Hand Labour and Steam Power


 
 
Concept Explanation
 

Hand Labour and Steam Power

Hand Labour and Steam Power: In Britain, there was no shortage of workers. Poor peasants and vagrants moved to the cities in search of jobs. Supply of workers was more than the demand, so workers were available at low wages. Moreover, the industrialists did not want to introduce machines that got rid of human labour and also required large capital investment.

In many industries, the demand for labour was seasonal. e.g. gas works and breweries, book binding and printing, ship repairing etc needed seasonal labour. The industrialists also preferred hand labour when it required. In Victorian Britain , the upper classes - the aristocrats and the bourgeoisie - preffered things produced by hand . Handmade products came to symbolize refinement and class . They were better finished , individually produced and carefully designed .Machine made goods were for exports to the colonies . 

Vagrants :- A person who has no home or job especially one who begs . 

Bourgeoisie :-  Middle class with its perceived materialistic values or conventional attitudes . 

 
 


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