engels the condition of the working class in england

Poverty had existed in the old towns and rural areas–as it had done in Germany–but the growth of the big cities exacerbated and accentuated these conditions. Up to a quarter of the city’s population were immigrant Irish, driven there by even worse conditions in their own country. Infant mortality, epidemic diseases and overcrowding were all facts of life. The city had grown up around the cotton industry and was a mass of filthy slums. Its working class was also the most advanced in the world, organised through the Chartist movement.Įngels was horrified at the poverty and misery that he saw in Manchester. It was already leading the world in the production of cotton, coal and iron. England was by far the most advanced industrial economy in the world, having been the scene of the Industrial Revolution. The strike’s centre was in Manchester and the surrounding areas of Lancashire and Cheshire, the areas of textile production. He arrived in England only weeks after the Chartist general strike of 1842 which, despite its eventual failure, had demonstrated the potential power of the workers. He had already developed left-wing ideas when he was despatched to England at the end of 1842 to work in the family firm of Ermen and Engels, manufacturers of sewing thread in Manchester. Below is a short (rough) extract from my upcoming book on the contribution that Engels made to Marxian political economy.Įngels was just 24 years old when he wrote the Condition. This year is the 200th anniversary of Engels’ birth. On this day, 15 March 1845, Friedrich Engels published his masterpiece of social analysis, The Condition of the Working Class in England.

Engels the condition of the working class in england