Olivia Lynch
Paul Evans
Modern Europe
9/23/21

Why was this document written?

I chose the question, Why was this document written, from “The philosophy of Manufactures” written in 1835 by Andrew Ure. Andrew Ure wrote a persuasive book to the workers regarding the social and physical hindrances of factory life and how machinery would help alleviate some pain. He claims that factory workers’ bodies are fatigued due to extensive labor, and he believed the most virtuous thing about factory production would be removing human dexterity and replacing it with factory workers overlooking the machines instead of skilled labor. He also works to inform them that this is the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, and while it may feel like it’s taking jobs away, it increases the demand for fuel which increases jobs that involve fuel, such as engineers, coal miners, railroad builders, sailors, and shipbuilders, and it promotes building transportation vessels, so new jobs are actually being created that the factory workers could go to. He has three major claims, one being that new products that may or may not have been able to be created, will now be easily created due to the fast pace uniform product. He also states that The quantity of products is greater while time remains constant, and the skill of any human is unmatched to the machine’s, especially considering time management and cost efficiency. He said, “by the cheapness and steadiness of their action, fabricate cheap goods, and procure in their exchange a liberal supply of necessaries and comforts of life produced in foreign lands.” With these machines, the product that they’re producing will create large sums of supply, therefore become cheaper to the average consumer.His opinion is unpopular in the eyes of most factory workers, because it negatively affects them in most aspects. They enjoy their skill work, need the money, and the prospect of teaching their young, but Andrew wants to convince them all that machinery replacing skilled labor is actually beneficial to the workers, and will soothe their bodies and minds and be overall more productive, cost efficient, and thorough. While the industrial revolution had many benefits to most merchants and the factory owners, it tended to wreak havoc on many lives of artisans, farmers and small shop workers, so Ure is attempting to persuade the people that machinery is actually a good thing. The industrial revolution and incorporation of machinery might have been beneficial economically for factory owners and merchants, but it can be argued that Ure was writing this persuasive document because he needed to convince workers that it was a good investment  when he actually knew that it was dangerous and took jobs. The machinery was an overall new, fast paced advancement that took work away from many, and had many fatalities because of how dangerous it was. Most of the workers feared the fast pace that the merchants and owners enforced and they didn’t stand with the child labor the machinery caused, so he knew he had plenty of convincing to do, and he probably took a gentle approach because he wouldn’t want there to be riots or have workers quit.