Thiers: De la
proprie?
Marx - Capital-Volume-I
It is only really useful when it acts on great masses, when a single machine can assist the work of thousands.
It is accordingly in the most populous countries, where there are most idle men, that it is most abundant.
.
.
.
It is trot called into use by a scarcity of men, but by the facility with which they can be brought to work in masses.
?
(Piercy Ravenstone: --Thoughts on the Funding System and its Effects.
?
London, 1824, p.
45.
)
115 [Note in the 4th German edition. -- This applies to Germany too. Where in our country agriculture on a large scale exists, hence particularly in the East, it has become possible only in consequence of the clearing of the estates (--Bauernlegen? ), a practice which became widerspread in the 16th century and was particularly so since 1648. -- F. E. ]
116 --Machinery and labour are in constant competition. ? Ricardo, l. c. , p. 479.
117 The competition between hand-weaving and power-weaving in England, before the passing of the Poor Law of 1833, was prolonged by supplementing the wages, which had fallen considerably below the minimum, with parish relief. --The Rev. Mr. Turner was, in 1827, rector of Wilmslow in Cheshire, a manufacturing district. The questions of the Committee of Emigration, and Mr. Turner's answers, show how the competition of human labour is maintained against machinery. ? Question: Has not the use of the power-loom superseded the use of the hand-loom? Answer: Undoubtedly; it would have superseded them much more than it has done, if the hand-loom weavers were not enabled to submit to a reduction of wages. ' ? Question: But in submitting he has accepted wages which are insufficient to support him, and looks to parochial contribution as the remainder of his support? Answer: Yes, and in fact the competition between the hand-loom and the power-loom is maintained out of the poor-rates. ' Thus degrading pauperism or expatriation, is the benefit which the industrious receive from the introduction of machinery, to be reduced from the respectable and in some degree independent mechanic, to the cringing wretch who lives on the debasing bread of charity. This they call a temporary inconvenience. ? (--A Prize Essay on the Comparative Merits of Competition and Co- operation. ? Lond. , 1834, p. 29. )
118 --The same cause which may increase the revenue of the country? (i. e. , as Ricardo explains in the same passage, the revenues of landlords and capitalists, whose wealth, from the economic point of view, forms the Wealth of the Nation), --may at the same time render the population redundant and deteriorate the condition of the labourer. ? (Ricardo, l. c. , p. 469. ) --The constant aim and the tendency of every improvement in machinery is, in fact, to do away entirely with the labour of man, or to lessen
? ? 341 Chapter 15
its price by substituting the labour of women and children for that of grown-up men, or of unskilled for that of skilled workmen. ? (Ure, l. c. , t. I. , p. 35. )
119 --Rep. Insp. Fact. for 31st October, 1858,? p. 43.
120 --Rep. lnsp. Fact. for 31st October, 1856,? p. 15.
121 Ure, l. c. , p. 19. --The great advantage of the machinery employed in brick-making consists in this, that the employer is made entirely independent of skilled labourers. ? (--Ch. Empl. Comm. V. Report,? Lond. , 1866, p. 130, n. 46. ) Mr. A. Sturrock, superintendent of the machine department of the Great Northern Railway, says, with regard to the building of locomotives, &c. : --Expensive English workmen are being less used every day. The production of the workshops of England is being increased by the use of improved tools and these tools are again served by a low class of labour. . . . Formerly their skilled labour necessarily produced all the parts of engines. Now the parts of engines are produced by labour with less skill, but with good tools. By tools, I mean engineer's machinery, lathes, planing machines, drills, and so on. ? (--Royal Corn. on Railways,? Lond. , 1867, Minutes of Evidence, n. 17, 862 and 17, 863. )
122 Ure, l. c. , p. 20.
123 Ure, l. c. , p. 321.
124 Ure, l. c. , p. 23.
125 --Rep. Insp. Fact. , 31st Oct. , 1863,? pp. 108,109.
126 l. c. , p. 109. The rapid improvement of machinery, during the crisis, allowed the English manufacturers, immediately after the termination of the American Civil War, and almost in no time, to glut the markets of the world again. Cloth,' during the last six months of 1866, was almost unsaleable. Thereupon began the consignment of goods to India and China, thus naturally making the glut more intense. At the beginning of 1867 the manufacturers resorted to their usual way out of the difficulty, viz. , reducing wages 5 per cent. The workpeople resisted, and said that the only remedy was to work short time, 4 days a-week; and their theory was the correct one. After holding out for some time, the self-elected captains of industry had to make up their minds to short time, with reduced wages in some places, and in others without.
127 --The relation of master and man in the blown-flint bottle trades amounts to a chronic strike. ? Hence the impetus given to the manufacture of pressed glass, in which the chief operations are done by machinery. One firm in Newcastle, who formerly produced 350,000 lbs. of blown-flint glass, now produces in its place 3,000,500 lbs. of pressed glass. (--Ch. Empl. Comm. , Fourth Rep. ,? 1865, pp. 262-263. )
128 Gaskell. --The Manufacturing Population of England,? London, 1833, pp. 3, 4.
129 W. Fairbairn discovered several very important applications of machinery to the construction of machines, in consequence of strikes in his own workshops.
130 Ure, l. c. , pp. 368-370
131 Ure, l. c. , pp. 368, 7, 370, 280, 281, 321, 370, 475.
132 Ricardo originally was also of this opinion, but afterwards expressly disclaimed it with the scientific impartiality and love of truth characteristic of him. See l. c. , ch. xxxi. --On Machinery. ?
133 Nota bene. My illustration is entirely on the lines of those given by the above named economists.
134 A disciple of Ricardo, in answer to the insipidities of J. B. Say, remarks on this point: --Where division of labour is well developed, the skill of the labourer is available only in that particular branch in which it has been acquired; he himself is a sort of machine. It does not therefore help matters one jot, to repeat in parrot fashion, that things have a tendency to find their level. On looking around us we cannot but see, that they are unable to find their level for a long time; and that when they do find it,
? ? 342 Chapter 15
the level is always lower than at the commencement of the process. ? (--An Inquiry into those Principles Respecting the Nature of Demand,? &c. , Lond. 1821, p. 72. )
135 MacCulloch, amongst others, is a past master in this pretentious cretinism. --If,? he says, with the affected nai? vete? of a child of 8 years, --if it be advantageous, to develop the skill of the workman more and more, so that he is capable of producing, with the same or with a less quantity of labour, a constantly increasing quantity of commodities, it must also be advantageous, that he should avail himself of the help of such machinery as will assist him most effectively in the attainment of this result. ? (MacCulloch: --Princ. of Pol. Econ. ,? Lond. 1830, p. 166. )
136 --The inventor of the spinning machine has ruined India, a fact, however, that touches us but little. ? A.
Thiers: De la proprie? te? . -- M. Thiers here confounds the spinning machine with the power-loom, --a fact, however, that touches us but little. ?
137 According to the census of 1861 (Vol. II. , Lond. , 1863), the number of people employed in coal mines in England and Wales, amounted to 246,613 of which 73,545 were under, and 173,067 were over 20 years. Of those under 20, 835 were between 5 and 10 years, 30,701 between 10 and 15 years, 42,010 between 15 and 19 years. The number employed in iron, copper. lead, tin, and other mines of every description, was 319, 222.
138 In England and Wales, in 1861, there were employed in making machinery, 60,807 persons, including the masters and their clerks, &c. , also all agents and business people connected with this industry, but excluding the makers of small machines, such as sewing-machines, &c. , as also the makers of the operative parts of machines, such as spindles. The total number of civil engineers amounted to 3,329.
139 Since iron is one of the most important raw materials; let me here state that, in 1861, there were in England and Wales 125,771 operative iron founders, of whom 123,430 were maim 2,341 females. Of the former 30,810 were under, and 92,620 over 20 years.
140 --A family of four grown-up persons, with two children as winders, earned at the end of the last, and the beginning of the present century, by ten hours' daily labour, ? 4 a week. If the work was very pressing, they could earn more. . . . Before that, they had always suffered from a deficient supply of yarn. ? (Gaskell, l. c. , pp. 25-27. )
141 F. Engels, in --Lage, &c. ,? points out the miserable condition of a large number of those who work on these very articles of luxury. See also numerous instances in the --Reports of the Children's Employment Commission. ?
142 In 1861, in England and Wales, there were 94,665 sailors in the merchant service. 143 Of these only 177,596 are males above 13 years of age.
144 Of these, 30,501 are females.
145 Of these, 137,447 males. None are included in the 1,208,648 who do not serve in private houses. Between 1861 and 1870 the number of male servants nearly doubled itself. It increased to 267,671. In the year 1847 there were 2,694 gamekeepers (for the landlords' preserves), in 1869 there were 4,921. The young servant girls in the houses of the London lower middle class are in common parlance called --slaveys. ?
146 Ganilh, on the contrary, considers the final result of the factory system to be an absolutely less number of operatives, at whose expense an increased number of --gens honne^tes? live and develop their well-known --perfectibilite? perfectible. ? Little as he understands the movement of production, at least he feels, that machinery must needs be a very fatal institution, if its introduction converts busy workmen into paupers, and its development calls more slaves of labour into existence than it has suppressed. It is not possible to bring out the cretinism of his standpoint, except by his own words: --Les classes condamne? es a` produire et a` consommer diminuent, et les classes qui dirigent le travail,
? ? 343 Chapter 15
qui soulagent, consolent, et e? clairent toute la population, se multiplient . . . et s'approprient tous les bienfaits qui re? sultent de la diminution des frais du travail, de l'abondance des productions, et du bon marche? des consommations. Dans cette direction, l'espe? ce humaine s'e? le`ve aux plus hautes conceptions du ge? nie, pe? ne`tre dans les profoundeurs myste? rieuses de la religion, e? tablit les principes salutaires de la morale (which consists in ? s'approprier tous les beinfaits,' &c. ), les lois tute? laires de la liberte? (liberty of ? les classes condamne? es a` produire? ') et du pouvoir, de l'obe? issance et de la justice, du devoir et de la l'humanite? . ? [The classes condemned to produce and to consume diminish, and the classes which direct labour, which relieve, console and enlighten the whole population, multiply . . . and appropriate all the benefits which result from the diminution of the costs of labour, from the abundance of products and the cheapness of consumer goods. In this way, the human species rises to the highest creations of genius, penetrates the mysterious depths of religion, and establishes the salutory principles of morality, the laws for the protection of liberty, and power, of obedience and justice, of obligation and humanity] For this twaddle, see --Des Syste`mes d'Economie Politique, &c. , Par M. Ch. Ganilh,? 2e`me ed. , Paris, 1821, t. I, p. 224, and see p. 212.
147 --Reports of Insp. of Fact. , 31 Oct. , 1865,? p. 58, sq. At the same time, however, means of employment for an increased number of hands was ready in 110 new mills with 11,625 looms, 628,576 spindles and 2,695 total horse-power of steam and water (l. c. ).
148 --Reports, &c. , for 31 Oct. , 1862,? p. 79. At the end of 1871, Mr. A. Redgrave, the factory inspector, in a lecture given at Bradford, in the New Mechanics' Institution, said: --What has struck me for some time past is the altered appearance of the woollen factories. Formerly they were filled with women and children, now machinery seems to do all the work. At my asking for an explanation of this from a manufacturer, he gave me the following: ? Under the old system I employed 63 persons; after the introduction of improved machinery I reduced my hands to 33, and lately, in consequence of new and extensive alterations, I have been in a position to reduce those 33 to 13. ?
149 See --Reports, &c. , 31 Oct. , 1856,? p. 16.
150 --The sufferings of the hand-loom weavers were the subject of an inquiry by a Royal Commission, but although their distress was acknowledged and lamented, the amelioration of their condition was left, and probably necessarily so, to the chances and changes of time, which it may now be hoped? [20 years later! ] --have nearly obliterated those miseries, and not improbably by the present great extention of the power-loom. ? (--Rep. Insp. of Fact. , 31 Oct. , 1856,? p. 15. )
151 Other ways in which machinery affects the production of raw material will be mentioned in the third book.
152
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? EXPORT OF COTTON FROM INDIA TO GREAT BRITAIN.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 1846. --
? ? ? ? ? ? 34,540,143 lbs.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 1860. --
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 204,141,168 lbs.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
115 [Note in the 4th German edition. -- This applies to Germany too. Where in our country agriculture on a large scale exists, hence particularly in the East, it has become possible only in consequence of the clearing of the estates (--Bauernlegen? ), a practice which became widerspread in the 16th century and was particularly so since 1648. -- F. E. ]
116 --Machinery and labour are in constant competition. ? Ricardo, l. c. , p. 479.
117 The competition between hand-weaving and power-weaving in England, before the passing of the Poor Law of 1833, was prolonged by supplementing the wages, which had fallen considerably below the minimum, with parish relief. --The Rev. Mr. Turner was, in 1827, rector of Wilmslow in Cheshire, a manufacturing district. The questions of the Committee of Emigration, and Mr. Turner's answers, show how the competition of human labour is maintained against machinery. ? Question: Has not the use of the power-loom superseded the use of the hand-loom? Answer: Undoubtedly; it would have superseded them much more than it has done, if the hand-loom weavers were not enabled to submit to a reduction of wages. ' ? Question: But in submitting he has accepted wages which are insufficient to support him, and looks to parochial contribution as the remainder of his support? Answer: Yes, and in fact the competition between the hand-loom and the power-loom is maintained out of the poor-rates. ' Thus degrading pauperism or expatriation, is the benefit which the industrious receive from the introduction of machinery, to be reduced from the respectable and in some degree independent mechanic, to the cringing wretch who lives on the debasing bread of charity. This they call a temporary inconvenience. ? (--A Prize Essay on the Comparative Merits of Competition and Co- operation. ? Lond. , 1834, p. 29. )
118 --The same cause which may increase the revenue of the country? (i. e. , as Ricardo explains in the same passage, the revenues of landlords and capitalists, whose wealth, from the economic point of view, forms the Wealth of the Nation), --may at the same time render the population redundant and deteriorate the condition of the labourer. ? (Ricardo, l. c. , p. 469. ) --The constant aim and the tendency of every improvement in machinery is, in fact, to do away entirely with the labour of man, or to lessen
? ? 341 Chapter 15
its price by substituting the labour of women and children for that of grown-up men, or of unskilled for that of skilled workmen. ? (Ure, l. c. , t. I. , p. 35. )
119 --Rep. Insp. Fact. for 31st October, 1858,? p. 43.
120 --Rep. lnsp. Fact. for 31st October, 1856,? p. 15.
121 Ure, l. c. , p. 19. --The great advantage of the machinery employed in brick-making consists in this, that the employer is made entirely independent of skilled labourers. ? (--Ch. Empl. Comm. V. Report,? Lond. , 1866, p. 130, n. 46. ) Mr. A. Sturrock, superintendent of the machine department of the Great Northern Railway, says, with regard to the building of locomotives, &c. : --Expensive English workmen are being less used every day. The production of the workshops of England is being increased by the use of improved tools and these tools are again served by a low class of labour. . . . Formerly their skilled labour necessarily produced all the parts of engines. Now the parts of engines are produced by labour with less skill, but with good tools. By tools, I mean engineer's machinery, lathes, planing machines, drills, and so on. ? (--Royal Corn. on Railways,? Lond. , 1867, Minutes of Evidence, n. 17, 862 and 17, 863. )
122 Ure, l. c. , p. 20.
123 Ure, l. c. , p. 321.
124 Ure, l. c. , p. 23.
125 --Rep. Insp. Fact. , 31st Oct. , 1863,? pp. 108,109.
126 l. c. , p. 109. The rapid improvement of machinery, during the crisis, allowed the English manufacturers, immediately after the termination of the American Civil War, and almost in no time, to glut the markets of the world again. Cloth,' during the last six months of 1866, was almost unsaleable. Thereupon began the consignment of goods to India and China, thus naturally making the glut more intense. At the beginning of 1867 the manufacturers resorted to their usual way out of the difficulty, viz. , reducing wages 5 per cent. The workpeople resisted, and said that the only remedy was to work short time, 4 days a-week; and their theory was the correct one. After holding out for some time, the self-elected captains of industry had to make up their minds to short time, with reduced wages in some places, and in others without.
127 --The relation of master and man in the blown-flint bottle trades amounts to a chronic strike. ? Hence the impetus given to the manufacture of pressed glass, in which the chief operations are done by machinery. One firm in Newcastle, who formerly produced 350,000 lbs. of blown-flint glass, now produces in its place 3,000,500 lbs. of pressed glass. (--Ch. Empl. Comm. , Fourth Rep. ,? 1865, pp. 262-263. )
128 Gaskell. --The Manufacturing Population of England,? London, 1833, pp. 3, 4.
129 W. Fairbairn discovered several very important applications of machinery to the construction of machines, in consequence of strikes in his own workshops.
130 Ure, l. c. , pp. 368-370
131 Ure, l. c. , pp. 368, 7, 370, 280, 281, 321, 370, 475.
132 Ricardo originally was also of this opinion, but afterwards expressly disclaimed it with the scientific impartiality and love of truth characteristic of him. See l. c. , ch. xxxi. --On Machinery. ?
133 Nota bene. My illustration is entirely on the lines of those given by the above named economists.
134 A disciple of Ricardo, in answer to the insipidities of J. B. Say, remarks on this point: --Where division of labour is well developed, the skill of the labourer is available only in that particular branch in which it has been acquired; he himself is a sort of machine. It does not therefore help matters one jot, to repeat in parrot fashion, that things have a tendency to find their level. On looking around us we cannot but see, that they are unable to find their level for a long time; and that when they do find it,
? ? 342 Chapter 15
the level is always lower than at the commencement of the process. ? (--An Inquiry into those Principles Respecting the Nature of Demand,? &c. , Lond. 1821, p. 72. )
135 MacCulloch, amongst others, is a past master in this pretentious cretinism. --If,? he says, with the affected nai? vete? of a child of 8 years, --if it be advantageous, to develop the skill of the workman more and more, so that he is capable of producing, with the same or with a less quantity of labour, a constantly increasing quantity of commodities, it must also be advantageous, that he should avail himself of the help of such machinery as will assist him most effectively in the attainment of this result. ? (MacCulloch: --Princ. of Pol. Econ. ,? Lond. 1830, p. 166. )
136 --The inventor of the spinning machine has ruined India, a fact, however, that touches us but little. ? A.
Thiers: De la proprie? te? . -- M. Thiers here confounds the spinning machine with the power-loom, --a fact, however, that touches us but little. ?
137 According to the census of 1861 (Vol. II. , Lond. , 1863), the number of people employed in coal mines in England and Wales, amounted to 246,613 of which 73,545 were under, and 173,067 were over 20 years. Of those under 20, 835 were between 5 and 10 years, 30,701 between 10 and 15 years, 42,010 between 15 and 19 years. The number employed in iron, copper. lead, tin, and other mines of every description, was 319, 222.
138 In England and Wales, in 1861, there were employed in making machinery, 60,807 persons, including the masters and their clerks, &c. , also all agents and business people connected with this industry, but excluding the makers of small machines, such as sewing-machines, &c. , as also the makers of the operative parts of machines, such as spindles. The total number of civil engineers amounted to 3,329.
139 Since iron is one of the most important raw materials; let me here state that, in 1861, there were in England and Wales 125,771 operative iron founders, of whom 123,430 were maim 2,341 females. Of the former 30,810 were under, and 92,620 over 20 years.
140 --A family of four grown-up persons, with two children as winders, earned at the end of the last, and the beginning of the present century, by ten hours' daily labour, ? 4 a week. If the work was very pressing, they could earn more. . . . Before that, they had always suffered from a deficient supply of yarn. ? (Gaskell, l. c. , pp. 25-27. )
141 F. Engels, in --Lage, &c. ,? points out the miserable condition of a large number of those who work on these very articles of luxury. See also numerous instances in the --Reports of the Children's Employment Commission. ?
142 In 1861, in England and Wales, there were 94,665 sailors in the merchant service. 143 Of these only 177,596 are males above 13 years of age.
144 Of these, 30,501 are females.
145 Of these, 137,447 males. None are included in the 1,208,648 who do not serve in private houses. Between 1861 and 1870 the number of male servants nearly doubled itself. It increased to 267,671. In the year 1847 there were 2,694 gamekeepers (for the landlords' preserves), in 1869 there were 4,921. The young servant girls in the houses of the London lower middle class are in common parlance called --slaveys. ?
146 Ganilh, on the contrary, considers the final result of the factory system to be an absolutely less number of operatives, at whose expense an increased number of --gens honne^tes? live and develop their well-known --perfectibilite? perfectible. ? Little as he understands the movement of production, at least he feels, that machinery must needs be a very fatal institution, if its introduction converts busy workmen into paupers, and its development calls more slaves of labour into existence than it has suppressed. It is not possible to bring out the cretinism of his standpoint, except by his own words: --Les classes condamne? es a` produire et a` consommer diminuent, et les classes qui dirigent le travail,
? ? 343 Chapter 15
qui soulagent, consolent, et e? clairent toute la population, se multiplient . . . et s'approprient tous les bienfaits qui re? sultent de la diminution des frais du travail, de l'abondance des productions, et du bon marche? des consommations. Dans cette direction, l'espe? ce humaine s'e? le`ve aux plus hautes conceptions du ge? nie, pe? ne`tre dans les profoundeurs myste? rieuses de la religion, e? tablit les principes salutaires de la morale (which consists in ? s'approprier tous les beinfaits,' &c. ), les lois tute? laires de la liberte? (liberty of ? les classes condamne? es a` produire? ') et du pouvoir, de l'obe? issance et de la justice, du devoir et de la l'humanite? . ? [The classes condemned to produce and to consume diminish, and the classes which direct labour, which relieve, console and enlighten the whole population, multiply . . . and appropriate all the benefits which result from the diminution of the costs of labour, from the abundance of products and the cheapness of consumer goods. In this way, the human species rises to the highest creations of genius, penetrates the mysterious depths of religion, and establishes the salutory principles of morality, the laws for the protection of liberty, and power, of obedience and justice, of obligation and humanity] For this twaddle, see --Des Syste`mes d'Economie Politique, &c. , Par M. Ch. Ganilh,? 2e`me ed. , Paris, 1821, t. I, p. 224, and see p. 212.
147 --Reports of Insp. of Fact. , 31 Oct. , 1865,? p. 58, sq. At the same time, however, means of employment for an increased number of hands was ready in 110 new mills with 11,625 looms, 628,576 spindles and 2,695 total horse-power of steam and water (l. c. ).
148 --Reports, &c. , for 31 Oct. , 1862,? p. 79. At the end of 1871, Mr. A. Redgrave, the factory inspector, in a lecture given at Bradford, in the New Mechanics' Institution, said: --What has struck me for some time past is the altered appearance of the woollen factories. Formerly they were filled with women and children, now machinery seems to do all the work. At my asking for an explanation of this from a manufacturer, he gave me the following: ? Under the old system I employed 63 persons; after the introduction of improved machinery I reduced my hands to 33, and lately, in consequence of new and extensive alterations, I have been in a position to reduce those 33 to 13. ?
149 See --Reports, &c. , 31 Oct. , 1856,? p. 16.
150 --The sufferings of the hand-loom weavers were the subject of an inquiry by a Royal Commission, but although their distress was acknowledged and lamented, the amelioration of their condition was left, and probably necessarily so, to the chances and changes of time, which it may now be hoped? [20 years later! ] --have nearly obliterated those miseries, and not improbably by the present great extention of the power-loom. ? (--Rep. Insp. of Fact. , 31 Oct. , 1856,? p. 15. )
151 Other ways in which machinery affects the production of raw material will be mentioned in the third book.
152
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? EXPORT OF COTTON FROM INDIA TO GREAT BRITAIN.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 1846. --
? ? ? ? ? ? 34,540,143 lbs.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 1860. --
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 204,141,168 lbs.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
