There were numerous characteristics of the society in the years preceding 1848 that were influential enough to be labelled possible causes of revolution. Of these the most outstanding where those that related to different instances of suffrage in the working class. These were mostly problems that could be recognized on an individual basis, but were also spread very consistently throughout this sect of the population. Some of which I will outline in this essay.
Ever since the beginnings of business and trade between people, there has been a need for a person to provide for himself and in some cases others as well in order to participate in such activities. This need was magnified during the nineteenth century with the drastic rises in the amount of industry and capitalism in European societies. These changes also resulted in a shifting of the way people went about obtaining the necessary commodities needed to maintain livelihood. .
There was a flocking of men, women and children of all age to factories trying to find work. This was a trend that sucked all the life out of the traditional lifestyle that had worked fairly peacefully for many previous years. And in itself the new inclination of the general population to work industrial jobs, coupled with the "personal profit" minded upper class factory owners, was destined to bring about troublesome situations from the get go. Loius Blanc captured the root of a situation that would cause conflict in his piece "The Organisation of Labour"; "A contractor needs a labourer: three apply. "How much do you ask for your work?" "Three francs, I have a wife and children." "Good, and you?" "Two and a half francs, I have no children, but a wife." "So much the better, and you?" "Two francs will do for me; I am single." "You shall have the work"." With this he said " the affair is settled, the bargain is closed. What will become now of the other two proletarians? They will starve, it is to be hoped.