Changes

Historians have for a century vigorously debated the impact of the industrial revolution on living standards, wages, and (more recently), the heights and weights of workers.

Historians have for a century vigorously debated the impact of the industrial revolution on living standards, wages, and (more recently), the heights and weights of workers.

During the industrial revolution, advances in technology enabled factories to produce their goods without as many laborers. Unfortunately, this decrease in demand for workers made for terrible working conditions; factory owners could afford to only hire those willing to work the longest hours at for least pay. Child labor was common. It is this that causes many people to hail the industrial revolution as a great evil. At any rate, it did contribute to the child labor laws and minimum wage that we see today {{fact}}.  

In general industrial workers who were employed did better than farm laborers, and thus the heavy movement from farm to city. Unemployed workers, however, were better off back on the farm where their families were motre likely to provide food and housing for them, and there was always a some farm work to do.

 

==Japan==

==Japan==

Japan was the first Asian nation to undergo an industrial revoltion. Sponsored by the state from the 1860s, it copied European models, bringing in machinery and experts. The agrarian sector was capable of feeding the growing population, and provided a steady stream of workers to the fast growing industrial cities. Japan's industrialization grew rapidly after 1890, stimulated primarily by internal demand, and financed primarily by internal capital.  It first developed a large textile industry. It had some coal and increased its production, but demand outran supply, so overall Japan became an importer of coal. It imported iron ore from China.<ref> William W. Lockwood, ''The Economic Development of Japan: Growth and Structural Change, 1868-1938'' (1954)</ref>

Japan was the first Asian nation to undergo an industrial revoltion. Sponsored by the state from the 1860s, it copied European models, bringing in machinery and experts. The agrarian sector was capable of feeding the growing population, and provided a steady stream of workers to the fast growing industrial cities. Japan's industrialization grew rapidly after 1890, stimulated primarily by internal demand, and financed primarily by internal capital.  It first developed a large textile industry. It had some coal and increased its production, but demand outran supply, so overall Japan became an importer of coal. It imported iron ore from China.<ref> William W. Lockwood, ''The Economic Development of Japan: Growth and Structural Change, 1868-1938'' (1954)</ref>