The Industrial Revolution was a time of transformation throughout Europe, starting in England. The mass change from having workers manufacture different items by hand, to having machinery that could manufacture items that couldn’t be made by hand and did so with ease, was a huge development. The Industrial Revolution introduced new ways of living and working, which triggered a transformation in society as a whole. Merchants and factory owners praised the new machinery whilst many workers found the machines to be taking their jobs and extremely tiring to work. In the document written by Andrew Ure, “The Philosophy of the Manufacturers” (1835), Ure looks into the cotton industry and argues that the Industrial Revolution was a great development because it relieved workers of the difficulties of crafting items by hand. The storyline of the document includes statements from Ure in defense towards machinery and all of the different benefits from the Industrial Revolution. 

Andrew Ure starts by discussing the Industrial Revolution and all of the benefits that came out of it. Ure’s philosophy on the Industrial Revolution highlights the opinions and interests of England’s business owners; he himself comes from a wealthy family which most likely had an influence on his opinion. The business owners were a newly established class in British society, they gained their wealth from the introduction of machines and factories that brought the Industrial Revolution. 

Ure encouraged the workers to look towards the “bright side” of all the industrial change that was going on as it was more beneficial than harmful towards them. Ure dives into detail on how the steam engines that were developed made their jobs “easier” for the workers in factories. The workers stressed that the machinery was not only taking their jobs, but also giving them little to no breaks. In response to the workers’ issues, Ure states that the breaks they took in the pre-industrial era made work less efficient and lowered their productivity/pay. Conditions were improving for the working people according to Ure, even though he had never set foot into a factory. Ure gave us his personal insight into how the workers were treated and their daily routines saying they were getting educated and well fed.

High skilled workers (for example; weavers) demand higher wages and are harder to work with, according to Ure. The elimination of the high skilled workers causes an increase in cost for manufactured goods which benefits the companies/economy as a whole. He believes that as machinery continues to develop, the wages for less skilled workers will rise and all the workers will have to do is overlook the machines, “….but on the automatic plan, skilled labour gets progressively superseded, and will, eventually, be replaced by mere overlookers of machines.”  The less skilled workers include women and children.  

The overall storyline of the document is Ure discussing all of the benefits that workers and the country received from the Industrial Revolution as a whole. Workers were able to receive higher wages by simply overlooking the machines and did not need to have high skills to work them.