The Condition of the Working Class in England · Chapter
The Industrial Proletariat explained
This chapter outlines the structure of the industrial proletariat, tracing its origins to manufacture and the industrial revolution.
What happens
This chapter outlines the structure of the industrial proletariat, tracing its origins to manufacture and the industrial revolution. It explains how manufacture centralizes property and population, leading to the growth of great towns, the annihilation of the petty middle class, and the formation of a working class. The chapter sets the stage for examining the conditions of different worker sections, noting that factory hands are the most enlightened and form the nucleus of the Labour Movement.
Themes in this chapter
Industrial Capitalism
Manufacture centralizes property and creates the working class, driven by division of labor, steam, and machinery.
Class Conflict
The annihilation of the petty middle class and the polarization into rich capitalists and poor workers.
Urban Poverty and Housing
Growth of great towns concentrates the proletariat, where the influence of manufacture is most clearly seen.
Characters to notice
- Unknown
The narrator provides the analytical framework for understanding the industrial proletariat.
- The English
Referenced as the society experiencing the industrial changes and the Labour Movement.
Key passages
“The first proletarians were connected with manufacture, were engendered by it, and accordingly, those employed in manufacture, in the working up of raw materials, will first claim our attention.”
The earliest workers came from manufacturing, and we will first study those who process raw materials.
Introduction to the structure of the proletariat.
“Manufacture, on a small scale, created the middle-class; on a large scale, it created the working-class, and raised the elect of the middle-class to the throne, but only to overthrow them the more surely when the time comes.”
Small-scale manufacturing built the middle class, while large-scale manufacturing created the working class and elevated some capitalists, only to eventually destroy them.
The dual role of manufacture in class formation.
“The greater the town, the greater its advantages.”
Bigger cities offer more benefits, such as infrastructure and skilled labor.
Explanation of urban centralization.