Why couldn’t they immediately unite to demand better conditions or stop working otherwise and return to traditional jobs from the pre-industrial era if conditions were supposedly better then?
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The evidence is fairly clear (remember we are talking before routine data collection except for taxes). The first wave of industrialisation led workers to be poorer, less well-nourished and much more exposed to disease and industrial accidents. This tapered off and then things started to improve – after 50 years or so. The evidence is from Poor Law reports, army recruit standards, church records, tax records and Parliamentary inquiries.
Factories took in surplus agricultural labour, by displacing the handicraft and ‘putting-out’ systems (contracting small-scale production across the countryside) that provided a large part of rural livelihoods. They also made sure to tap labour sources that were less likely to organise (younger people, young women) or protest. Older, more resistant workers were left out (agricultural labour conditions worsened too).
Towns grew rapidly without regulation,. so sewerage, water and pollution all impacted health. Demand and larger-scale production meant no feedback from consumer to producer (so instead of the village baker getting a bad name you ate what was available in your slum – even if it contained stone dust, straw and rat faeces).
Labour organising, political pressure and government realisation that a large proportion of the population were not fit to serve in the armed forces at a time of increasing international competition all forced changes – Factory Acts, Public Health Acts and so on.
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