Assignment Task:
With specific reference to the sources below and what you have learned about the Industrial Revolution, how did the implementation of laissez-faire capitalism and limited government result in advantages and disadvantages for European society in the 19th century?
Source 1:
Until the Industrial Revolution swung into action full force, it was typically the aristocratic people in society who benefitted from comfort and convenience. Thanks to mass production, lower costs, and greater availability, people in the working class could obtain more items while still having money left to save for other things. Even though there were some poor working conditions at the time, it became possible for a majority of families to start building wealth of their own.
Source 2:
Although Oliver had enough to occupy his attention in keeping sight of his leader, he could not help bestowing a few hasty glances on either side of the way, as he passed along. A dirtier or more wretched place he had never seen. The street was very narrow and muddy, and the air was impregnated with filthy odours. There were a good many small shops; but the only stock in trade appeared to be heaps of children, who, even at that time of night, were crawling in and out at the doors, or screaming from the inside. The sole places that seemed to prosper amid the general blight of the place, were the public-houses; and in them, the lowest orders of Irish were wrangling with might and main. Covered ways and yards, which here and there diverged from the main street, disclosed little knots of houses, where drunken men and women were positively wallowing in filth; and from several of the door-ways, great ill-looking fellows were cautiously emerging, bound, to all appearance, on no very well-disposed or harmless errands.
- Charles Dickens in Oliver Twist