Second Industrial Revolution - Socioeconomic Impacts

Socioeconomic Impacts

The period from 1870 to 1890 saw the greatest increase in economic growth in such a short period as ever in previous history. Living standards improved significantly in the newly industrialized countries as the prices of goods fell dramatically due to the increases in productivity. This caused unemployment and great upheavals in commerce and industry, with many laborers being displaced by machines and many factories, ships and other forms of fixed capital becoming obsolete in a very short time span.

“The economic changes that have occurred during the last quarter of a century -or during the present generation of living men- have unquestionably been more important and more varied than during any period of the world’s history”.

Crop failures no longer resulted in starvation in areas served by railroads and inland waterways.

Proving the germ theory of disease led to improved public health and sanitation. Measures were taken to insure safety of public water supply, including chlorination. This greatly reduced the infection and death rates from many diseases.

By 1870 the work done by steam engines exceeded that done by animal and human power. Horses and mules remained important in agriculture until the development of the tractor near the end of the second Industrial Revolution.

The improvements in steam engine efficiencies, like triple expansion, allowed ships to carry much more freight than coal, resulting in greatly increased volumes of international trade. Higher steam engine efficiency caused the number of steam engines to increase several fold, leading to an increase in coal usage, the phenomenon being called the Jevons paradox.

By 1890 there was an international telegraph network allowing orders to be placed by merchants in England or the US to suppliers in India and China for goods to be transported in efficient new steamships. This, plus the opening of the Suez Canal, led to the decline of the great warehousing districts in London and elsewhere, and the elimination of many middlemen.

The tremendous growth in productivity, transportation networks, industrial production and agricultural output lowered the prices of almost all goods. This led to many business failures and periods that were called depressions that occurred as the world economy actually grew. See also: Long depression

The factory system centralized production in separate buildings funded and directed by specialists (as opposed to work at home). The division of labor made both unskilled and skilled labor more productive, and led to a rapid growth of population in industrial centers. By the estimate of historian H. C. Cuzins (of the BHS Foundation), the industrial working class was nearly a third of the US population around the start of the 20th century. Like the first industrial revolution, the second supported population growth and saw most governments (not including Britain) protect their national economies with tariffs. The wide-ranging social impact of both revolutions included the remaking of the working class as new technologies appeared. The creation of a larger, increasingly professional, middle class, the decline of child labor and the dramatic growth of a consumer-based, material culture.

By 1900, the leaders in industrial production were the US with 24% of the world total, followed by Britain (19%), Germany (13%), Russia (9%) and France (7%). Europe together accounted for 62%.

The great inventions and innovations of the Second Industrial Revolution are part of our modern life. They continued to be drivers of the economy until after WWII. Only a few major innovations occurred in the post-war era, some of which are: computers, semiconductors, the fiber optic network and the Internet, cellular telephones, combustion turbines (jet engines) and the Green Revolution. Although commercial aviation existed before WWII, it became a major industry after the war.