History of Western Civilization: Industrial Revolution

Labor Old and New; The Impact of the Industrial Revolution

Source #1: Agricultural Labor Described by Vauban, about 1700

1. The author of this source is a successful military engineer whose observation techniques and intelligence led him to have a more political influence in his career. This source is from one of his extensive writings about certain problems within the public. It was a tax proposal with hopes of reforming the tax system of France. In this proposal he speaks of reducing the royal budget with increased revenues and assessing tax burdens. The agricultural workers he describes are in what you could call economic despair and are later on, during the Industrial Revolution, forced into factory jobs. In Source 1, Vauban is very passionate in the fact that these people should be paid attention to and that the things that they do everyday build the foundation of the State. These people provided them with necessities that they could not do without and they do jobs that the ...