Arias-Millan – The Philosophy of Manufacturers

What is the storyline? The author highlights important improvements that came through to manufacturing with the Industrial Revolution. He writes on the views of a new class, the bourgeoisie, which comes from the owners of factories. He implied that it was good that machines took over hard manual labor because it created relief for people. He states all the ways mechanical manufacturing is an improvement and suggests that factories should replace all manual labor with machines to improve operations and conditions in factories, considering only the pros not the cons for the experience of the workers. He describes the planned evolution of factories hoping that in the future, the skill will not be needed in order to work in factories but this will be replaced with his vision that machines will take over factories and workers will only supervise operations. This will be beneficial to workers because they will no longer work tediously by hand. This will in turn reduce costs of operations because owners will not have to pay skilled workers but machines can be operated by children and women for a lower wage resulting in lower costs altogether, saving money for the factory owners. His view is in favor of the factory system and the bourgeoisie, not taking into account the injustices suffered by the working class but only focusing on the growth of the new social class and the factory system. The Industrial Revolution brought Great Britain to be one of the wealthiest nations in the world and the author simply tries to suggest how the nation needs to act so that its economy can continue to grow while also influencing other nations. The nation became wealthy with the power the factories obtained through the industrial revolution. It is obvious that other nations were jealous of the level of growth Britain had achieved and they wanted to compete with them so the author gives advice through this document and states the philosophies other nations needed to grasp to grow as Britain did. Not only nations but other people from the bourgeoisie which was mainly their role to grow the nation’s economy through the author’s ideas. The author points out the things that benefit the country as a whole, such as an overall increase in wealth and greater productivity in operations. he did not pay attention to what a lot of workers had been complaining about which is how little they were paid and the conditions in where they worked and lived. He argues that factory workers were actually better off under industrialization because they wouldn’t work for skill and because they would be living off in small land or as farmers like how many used to live. He gave examples of how the Industrial Revolution has made worker’s lives easier for example the steam engines and textile, and wool makers. In the end, he repeats the improvements that machinery would bear, making it possible to fabricate difficult and tedious items, a greater operative turnout keeping constant time, money, and labor, and also the replacement of skilled for unskilled workers. 

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