Excerpt from Industrial Securities
Industrial Conditions Three Centuries Ago
Three hundred years ago, the economic and industrial life of the people of Western Europe presented little variation as between one country and another, or as between different sections of the same country. The great bulk of the population was employed on the land extracting from the soil grain, vegetables and flax; herding the sheep and cattle, tending the hogs and hens; mining from the earth the basic necessities of human life.
In each village the blacksmith furnished what iron work was needed. He made weapons, and wheel rims, and shod horses. He also made nails, bolts and hinges, all by hand. The mason and the carpenter performed their constructive functions as today. The shoemaker made shoes as well as repairing them.
As would be expected under such circumstances, living was simple and meagre. No large populations could exist, because such a simple economic organization could not furnish the means of feeding, clothing and sheltering many people on the limited supply of land which Western Europe provides.
What a picture! What a contrast with the economic organization of today!
The Industrial Revolution
The change from the simple economic organization of the sixteenth century to the complicated and sensitive organization of today is known as the Industrial Revolution. It comprises the growth of large-scale industry, the factory system, the development of banking and transportation; the revolution in agricultural and mining methods; the discovery and exploitation of coal, oil, the steam engine and electricity, and more recently the internal combustion engine and the mastery of the air.
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