The History of England - a Study in Political EvolutionPollard, A. F. (Albert Frederick)
History
The History of England - a Study in Political Evolution
Pollard, A. F. (Albert Frederick)
Great Britain -- History; Great Britain -- Politics and government
This does not mean that no duties are imposed on exports or imports; it
simply means that such duties as are levied are imposed for the sake of
revenue, and to protect neither the consumer from the export of
commodities he desires to purchase, nor the manufacturer from the
import of those he wishes to make. The great interests connected with
land and manufactures had ceased to hang together, and fell separately.
Protection of manufactured goods did not long survive the successful
attack which manufacturers had levelled against the protected produce
of the landlords and the farmers. The repeal of the Navigation Acts
rounded off the system; British shipping, indeed, needed no protection,
but the admission of colonial goods free of duty and the removal of the
embargo on their trade with foreign countries may not have compensated
the colonies for the loss of their preference in the British market.
The whole trend of affairs, however, both conscious and unconscious,
was to make the world one vast hive of industry, instead of an infinite
number of self-sufficient, separate hives; the village market had
expanded into the provincial market, the provincial into the national,
the national into the imperial, and the imperial into the world market.
We have not by any means exhausted the results of the Industrial
Revolution, and most of our social problems may be traced directly or
indirectly to this source. Its most general effect was to emphasize and
exaggerate the tendency towards specialization. Not only have most
workers now but one kind of work; that work becomes a smaller and
smaller part of increasingly complex industrial processes; and
concentration thereon makes it more and more difficult for the worker
to turn to other labour, if his employment fails. The specialist's lack
of all-round capacity is natural and notorious. Hence most serious
results follow the slightest dislocation of national economy. This
specialization has also important psychological effects. A farmer, with
his varied outdoor occupations, feels little craving for relief and
relaxation. The factory hand, with his attention riveted for hours at a
stretch on the wearisome iteration of machinery, requires recreation
and distraction: naturally he is a prey to unwholesome stimulants, such
as drink, betting, or the yellow press. The more educated and morally
restrained, however, seek intellectual stimulus, and the modern popular
demand for culture arises largely from the need of something to relieve
the grey monotony of industrial labour.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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