The Industrial Revolution gave rise to a new system for the production of goods known as the factory system and as a result, thousands of factories sprung up throughout Britain in the late 18th to early 19th century. Despite the apparent benefits of increased production and employment, many factory owners took advantage of the lack of regulations regarding the running of these factories and exploited the labour of children as they could be paid up to 20 percent less than their adult counterparts. The children, often as young as five, worked up to 16-hour shifts in horrible conditions, often risking serious injury. Eventually, people began to realise how awful the conditions were and became strongly opposed to the use of child labour in the
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With this in mind, it can be observed that as well as making enforcement of the regulations possible, the inspectorate also provided a constant source of reliable information to the Government and those opposed to child labour regarding the conditions of workers in industries. This lead to the short-term effect of the issue of factory reforms being publicly aired, which resulted in a complete shift in the ethical view of child labour, which paved the way for the long-term effect of the eventual abolishment of child labour in most developed countries by the mid 1900’s. Another pivotal point of this act was the introduction of two hours compulsory schooling for each child each day. Prior to this, only members of Britain’s upper class could afford to send their children to schools and by referring to figure one, it can be seen that the illiteracy rate for both men and women was between 40 and 60% around 1800. By 1850 however, seventeen years after the introduction of the act, the rate of illiteracy had decreased to between 45 and 30%. The act also made it illegal for children under the age of nine to work in the factories throughout Britain; this resulted in the percentage of workers under 13 decrease from between 15 to 20 percent in the early 1800s to 4.6 percent in the 1850’s (British Parliamentary Report (1819,1834) ,British census (1904)). In conclusion, the factory act of 1833 had a slow but positive effect on the education and working conditions of children in the industrial
With this in mind, it can be observed that as well as making enforcement of the regulations possible, the inspectorate also provided a constant source of reliable information to the Government and those opposed to child labour regarding the conditions of workers in industries. This lead to the short-term effect of the issue of factory reforms being publicly aired, which resulted in a complete shift in the ethical view of child labour, which paved the way for the long-term effect of the eventual abolishment of child labour in most developed countries by the mid 1900’s. Another pivotal point of this act was the introduction of two hours compulsory schooling for each child each day. Prior to this, only members of Britain’s upper class could afford to send their children to schools and by referring to figure one, it can be seen that the illiteracy rate for both men and women was between 40 and 60% around 1800. By 1850 however, seventeen years after the introduction of the act, the rate of illiteracy had decreased to between 45 and 30%. The act also made it illegal for children under the age of nine to work in the factories throughout Britain; this resulted in the percentage of workers under 13 decrease from between 15 to 20 percent in the early 1800s to 4.6 percent in the 1850’s (British Parliamentary Report (1819,1834) ,British census (1904)). In conclusion, the factory act of 1833 had a slow but positive effect on the education and working conditions of children in the industrial