The First Industrialists: The Problem of OriginsThe 'first industrialists' were the pioneers and leaders of the British Industrial Revolution, the men who founded factories and other large establishments, which were typical of the new economic system. They had a number of precursors since the sixteenth century, but, on the whole, they were a new breed, which emerged in the late eighteenth century. They were markedly different from the leaders of traditional industry. This book is focused on the social and occupational origins of those founders of modem British industry: what kind of families did they come from? What was their occupation before they set up as industrialists? In discussing these and other issues, this study (based on Professor Crouzet's 1983 Ellen McArthur Lectures) makes an important contribution to the problem of social mobility during the Industrial Revolution. |
Contents
A New Man | 1 |
The Precursors | 20 |
The Myth of the SelfMade Man | 37 |
Building up a Sample | 50 |
Noblemen and Gentlemen in Industry | 68 |
From Rags to Riches | 85 |
The Middle Class in Industry | 99 |
Insiders and Outsiders | 116 |
The SelfMade Man Again? | 126 |
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Common terms and phrases
Arkwright became Bolton Boulton and Watt Britain brothers capital clothiers Coleman Cotton Industry cotton mills Cotton Trade cotton-spinners Development Early Factory Masters EcHR Economic History employees engineering England English entrepreneurs established factory system farmer father firms fortune founders Genesis Gentlemen Merchants gentry Glasgow hand Honeyman idem included indus Industrial Revolution industrialists Iron and Steel iron industry ironmasters ironworks James James Nasmyth John labour Lancashire land landowners large numbers late eighteenth later Leeds London machine-makers manager Manchester Mantoux manufacturers Mathias Matthew Boulton merchant-manufacturers middle class Midlands Moreover nineteenth century occupations Origins of Enterprise owners partners partnership Pollard Potteries powerloom Richard Arkwright Richard Crawshay Robert Owen S.D. Chapman sample Samuel Samuel Garbett Scotland Scottish self-made Smout social Society sons South Wales spinners spinning started Steel Industry T.S. Ashton Table Textile Textile Industry Thomas Tobacco Lords trialists Wadsworth and Mann William Wilson Woollen Industry workman workshops yeoman