Figure 12: Making Fun of the New Transportation

Farmers workloads varied to the seasons and were largely limited by the sun and while intense was varied and irregular. Even in the putting out system, work revolved around orders (often rushing to finish them on time followed by a day or two without having to work) but the new machinery required constant output and a new sense of time and work discipline. Work now revolved around the clock with large fines or corporal punishments for those were late nor not working hard enough.

With railroads replacing carriages for long-distance transportation, schedules needed to be kept and adhered to. No longer would demand determine departure but a pre-ordained time. Along with the clock, some the notion that time needed to be standardized and synchronized-first in a particular city and then by 1890 by particular countries. In 1884, the world was divided into 24 time zones, showing that time needed to be standardized at an international level (leading to a debate between Paris and Greenwich/London as the center of global time). Time also became individualized, not only at the work where factories possessed enormous clocks but also at the individual level-annual sales of pocket watches reached 2.5 million in 1875, mostly purchased by white males (now becoming a marker of civilization).

Figure 13: It’s all about time!

Not only was much of the world becoming mapped and made known (also cities were increasingly mapped and people counted) but sub-Saharan Africa, North America, Australia, Central Asia was all mapped during this period and geographic knowledge grew as blank spaces on the map disappeared. At the local level, the city and surrounding countryside became increasingly intertwined. The ability to travel around the world became possible. Travel within a country became increasingly common and people moved between areas with greater frequency (this movement also the transportation of dead bodies around). This revolution in transportation created new trading opportunities and linkages. The world became increasingly connected and the producers of raw materials became tied to the consumers of these sources and new areas of the world were integrated into the world economy—including the production of cotton in India, sheep from Australia and cattle from Argentina.