Chapter 7.2.7: The Industrial Revolution
The main prerequisite for the beginning of the industrial revolution was the fall of the traditional corporations and guilds. The corporations were abolished in 1866, the rule that all craftsmen had to belong to a corporation had been abolished in the 18th century already. Belonging to a guild also lost its purpose as a sign of status after the administrative reform of cites and merchants no longer were forced to belong to one.
At the beginning of the 19th century, some factories were beginning to be established. In 1811 a sugar factory was opened in Tallinn, however that was closed down in 1837 due to increased tariffs causing the factory big losses. In 1813, the Luther pencil factory was opened, which would become a giant wood product factory years later. Some factories were also opened in the countryside, in villages such as Kärdla, Sindi and Kunda. Those places would grow into considerable settlements as a result and later become fully fledged towns. The first factories depended on foreign labour, most of the factory workers came from Germany.
People in cities only made up 9% of the entire population in 1860, but by 1900 it increased to 19%. Although that number was very small when compared to Western Europe at the time, the real industrialisation and urbanisation only started around the 1890s, the population living in cities increased considerably during the second half of the 19th century. In Tallinn, the population increased fivefold from 1800 to 1900, and then again doubled between 1900 and 1914, surpassing 100 thousand people by 1913. Smaller towns, like Viljandi, Kuressaare, Rakvere, Haapsalu, Paide and so on, also saw significant increases. The number of factory workers increased from about 3000 in 1850 to over 30 000 in 1900, which was still only about 3% of the population.
Here is a rundown of the population increase in some of the largest cities:
Tallinn 1820: 12 905, 1871: 29 162, 1897: 58 810, 1913: 116 012
Tartu 1825: 8450, 1867: 21 014, 1897: 42 308
Narva 1825: 3500, 1881: 10 195, 1897: 28 600
New Tallinn neighbourhoods, 1880s.
Tartu Stone Bridge, Kivisild, in 1907. The bridge and the area on the other side of the river were destroyed during WW2.
The main determining factor of population increase in cities was the opening of new factories. In places that had more factories, like Tallinn or Narva, the population increase was greater. Urbanisation was mainly caused by migration from the countryside to the cities, which was aided by the now unrestricted movement policies and a new mode of transportation, the railway. This meant that the population of the cities mainly increased thanks to Estonians moving to them, increasing their share of the population. In 1820, roughly 35% of Tallinner were Estonian and 43% were German, by 1913 it was 72% Estonian and 11% German. In Tartu, the share of Germans dropped from 42% in 1867 to 16% in 1897. The same was the case in all other cities.
The new boroughs were generally built out of wood, as it was cheaper. So instead of 6-7 story stone tenement blocks like elsewhere in Europe, Estonian cities tended to have 2-3 story wooden buildings.
The number of Estonians increased in most fields of craftsmanship, like amongst tailors and builders. The number of middle class Estonians increased as well, although their advance up the social ladder was stopped somewhere in the middle. Estonians were small entrepreneurs, small house owners, lower ranking civil servants and so on. More and more Estonian shop signs were put up and it became more likely to hear Estonian, rather than German on the street.
The population of Estonia doubled during the 19th century, surpassing one million for the first time in its history. This was thanks to decreased mortality and the increased average life expectancy, by the end of the century it was 43 years.
The first railway in Estonia was opened in 1870, and it connected the military port of Paldiski and Tallinn to the capital St. Petersburg. The port of Tallinn became a gate where goods were exported and imported and then transported to the rest of the country via the railway. In 1876, the Tapa-Tartu line was opened (Tapa is a town on the Tallinn-St. Petersburg railway). In 1887 the Tartu-Valga line was opened and in 1889 the Valga-Võru-Pihka railway. In 1896, Pärnu received a narrow gauge railway connection with Viljandi, and in 1901 Viljandi got the same type of connection with Tallinn. Haapsalu was connected with a railway in 1906. By 1913, there were 978 km worth of railways in Estonia. 
In the second half of the 19th century, heavy machinery appeared in factories, which allowed for more efficient and expanded production of goods. The most important and largest industry was the textile industry, in the 1880s, about ¾ of all workers were employed there.
The main factories in Tallinn were the Wiegand (later Ilmarise) Metal and Machinery Factory, Volta Factory, which produced electrical machinery, Dvigatel Wagon Factory, Baltic Cotton Factory and Luther Plywood and Furniture Factory. 
There was a lack of industry in Southern Estonia. Tartu mostly centred on the small scale production of valuable goods, like fancy furniture, pianos and beer. 
Over time, petroleum lamps would be changed to gas lamps in cities. Gas lighting already appeared in the 1860s in Tallinn, in Tartu first gas lamps were opened in the 1880s. Electricity would appear in the cities at the beginning of the 20th century.
Industrial production decreased the prices of goods and created a consumer society, which also involved the countryside more and more. Shops were established in villages, department stores opened in cities. Estonia started to slowly resemble an industrialised society.
Most of the capital came from rich merchants or Baltic-German manor owners, only a handful of Estonians became rich industrialists, for example Jaak Puhk, who established a match factory in Viljandi.
Industrialisation also saw the advent of the proletariat, which was composed of almost exclusively Estonians. To house the workers, factories tended to build settlements or neighbourhoods near the factory, complete with houses, schools, churches, saunas, hospitals and so on. The average working hours in the last quarter of the 19th century were 13-14 hours. Like elsewhere in Europe, cheap child labour was used, that was tackled with a law in 1882, which banned employing children under the age of 12 and reduced the working hours of children under the age 16. A few years later night shifts for child workers were also banned. This all greatly reduced the attractiveness of child labour, causing the number of children employed to dwindle over time.
The workers had very rough living conditions. They were cramped and dirty, the pay was low. Workers had a hard time demanding better living and working standards, as trade unions and strikes were banned. When strikes did happen, then the state sent in the military to break them up, like in 1872 and 1882 in Kreenholm and 1883 in the Kunda cement factory. This proved a fertile soil for the socialist movement later on.
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