Trade and Industry

• Corn Laws were repealed in 1846. These had prevented the import of cheap grain. The reforms helped the development of British industry because raw materials could now be imported more cheaply.
• Working conditions in factories gradually became better. In 1847, the number of hours women and children could work was limited by law to 10 hours per day. Better housing began to be built for workers.
• Just before Victoria came to the throne, the father and son George and Robert Stephenson pioneered the railway engine and a major expansion of the railways took place in the Victorian period.
• Railways were built throughout the Empire. There were also great advances in other areas, such as building bridges by engineers such as Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
• Brunel was originally from Portsmouth
• Brunel responsible for constructing the Great Western Railway, which was the first major railway built in Britain. It runs from Paddington Station in London to the south west of England, the West Midlands and Wales.
• In 1851, the Great Exhibition opened in Hyde Park in the Crystal Palace, a vast building made of iron and glass.