vania-janet/multiturn-rag-retrieval-data huggingface dataset:
Industrial Revolution
The majority of textile factory workers during the Industrial Revolution were unmarried women and children , including many orphans . They typically worked for 12 to 14 hours per day with only Sundays off . It was common for women take factory jobs seasonally during slack periods of farm work . Lack of adequate transportation , long hours and poor pay made it difficult to recruit and maintain workers . Many workers , such as displaced farmers and agricultural workers , who had nothing but their labour to sell , became factory workers out of necessity . ( See : British Agricultural Revolution , Threshing machine )
Economy of England in the Middle Ages
The agricultural sector of the English economy , still by far the largest , was transformed by the Black Death . With the shortage of manpower after the Black Death , wages for agricultural labourers rapidly increased and continued to then grow steadily throughout the 15th century . As their incomes increased , labourers ' living conditions and diet improved steadily . A trend for labourers to eat less barley and more wheat and rye , and to replace bread in their diet with more meat , had been apparent since before the Black Death , but intensified during this later period . Nonetheless , England 's much smaller population needed less food and the demand for agricultural products fell . The position of the larger landowners became increasingly difficult . Revenues from demesne lands were diminishing as demand remained low and wage costs increased ; nobles were also finding it more difficult to raise revenue from their local courts , fines and privileges in the years after the Peasants Revolt of 1381 . Despite attempts to increase money rents , by the end of the 14th century the rents paid from peasant lands were also declining , with revenues falling as much as 55 % between the 1380s and 1420s .
Industrial Revolution
In terms of social structure , the Industrial Revolution witnessed the triumph of a middle class of industrialists and businessmen over a landed class of nobility and gentry . Ordinary working people found increased opportunities for employment in the new mills and factories , but these were often under strict working conditions with long hours of labour dominated by a pace set by machines . As late as the year 1900 , most industrial workers in the United States still worked a 10 - hour day ( 12 hours in the steel industry ) , yet earned from 20 % to 40 % less than the minimum deemed necessary for a decent life ; however , most workers in textiles , which was by far the leading industry in terms of employment , were women and children . Also , harsh working conditions were prevalent long before the Industrial Revolution took place . Pre-industrial society was very static and often cruel -- child labour , dirty living conditions , and long working hours were just as prevalent before the Industrial Revolution . Factories
Famine
In the 16th and 17th century , the feudal system began to break down , and more prosperous farmers began to enclose their own land and improve their yields to sell the surplus crops for a profit . These capitalist landowners paid their labourers with money , thereby increasing the commercialization of rural society . In the emerging competitive labour market , better techniques for the improvement of labour productivity were increasingly valued and rewarded . It was in the farmer 's interest to produce as much as possible on their land in order to sell it to areas that demanded that product . They produced guaranteed surpluses of their crop every year if they could .
Triangular trade
A 2017 study provides evidence for the hypothesis that the export of gunpowder technology to Africa increased the transatlantic slave trade by making it easier for Africans to enslave each other : `` A one percent increase in gunpowder set in motion a 5 - year gun - slave cycle that increased slave exports by an average of 50 % , and the impact continued to grow over time . ''
Age of Enlightenment
The increased consumption of reading materials of all sorts was one of the key features of the `` social '' Enlightenment . Developments in the Industrial Revolution allowed consumer goods to be produced in greater quantities at lower prices , encouraging the spread of books , pamphlets , newspapers and journals -- `` media of the transmission of ideas and attitudes '' . Commercial development likewise increased the demand for information , along with rising populations and increased urbanisation . However , demand for reading material extended outside of the realm of the commercial and outside the realm of the upper and middle classes , as evidenced by the Bibliothèque Bleue . Literacy rates are difficult to gauge , but in France the rates doubled over the course of the 18th century . Reflecting the decreasing influence of religion , the number of books about science and art published in Paris doubled from 1720 to 1780 , while the number of books about religion dropped to just one - tenth of the total .
Industrial Revolution
Some early spinning and weaving machinery , such as a 40 spindle jenny for about six pounds in 1792 , was affordable for cottagers . Later machinery such as spinning frames , spinning mules and power looms were expensive ( especially if water powered ) , giving rise to capitalist ownership of factories .
Gilded Age
Along with the mechanical improvements which greatly increased yield per unit area , the amount of land under cultivation grew rapidly throughout the second half of the century , as the railroads opened up new areas of the West for settlement . The wheat farmers enjoyed abundant output and good years from 1876 to 1881 when bad European harvests kept the world price high . They then suffered from a slump in the 1880s when conditions in Europe improved . The farther west the settlers went , the more dependent they became on the monopolistic railroads to move their goods to market , and the more inclined they were to protest , as in the Populist movement of the 1890s . Wheat farmers blamed local grain elevator owners ( who purchased their crop ) , railroads and eastern bankers for the low prices . This protest has now been attributed to the far increased uncertainty in farming due to its commercialisation , with monopolies , the gold standard and loans being simply visualisations of this risk .
Gilded Age
Railroads were the major growth industry , with the factory system , mining , and finance increasing in importance . Immigration from Europe and the eastern states led to the rapid growth of the West , based on farming , ranching , and mining . Labor unions became important in the very rapidly growing industrial cities . Two major nationwide depressions -- the Panic of 1873 and the Panic of 1893 -- interrupted growth and caused social and political upheavals . The South after the Civil War remained economically devastated ; its economy became increasingly tied to commodities , cotton and tobacco production , which suffered from low prices . With the end of the Reconstruction era in 1877 , African - American people in the South were stripped of political power and voting rights and were left economically disadvantaged .
Gilded Age
The rapid expansion of industrialization led to real wage growth of 60 % between 1860 and 1890 , spread across the ever - increasing labor force . Real wages ( adjusting for inflation ) rose steadily , with the exact percentage increase depending on the dates and the specific work force . The Census Bureau reported in 1892 that the average annual wage per industrial worker ( including men , women , and children ) rose from $380 in 1880 to $564 in 1890 , a gain of 48 % . Economic historian Clarence D. Long estimates that ( in terms of constant 1914 dollars ) , the average annual incomes of all American non-farm employees rose from $375 in 1870 to $395 in 1880 , $519 in 1890 and $573 in 1900 , a gain of 53 % in 30 years .
Atlantic slave trade
The basic reason for the constant shortage of labour was that , with large amounts of cheap land available and lots of landowners searching for workers , free European immigrants were able to become landowners themselves after a relatively short time , thus increasing the need for workers .
Industrial Revolution
A major change in the metal industries during the era of the Industrial Revolution was the replacement of wood and other bio-fuels with coal . For a given amount of heat , coal required much less labour to mine than cutting wood and converting it to charcoal , and coal was more abundant than wood .
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution concentrated labour into mills , factories and mines , thus facilitating the organisation of combinations or trade unions to help advance the interests of working people . The power of a union could demand better terms by withdrawing all labour and causing a consequent cessation of production . Employers had to decide between giving in to the union demands at a cost to themselves or suffering the cost of the lost production . Skilled workers were hard to replace , and these were the first groups to successfully advance their conditions through this kind of bargaining .
Economic history of the Netherlands (1500–1815)
This rapid industrialization may be indirectly illustrated by the rapid growth of the nonagricultural labor force and the increase in real wages during the same time ( which usually would have a negative correlation , instead of a positive one ) . In the half - century between 1570 and 1620 this labor supply increased 3 percent per annum , a truly phenomenal growth . Despite this , nominal wages were repeatedly increased , outstripping price increases . In consequence , real wages for unskilled laborers were 62 percent higher in 1615 -- 1619 than in 1575 -- 1579 . Fisheries
Industrial Revolution
The effects on living conditions the industrial revolution have been very controversial , and were hotly debated by economic and social historians from the 1950s to the 1980s . A series of 1950s essays by Henry Phelps Brown and Sheila V. Hopkins later set the academic consensus that the bulk of the population , that was at the bottom of the social ladder , suffered severe reductions in their living standards . During 1813 -- 1913 , there was a significant increase in worker wages . Food
Bradford
In 1825 the wool - combers union called a strike that lasted five - months but workers were forced to return to work through hardship leading to the introduction of machine - combing . This Industrial Revolution led to rapid growth , with wool imported in vast quantities for the manufacture of worsted cloth in which Bradford specialised , and the town soon became known as the wool capital of the world .
Atlantic slave trade
After 1791 , the British islands produced the most sugar , and the British people quickly became the largest consumers . West Indian sugar became ubiquitous as an additive to Indian tea . It has been estimated that the profits of the slave trade and of West Indian plantations created up to one - in - twenty of every pound circulating in the British economy at the time of the Industrial Revolution in the latter half of the 18th century .
Wales
In the late 18th century , slate quarrying began to expand rapidly , most notably in north Wales . The Penrhyn Quarry , opened in 1770 by Richard Pennant , was employing 15,000 men by the late 19th century , and along with Dinorwic Quarry , it dominated the Welsh slate trade . Although slate quarrying has been described as ' the most Welsh of Welsh industries ' , it is coal mining which has become the single industry synonymous with Wales and its people . Initially , coal seams were exploited to provide energy for local metal industries but , with the opening of canal systems and later the railways , Welsh coal mining saw a boom in its demand . As the south Wales coalfield was exploited , mainly in the upland valleys around Aberdare and later the Rhondda , the ports of Swansea , Cardiff and later Penarth , grew into world exporters of coal and , with them , came a population boom . By its height in 1913 , Wales was producing almost 61 million tons of coal . As well as in south Wales , there was also a significant coalfield in the north - east of the country , particularly around Wrexham . As Wales was reliant on the production of capital goods rather than consumer goods , it possessed few of the skilled craftspeople and artisans found in the workshops of Birmingham or Sheffield in England and had few factories producing finished goods -- a key feature of most regions associated with the Industrial Revolution . However , there is increasing support that the industrial revolution was reliant on harnessing the energy and materials provided by Wales and , in that sense , Wales was of central importance .
New Spain
In 1765 the crown created a monopoly on tobacco , which directly affected agriculture and manufacturing in the Veracruz region . Tobacco was a valuable , high demand product . Men , women , and even children smoked , something commented on by foreign travelers and depicted in eighteenth - century casta paintings . The crown calculated that tobacco could produce a steady stream of tax revenues by supplying the huge Mexican demand , so the crown limited zones of tobacco cultivation . It also established a small number of manufactories of finished products , and licensed distribution outlets ( estanquillos ) . The crown also set up warehouses to store up to a year 's worth of supplies , including paper for cigarettes , for the manufactories . With the establishment of the monopoly , crown revenues increased and there is evidence that despite high prices and expanding rates of poverty , tobacco consumption rose while at the same time general consumption fell .
Industrial Revolution
The causes of the Industrial Revolution were complicated and remain a topic for debate , with some historians believing the Revolution was an outgrowth of social and institutional changes brought by the end of feudalism in Britain after the English Civil War in the 17th century . The Enclosure movement and the British Agricultural Revolution made food production more efficient and less labour - intensive , forcing the farmers who could no longer be self - sufficient in agriculture into cottage industry , for example weaving , and in the longer term into the cities and the newly developed factories . The colonial expansion of the 17th century with the accompanying development of international trade , creation of financial markets and accumulation of capital are also cited as factors , as is the scientific revolution of the 17th century . A change in marrying patterns to getting married later made people able to accumulate more human capital during their youth , thereby encouraging economic development .
Economic history of the Netherlands (1500–1815)
The explosive growth in capital accumulation directly led to an equally explosive growth in investment in fixed capital for industries related to trade . Technological innovations like the wind - driven sawmill ( invented by Cornelis Corneliszoon ) , which significantly increased productivity in ship building , offered opportunities for profitable investment , as did the textile industries ( mechanized fulling , new draperies ) and other industries that made use of mechanization on the basis of wind power . This mechanization was based on yet another invention of Corneliszoon , for which he received a patent in 1597 : a type of crankshaft that converted the continuous rotational movement of the wind ( windmill ) or river ( water wheel ) into a reciprocating one . Shipbuilding
United States
Although the federal government criminalized the international slave trade in 1808 , after 1820 , cultivation of the highly profitable cotton crop exploded in the Deep South , and along with it , the slave population . The Second Great Awakening , especially 1800 -- 1840 , converted millions to evangelical Protestantism . In the North , it energized multiple social reform movements , including abolitionism ; in the South , Methodists and Baptists proselytized among slave populations . Map
Industrial Revolution
The method of continuous production demonstrated by the paper machine influenced the development of continuous rolling of iron and later steel and other continuous production processes .
Industrial Revolution
During the period 1790 -- 1815 Sweden experienced two parallel economic movements : an agricultural revolution with larger agricultural estates , new crops and farming tools and a commercialisation of farming , and a protoindustrialisation , with small industries being established in the countryside and with workers switching between agricultural work in summer and industrial production in winter . This led to economic growth benefiting large sections of the population and leading up to a consumption revolution starting in the 1820s .
Economic history of Argentina
As a result of the diversification in markets and products , Argentina managed to escape the trap of a single - staple economy and sustained its economic growth over six decades . The combined effect of declining prices of textiles and rising prices of livestock products produced dramatic improvements in the terms of trade , which rose 377 % between 1810 and 1825 in local prices . Several governors waged campaigns against the natives to increase the available lands , from Juan Manuel de Rosas to Julio Argentino Roca .
Mass production
Mass production permitted great increases in total production . Using a European crafts system into the late 19th century it was difficult to meet demand for products such as sewing machines and animal powered mechanical harvesters . By the late 1920s many previously scarce goods were in good supply . One economist has argued that this constituted `` overproduction '' and contributed to high unemployment during the Great Depression . Say 's law denies the possibility of general overproduction and for this reason classical economists deny that it had any role in the Great Depression .
Mechanised agriculture
Mechanization of Maine 's blueberry industry has reduced the number of migrant workers required from 5,000 in 2005 to 1,500 in 2015 even though production has increased from 50 - 60 million pounds per year in 2005 to 90 million pounds in 2015 .
History of the United Kingdom
Equality increased dramatically , as incomes declined sharply for the wealthy and for white collar workers , as their taxes soared , while blue collar workers benefited from rationing and price controls .
Panic of 1837
When New York banks raised interest rates and scaled back on lending , the effects were damaging . Since the price of a bond bears an inverse relationship to the yield ( or interest rate ) , the increase in prevailing interest rates would have forced down the price of American securities . Importantly , demand for cotton plummeted . The price of cotton fell by 25 % in February and March 1837 . The United States economy , especially in the southern states , was heavily dependent on stable cotton prices . Receipts from cotton sales provided funding for some schools , balanced the nation 's trade deficit , fortified the US dollar , and procured foreign exchange earnings in British pound sterling , the world 's reserve currency at the time . Since the United States was still a predominantly agricultural economy centered on the export of staple crops and an incipient manufacturing sector , a collapse in cotton prices would have caused massive reverberations .
Gilded Age
Despite their remarkable progress and general prosperity , 19th - century U.S. farmers experienced recurring cycles of hardship , caused primarily by falling world prices for cotton and wheat .
History of United States prison systems
The labor that convict lessees performed varied as the Southern economy evolved after the American Civil War . Ex-plantation owners were early beneficiaries , but emerging industrial capitalism ventures -- e.g. , phosphate mines and turpentine plants in Florida , railroads in Mississippi ( and across the South ) -- soon came to demand convict labor . The South experienced an acute labor shortage in the post-war years , Edward L. Ayers explains , and no pool of displaced agricultural laborers was available to feed the needs of factory owners , as they had been in England and on the Continent .
Industrial Revolution
Until the 1980s , it was universally believed by academic historians that technological innovation was the heart of the Industrial Revolution and the key enabling technology was the invention and improvement of the steam engine . However , recent research into the Marketing Era has challenged the traditional , supply - oriented interpretation of the Industrial Revolution .
Georgia during Reconstruction
On Georgia 's farms and plantations , wartime destruction , the inability to maintain a labor force without slavery , and miserable weather had a disastrous effect on agricultural production . The states chief money crop , cotton , fell from a high of more than 700,000 bales in 1860 to less than 50,000 in 1865 , while harvests of corn and wheat were also meager . After the war , new railroad lines and commercial fertilizers increased cotton production in Georgia 's upcountry , but the coastal rice plantations never recovered from the war .
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in the period from about 1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840 . This transition included going from hand production methods to machines , new chemical manufacturing and iron production processes , the increasing use of steam power , the development of machine tools and the rise of the factory system .
Industrial Revolution
The British Agricultural Revolution is considered one of the causes of the Industrial Revolution because improved agricultural productivity freed up workers to work in other sectors of the economy . However , per - capita food supply in Europe was stagnant or delining and did not improve in some parts of Europe until the late 18th century .
History of the United States (1945–64)
The farm population shrank steadily as families moved to urban areas , where on average they were more productive and earned a higher standard of living . Friedberger argues that the postwar period saw an accelerating mechanization of agriculture , combined with new and better fertilizers and genetic manipulation of hybrid corn . It made for greater specialization and greater economic risks for the farmer . With rising land prices many sold their land and moved to town , the old farm becoming part of a neighbor 's enlarged operation . Mechanization meant less need for hired labor ; farmers could operate more acres even though they were older . The result was a decline in rural - farm population , with gains in service centers that provided the new technology . The rural non-farm population grew as factories were attracted by access to good transportation without the high land costs , taxes , unionization and congestion of city factory districts . Once remote rural areas such as the Missouri Ozarks and the North Woods of the upper Midwest , with a rustic life style and many good fishing spots , attracted retirees and vacationers .
Industrial Revolution
The very rapid growth in population in the 19th century in the cities included the new industrial and manufacturing cities , as well as service centers such as Edinburgh and London . The critical factor was financing , which was handled by building societies that dealt directly with large contracting firms . Private renting from housing landlords was the dominant tenure . P. Kemp says this was usually of advantage to tenants . People moved in so rapidly that there was not enough capital to build adequate housing for everyone , so low income newcomers squeezed into increasingly overcrowded slums . Clean water , sanitation , and public health facilities were inadequate ; the death rate was high , especially infant mortality , and tuberculosis among young adults . Cholera from polluted water and typhoid were endemic . Unlike rural areas , there were no famines such as devastated Ireland in the 1840s .