ABSTRACT
John Thelwallwas not alone in seeing in every "manufactory" a potential centre of political rebellion. The making of the working class is a fact of political and cultural, as much as of economic, history. The hardships of the period are seen as being due to the dislocations consequent upon the Wars, faulty communications, immature banking and exchange, uncertain markets, and the trade-cycle, rather than to exploitation or cut-throat competition. The people were subjected simultaneously to an intensification of two intolerable forms of relationship: those of economic exploitation and of political oppression. For most working people the crucial experience of the Industrial Revolution was felt in terms of changes in the nature and intensity of exploitation. The exploitive relationship is more than the sum of grievances and mutual antagonisms. It is a relationship which can be seen to take distinct forms in different historical contexts, forms which are related to corresponding forms of ownership and State power.
