“What is the story line?”

In Andrew Ure’s, “The Philosophy of the Manufacturers”, Ure introduces industrialization as a positive and important advancement for society. In context to this piece, England was experiencing the brink of the Indusrial Revolution, causing controversy throughout English society. Ure reasons back and fourth between various opposing viewpoints and concerns set fourth by society at the time, settling his supportive stance on industrialization. One of the predominant aspects of Industrialization that Ure argues is the lessening of physical strain on workers – improving both health of the employee but also productivity in the factories. Throughout this document, Ure effectively argues his opinion in support of industrialization. 

From the start of the story line, Ure uses persuasive language to portray the state of industrialization at the time in a positive sense. He states that England’s industrialization is

“viewed with a jealous admiration by foreign powers”, attempting to prove a sense of superiority associated with Industrialization. Soon after, Ure begins posing different oppositions to his opinion along with rebuttals for these common oppositions. He writes that Industrialization is being “accused of lending itself to the rich capitalists as an instrument for harassing the poor”, and claims that this concern is untrue. Rather than Industrialization hurting the poorer working class citizens, Ure feels that it lessens the burdens of manual labor for these laborers. Pre-industrialization, workers worked long and strenuous hours to earn their wages – often times damaging their physical well being. Ure plays into the aspect of physical wellbeing of the workers as he repeatedly mentions “muscular fatigue” and work that is “exhausting to the mind and fatiguing to the eyes”. He poses industrialization as a solution to these matters, as factory machinery will replace the need for strenuous physical labor. With health in mind, he is purposly dislaying sympathy for factory workers pre-industrialization. With concern for their health, he likely hopes to gain trust of the workers. Additionally, he points out that the replacement of physical labor will cause more effient use of work hours. While a laborer may require breaks between work hours due to fatigue, a machine would not. In this sense, Ure argues that machinery will make up for the lost time and production of the needed physical labor breaks pre-industrialization. 

Soon after these points, Ure references silk mills, which were adapted much earlier but fall in line with the industrialized nature of the current factory system. In this reference, Ure draws a parallel between silk mills and the industrialization period. Before the scientific discovery of silk mills, silk could only be derived from worms. However, the invention of the mill, which at this point in time was widely normalized and accepted, is an earlier example of industrialization. Using examples like this which are applicable to the reader’s time frame makes his argument more personal to his audience. Since his audience at the time likely viewed silk mills in a comfortable sense, this comparison would make the concept of industrialization less daunting. 

Moving to the last few paragraphs of the piece, Ure brings mention to how Industrialization would shift this demographic as well as the benefits of steam engines. He stresses the concept of machinery acting as a substitute for various tasks and laborers. Ure views the men who would previously preform manual labor with higher potential, pointing towards the societal view of women and children from this time period. He suggests that men are better fit in higher positions where their mental capacity can be better used, as they are less fit to be a “component of a mechanical system”. By placing women and children into simplified factory job settings and dispensing male laborers elsewhere, the factory owners can save great amounts of money as far as wages which would’ve been paid to these men. Finally, he stresses the benefits of steam engines – mentioning how they can create new jobs in several industries as well as produce more for lesser expenses. With all the arguments Ure compiles, he clearly is very passionately pro-industrialization.