Industrialization

industrial community into a predominantly industrial community. Among the chief characteristics of a typically non-industrial economy the following are note worthy. Predominance of agriculture as a way of living, using techniques of a simple and primitive kind, high pressure on the soil resulting in small farming units, even where ownerships are in the hands of large landlords. Where the small peasants own the land, the unit of farming may be still smaller and is normally fragmented. Agricultural methods and implements are determined by tradition rather than scientific experiment. Agricultural productivity, both per worker and per acre, is low, hence farming is for subsistence rather than for the market. Markets are either very few or they are of local character and usually ill-organized. Means of communication and transport are inadequate and inefficient. Credit and banking facilities are meagre. The community, as a whole, produces little beyond mere subsistence and has very little of amenities usually associated with civilized existence. Food is meager and crude and clothing hardly enough to meet the minimum needs. Houses lack comforts and hygienic requirements. There are few schools and fewer hospitals, hardly any facilities for recreation. Poverty and the accompanying under-nourishment and unhygienic ways of living lead to high incidence of disease and mortality, particularly infant mortality. In spite of high birth rates, the rate of population growth is quite moderate due to high death rates involving, in addition to human suffering, enormous wastage of material resources. The average span of life is short. Thus, in a community of the above type, the general level of living, material, intellectual and even spiritual for the mass of the people, is very low.

Along with this mass poverty, however, there may exist prosperity and plenty for a microscopic minority — the so-called privileged classes — mainly owners of land or mines or other natural resources.