Social Change and Social Reform during the period 1870 to 1914

Factory and work legislation

In Britain, during the C19th, successive governments took steps to diminish some of the most glaring social injustices. For example, in 1847 the length of the working day was limited to 10 hours, and in 1874 the length of the working week was limited to 56 hours.

In Prussia state control was part of the national tradition. In 1878 Bismarck introduced legislation forbidding employment of children under the age of 12. This legislation also limited the hours work for older children and women.

In Italy child labour was prohibited in 1886; however, this law was often disregarded.

France and Austria were slow to introduce factory legislation, and what legislation did exist was not enforced.

Public health

In public health there were improvements. Cholera killed 55,000 in Italy between 1884 and 1887. In 1892, 5,000 died in Hamburg, but by 1900 this disease was no longer a danger.

During the 1850s and 1860s Louis Pasteur suggested ways of dealing with the silkworm disease and phylloxera which was attacking French vines and putting an end to wine production. In 1877 (and in 1875 by Kock, independently) Pasteur discovered a vaccine for the cattle disease, anthrax. With this bacteriology as a science was born. By 1900 the bacilli causing diphtheria, plague, tetanus and typhoid had been discovered. In 1892 a serum against diphtheria was available. In 1913 it was possible to immunise against diphtheria. In 1896 immunisation against typhoid became available. In 1882 Kock discovered the tuberculosis bacillus. Life expectancies improved.

Life expectancies — some comparative statistics

There were developments in surgery. In 1865 Joseph Lister introduced antiseptics into surgery. It can be noted that during the Franco-Prussian war, of the 13,000 amputations that were performed, 10,000 were fatal. This illustrates the increasingly bloody nature of modern warfare. In 1859 the Swiss observer, Jean-Henri Dunant, witnessed the slaughter on the battlefield of Soferino. Following this he decided to set up the International Red Cross.

Cities

There were improvements in hospital management, public health administration, water supply, sewage disposal, housing and food quality. For example, in the period just before the 1870s Napoleon III's prefect of the metropolitan district of Paris, Baron Haussman, replanned Paris with wide boulevards, and new sewage system, and a new water supply. In 1888 there was the establishment of the Central London County Council. In Birmingham Joseph Chamberlain began his political career as a reforming mayor, and the death rate in the city fell dramatically during his mayorship. By 1873 Vienna had a large scale water supply. By 1900 Mayor, Karl Leuger, added a second reservoir, municipal gas and tramway systems, municipal federal organisation, large parks and a green belt. In 1883 a British act of parliament created subsidies for urban railways so that workers could commute to the centre of cities.

Rich and Poor

The rights of property were still secure and this is reflected in the better life expectancy of those with property than those without. Conditions for the peasantry remained unchanged. The physical comfort of the wealthy had increased more than ever. Main streets were lit by gas, and private houses had gas lighting and electricity by 1900. In 1880 there was the invention of the electric lift. From 1870 the development of the department store starts. Bon Marché was opened in 1852 and Magasins du Lourvre was established in 1855. Felix Potin developed the first chain of grocery stores.

Industry and commerce

There was the development of new investment banks and the creation of joint-stock companies with limited liability. This was recognised by law in Britain in 1862, in France in 1863 and in Prussia in 1870.

Companies started to make vertical integration the main aim of their corporate strategy — that is, they aimed to gain control over all stages of production of their own commodity. For example, AEG in Germany became linked with mines and banks. Thus industrial power became increasingly concentrated in hands of a minority. Walther Rathenau in 1909 wrote, “Three hundred men, all acquainted with each other, control the economic destiny of the continent”.

The Catholic Church

The Roman Catholic Church was “the embodiment of the conservative desire to resist change”. In 1864 Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors condemned most contemporary literature. In 1870 Pius IX at the Vatican Council declared the doctrine of Papal infallibility.

This led to ideological conflict in Germany. In 1872, and 1878 the Prussian authorities asserted the right to approve the nomination of Catholic bishops and to control Catholic schools and expel Jesuits. However, this period of conflict came to an end when in 1878 Bismarck cooperates with Pope Leo XIII to develop a conservative political block in Germany and divide the Liberal Party. Bismarck repealed the anti-Catholic laws.

In 1870 Wilhelm Emmanual Kettler, Bishop of Maintz, preached the necessity of Catholic participation in the working-class movement, and Catholic trade unions were founded under his influence. This shows that some Catholic opinion was progressive.

In France Catholics were divided over the role of the Church. Some adhered to the ideas of the Vatican council, others preferred the idea of an independent Gallican church. The power of the church was diminished as the possibility of a Royalist restoration diminished. In 1882 the introduction of a general system of lay education by Jules Ferry alienated the Catholic Church.

In 1891 Pope Leo XIII issued the Rerum Novarum, which was a statement of Catholic social policy. In 1892 Leo XIII approved the efforts of Catholics in France working for reconciliation between the Church and the State. The Church's social doctrine aimed at checking the danger of social revolution.

Free trade versus Protectionism

Free Trade: Cobdenism

There was the issue of free trade, championed in the 1840s by Richard Cobden and adopted by Britain as a consequence. After that the idea of free trade slowly gained acceptance in Europe as a whole. In Germany in 1871 one of the first acts of the new National Liberal Party in the Reichstag was to vote for a gradual reduction in tariffs. Cavour introduced free trade in grain in Piedmont, and Italy became one of the more free trading antions. From the 1860s to the 1880s Russia slowly lowered tariff barriers.

European recession

1873 to 1896 was the period of a long European recession. There was a widespread, though uneven, fall of world prices. The fall in prices led to a fall in real wages. There was a diminishing supply of gold. Britain adopted the gold standard, and other countries followed suit — Germany in 1871 and France in 1876. In the 1890s there was the discovery of new gold deposits in South Africa, Western Australia and Canada.

There was an agricultural crisis. There were bad harvests in Europe during 1878/9. There were new sources of supply from America and Australia. Artificial refrigeration was developed. Europe became increasing competitive. As a result, some industries became more efficient; some countries adopted protectionism. In Britain there was a reduction in wheat growing by 50% and a drop in agricultural employment by 40%. This all created a pressure to introduce protectionism. Only in Britain did the majority remain committed to free trade — up to the crisis of 1931.

Protectionism

The theory of protectionism was originally developed by Fichte around 1810 and Frederich List in the 1840s. After 1870 the tide turned against free trade.

In the mid 1870s Bismarck used protectionism and anti-socialism as issues to divide the German Liberal Party. Industrialists wanted protection mainly from British industry. Landowners and peasants wanted clothes and agricultural implements as cheaply as possible. In 1878/79 Bismarck constructed a conservative block by negotiating with both groups and finding a tariff acceptable to both. Under the chancellorship of B�low this agreement was renegotiated in 1902. Those National Liberals who represented industry split from the rest of their party as a result of the protection issue.

Other countries by 1900 became protectionist: Austria-Hungary, Russia, Romania, Greece, Portugal, Switzerland and Sweden. France slowly increased tariffs during the 1880s raising them piecemeal by means of bilateral commercial treaties. In 1892 they introduced a new consolidated tariff, with the aim of making France fully self-supporting in food.

Trade and tariff wars

Countries started to use economic weapons in their dealings with each other. For example, Austria-Hungary twice prevented the import of pork from Serbia in the hope of turning the Serbia into a satellite country. In the 1880s Italy and France engaged in a tariff war. However, around 1898 relations between the countries improved following a French diplomatic drive to loosen the tie between Italy and Germany. Russia and Germany also engaged in a tariff war towards the end of the Bismarckian era.