The Textile Industry after the Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution can be seen as one of those eras that resulted in a great number of progresses, problems, and promises overall. From the multitude of progresses that helped people to advance with new successes and acquired achievements to the situations and standards that raised issues or created problems, on a broad spectrum there was plenty of change.

It’s commonly agreed upon that the Industrial Revolution brought forth many positive changes in general but more specifically, there were several progresses just within the textile industry. One benefit from working with the early textile industry was it opened up some new job opportunities. According to the Prentice Hall World History: Connections to Today textbook, around the 1600’s, cotton cloth was getting pretty popular. At the time, it was mainly being imported from India but British merchants wanted to stay wanted to stay on top of that matter so they designed something called the “putting out system.” This was where they would distribute raw cotton to peasant families, paying them to spin it into thread and weaving that into cloth. However, the putting out system was going slow so people started designing and creating new machinery and other inventions to help speed up the processes in the textile business. Some of these new progress producing inventions included: John Kay’s “Flying Shuttle”, according to concordiashanghai.org was invented in 1733, which helped weavers to weave thread; James Hargreaves’ “Spinning Jenny,” invented in 1764, could spin many threads at the same time; and Richard Arkwright’s “Water Frame,” developed around 1771, that could conduct the spinning process using water power. This machinery soon effected what was available to consumers. Th...

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... The workers, having an important part in this industry, were exposed to long hours, very dangerous working conditions, and sometimes very low pay. There was a positive effect from those horrid conditions, though, because some of the first labor laws were created. These labor laws are even commonly used today.

Overall, you can’t deny that the textile industry of the Industrial Revolution created remarkable progress, problems, and promises. Some of the results were great and pleasant, others were not so much. However, in the end, I feel that it was all required to get as far and well off as we are today in society. Now all that’s left is for you to decide that for yourself.

Works Cited

Ellis, Elisabeth Gaynor., Anthony Esler, and Burton F. Beers. Prentice Hall World History: Connections to Today : The Modern Era. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2001. Print