The truth is that after 1820, the standard of living was rapidly improving in British society and, as Ashton points out, "the factory played a not inconsiderable role in the improvement." Even Edwin Chadwick, whose 1843 classic Sanitary Conditions of the Laboring Population of Great Britain is a major primary source for our knowledge of the subject, noted that "the comforts of the laboring classes have increased with the late increases of population" and that "the means of obtaining the necessaries of life for the whole mass of the laboring community have advanced."
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