Industrious Vs. Industrial Revolution
This proposed Industrious Revolution does not aim to replace the Industrial Revolution in history; rather it is designed to supplement it. By revamping the history of the period directly preceding the Industrial Revolution, some historians hope to ensure that people get a better understanding of a particular aspect of the Early Modern Period.
The basic picture painted of the pre-Industrial Revolution is that the Industrial Revolution was the result of a surplus of money and crops, which led to the development of new technology. This new technology eventually developed into factories. The Industrious Revolution addresses this belief, saying instead, that the overwhelming desire for more goods directly preceded the Industrial Revolution. The theory states that during the Industrious Revolution there was an increase in demand for goods, but that supply did not rise as quickly.
Eventually some achievements of industry and agriculture, as well as the decisions made by households, helped to increase the supply, as well as the demand for goods. These behaviours, when combined constitute an Industrious Revolution. A quick summation of the differences between the Industrious Revolution and the Industrial Revolution is that the former is concerned with demand, and the latter is supply based. The right mindset to a productional economy and world may have increased the supply of technology, but they would have had little impact on invention without a demand for new techniques.
The theory of an Industrious Revolution, as put forward by historian Jan de Vries, claims that there were two parts to the Industrious Revolution. First, there was a reduction of leisure time as the utility of monetary income rose. Second, the focus of labour shifted from goods and services to marketable goods.
Some within the field of cultural history have theorized that a further motive for an industrious revolution is a shift in the view on what it takes for an individual to be considered independent. Independence was equated with land ownership prior to an industrious revolution. Wage earners were granted a degraded and dependent status. Typically, as in the case of pre-industrial Great Britain and America, these dependent sorts were deemed unworthy of full citizenship rights. Industrious revolutions shift the meaning of independence from land-holding to earning a competency. A wage earner could now be considered independent if he/she earned enough money to support a household. Hard work was viewed as essential for reaching this goal.
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Famous quotes containing the words industrious, industrial and/or revolution:
“If a man walk in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer; but if he spends his whole day as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making earth bald before her time, he is esteemed an industrious and enterprising citizen. As if the town had no interest in its forests but to cut them down!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Adulthood is the ever-shrinking period between childhood and old age. It is the apparent aim of modern industrial societies to reduce this period to a minimum.”
—Thomas Szasz (b. 1920)
“Every revolution was first a thought in one man’s mind, and when the same thought occurs in another man, it is the key to that era.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)