Site Selectors Are People, Too

The Architects of Prosperity: The British Model

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In Part 5 of our special mini-series, The Architects of Prosperity, we confront the great contradiction of the Industrial Revolution: the simultaneous worship of the free market and the reluctant birth of the modern regulatory state. While 19th-century British politicians preached the pristine gospel of laissez-faire economics from comfortable London clubs, the horrifying realities of the textile mills forced them to intervene. This episode dives into the dark side of early industrialization to explore how the government built a massive administrative bureaucracy to save capitalism from itself—while enthusiastically using that very same system to discipline its poorest citizens.

In This Episode, We Cover:

  • The Pristine Theory vs. The Factory Floor: The stark contrast between the theoretical perfection of the free market and the brutal reality of early textile mills, where child "scavengers" crawled under moving iron looms.
  • The Subpoena That Changed History: How the 1832 Sadler Committee finally broke through the political noise by forcing Parliament to listen to the harrowing testimonies of child laborers and medical doctors.
  • The Birth of the Administrative State: Why the 1833 Factory Act was a revolution. It wasn't just about limiting work hours; it created a professional inspectorate that became the great-grandfather of modern agencies like OSHA, the EPA, and the SEC.
  • The Workhouse Meat Grinder: The chilling flip side of state intervention. We explore how the 1834 New Poor Law and the infamous Andover workhouse scandal weaponized technocracy to make poverty a punishable offense.
  • The Economic Developer's Dilemma: A concluding look at how today's practitioners still navigate this Victorian contradiction, constantly weighing the push for free-market corporate incentives against the need for community benefits and regulatory guardrails.

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    Site Selectors Are People, TooBy Devin Hillsdon-Smith