We have come a long way from the days of Feudalism where Lords were land (fief) owners and the vassals were the common folk who provided a service to the Lord for use of the land, whether it is to serve in the military or other forms as requested. This was the way of life in medieval times, up until the 15th century (Hirst, 2012). From here, the transition began from Feudalism to the early stage Capitalism, where the ordinary people broke away from the Feudal system and owned property and the means of production as well as the resources to make and maintain wealth (Dictionary.com, 2012).

England in the 1800’s was hard in comparison to today. The life expectancy for a man aged 20 in 1850 was 60.1 years compared to 76.7 in 2004 (Geoff Canyon's Appeal to Authority, 2009). This was mainly due to the living conditions and especially those in the poor area of East London, where animals not only shared the often over crowed living area with humans but also the human waste that was thrown onto the streets. Often those who lived in the bottom apartments lived close to if not in the stench, more so than those who lived multiple stories above the streets. With the pollution of human waste in the streets and the polluted River Thames from the sewage of the West End, no matter where you lived in the East End, you still had to walk through the rising filth. These living conditions were the main reason for the various outbreaks of diseases, sores and premature deaths during the 1800’s (Engels, 2005).

Engels (2005) further discussed that a lack of medical assistance was a major issue, those that needed help had no way of obtaining it. Therefore, many of the illnesses of today were undiagnosed then; this could have been a major cause to many of the problems experienced during those times. The situation would have been made worse during the years that the Jewish immigrants were fleeing Russia, Poland and Germany from persecution or economic hardship (Jack the Ripper 1888, 2010) or of the Long Depression which spanned from 1873 to 1896. The main causes of the Long Depression were the Irish Famine, Irish Land War and the Land Act (Wikipedia, 2012).

During these times, education was not so different to the classes of society that people lived in during the 1800’s. Which education a child attended was based on their class within society. The upper class children attended private schools, the middle class attended separate institutions and then there was elementary education for the masses or the lower class (Gillard, 2011). Engels (2005) further mentions that these educators for the elementary schools of the lower classes have only taken on the positions for survival, as these teachers are “without elementary knowledge and moral discipline”.

In this area of East London, various workhouses were set up for the unfortunates as they were known; often the workhouses provided basic accommodation, dining halls, chapels and infirmaries for the workers, and basic education for the children, life in these workhouses were meant to be shameful and humiliating (Wise Geek, 2012). Rules had to be obeyed to remain in these workhouses (Workhouse The story of an institution, 2012); often they were very strict which resulted in many leaving and resorting to life on the street to find cheap doss houses otherwise known as lodging rooms where restrictions were far less than the workhouses. Some doss houses were also known as sweatshops, often with the set up being located in the back yard or attic.

The majority of these doss houses were owned by the middle class and controlled by the night watchmen who were employed to monitor the comings and goings and also to collect the money from those who lodged. There was no telephone or electricity in this area of London; messages to the police were usually provided by a runner or they had to wait for the officer to return on his rounds and light was usually given by an oil lamp or candle (Cornwell, 2003).

It is no wonder then that Jack the Ripper preferred the East End for his murder sprees. During autumn of 1888, five women became victims to a brutal crime that is still widely discussed about today. Four of the women were aged in their 40’s and the fifth in her 20’s; all were known for prostitution and or drinking. The lives the majority of these women came from were far different to what they ended with.

Mary Ann Nichols, in her 40’s was a mother of 5 but left her printer machinist husband supposedly due to an affair which he later claimed did not happen, Mary chose the life of a prostitute for survival, living in boarding houses and was known as an alcoholic.

Annie Chapman, also in her 40’s, was a mother of 2, her son whom was sent to a home due to being a crippled and a daughter which she lost due to meningitis. Annie leaves her husband, a coach driver for a circus in France then later returns to England where she resorted to drinking and prostitution for survival.

Elizabeth Stride, in her 40’s, travelled from Sweden to London where she lived a life of prostitution and later charged. She later marries a carpenter and runs a small coffee shop until their separation where she then picks up and resides with another man who is a labourer a few years later. Her partner was known to have often tried to padlock Elizabeth in her room to prevent her from drinking.

Catherine Eddowes, aged in her 40’s, was not known for prostitution but for her drinking problem. Kate was a mother to three children; she left her partner at the time, a soldier for another unfortunate like herself, looking for ways to fund a cheap bed at different doss houses.

Mary Jane Kelly, aged in her 20’s, worked in the West End high class brothel as a prostitute but later due to her drinking problems, had to move to the East End where she continued her work before moving back onto the streets.
Source: (Wikipedia, 2012)

Even with the brutal murders that occurred during these times, the middle class saw an opportunity and seized it to make money by charging people a penny to view the bloodstained scene within their property. It is amazing how many people were quick to hand over their money to view the scene, not to mention the people who lined the streets to view the hand ambulance that was used to transport the body back to the medical examiner’s office (Cornwell, 2003).

Capitalism is a system that allows “private owners to profit from the goods and services they provide” (WiseGeek, 2012). It allows the freedom of the owner to set the goods or services they wish to provide, how to provide it and how much to provide it for. It is based on the laws of supply and demand in a free market system with little government intervention. If the demand is low, the owner will not make a profit, if the demand is high, so is profit. This is seen above with the “entrance fee” to the scene of the Jack the Ripper victim.

Marxist Economic Theory is based on maximising profit per dollar invested into capital or rate of Return On Capital Employed (ROCE). Therefore when accounting in a Capitalistic environment, as the production runs and the volumes produced increase, the attention is removed from the quality of the product produced to the ROCE or profit the production can provide. The brake down of the feudal system arose when the industrial bourgeoisie developed factories in the cities; the need then for proletariat (working class) was offered with new prospects. Maintaining work on the land disappeared as people made their way to the cities and their opportunities as production grew. It was discussed that the unnatural element of capitalism was that man gave up “gratification of immediate values for long-term economic rewards” (Wallerstein, 1976). It is this point that the introduction of alienation arose, no longer does the worker recognise their efforts from the work they produce as mass production and the production line removes these values.

During the 1800’s, specifically 1870 to 1914 saw the rise of the second industrial revolution. This revolution changed the foundation of the markets from agricultural to industrials, where the hand made goods that were produced by the vassals were now obsolete (Watkins, 2012). Inventions such as electricity, steel and petroleum and further growth in railroads, steam ships and faster communication were the highlight of this period (Bellis, 2012).

This revolution was also known as the Technological Revolution where mass production and the production line were introduced (Wikipedia, 2012) which also saw an alienation developing between the employer and the goods produced. The unemployment rate rise as people were not required as machines were able to work harder, for longer hours and did not require as many people to complete the job required also many factories, ships and fixed capital were becoming obsolete quickly. This added to the current problem that London was experiencing at the time, high unemployment and an ever growing population.

The majority of people who arrived in London in search of work were the Irish (Wikipedia, 2012), Jews from Russia, Germany and Poland; many were on their way to America for the gold rush but due to lack of funds or meeting up with family, never made it. With the majority staying in London, soon over population was a problem. Many began to reside in the slums of the East end for fear of being rejected in the West End due to their nationality and having no money to live on (Jack the Ripper 1888, 2010).

It was discussed that this stage of capitalism that the factories were developed around the 1750’s with the early stages starting from 1600 to 1800’s (Bryer, 2006). It wasn’t until the 1880’s that saw the establishment of the first lady’s tailors in East London, soon many sweatshops were being developed around the area. “In 1884 the medical journal The Lancet reported: We visited one tailor's workshop in Hanbury Street. There was only one toilet, which flushed its contents outside the pan and across the yard. In the top room 18 people were working. In the heat of the gas and stoves, surrounded by mounds of dust, breathing an atmosphere of wool particles containing dangerous dyes” (Migration Histories, n.d.).

With such working conditions, it is no wonder that the diseased, sick and dying had a life span far less than todays. It would cause such an outrage to have this occurred in the 21st century in the western world, both morals and ethics are bought into question. Still today, it does occur, people are exploited to the extent of the bourgeoisie and profit maximisation. During the 1800’s as discussed with the education, London was also divided within society, the upper and middle class people resided in the West End and the Poor in the East End. The West End residents who could afford it would have the luxury of electricity, maybe a telephone and fresh drinking water. Those unfortunates living in the East End consumed water from the River Thames which was highly polluted with sewage from the upper class, candles or oil lamps for lighting and no telephone (History of England, 2006). Fires during these times in the East End were very common, especially on winter nights in overcrowded doss houses as they were of basic standards and not draft proof from the chilly winter nights (Cornwell, 2003).

Tension was building between West and the East, the middle classes feared the conflict and the social breakdown and the murders fuelled the flames of hatred and distrust. Rent in the West End during the years 1880 and 1900 rose by 11% whereas the East End saw a rise of up to 25% (Haggard, 2012), this was the main cause of the overcrowding. For some, it became a challenge to find the money for a bed each night or wind up sleeping in the polluted streets.

Life in London in the early 1800’s was difficult for the many who occupied the Whitechapel district, those that could find work, it was intermittent and those that had regular work did not fare any better as the long hours, overcrowding and low wage was a means to survive (Haggard, 2012). Haggard further states that “Part of the problem of overcrowding was due to the policies of the government and to the middle-class reformers” and that the Government of the time should have foreseen the issues in the poor of London, these unfortunates were struggling with life, making ends meet and obtaining permanent lodging, how is it they could afford any of the new apartments that were being built?

The attention should have been focused not on building new apartments but on cleaning up the East End district, removing the opportunities of acts of unkindness that was seen from Jack the Ripper and controlling the diseased and petty crimes that were riffling during that time. It was these crimes of Jack the Ripper that tore the city in two, for the music halls / theatres located in the area were not attended to by the population at large for fear of the crimes. Those that did attend would hurry off afterwards, and remained vigilant of those around them in case he was lurking (Cornwell, 2003).

Capitalism can be partly blamed for the situation that was seen in the late 1800’s and of the women murdered by Jack the Ripper. People were forced out of their labour intensive work for the introduction of mass production and production lines which created high unemployment. Families were broken up possibly due to the lack of work from the transition of Capitalism; survival was based on desperation, electing to work in industries that were embarrassing or degrading at the time such as workhouses, sweatshops and prostitution.

But it was not just capitalism in England, for if parts of Europe and Ireland were not in such turmoil, the overcrowding problem would not be as bad as the East End had experienced. Capitalism throughout the world saw that classes of society, race and religion were segregated and often ostracised, therefore work and survival in the East End became a means to an end, work for little money to survive on, pay for lodging and what little food or alcohol they could buy.

With the new bourgeoisie dominating the industry with their mass production and production lines, which is maximizing profits at the expense of the proletariat, it is no wonder that men and women were driven to various avenues of survival in the later part of the 19th century such as theft and prostitution.

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