CHARTISM-A CHAPTER IN ENGLISH INDUSTRIAL 
HISTORY.' 
EDWARD D. JONES, PH. D. 
Instructor in Economics and Statistics , University of Wisconsin. 
Chartism stands for an important though somewhat indefinite 
part of the great industrial revolution of England. It had its 
roots in economics, its manifestations in politics. It was an 
agitation of the masses. To understand chartism we must first 
look into the causes which set the masses in motion. 
GENERAL CONDITIONS. 
At the opening of the nineteenth century England was chang¬ 
ing from an agricultural to a manufacturing nation. The tran¬ 
sitional period was one of suffering and uncertainty and of ill- 
directed attempts at reform. One of the most important facts 
of England’s condition was perhaps the high price of food. Liv¬ 
ing expenses were high compared with what they had previously 
been. This was due to the war with France and to a gradual 
increase of the population above what the agricultural resources 
of the country would support. These high prices were but one 
symptom of the fundamental industrial change which was taking 
place. 
The growth of the factory system had already stranded many 
hand producers and antiquated the skill of many artisans. It 
1 General references: File of the Northern Star, of Cooper’s Journal, and 
of Politics for the People; Martineau, History of the Peace, Vol. IV.; 
Knight, History of England, Vol. VII.; Tooke, History of Prices; Hodder, 
Life and Works of the Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury; Engel, Condition of 
the Working Classes in England in 1844; McCarthy, History of Our Own 
Times; Carlyle, Chartism; Kingsley, Alton Locke and Yeast; Besant, All 
Sorts and Conditions of Men; Reade, Put Yourself in His Place. Articles: 
Frazer’s Magazine, Vol. 37, May, 1848; Eclectic Review, Vol. 23; Black¬ 
wood’s Magazine, Vol. 63, June, 1848; Century Magazine, Vol. I. 
