Read the following excerpt from The Philosophy of Manufactures written by Andrew Ure in 1835. Which of the following describes a
n aspect of historical context this passage can tell the reader about the 1830s?
The principle of the factory system then is, to substitute mechanical science for hand skill, and the partition of a process into its essential constituents, for the division or graduation of labour among artisans. On the handicraft plan, labour more or less skilled was usually the most expensive element of production. . . . but on the automatic plan, skilled labour gets progressively superseded, and will, eventually, be replaced by mere overlookers of machines. . . .
It is, in fact, the constant aim and tendency of every improvement in machinery to supersede human labour altogether, or to diminish its cost, by substituting the industry of women and children for that of men; or that of ordinary labourers for trained artisans. . . . The effect of substituting the self-acting mule for the common mule, is to discharge the greater part of the men spinners, and to retain adolescents and children. The proprietor of a factory near Stockport states, in evidence to the commissioners, that, by such substitution, he would save 501. A week in wages in consequence of dispensing with nearly forty male spinners, at about 25s. of wages each. . . .1
A. Factory owners frequently replaced male workers with cheaper female workers.
B. New technology allowed many people to produce goods from home rather than in factories.
C. Farm workers quickly embraced new technologies to make spinning wool more efficient.
D. Industrialization had little effect on the lives of people who lived in rural areas.
