ECONOMY AND SOCIETY

THE MAIN CHANGES IN THE VICTORIAN PERIOD

The Victorian period is a period of rapid expansion from the territorial and economical point of view. In this period the modern urban economy with manufacturing industry and international trade substitutes the old agricultural economy. Britain becomes the most powerful nation in the world thanks to three main causes:

The invention of vapour powered machinery

The technological innovations in industry and transports

A faster and better communications thanks to the invention of telephone, a more efficient mail service, a cheaper printing.

For all these reasons the Victorian age can be considered as a an age of great optimism.

THE PRESSURE FOR REFORM

After a briefly democratic period during the early years of the French revolution, Britain had returned conservative, but political reform was inevitable DOPO LA PRESA DI COSCIENZA DELLE MASSE DEI LORO DIRITTI , but the Victorians were fearful about extending the power to vote to the masses.

THE FIRST REFORM BILL

The first reform bill of the 1832 extends the right to vote to land owners, but not to working men.

THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT

The exclusion of the working men to vote by the first reform bill gave rise to a working class movement: the Chartist.

This movement has democratic demands, it asks:

The right to vote for all men

The secret vote

The possibility for all men to become a member of parliament

Annual parliament

Equally constituencies

Really representative.

THE COST OF LIVING

THE CORN LAWS

The corn laws were protectionist laws introduced and supported by landowners to support their own interests. They maintained the price of corn at an unrealistically high level. As a result there was widespread starvation (= famine, full crises) among both textile and agricultural workers. For this reason people living in the country decided to move to the cities to look for a work in factories.

THE POOR LAWS

The poor laws were introduced by English government to solve the problem of starvation: these laws separated the poor children from their families and sent them in workhouses where they received just enough food to survive. This reflected the general Victorian point of view on poverty: it is a crime to be resolved. This problem were solved with repressive measures not with an adequate redistribution of resources.

THE VICTORIAN COMPROMISE

There is a contrast between the progress in theory and the effective condition in practice. There were some progressives, i.e. the abolition of slavery in 1833, but the fundamental inequity in society remained and grew.  

The urban poor continued to live in conditions of poverty, voices of protest were silenced by the repressive violence of government soldiers. Unlike poor, the rich people continued to live in better conditions conformed to the Victorian values of church and family, hearth and home and the sanctity of childhood. 

A TIME OF CHANGE

There were some remarkable innovations from ideological and political point of view:

Some modern movements took form: feminism, unionisation of workers, socialism, Marxism.

Darwin's theory of evolution marked the beginning of a crisis of values which continued into the 20^th century.