Question: Robert Owen - the case continues
Owen actively managed the links between his business and the wider world. On buying the mills he quickly became part of the Glasgow business establishment, and was closely involved in the activities of the Chamber of Commerce. He took a prominent role in the social and political life of the city. He used these links in particular to argue the case for reforms in the educational and economic systems, and was critical of the effect that industrialisation was having upon working-class life. Owen believed that education in useful skills would help to release working-class children from poverty. He provided a nursery for workers' children over one-year old, allowing both parents to continue working, and promoted the case for wider educational provision.
He also developed several experiments in co-operation and community building, believing that the basis of his successful capitalist enterprise at New Lanark (education, good working conditions and a harmonious community) could be applied to society as a whole. These attempts to establish new communities (at New Harmony in Indiana, the US, and at Harmony in Hampshire, England) cost him a great deal of money but soon failed (Royle, 1998), because of difficulties over admission, finance and management processes. More broadly, he sought new ways of organising the economy to raise wages and protect jobs, at a time of severe business fluctuations. In 1815 he persuaded allies in Parliament to propose a bill making it illegal for children under the age of 10 to work in mills. It would also have limited their working hours to 10 a day. The measure met strong opposition from mill owners and a much weaker measure became law in 1819
Case questions 2.5
1· Draw a systems diagram detailing the main inputs, transformation and outputs of Robert Owen's mill.
2· What assumptions did Owen make about the difference between running a business and running a community?