The peak of working hours and the effort revolution

The Industrial Revolution coupled the worker’s time to the time of the expensive machine. An idle machine meant losses, so extreme working hours, fines, clock fraud, and strict time control emerged.

Not all of it was imposed. Part came from families’ own decision to work more in order to buy previously unavailable goods: sugar, tea, fabrics, dishes, small comforts. This is known as the effort revolution: for the first time, people working much more out of a desire to consume, in addition to surviving.

Keep the mechanism in mind: when capital is expensive and scarce, the organization of work adapts to keep it from sitting idle. This will matter again when we talk about agents.