Editing Industrial Revolution (section)

===Literacy===
{{Further|Literacy}}
In the 18th century, there was relatively high literacy among farmers in England and Scotland. This permitted the recruitment of literate craftsmen, skilled workers, foremen, and managers who supervised textile factories and coal mines. Much of the labour was unskilled, and especially in textile mills children as young as eight proved useful in handling chores and adding to family income. Children were taken out of school to work alongside their parents in the factories. However, by the mid-19th century, unskilled labour forces were common in Western Europe, and British industry moved upscale, needing more engineers and skilled workers who could handle technical instructions and handle complex situations. Literacy was essential to be hired.<ref>Theodore S. Hamerow, ''The birth of a new Europe: State and society in the nineteenth century'' (University of North Carolina Press, 1989) pp. 148–174.</ref><ref>Robert Allan Houston, "The Development of Literacy: Northern England, 1640–1750." ''Economic History Review'' (1982) 35#2: 199–216 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2595015 online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210416095148/https://www.jstor.org/stable/2595015 |date=16 April 2021 }}.</ref> A senior government official told Parliament in 1870:
:Upon the speedy provision of elementary education depends are industrial prosperity. It is of no use trying to give technical teaching to our citizens without elementary education; uneducated labourers—and many of our labourers are utterly uneducated—are, for the most part, unskilled labourers, and if we leave our work–folk any longer unskilled, notwithstanding their strong sinews and determined energy, they will become overmatched in the competition of the world.<ref>Hamerow, p. 159.</ref>

The invention of the paper machine and the application of steam power to the industrial processes of [[printing]] supported a massive expansion of newspaper and pamphlet publishing, which contributed to rising literacy and demands for mass political participation.<ref>Henry Milner, ''Civic literacy: How informed citizens make democracy work'' (University Press of New England, 2002).</ref>