Q1. [1] medium thorough-understanding
Which of the following best explains why industrialists in Victorian Britain often preferred hand labour over steam-powered machines, even when machines were available?
(A) Steam machines were frequently breaking down and were unreliable
(B) Labour was abundant and cheap, making machines an unnecessary capital expense
(C) The government imposed heavy taxes on the use of steam-powered machinery
(D) Trade unions had legally banned the use of machinery in most industries
- A Machines could not produce the volume of goods required for export markets.
- B A large pool of cheap labour made the high capital cost of machines unnecessary and risky.
- C The government had banned the use of steam engines in most industries.
- D Hand-made goods fetched lower prices and were preferred by the poor.
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · 2026-06-26 14:59 · grounding rag
Model Answer
Answer: B
Labour was abundant and cheap in Victorian Britain, making the high capital cost of machines unnecessary and risky for industrialists.
Explanation
The passage explicitly states: "when there is plenty of labour, wages are low… They did not want to introduce machines that got rid of human labour and required large capital investment." Option B directly reflects this. Options C and D are factually incorrect per the passage; Option A is contradicted by the text's emphasis on cost, not volume.