Abstract
The Industrial Revolution in Britain led to widespread pollution in the form of factory smoke, and raised the issue of social relief. Scholars have argued that the Smoke Nuisance Abatement Act of 1821 resulted from the efforts of just one public-spirited politician. In this paper, however, through examining parliamentary debates on this issue, we analyze how politicians, landlords, and industrialists viewed the damages caused by air pollution, how they developed a framework for redress, and how they interwove their interests into the act.
Landowners, and even the manufacturers who were responsible, recognized that air pollution caused damage to property. For this reason, the act was promoted by landowners and even some industrial capitalists, although they are normally regarded as opponents of smoke regulation. As smoke prevention techniques of the time might be a source of profit for manufacturers, the act of 1821 did not conflict with their business principles. The owners of private property were merely seeking redress for damages that they had suffered. It was not until 1840s that more interventionist legislation aimed at helping urban labourers was contemplated.
This is a translation of an article that originally appeared in Shakai Keizai Shigaku 69(4) (January 2003), pp. 71–91.
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- 1.
For the increase in population of major cities, towns, and boroughs, refer to (Sweet 1999, pp. 3–4).
- 2.
- 3.
Taylor is also known for his eager concern about the improvement of streets in the City of London. For details, refer to (Webb 1963, pp. 290–294).
- 4.
However, many manufacturers may have been included among the members classified as ‘a merchant’, 28 in 1819, and 30 in 1820. Although the member Calvert who appears in section 5 is classified as ‘a merchant’, he is considered to be a manufacturer.
- 5.
Iron manufacturers in particular differed from other manufacturers. They used the undesirable slack coal or ‘screenings’ from their own coal mines to fuel their steam engines. That coal was waste and worthless. They therefore could not expect to see profits from the fuel economies associated with smoke-abatement techniques. Other nonferrous-metal manufacturers closely related to coal mines were also in the same situation. This problem became clear in the investigations attending an anti-smoke bill in the 1840s (Source 6). For details, see Akatsu (2005).
- 6.
The reason to use ‘probably’ is that the record of deliberation over the bill in Whole Committee and the House of Lords does not exist in Parliamentary Debates. Ashby and Anderson assumed the revision of the bill in the House of Lords but did not show on what basis (Ashby and Anderson 1981, p. 5). However, I think there is a greater likelihood that the bill was revised in the course of detailed discussions in Whole Committee.
- 7.
Nuisances, including smoke nuisances, on statute, for example, a smoke nuisance under the Public Health Act of 1936, are mainly prosecuted by public institutions (local authorities). For details, refer to (Katō 1979, pp. 308–311). However, in the case of a nuisance under common law, the right of action is mainly given to the sufferers themselves. For details, refer to (Katō 1979, p. 289; Mochizuki 1990, p. 221). But, in the case of a common-law nuisance, when it is a public nuisance, the Attorney General (a cabinet member) is in charge of the prosecution and therefore it is the government that is intervening. Still, the role of sufferers themselves as witnesses is critical to obtaining conviction in the trials of public nuisances. This is clear from the testimony of the government-appointed inspector referred to in section 5.
- 8.
It was pointed out frequently in the 1840s that citizens had escaped to the suburbs. For example, Darnton Lupton, Mayor of Leeds, said, “every one who can, is going out of town”, and he himself had escaped to suburbs three miles outside the city of Leeds, because of the annoyance of smoke-damage to household goods (Source 6, pp. 33–34).
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Akatsu, M. (2015). The Problem of Air Pollution During the Industrial Revolution: A Reconsideration of the Enactment of the Smoke Nuisance Abatement Act of 1821. In: Sugiyama, S. (eds) Economic History of Energy and Environment. Monograph Series of the Socio-Economic History Society, Japan. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-55507-0_4
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