“The Philosophy of the Manufacturers” was written by Andrew Ure in 1835. Andrew Ure was a taught at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, and was a supporter of the new manufacturing system. In his writing he goes on to describe how outstanding and supreme Scotland’s factory wealth is in comparison to other societies. But he then shares how influential members of their society make allegations that go against this new system. He utters the fact that a large majority of the public believe that these new strides in the industrial era have been only for the benefit of the rich capitalists who exploit the poor working class for their financial gain. When in reality, it is benefitting the working class by not having them do so much strenuous work day in and day out. Ure continues his writing by giving many examples as to why these scientific strides are of such greatness in their society. One example he shares involves the cotton wheel, and how much time and effort this new wheel adds in comparison to just manual labor.

Andrew Ure dives into many of the pros that come along with this revolution. He first goes on to share how much money the machines can save the factory owner. This is because the owner would not longer have to pay top dollar for a highly skilled artisan to do the work, but instead, pay very little for a regular worker to just look over the machine that is doing the work. The overall goal of this mechanical revolution is to diminish the cost of labor, or get rid of physical labor as a whole. It also has the ability to diminish the population of men in the working class, and replace them with children and teenagers. The idea of this is that these new potential members of the working class are younger which means they are more nimble. Also because they are so young, they can be paid a lot lower than the average male at the time, resulting in more money saved. Now that the younger members of the family can work, this can be beneficial to the working class families because now they have more sources of income that can help provide for their family.

Andrew Ure ends his writing by describing the significance the steam-engines can have on society. The steam engines create a new demand in the economy, which is fuel. Because this demand is drastically increasing, it helps grow the economy overall. Not only is the demand for fuel benefitting the economy, but it is also creating new jobs for the working class which helps the workers and helps the economy grow. The steam engine also provides good for the public at a very cheap price. Although it may seem bad how the steam engine was for the environment, it allowed the clearing of land a lot faster when compared to horses, which allowed people to to cultivate and produce their own means of goods which can support them and the means of economy.