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bridge in 1787, a skeptical crowd lioed tbe bank to
watch it sink. But it didn't; it showed the way for
British shipyards to build great iron steamships that
revolutionized oceangoing trade and commerce. By
the end of the 19th century, five out of every six
merchant ships were British-built.
Other European nations jumped on the industrial
bandwagon-Belgium first, followed by France. But
none could catch Britain. She flooded the world's
markets with manufactured goods of every kind, and
British civi l engineers were at work on every
continent supervising the construction of roads,
railways, bridges and tunnels. Brimming with
confidence, no mountain was too high, no river too
wide for them.
This dramatic progress was achieved at sorne cost
in human happiness. The condition of the new
working class was pitiful. They lived crowded
together in miserable slums. Men and women
worked 12 hours or more a day in wretched
conditions. Child labor was common as pragmatic
industrialists rationalized that even the chi ldren's
contribution was needed to keep the factories and
mines producing.
However, reformers were at work, and during the
19th century the lot of the working man slowly
improved. He was, in fact, better off than his country
In an effort to increase production, the
landowning gentry began to reorganize their estates.
The poor were driven from their pathetic little
holdings, and soon even the common pastures where
they had grazed their animals and the woods where
they had hunted game to supplement their meager
diet became inaccessible. Many emigrated to
colooies of Britain's vast overseas Empire. But
hundreds of thousands made a shorter migration,
joining the labor force in the new industrial towns.
Conditions there were not ideal, but
it
was better
than starving in the countryside. Whatever its evils,
industrialization offered sorne hope.
In 1851 the Great Exhibition was held in
London's Hyde Park. A huge building of iron and
glass was designed . lt was nicknamed the "Crystal
Palace," and beneath its soaring roof merchants and
manufacturers of the world were invited to show
their wares. The superstars were the British, of
course- at Jeast half the wonderful array of
merchandise, machines, gadgets and inventions were
designed, built and manufactured by British workers
in British factories.
Queen Victoria described t he opening day as the
"happiest and proudest day of my life." Her
husband, Prince Albert, who had worked tirelessly as
the patron
Of
the Great Exhibition, saw it as the
turning point of man's history,
when trade would take the place
of war, and the wonders of
science and industry would
improve the lot of every man on
earth.
Yes, it did seem in 1851 that
British industry and British
engineers .had blazed a trail into a
new world. The unprecedented
advances being made in nearly
every field would surely soon
abol ish poverty, ignorance and
misery and usher in a new age of
wisdom and understanding.
~
How wrong they were! Within
J
a century of the Great Exhibition,
~
Britain had been toppled from the
number one position . Iron
!
intended for plowshares and
~
pruning hooks had to be hasti ly
~
. beaten into swords and spears-or
i
rather tanks and battleships. The
By late 1700s, iron makers of Coalbrookdale mastered techniques of producing
quality iron in quantity and provided the key to the industrial age.
days of spears and swords had
gone forever-an industrialized
world could make more effective
cousin . Forget for a momerit the idyllic scenes of the
English countryside painted by Turner and Constable.
The truth was that the circumstances of the average
rural worker in Britain were pitiful. He lived in a
squalid, damp, dirt-floored hovel, earning a pittance and
condemned to poverty and iUiteracy. His life expectancy
was about 40 years. To make matters worse, he was
being systematically pushed off the land.
April1984
weapons. Twice in a generation,
the industrial powers went for each other's throat in
"wars to end all wars." Britain emerged on the
winning side both times, but never really recovered
her strength.
Today, her days of supremacy are a memory.
The once great nation is a shadow of its former
self- tired, struggling to keep its economic head
above water. But Britain is not the only
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