The 19th Century

The 19th Century I

Describe the british class system in the 19th cent. and pay particular attention to the rise of the working class!

new social hierarchy in the 19th cent., replaced old divisions of lord and peasant or rural farmer and urban craftsman;

between 1860 and 1914 real wages doubled (improvement in living standards -> working class could affort more)

Charles Booth's 'Life and Labour of the people in London' (late 1880s): found six main categories of working class:
1. highpaid labour
2. regular standard earnings
3. small regular earnings
4. intermittent earnings
5. casual earnings
6. lowest class
-> largest group was number 2;
growing prosp., joined trade groups and many middle class intellectuals

Leisure and Travel (working class):
Association Football;
a football club was established in every self-respecting industrial town -> founded by public schools & colleges -> professionalized in middle of 19th cent.: leisure for almost every man;
football as the product of a highly organized urban society: regularity & complexity of competitions, entrance fee..

travel for the working class: not only search for new job but also for leisure and fun;
developement of a popular press:
invention of electric telegraph,
press highly used by working class

Middle Class:
decades after 1850: golden age of expansion
1900: lower middle class -> service sector (very large)
so called white collar workers

civil service expanded rapidly: government spent more money on education

huge number of city workers in London trained at the new polytechnics (form of higher education)
-> learned practical things
-> benefiting rise of lower middle class

Upper Middle Class:
divided in two:
1. those working in professions (doctors, lawyers, the clergy of the established church, civil servants in higher positions)
2. the manufacturing middle class: owners of cotton mills, shops ect.

late 1870s: women colleges founded in Oxford: entry to professional careers for women

Middle Classes: Seperate Spheres
Victorian ideology emphasised men's public role versus women's private role:
domestic sphere for middle-class-women,
men earning money, women stay at home

-> not all women conformed! (esp. working-class women)
-> Queen was seen as ideal: selfless & caring mother figure

The Aristocracy & Gentry:
probably changed least in Victoria's reign, continued to have great political power;
ran local government in the country, ran positions in military (such as officers);

noble families divided their time between two residences:
on in town, one in the country, ran society in the country, usually had souther Engl. accent

Monarchy:
flourished under Victoria: hugely popular in her later years!
monarchy as fixed position in a fast-changing world, emphasis of familiy, continuity, religion -> great success
represented timeless quality of pre-industrial order-> balanced: effect of industr. revolution vs. providing eternal institution;
the more urban Britain became, the more popular, ritualized became its monarchy

How did political reforms in the 19th cent. respond to a rapidly changing society?

First Reform Act 1832:
abolished 56 rotten boroughs -> before Act: industrial centers were not represented in parliament, but towns that weren't inhabitated anymore were -> ruled districts without importance

41 large Engl. towns (incl Manchester, Bradford & Birmingham) got representation for the first time;
parliament was still represented by the Gentry

Act raised electorate from 435000 to 632000, but did nothing for women and working class

The Poor Laws & the Workhouse:
Brit. Poor Laws going back to Elizabethan times;
in 1834 new Poor Law Amendment was introduced that made so called workhouses the norm

Workhouse: home of the poor where they were fed & clothed for cheap labour (social help)
idea: conditions in workhouses must be worse than of the poorest 'free' labourer outside so that people would only go there if they had no other choice (if they really couldn't find work) -> invented because well-fare was too expensive

Charitism & Corn Laws:
1848: Repeal of Corn Law
before: protected land owners from competition so they could sell their grain to high prices,
repeal made bread cheaper, free competition was restored
Charitsm: movement for political reform bet. 1838 & 1850: demanded more rights for workers (outstanding pol. movement!)
reached large sections of working-class , very powerful movem. but economic boost made it less successful bec. need of change declined
Charitism as one of the first mass working-class movements

2nd & 3rd Reform Acts 1867 & 1884:
increased the electorate from 20% to 60% of adult men in the towns

instant national debate allowed for 1st time:
newspapers & telegraphs to transmit information

Educational Reform (later 19th cent.):
'liberal educ.' (Latin & Greek) remained dominant among those destined for the universities (upper-middle class)

1870: Act to board schools to accompany church schools (churches couldn't keep up with elementary school system)
-> technical educ. for teenagers esp. in industrial regions

1880: attendance at school was made compulsory
from 1918: all children obliged to stay at school until the age of 14!

Comment on the main aspects of Industrial Revolution!

Origins:
from 18th cent. onwards: dtructure of Engl. society changed rapidly because of industrialisation and urbanisation

Industrial Revolution -> 3 sectors were dominant:
1. coal
2. iron
3. textiles
coal & iron provided capit. equipm. and infrastructure
textiles: started revolution, could be exported

Why in Britain?
labour was expensive & coal was accessable as cheap fuel

France also wealth of nat. resources but Brit. won trade war & pushed France out of their territories -> Brit.: strongest global country & navy, agriculture 2x more efficent than France

London had replaced Amsterdam as worlds most powerful financial centre -> ideal conditions for technology & economy

Cotton & Wool:
tradit.: wool as main commodity (sheep farming), but cotton became more important through colonies

advantage of cotton: machine production, rapid increase of supply bec. of slavery -> huge import/export
new innovations: Spinning Jenny
Cotton produced in Brit. clothed mil. of people all over world

Railways:
originally used in coalfields,
revolution in transport: faster travelling possible

first publ. railway betw. Manchester & Liverpool
following years: network emerged

suburbanistation: strongly linked to techn. advances: people could live away from work and travel to their job

Urbanisation:
UK first state to generate a predominantly urban society,
towns grew rapidly in the north: Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham

new industrial towns:
small area but densly patched with factories & workers, slum-like structure
1851: first time more people lived in towns than in villages

Brit. economy made Britain complex & wealthy,
free trade emerged (state did not interfere in the market -> indiv. on its own)

rise of the UK in the market-place of the world