I am Royce Chetwood of London England. Life for me has been perfectly good. Nothing to complain about, nothing like what farmers have to go through; definitely nothing close to the lives of the nobles, such as Lord Sanders of Westminister. I have taken an apprentice in my field of work, woodworking. I have been a press acclaimed, and peer acclaimed, expert in this practice and buisness has been going well for years. Though I have no wife or family, Egbert Dunningham, my apprentice is a son to me. An as a son does to his father, Dunningham looks to me for inspiration and advice.
Buisness had been fair for the many years that I had been working at my woodshop, Chetwood Carpentry, until a few weeks ago. Farmers whose jobs had been replaced by new "Industrialized Equipemt" came to the city. This new burst in our society of industrializtion and the growing of cities seemed good for my buisness. More people in london to buy my furnishings and the like, but it seems to be untrue now. With all of the new farming technologies taking farmers into the city looking for jobs in factories, people can get cheaper furniture due to the fact that the come from these low paid workers. Along with that, their working of 12 hour shifts gives them production rates more than quintupled that of mine. In general, these factories can work faster then I can; they can also pay their workers less to have lower prices than me as well. Even Egbert, my loyal apprentice, seems to be losing hope in the persistance of this trade.
However, transportation advances, such as the steam engine invented by james watt leading to the invention of the locomotive, has been good and bad for my buisness. Good roads have especially been beneficial to my delivery of products. As the candlemaker stated, it brings people from far and wide into the city, which gives my store clients and my competition gets workers. However, this allows me to spread my work further and wider to reach new people.
These industrialization changes have almost killed my buisness, with only meager benefits. The only thing i would like to know about it is who is this supposed to be helping?
Dear Mr.Chetwood,
ReplyDeleteI believe that we can try to take advantage of all this technology. Can't we prevent the children from working those long hours? This will help both us and them. We won't deal with as much competition, especially if those horrendous factory owners abuse the children
I believe that the Industrial revolution is the best. Many people flock to my store to buy goods since more people have moved to our city and since so much goods are being made I can give everyone what they want while getting as rich as the factory owners.
ReplyDeleteThe middle class will never become as rich as the factory owners! You are a general store owner, part of the filthy middle class. The Industrial Revolution is a poor movement as it is increasing the middle class' power and benefitting the middle class. The middle class will never be equal to the nobility and the nobility have priority over the middle class.
ReplyDeleteWow it seems like you really got the short end of the Industrial Revolution stick. Not only are the factories overworking children, but your job is being taken by those children. Best wishes.
ReplyDeleteI hope conditions for your business improve, and you are able to make a profit. I am also beginning to lose profits due to the Industrial Revolution.
ReplyDelete