Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Industrial Revolution

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
1.What conditions are most favourable or essential for industrialization?
Ans : History is witness to the fact that the rise of towns and cities and the growth in trade stimulated the production of manufactured goods. There was an increase in the demand of goods which previously had been considered luxury goods. Life in the new towns and cities had created a desire for many new goods also. All these factors provided a great stimulus to the production of manufactured goods. Industrialization is mostly dependant on the demand and supply of goods, the supply of raw materials, transport and communication come later. The conditions should be favourable enough to meet the growing demand for any finished product, the continuous supply of raw material without any break and proper transportation facilities to the industry and from the industry act as favourable conditions for industrialization.
2.Give examples to show that the Industrial Revolution with its demand for raw materials and markets made nations more dependent on one another.
Ans: Previous to industralisation the finished goods were at small scale, the craftsman would finish the product at his own time and was not under pressure to work fast. But with improvement of trade, the demand for finished goods also increased which the local craftsman could not meet. This ultimately led to factory type of manufacture of goods where the machines did the work of men but had to be fed regularly with raw materials. Not every country was as advantageous as England in the area of having huge deposits of raw material with in the country. Some countries like Italy and Germany suffered from not being united and had many economic restrictions.
Increased industrialization led to heavy imports for example in 1760 England imported about two million kilograms of cotton, in 1815 about 50 million kilograms and in 1840 nearly about 250 million kilograms. These are examples enough to show that the growing industrialization led to heavy imports even in those areas of raw materials where the country had been previously self-sufficient. The ever increasing need to feed the machines led the countries also to hold colonies in the east and in the far east countries where industrialization had not even touched.

3.Describe the conditions which prevailed in industrial cities and factories as the industrial revolution spread. How were these conditions slowly improved?
Ans : Industrialization led to the crowding of cities and the rural population which now lost its traditional means of livelihood shifted to cities and it resulted in over crowding of cities. It created problems of housing sanitation etc which the factory owner was not responsible to. His only responsibility was to make more profits and provide minimum wages to the workers. The whole areas of industrial cities where workers lived were crowded slums. Accidents, disease and epidemics were common. There was no job security and any worker could be thrown out of a job if the factory owner was not satisfied with his work. If at all the business was slack, the factory owner could dismiss as many employees he may deem possible to make up the losses. But slowly and steadily laws were formed to protect the factory workers like Factory act of 1802 limited the working hours of the children to twelve where the children were made to work for 17 hours per day and they were much preferred as they could be paid low wages when compared to the males and females. The “Chartist Movement” was launched to get the voting rights for the workers though the movement declined, it had its effect and all the adult workers were enfranchised. The right to form unions was also encouraged against all opposition from the factory owners.
The many benefits that workers and all salaried people enjoy in most industrialized countries today are due directly or indirectly to the efforts to correct the terrible conditions that the industrial revolution brought about.
4.How did the growth of trade unions help to put an end to the idea of laissez faire?
Ans : “Laissez Faire” or ‘ let us alone’ was a kind of religion of the capitalists . According to this the business man should be free to look after his own interests. Only the unwritten law of supply and demand should determine the size of his profits. The same unwritten law would determine the fate of the worker whether he had a job, what his working conditions and salary could be.
The greatest challenge to laissez faire and to caplitalism itself has come from the idea of socialism, which grew in the beginning as a reaction against the evils of capitalism. The idea appealed particularly the workers. Through their struggle they were able to achieve much improvement in their living conditions. Many of the believers in socialism said that the state or all the people of a nation not just a few should own and run the factories. Then only and then they explained would the people of society as a whole be able to share the fruits of production. Thus the trade unions and their growth and the growth of socialism played havoc with the policy of laissez faire.




5.Why does industrialization affect farming, transportation, communication, trade and how does it result in the need for more education?
Ans: Industrialization affects all areas like farming, transportation, communication, trade etc because in order to meet the growing demand for finished goods, the farmer has to produce the raw material of the best quality and in huge quantity and some times he has to give up growing food items in order to grow cash crops. Transportation of raw material to the factories and the finished products to the markets have to be done at a fast rate so as to meet the demand if the transportation is not fast then the customer looses interest in the finished product and tries to find a substitute for it and thus the market for the finished product is lost. Communication too plays an important part because some times the raw material is grown in one part of the country or the world and the factory is in another part and the market is in another part. Communication plays an important part in linking all these together to make a success of trade and trade has enhanced to such an extent that today trading with the remotest part of the world is easy as compared to the older times. Industrialization has brought about a change in all these areas only because of the machine age which has entered the trade and commerce. Education plays an important role here because to get the best possible result in every sphere in every trade activity and in the areas of demand and supply, education enhances the quality of the services that are rendered because allied services too play an important part in industrialization. For eg., education educates the farmer about the best quality seeds and the transporter about the most effective means of transportation etc.

6.How does industrialization help in raising the level or standard of living ?
Ans : The standard of living of any country is determined by the way the people of the country live. Whether they are able to get two nutritious meals per day and also as per today’s standards whether are able to secure proper education. Industrialization has helped to raise the standard of living of people as the people are able to get better jobs and there is job security and also the trade unions see to it that the capitalists do not misuse the workers. Industrialization has also helped to improve all the facilities like education, better standard of jobs etc. Today the younger generation is better placed when compared to their counterparts a decade ago when the education was not so advanced nor were the jobs so better nor was the earning capacity of the younger generation so much better.
Thus industrialization does have an impact on raising the standard of living of the people in today’s world.



7.Study the weaknesses and disadvantages of producing goods and services under the capitalist system of production. What are the advantages that a socialist system can have over a society based on capitalism?
Ans: In a capitalist society, the factory owner is the king, he is least concerned about the welfare of the workers who are the main work force and the reason for his profits. His main intention is to gain more and more profits for his pockets and not for everyone and tries to find ways and means sometimes unscrupulous to meet his greedy ends. Sometimes even in todays world the work force live in slums with almost no sanitation and no proper medical facilities and if by chance there is a lock out i.e. strike they can be thrown out of jobs too. Though the world has come a long way from 1750 and many laws have been passed to make the work force lead a better life, still much needs to be done and this cannot be done in a socialist form of society.
In a socialist form of society, the workforce has a complete share in the industry in its profits or losses the factory is owned by the government and not by private parties. Every one from the CEO to the most menial worker gets wages for working in the factory or industry. This ensures the fact that the power is not vested with a few but with every one . In a capitalist form of society the capitalist sometimes rules over the government and sometimes gets the laws passed in his favour so as to suit his needs. But in a socialist form of society this cannot be done so as the government decides what is best and the workforce also has a say in the working of the government and also forming policies and passing laws.












8. What conditions are favourable for the continuing growth of industries in India?

Ans : India has rich deposits of minerals and is also an agricultural based country. In the area of human resources, it is the second largest populated country in the world. The quality of the work force too is improving day by day. The changing means of transportation too has made the conditions favourable for the growth of industries in India. The factory owner knows the value of changing scenario and is also working to provide better standard of living for the workers and there by attracting the skilled workers. Many institutes train the people to become skilled workers in any area either at the machine or in the area of services or in the area of growing better raw material or in the area of selling finished products.

The younger generation too is aware of the favourable conditions for the growth of the industries and is also striving hard for gaining better education and today the quality of education too has reached new heights with even foreign universities vying with one another to find a place to provide education facilities in our country.

The government too is working hard to implement laws which help in making the conditions favourable for the growth of industries in India.

9. Would you say that industrialization was a ‘natural step’ in man’s progress? Why or why not?

Ans: Industrialization was sure a natural step in man’s progress because with man’s changing attitude towards life, and his curiosity to know things which he had never known before and his curiosity to discover new lands ultimately led to increased trade activity and thus we can say that this increased trade activity led to industrialization. It was but natural that man had to make this progress sooner or later because basically he is a restless animal and easily gets bored with the new inventions and wants to keep inventing new things and this is not today but right from prehistoric times and that is the reason that he has made such tremendous progress when compared to the other animals of this universe. His curiosity has also led him to explore space and other planets as well. So we can say that industrialization was a natural step in man’s progress.

1 comment:

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