Question: “What is the story line?”

In this document, Andrew Ure writes about the new industrial system that has been taking form in England. The early 19th century brought about incredible changes to the way that things were produced in England, with newly developed technologies taking the labor force by storm. Although new technologies, in theory, seem like a great thing for society, the introduction of machines into the workplace brought about lots of unrest among the working people of England. Machines being used in factories and mills meant that there was less of a need for skilled workers to do these jobs. This left many people out of work and caused people to become very angry at the thought of a more industrialized society. There were many documents written, like the Leeds Woollen Workers Petition, 1786, that described the outrage that many workers were feeling due to machines taking them out of work. Although this outrage was expressed to society, the new machines were essential to keeping England one of the top manufacturing industries. The demand for products surpassed what the skilled laborers could handle doing everything by hand. In order to match the demand, machines were constructed to make the process much more efficient. 

This document was written in the early 19th century praising the new manufacturing system that swept through England factories. Andrew Ure was an enthusiast for the use of machines and more efficient processes used by factory owners. He opens up the document with the line, “This island is pre-eminent among civilized nations for the prodigious development of its factory wealth, and has been therefore long viewed with a jealous admiration by foreign powers.” In this statement, he is proclaiming that the other countries in Europe are jealous of the flourishing development that is going on in England. Even though many workers were unhappy with how these machines were shifting the English workforce, Ure represents the part of society that loved what the industrial revolution meant for his country. With machines doing most of the work in factories, the demand for strenuous physical labor for skilled workers in these factories was much smaller. Contrary to the belief of the workers who were out of jobs, Ure states, “every improvement in machinery to supersede human labor altogether, or to diminish its cost, by substituting the industry of women and children for that of men; or that of ordinary laborers for trained artisans.” This meant that costs for factory owners would diminish as they could now hire workers who would be able to work for a much smaller price and would not have to work nearly as hard as pre-industrial revolution workers did. This benefited the manufacturers who owned the factories in great ways – even leading to a new class of wealthy individuals in England. Although this created another example of the divide in wealth that much of Europe was experiencing at the time, it showed that a more industrialized economy could create opportunities for people to innovate and move their way up in social status. 

The industrial revolution was a time of tremendous improvements in the efficiency of work and the ability of a country to move its economy forward. This document provides the storyline of how productive machines can be and looks forward to a more modern approach to efficiency and productivity within a workplace. A more industrialized economy helped to contribute to England having the largest GDP in the world during the 19th century, and Andrew Ure was very enthusiastic about what this would mean for the future of England.