13 of 20 Stages of the Evolution of British Wool
Off Shoring
In the early days of the Industrial revolution life in the mills of many northern towns was miserable. The writer Fredrich Engels was an apprentice in the Manchester cotton
industry and he wrote, “robbed of all humanity and trapped in unimaginable poverty ” to describe the workers. The average life expectancy within these mills was 17 years. (Thomas, D. 2019)
This exploitation of people continued through the Industrial revolution until workers, through strikes and forming unions, negotiated better and fairer conditions.
Off shoring to factories in the Far East was a way to continue this exploitation and raise profits for fashion companies. There have been many reports of garment factories in countries such as Cambodia, Bangladesh and Vietnam, abusing their workers and not providing safe working conditions.
