Finnegan
I like a bit of a cavort
That’s true, it did not. But if we take an overly schematic view of history, the Industrial Revolution was a necessary phase of the transition from feudalism to capitalism in what Eric Hobsbawm termed the ‘dual revolution: the French Revolution being the political, and the Industrial Revolution being the technological expression of the final triumph of the Bourgeoisie over the old feudal aristocracy.The exploitation was already firmly in place before the IR. The IR didn't invent exploitation.
While avoiding romanticising an agrarian economy- life was nasty, brutish and short- nonetheless, feudal life was more attuned to the turning of the seasons where humankind experienced a more intimate relationship with nature than that enjoyed in an industrial society. Alienation and exploitation was stark and apparent rather than obfuscated by the pseudo-mysticism of the market. Nevertheless, excepting the appropriation by the landlord, the labour of the peasant was characterised by an autonomy and a symbiotic relationship with the natural world wholly absent from market capitalism. In the Industrial Revolution, a deep connection between the folk and the land was severed.
The Industrial Revolution deracinated a whole class of people and destroyed centuries old kinship and social fabric. It exponentially increased the exploitation of the peasantry, who were forcibly transformed into the proletariat. While it was inevitable that technology would advance to the degree whereby the old feudal strictures became an impediment to societal development, that development, while enriching a tiny new ruling class, ensured widespread immiseration for the majority.