Life in England Before the First Fleet to Australia (1787)

The decision to transport convicts to Botany Bay arose from a society in **profound transition and crisis**. Late 18th-century England was a powder keg of inequality, upheaval, and punishment.

Social Structure: Rigid Hierarchy

• Aristocracy & Gentry (1–2%): Political power, vast estates, House of Lords.
• Middle Classes (10–15%): Merchants, professionals, manufacturers — rising economic clout, no vote.
• Working Poor (80%+): Agricultural laborers, urban artisans, factory hands, domestic servants — subsistence wages, no security.
• Paupers & Criminalized Poor: Vagrants, unemployed, debtors — targets of "Bloody Code."

Economy: Agrarian → Industrial

• **Enclosure Acts:** Privatized common lands → displaced peasants → urban migration.
• **Early Industrialization:** Textiles (Lancashire), Iron (Coalbrookdale), Coal — factories, child labor, 14-hr days, no regulation.
• **Trade & Empire:** Mercantilism, slave trade profits, colonial markets — wealth concentrated.

Politics: Oligarchy, Not Democracy

• Constitutional Monarchy: George III (reigned 1760–1820); power with **Parliament (Lords + Commons)**.
• Rotten Boroughs: Tiny electorates controlled by patrons; industrial cities (Manchester, Birmingham) **unrepresented**.
• Vote: ~3% of adult males (property qualification).
• Repression:** Combination Acts (1799) banned unions; sedition laws silenced dissent.