“The decade of 1830 had brought great economic hardship in Europe”. Support the statement with arguments.
- The first half of the nineteenth century saw an enormous increase in population all over Europe. In most countries there were more job seekers than employment opportunities.
- Populations from rural areas migrated to the cities to live in overcrowded slums.
- Small producers in towns were often faced with stiff competition from imports of cheap machine-made goods from England, where industrialisation was more advanced than on the continent. This was especially so in textile production, which was carried out mainly in homes or small workshops and was only partly mechanised.
- In those regions of Europe where the aristocracy still enjoyed power, peasants struggled under the burden of feudal dues and obligations.
- The rise of food prices in a year of bad harvest led to widespread pauperism in town and country.