Business Obligations to Society Since the Industrial Revolution
This essay examines how public and philosophical perceptions of business's role in society have shifted since the Industrial Revolution. Drawing on examples from Adam Smith's division of labor, Marx's critique of industrial alienation, the rise of labor rights, and modern debates over outsourcing and globalization, the paper traces the evolving moral expectations placed on businesses. It pays particular attention to the argument made by Sir James Goldsmith that businesses owe a duty to their domestic communities, and connects historical developments to contemporary phenomena such as anti-globalization movements, Brexit, and the backlash against offshore manufacturing.
- Introduction: Business and the Industrial Revolution: Labor alienation and division of labor origins
- Offshoring and Its Impact on Domestic Labor: Outsourcing harms domestic labor markets
- Goldsmith's Moral Case for Domestic Obligation: Business duty to domestic stakeholders and communities
- From Factory Reform to Globalization: A Historical Arc: Labor reform history and rise of trade agreements
- Conclusion: Pushback Against Globalization: Anti-globalization backlash and modern consequences
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What makes this paper effective
- It anchors its argument in a clear historical timeline, moving logically from the Industrial Revolution through the labor reform movement to contemporary globalization debates.
- It uses concrete examples — Adam Smith's pin factory, Amazon warehouse conditions, Brexit, and the 2016 U.S. election — to ground abstract claims about business ethics in recognizable reality.
- It introduces Sir James Goldsmith as a credible, counterintuitive voice (a business owner who critiques offshoring), which strengthens the moral argument by showing it is not merely ideological.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates effective use of historical framing to contextualize a contemporary argument. By tracing the evolution of business norms from early industrialization to the present, the author shows how current debates about corporate responsibility are not new but are part of a longer moral conversation — a technique that lends depth and legitimacy to the central thesis.
Structure breakdown
The essay opens by introducing the concept of labor alienation rooted in the Industrial Revolution, then pivots to the modern parallel of offshoring. It builds its normative argument through Goldsmith's stakeholder philosophy before zooming out to trace the broader historical arc of labor reform. The conclusion ties everything together by linking historical failures to heed these warnings with today's anti-globalization backlash.
Introduction: Business and the Industrial Revolution
Since the Industrial Revolution, business has become increasingly depersonalized. One of Karl Marx's central complaints was that industrialization divorced the laborer from the fruits of his labor: the worker was no longer connected to the meaningful effect of producing something but was instead reduced to a cog in the machine — a point illustrated by Adam Smith's famous example of the division of labor in The Wealth of Nations, which used a pin factory to show how production could be broken into narrow, repetitive tasks. Society, however, adapted to the idea of the division of labor, and workers, having few alternatives, accepted their diminished roles in the industrial world. Today, one can see the same dynamic playing out in Amazon fulfillment centers, where workers have condemned what they describe as inhuman conditions (Sainato, 2020).
Offshoring and Its Impact on Domestic Labor
In other ways, business has changed so that labor itself is completely offshored. In the United States, for example, industries such as steel manufacturing have been nearly decimated because production has been relocated to other countries. China is now a major manufacturer of many goods that Americans purchase — goods that could readily be produced domestically — but businesses prefer the significantly cheaper labor available by outsourcing production overseas. While outsourcing may allow a company to remain competitive in the global marketplace, it carries serious adverse effects on the domestic labor market (Amadeo & Estevez, 2021).
Goldsmith's Moral Case for Domestic Obligation
This tension is precisely why Sir James Goldsmith was so outspoken about the duties businesses owe to their domestic stakeholders — particularly the duty to provide jobs at home rather than sending them offshore (Roberts, 2011). Goldsmith was himself a prominent and successful business owner, which gave his argument unusual credibility. He believed that businesses carry a moral obligation to look after the society that fosters their growth and prosperity. A business that outsources its labor while continuing to sell its products domestically is one that severs the natural relationship that should exist among laborers, owners, and consumers — a relationship that should be integrated and mutually reinforcing rather than exploitative.
Yet in today's globalized world, that relationship is too often exploited. The consequence is a gradual erosion of the social fabric and the community supports that should naturally exist around healthy local economies. Goldsmith's argument anticipates what many economists and social critics have since confirmed: that the gains from globalization are unevenly distributed, often benefiting corporate shareholders while leaving domestic workers behind.
Conclusion: Pushback Against Globalization
People like Goldsmith did see the risk and urged businesses to fulfill their duty to local communities by keeping jobs onshore. Few listened at the time, and that is why today there is such significant pushback against globalization — manifest in the United Kingdom's Brexit vote, the election of Donald Trump in 2016 on a platform of economic nationalism, and the broader international condemnation of China's growing dominance over global supply chains. The history of business and society since the Industrial Revolution is, in many ways, a history of promises made to workers that were ultimately deferred or broken — and the political and social consequences of that broken compact continue to unfold.
References
Amadeo, K. & Estevez, E. (2021). How outsourcing jobs affects the US economy. Retrieved from https://www.thebalance.com/how-outsourcing-jobs-affects-the-u-s-economy-3306279
Roberts, P. C. (2011). How offshoring has destroyed the economy. Retrieved from
Sainato, M. (2020). 'I'm not a robot': Amazon workers condemn unsafe, grueling conditions at warehouse. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/feb/05/amazon-workers-protest-unsafe-grueling-conditions-warehouse
Smith, A. (n.d.). Wealth of Nations.
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