for at least 50 pounds a year, about 1/5 of the male population
• Chartist movement fought unsuccessfully for a People's Charter including universal male suffrage
• reform laws started in 1833--Cotton Factories Regulation Act of 1819 (which set the minimum working age at 9 and maximum working hours at 12 for children under 18),  factory act of 1833 established paid inspectors to enforce the 1819 law and limited hours for children to 9 hours a day for children 9-13 and 12 hours a day for children 13-18, Ten Hours Bill of 1847 (which limited working hours to 10 for children and women).