Editing Industrial Revolution (section)

===Standards of living===
Some economists, such as [[Robert Lucas Jr.]], say the real effect of the Industrial Revolution was that "for the first time in history, the living standards of the masses of ordinary people have begun to undergo sustained growth&nbsp;... Nothing remotely like this economic behaviour is mentioned by the classical economists, even as a theoretical possibility."<ref name="Lectures on Economic Growth"/>

Others argue that while growth of the economy was unprecedented, [[Standard of living|living standards]] for most did not grow meaningfully until the late 19th century and workers' living standards declined under early capitalism. Some studies estimate that wages in Britain only increased 15% between the 1780s and 1850s and [[life expectancy]] did not dramatically increase until the 1870s.<ref name="Feinstein2014">{{cite journal|last=Feinstein|first=Charles|title=Pessimism Perpetuated: Real Wages and the Standard of Living in Britain during and after the Industrial Revolution|journal=Journal of Economic History|date=September 1998|volume=58|issue=3|pages=625–658|doi=10.1017/s0022050700021100|s2cid=54816980 }}</ref><ref name="SzreterMooney2014">{{cite journal|author=Szreter & Mooney|title=Urbanization, Mortality, and the Standard of Living Debate: New Estimates of the Expectation of Life at Birth in Nineteenth-Century British Cities|journal=The Economic History Review|date=February 1998|volume=51|issue=1|page=104|doi=10.1111/1468-0289.00084|last2=Mooney|hdl=10.1111/1468-0289.00084|hdl-access=free}}</ref> Average height declined during the Industrial Revolution, because nutrition was decreasing.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Küchenhoff |first1=Helmut |date=2012 |title=The Diminution of Physical Stature of the British Male Population in the 18th-Century |url=https://ideas.repec.org/a/afc/cliome/v6y2012i1p45-62.html |journal=Cliometrica |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=45–62 |access-date=20 November 2018 |doi=10.1007/s11698-011-0070-7 |s2cid=154692462 |archive-date=25 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210425223039/https://ideas.repec.org/a/afc/cliome/v6y2012i1p45-62.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Snowdon |first1=Brian |date=April–June 2005 |title=Measures of Progress and Other Tall Stories: From Income to Anthropometrics |url=https://www.worldeconomics.com/Journal/Papers/Measures%20of%20Progress%20and%20Other%20Tall%20Stories.details?ID=209 |journal=World Economics |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=87–136 |access-date=20 November 2018 |archive-date=26 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181026222933/https://www.worldeconomics.com/Journal/Papers/Measures%20of%20Progress%20and%20Other%20Tall%20Stories.details?ID=209 }}</ref> Life expectancy of children increased dramatically: the percentage of Londoners who died before the age of five decreased from 75% in 1730–49, to 32% in 1810–29.<ref name="Buer"/> The effects on living conditions have been controversial and were debated by historians from the 1950s to the 1980s.<ref name="Woodward81" /> Between 1813 and 1913, there was a significant increase in wages.<ref name="Trends in Real Wages in Britain, 1750–1913" /><ref name="hartwell" />

====Food and nutrition====
{{Main|British Agricultural Revolution}}
Chronic hunger and malnutrition were the norms for most, including in Britain and France, until the late 19th century. Until about 1750, malnutrition limited life expectancy in France to 35, and 40 in Britain. The US population was adequately fed, taller, and had a life expectancy of 45–50, though this slightly declined by the mid 19th century. Food consumption per person also declined during an episode known as the [[Antebellum Puzzle]].<ref name="The Escape from Hunger and Premature Death, 1700-2100"/> Food supply in Great Britain was adversely affected by the [[Corn Laws]] (1815–46) which imposed tariffs on imported grain. The laws were enacted to keep prices high to benefit domestic producers. The Corn Laws were repealed in the early years of the [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Great Irish Famine]].

The initial technologies of the Industrial Revolution, such as mechanized textiles, iron and coal, did little, if anything, to lower [[food prices]].<ref name="Pomeranz 2000">{{Citation |last=Pomeranz |first=Kenneth |author-link=Kenneth Pomeranz |title=The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-691-09010-8}}</ref> In Britain and the Netherlands, food supply increased before the Industrial Revolution with better agricultural practices; however, population grew as well.<ref name="David S. Landes 1969"/><ref name="Clark2007"/><ref>{{cite book
|title=An Essay on the Principle of Population
|last=Malthus
|first=Thomas
|year=1798
|location=London
|publisher=Electronic Scholarly Publishing Project
|url=http://www.esp.org/books/malthus/population/malthus.pdf
|access-date=12 February 2016
|archive-date=21 April 2016
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160421101942/http://www.esp.org/books/malthus/population/malthus.pdf
|url-status=live
}}</ref><ref>
{{cite book
|title=The Genius of China: 3000 years of science, discovery and invention
 |last1=Temple
 |first1= Robert
|first2= Joseph|last2= Needham
|year= 1986|publisher = Simon and Schuster
|location=New York
| postscript = ,|ref={{harvid|Temple|1986}}}} based on the works of Joseph Needham.
</ref>

====Housing====
[[File:Dore London.jpg|thumb|Housing in London {{Circa|1870s}} by [[Gustave Doré]]]]
Rapid population growth included the new industrial and manufacturing cities, as well as service centers such as [[Edinburgh]] and London.<ref>Gregory Clark, "Shelter from the storm: housing and the industrial revolution, 1550–1909". ''Journal of Economic History'' 62#2 (2002): 489–511.</ref> The critical factor was financing, which was handled by building societies that dealt directly with large contracting firms.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 3825462|title = The Speculative Builders and Developers of Victorian London|journal = Victorian Studies|volume = 11|pages = 641–690|last1 = Dyos|first1 = H. J.|year = 1968}}</ref><ref>Christopher Powell, ''The British building industry since 1800: An economic history'' (Taylor & Francis, 1996).</ref> Private renting from housing landlords was the dominant tenure, this was usually of advantage to tenants.<ref>P. Kemp, "Housing landlordism in late nineteenth-century Britain". ''Environment and Planning A'' 14.11 (1982): 1437–1447.</ref> People moved in so rapidly there was not enough capital to build adequate housing, so low-income newcomers squeezed into overcrowded [[slum]]s. [[Drinking water|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 fever|typhoid]] were endemic. Unlike rural areas, there were no famines such that which devastated Ireland in the 1840s.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 3825891|title = The Slums of Victorian London|journal = Victorian Studies|volume = 11|issue = 1|pages = 5–40|last1 = Dyos|first1 = H. J.|year = 1967}}</ref><ref>Anthony S. Wohl, ''The eternal slum: housing and social policy in Victorian London'' (1977).</ref><ref>Martin J. Daunton, ''House and home in the Victorian city: working-class housing, 1850–1914'' (1983).</ref>

A large exposé literature grew up condemning the unhealthy conditions. The most famous publication was by a founder of the socialist movement. In ''[[The Condition of the Working Class in England]]'' in 1844, [[Friedrich Engels]] describes backstreets of Manchester and other mill towns, where people lived in shanties and shacks, some not enclosed, some with dirt floors. These [[shanty town]]s had narrow walkways between irregularly shaped lots and dwellings. There were no sanitary facilities. Population density was extremely high.<ref>Enid Gauldie, ''Cruel habitations: a history of working-class housing 1780–1918'' (Allen & Unwin, 1974)</ref> However, not everyone lived in such poor conditions. The Industrial Revolution created a middle class of businessmen, clerks, foremen, and engineers who lived in much better conditions.

Conditions improved over the 19th century with new public health acts regulating things such as sewage, hygiene, and home construction. In the introduction of his 1892 edition, Engels noted most of the conditions had greatly improved. For example, the [[Public Health Act 1875]] led to the more sanitary [[byelaw terraced house]].

====Water and sanitation====
Pre-industrial water supply relied on gravity systems, pumping water was done by water wheels, and wipes were made of wood. Steam-powered pumps and iron pipes allowed widespread piping of water to horse watering troughs and households.<ref name="Hunter_1985" />

Engels' book describes how untreated sewage created awful odours and turned the rivers green in industrial cities. In 1854 [[John Snow]] traced a cholera outbreak in [[Soho]], London to fecal contamination of a public water well by a home [[cesspit]]. Snow's finding that cholera could be spread by contaminated water took years to be accepted, but led to fundamental changes in the design of public water and waste systems.