The Effects of Improvement

The Effects of Improvement

In 19th century Manchester the growth of Manchester was beneficial for the economy and the people living outside of Manchester, but for the people of Manchester it made their city polluted and made the death rates incline. The people outside of Manchester saw the growth of Manchester as beneficial for everyone. The economy was expanding because of the large production of supplies. The people of Manchester saw a different side. Their city was being polluted because of the multiple factories.

The death rates inclined from the intense hours that the people of Manchester were demand to work.

After 1780, which was when the first cotton mill was built, the city had a boom. Manchester became the leading textile manufacturing center. By 1851 Manchester’s population was seventeen times larger than their original. The majority of the population was made of working class citizens and immigrants. The city needed the immigrants and workers so that the factories demand for supply would be met. In 1851 Manchester received a royal charter.

Between 1750 and 1850 Manchester nearly tripled in size. In 1750 their were no canals or railroads, but in 1850 there is an intricate system of transportation.(doc.1)The canals and railroads allowed the products being made in the city to be exported quickly. This paved the way for the factories to increase in size. The vast production of goods that were being sent out of Manchester helped other cities. “People live longer because they are better fed, better lodged, better clothed and better attended to sickness(doc.3).” Says liberal Member of Parliament anc historían, Thomas B. Macaulay. Since Mr. Macaulay was a Member of Parliament it gives his testament more weight then a lower class member, but this also shows that Mr. Macaulay may be bias. Many people in Manchester were stating how they felt like their beautiful city has been destroyed, but Mr. Macaulay’s reply was simple.

“Do you think that the English peasantry live, or ever lived in substantial and ornamented cottages, with box-hedges, flower-gardens, beehives and orchards?(doc.3).” Mr. Macaulay’s reply does make a good point. Did the peasants ever live in a sustainable environment? Wheelan And Co. says “Not even London, presents such remarkable and attractive features as Manchester, the Workshop of the World(doc.9).” Since wheelan and co. is a business it also shows bias. Wouldn’t a business benefit from a boom like Manchester? William Alexander says “The condition of the factory laborers has been vastly improved within the last quarter of a century. The Hours of Labor in Factories Act, passed in 1844, worked a thorough reform. The excessive hours of labor have been legally reduced to ten hours per day(doc. 10).” William Alexander Abram was a journalist so he had no benefits of saying that things are getting better, but he still acknowledged that there was a problem and that in was only starting to be addressed in 1844 when it started around 1780.

When the Manchester boom of 1780 occurred the people of Manchester thought that it would be good for them. When the boom actually had the opposite effect. English poet Robert Southey said “A place more destitute than Manchester is not easy to conceive. In size and population it is the second city of the kingdom. Imagine this multitude crowded together in narrow streets, the houses all built of brick and blackened with smoke: frequent buildings among them as large as convents, without their antiquity, without their beauty(doc.2).”

Manchester was ruined because of the factories and the death rates increased because of the bad working conditions. People would have to work for days at a time “when the bell rings, it is to call the wretches to their work instead of their prayers(doc.2).” When French visitor, Alexis de Tocqueville visited the city of Manchester he observed that man has become so power hungry that “a civilized man is turned back into a savage(doc.5).” The point of view from a visitor is very important he had no bias and was just seeing things from an outsiders point of view. People we’re getting sick and dying. The majority of the civilization didn’t live past 17(doc.8). Public health reformer, Edwin Chadwick, said “Diseases caused or aggravated by atmospheric impurities produced by decomposing animal and vegetable substances, by damp and filth, and close and overcrowded dwellings, prevail among the laboring classes. The annual loss of life from filth and bad ventilation is greater than the loss from death or wounds in modern wars(doc.6).”

In 19th century Manchester the growth of Manchester was beneficial for the economy and the people living outside of Manchester, but for the people of Manchester it made their city polluted and made the death rates incline. The people outside of Manchester saw the growth of Manchester as beneficial for everyone. The economy was expanding because of the large production of supplies. The people of Manchester saw that their city was being polluted because of the multiple factories.

The death rates inclined from the intense hours that the people of Manchester were demand to work. The perfect example is that people in India are currently slaving away in the dangerous and deadly mines so that we can have iphones, but without them slaving away we wouldn’t have cell phones. After seeing both sides of the story you have to think… is it better to have good things happen to us at the cost of others or is it better for things to not improve, but no one is being repressed?

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