Positive And Negative Effects Of The Industrial Revolution

Commencing from the establishment of the homemade steam machine, this era held newly-discovered proposals for inventions/innovations. The Industrial Revolution gave us energy-driven machinery in which it was used to develop new methods to replace manual labor, eventually triggering many short and long-term positive and negative effects.

Right off the bat, we should be mindful that the Industrial Revolution has caused a massive impact permanently on our daily lives, as it has become so casual we don’t take notice of it now. Back then during the Industrial Revolution, automation had just begun to replace manual labor, gradually increasing wages for the workers. Comparing this situation to our 21st Century, factories function mainly using automation, having employees to control the machinery. In the statement by the Cloth Merchants of Leeds, it was mentioned that “In the Manufacture of Woollens, the Scribbling Mill, the Spinning Frame, and the Fly Shuttle, have reduced manual Labour nearly One third, and each of them at its-first Introduction carried an Alarm to the Work People…” (Document B1). To go into more detail, in the same statement it was written that “...yet each has contributed to advance the Wages and to increase the Trade, so that if an Attempt was now made to deprive us of the Use of them, there is no Doubt, but every Person engaged in the Business, would exert himself to defend them.” (Document B1). These two pieces of evidences from Document B1 clarify why