66 --The
improvements
which took place not long ago in frames for making patent net were so great that a machine in good repair which had cost ?
Marx - Capital-Volume-I
66.
)
41 A. Redgrave in --Reports of lnsp. of Fact. for 31st October, 1858,? pp. 40, 41.
42 --Children's Employment Commission, Fifth Report,? London, 1866, p. 81, n. 31. [Added in the 4th
German edition. -- The Bethnal Green silk industry is now almost destroyed. -- F. E. ] 43 --Children's Employment Commission, Third Report,? London, 1864, p. 53, n. 15. 44 l. c. , Fifth Report, p. 22, n. 137.
? ? 332 Chapter 15
45 --Sixth Report on Public Health,? Lond. , 1864, p. 34.
46 --It (the inquiry of 1861). . . showed, moreover, that while, with the described circumstances, infants perish under the neglect and mismanagement which their mothers' occupations imply, the mothers become to a grievous extent denaturalised towards their offspring-commonly not troubling themselves much at the death, and even sometimes. . . taking direct measures to insure it. ? (l. c. )
47 l. c. , p. 454.
48 l. c. , pp. 454-463. --Report by Dr. Henry Julian Hunter on the excessive mortality of infants in some rural districts of England. ?
49 l. c. , p. 35 and pp. 455, 456.
50 l. c. , p. 456.
51 In the agricultural as well as in the factory districts the consumption of opium among the grown-up labourers, both male and female, is extending daily. --To push the sale of opiate. . . is the great aim of some enterprising wholesale merchants. By druggists it is considered the leading article. ? (l. c. , p. 459. ) Infants that take opiates --shrank up into little old men,? or --wizened like little monkeys. ? (l. c. , p. 460. ) We here see how India and China avenged themselves on England.
52 l. c. , p. 37.
53 --Rep. of Insp. of Fact. for 31st Oct. , 1862,? p. 59. Mr. Baker was formerly a doctor. 54 L. Horner in --Reports of Insp. of Fact. for 30th June, 1857,? p. 17.
55 L. Horner in --Rep. of lnsp. of Fact. for 31st Oct. , 1855,? pp. 18, 19.
56 Sir John Kincaid in --Rep. of Insp. of Fact. for 31st Oct. , 1858,? pp. 31, 32.
57 L. Horner in --Reports, &c. , for 31st Oct. , 1857,? pp. 17, 18.
58 Sir J. Kincaid in --Reports, &c. , 31st Oct. , 1856,? p. 66
59 A. Redgrave in --Rep. of Insp. of Fact. , 31st. Oct. , 1857,? pp. 41-42. In those industries where the Factory Act proper (not the Print Works Act referred to in the text) has been in force for some time, the obstacles in the way of the education clauses have, in recent years, been overcome. In industries not under the Act, the views of Mr. J. Geddes, a glass manufacturer, still extensively prevail. He informed Mr. White, one of the Inquiry Commissioners: --As far as I can see, the greater amount of education which a part of the working-class has enjoyed for some years past is an evil. It is dangerous, because it makes them independent. ? (--Children's Empl. Comm. , Fourth Report,? Lond. , 1865, p. 253. )
60 --Mr. E. , a manufacturer . . . informed me that he employed females exclusively at his power-looms . . . gives a decided preference to married females, especially those who have families at home dependent on them for support; they are attentive, docile, more so than unmarried females, and are compelled to use their utmost exertions to procure the necessaries of life. Thus are the virtues, the peculiar virtues of the female character to be perverted to her injury - thus all that is most dutiful and tender in her nature is made a means of her bondage and suffering. ? (Ten Hours' Factory Bill. The Speech of Lord Ashley, March 15th, Lond. , 1844, p. 20. )
61 --Since the general introduction of machinery, human nature has been forced far beyond its average strength. ? (Rob. Owen: --Observations on the Effects of the Manufacturing System,? 2nd Ed. , London, 1817. )
62 The English, who have a tendency to look upon the earliest form of appearance of a thing as the cause of its existence, are in the habit of attributing the long hours of work in factories to the extensive kidnapping of children, practised by capitalists in the infancy of the factory system, on workhouses and orphanages, by means of which robbery, unresisting material for exploitation was procured. Thus, for instance, Ficiden, himself a manufacturer, says: --It is evident that the long hours of work were
? ? 333 Chapter 15
brought about by the circumstance of so great a number of destitute children being supplied from different parts of the country, that the masters were independent of the hands, and that having once established the custom by means of the miserable materials they had procured in this way, they could impose it on their neighbours with the greater facility. ? (J. Ficiden: --The Curse of the Factory System,? Lond. , 1836, p. I 1. ) With reference to the labour of women, Saunders, the factory inspector, says in his report of 1844: --Amongst the female operatives there are some women who, for many weeks in succession, except for a few days, are employed from 6 a. in. till midnight, with less than 2 hours for meals, so that on 5 days of the week they have only 6 hours left out of the 24, for going to and from their homes and resting in bed. ?
63 --Occasion. . . injury to the delicate moving parts of metallic mechanism by inaction. ? (Ure, l. c. , p. 281. )
64 The Manchester Spinner (Times, 26th Nov. , 1862) before referred to says in relation to this subject: --It (namely, the --allowance for deterioration of machinery") is also intended to cover the loss which is constantly arising from the superseding of machines before they are worn out, by others of a new and better construction. ?
65 --It has been estimated, roughly, that the first individual of a newly-invented machine will cost about five times as much as the construction of the second. ? (Babbage, l. c. , p. 349.
66 --The improvements which took place not long ago in frames for making patent net were so great that a machine in good repair which had cost ? 1,200, sold a few years after for ? 60 . . . improvements succeeded each other so rapidly, that machines which had never been finished were abandoned in the hands of their makers, because new improvements bad superseded their utility. ? (Babbage, l. c. , p. 233. ) In these stormy, go-ahead times, therefore, the tulle manufacturers soon extended the working day, by means of double sets of hands, from the original 8 hours to 24.
67 --It is self-evident, that, amid the ebbings and flowings of the markets and the alternate expansions and contractions of demand, occasions will constantly recur, in which the manufacturer may employ additional floating capital without employing additional fixed capital. . . if additional quantities of raw material can be worked up without incurring an additional expense for buildings and machinery. ? (R. Torrens: --On Wages and Combination. ? London, 1834, p. 64. )
68 This circumstance is mentioned only for the sake of completeness, for I shall not consider the rate of profit, i. e. , the ratio of the surplus value to the total capital advanced, until I come to the third book.
69 Senior, --Letters on the Factory Act. ? London, 1837, pp. 13, 14.
70 --The great proportion of fixed to circulating capital . . . makes long hours of work desirable. ? With the increased use of machinery, &c. , --the motives to long hours of work will become greater, as the only means by which a large proportion of fixed capital can be made profitable. ? (l. c. , pp. 11-13. ) --There are certain expenses upon a mill which go on in the same proportion whether the mill be running short or full time, as, for instance, rent rates, and taxes, insurance against fire, wages of several permanent servants, deterioration of machinery, with various other charges upon a manufacturing establishment, the proportion of which to profits increases as the production decreases. ? (--Rep. of Insp. of Fact. for 31st Oct. , 1862,? p. 19. )
71 Why it is, that the capitalist, and also the political economists who are imbued with his views, are unconscious of this immanent contradiction, will appear from the first part of the third book.
72 It is one of the greatest merits of Ricardo to have seen in machinery not only the means of producing commodities, but of creating a --redundant population. ?
73 F. Biese. --Die Philosophie des Aristoteles,? Vol. 2. Berlin, 1842, p. 408.
74 I give below the translation of this poem by Stolberg, because it brings into relief, quite in the spirit of former quotations referring to division of labour, the antithesis between the views of the ancients
? ? 334 Chapter 15
and the moderns. --Spare the hand that grinds the corn, Oh, miller girls, and softly sleep. Let Chanticleer announce the morn in vain! Deo has commanded the work of the girls to be done by the Nymphs, and now they skip lightly over the wheels, so that the shaken axles revolve with their spokes and pull round the load of the revolving stones. Let us live the life of our fathers, and let us rest from work and enjoy the gifts that the Goddess sends us. ?
--Schonet der mahlenden Hand, o Mu? llerinnen, und schlafet Sanft! es verku? nde der Hahn euch den Morgen umsonst! Da? o hat die Arbeit der Midchen den Nymphen befohlen, Und itzt hu? pfen sic leicht u? ber die Ra? der dahin,
Dass die erschu? tterten Achsen mit ihren Speichen sich wa? lzen, Und im Kreise die Last drehen des wa? lzenden Steins.
Lasst uns leben das Leben der Va? ter, und laBt uns der Gaben Arbeitslos uns freun, welche die Go? ttin uns schenkt. ?
(Gedichte aus dem Griechischen u? bersetzt von Christian Graf zu Stolberg, Hamburg, 1782. )
75 There are, of course, always differences, in the intensities of the labour in various industries. But these differences are, as Adam Smith has shown, compensated to a partial extent by minor circumstances, peculiar to each sort of labour. Labour-time, as a measure of value, is not, however, affected in this case, except in so far as the duration of labour, and the degree of its intensity, are two antithetical and mutually exclusive expressions for one and the same quantity of labour.
76 Especially by piece-work, a form we shall investigate in Part VI. of this book.
77 See --Rep. of lnsp. of Fact. for 31st October, 1865. ?
78 Rep, of Insp, of Fact. for 1844 and the quarter ending 30th April, 1845, pp. 20-21.
79 l. c. , p. 19. Since the wages for piece-work were unaltered, the weekly wages depended on the quantity produced.
80 l. c. , p. 20.
81 The moral element played an important part in the above experiments. The workpeople told the factory inspector: --We work with more spirit, we have the reward ever before us of getting away sooner at night, and one active and cheerful spirit pervades the whole mill, from the youngest piecer to the oldest hand, and we can greatly help each other. ? (l. c. , p. 21. )
82 John Fielden, l. c. , p. 32.
83 Lord Ashley, l. c. , pp. 6-9, passim.
84 Rep. of Insp. of Fact. for Quarter ending 30th September, 1844, and from 1st October, 1844, to 30th April, 1845, p. 20.
85 l. c. , p. 22.
86 --Rep. of lnsp. of Fact. for 31st October, 1862,? p. 62.
87 This was altered in the --Parliamentary Return? of 1862. In it the actual horse-power of the modern steam engines and water wheels appears in place of the nominal. The doubling spindles, too, are no longer included in the spinning spindles (as was the case in the --Returns? of 1839, 1850, and 1856); further, in the case of woollen mills, the number of --gigs? is added, a distinction made between jute and hemp mills on the one hand and flax mills on the other, and finally stocking-weaving is for the first time inserted in the report.
88 --Rep. of Insp. of Fact. for 31st October, 1856,? pp. 13-14, 20 and 1852, p. 23. 89 l. c. , pp. 14-15.
90 l. c. , p. 20.
? ? 335 Chapter 15
91 --Reports, &c. , for 31st October, 1858,? pp. 0-10. Compare --Reports, &c. , for 30th April, 1860,? p. 30, sqq.
92 --Reports of lnsp. of Fact. for 31st Oct. , 1862,? pp. 100 and 130.
93 On 2 modern power-looms a weaver now makes in a week of 60 hours 26 pieces of certain quality, length, and breadth; while on the old power-looms he could make no more than 4 such pieces. The cost of weaving a piece of such cloth had already soon after 1850 fallen from 2s. 9d. to 5 1/8d.
--Thirty years ago (1841) one spinner with three placers was not required to attend to more than one pair of mules with 300-324 spindles. At the present time (1871) he has to mind with the help of 5 piecers 2,200 spindles, and produces not less than seven times as much yarn as in 1841. ? (Alex. Redgrave, Factory Inspector - in the Journal of Arts, 5th January, 1872. )
94 --Rep. of Insp. of Fact. for 31st Oct. , 1861,? pp. 25, 26.
95 The agitation for a working day of 8 hours has now (1867) begun in Lancashire among the factory operatives.
96 The following few figures indicate the increase in the --factories? of the United Kingdom since 1848:
Quantity Exported. 1865.
COTTON
Cotton yarn lbs. 103,751,455
Sewing thread lbs. 4,648,611
Cotton cloth yds. 2,015,237,851
FLAX & HEMP
Yarn lbs. 36,777,334
Cloth yds. 247,012.
41 A. Redgrave in --Reports of lnsp. of Fact. for 31st October, 1858,? pp. 40, 41.
42 --Children's Employment Commission, Fifth Report,? London, 1866, p. 81, n. 31. [Added in the 4th
German edition. -- The Bethnal Green silk industry is now almost destroyed. -- F. E. ] 43 --Children's Employment Commission, Third Report,? London, 1864, p. 53, n. 15. 44 l. c. , Fifth Report, p. 22, n. 137.
? ? 332 Chapter 15
45 --Sixth Report on Public Health,? Lond. , 1864, p. 34.
46 --It (the inquiry of 1861). . . showed, moreover, that while, with the described circumstances, infants perish under the neglect and mismanagement which their mothers' occupations imply, the mothers become to a grievous extent denaturalised towards their offspring-commonly not troubling themselves much at the death, and even sometimes. . . taking direct measures to insure it. ? (l. c. )
47 l. c. , p. 454.
48 l. c. , pp. 454-463. --Report by Dr. Henry Julian Hunter on the excessive mortality of infants in some rural districts of England. ?
49 l. c. , p. 35 and pp. 455, 456.
50 l. c. , p. 456.
51 In the agricultural as well as in the factory districts the consumption of opium among the grown-up labourers, both male and female, is extending daily. --To push the sale of opiate. . . is the great aim of some enterprising wholesale merchants. By druggists it is considered the leading article. ? (l. c. , p. 459. ) Infants that take opiates --shrank up into little old men,? or --wizened like little monkeys. ? (l. c. , p. 460. ) We here see how India and China avenged themselves on England.
52 l. c. , p. 37.
53 --Rep. of Insp. of Fact. for 31st Oct. , 1862,? p. 59. Mr. Baker was formerly a doctor. 54 L. Horner in --Reports of Insp. of Fact. for 30th June, 1857,? p. 17.
55 L. Horner in --Rep. of lnsp. of Fact. for 31st Oct. , 1855,? pp. 18, 19.
56 Sir John Kincaid in --Rep. of Insp. of Fact. for 31st Oct. , 1858,? pp. 31, 32.
57 L. Horner in --Reports, &c. , for 31st Oct. , 1857,? pp. 17, 18.
58 Sir J. Kincaid in --Reports, &c. , 31st Oct. , 1856,? p. 66
59 A. Redgrave in --Rep. of Insp. of Fact. , 31st. Oct. , 1857,? pp. 41-42. In those industries where the Factory Act proper (not the Print Works Act referred to in the text) has been in force for some time, the obstacles in the way of the education clauses have, in recent years, been overcome. In industries not under the Act, the views of Mr. J. Geddes, a glass manufacturer, still extensively prevail. He informed Mr. White, one of the Inquiry Commissioners: --As far as I can see, the greater amount of education which a part of the working-class has enjoyed for some years past is an evil. It is dangerous, because it makes them independent. ? (--Children's Empl. Comm. , Fourth Report,? Lond. , 1865, p. 253. )
60 --Mr. E. , a manufacturer . . . informed me that he employed females exclusively at his power-looms . . . gives a decided preference to married females, especially those who have families at home dependent on them for support; they are attentive, docile, more so than unmarried females, and are compelled to use their utmost exertions to procure the necessaries of life. Thus are the virtues, the peculiar virtues of the female character to be perverted to her injury - thus all that is most dutiful and tender in her nature is made a means of her bondage and suffering. ? (Ten Hours' Factory Bill. The Speech of Lord Ashley, March 15th, Lond. , 1844, p. 20. )
61 --Since the general introduction of machinery, human nature has been forced far beyond its average strength. ? (Rob. Owen: --Observations on the Effects of the Manufacturing System,? 2nd Ed. , London, 1817. )
62 The English, who have a tendency to look upon the earliest form of appearance of a thing as the cause of its existence, are in the habit of attributing the long hours of work in factories to the extensive kidnapping of children, practised by capitalists in the infancy of the factory system, on workhouses and orphanages, by means of which robbery, unresisting material for exploitation was procured. Thus, for instance, Ficiden, himself a manufacturer, says: --It is evident that the long hours of work were
? ? 333 Chapter 15
brought about by the circumstance of so great a number of destitute children being supplied from different parts of the country, that the masters were independent of the hands, and that having once established the custom by means of the miserable materials they had procured in this way, they could impose it on their neighbours with the greater facility. ? (J. Ficiden: --The Curse of the Factory System,? Lond. , 1836, p. I 1. ) With reference to the labour of women, Saunders, the factory inspector, says in his report of 1844: --Amongst the female operatives there are some women who, for many weeks in succession, except for a few days, are employed from 6 a. in. till midnight, with less than 2 hours for meals, so that on 5 days of the week they have only 6 hours left out of the 24, for going to and from their homes and resting in bed. ?
63 --Occasion. . . injury to the delicate moving parts of metallic mechanism by inaction. ? (Ure, l. c. , p. 281. )
64 The Manchester Spinner (Times, 26th Nov. , 1862) before referred to says in relation to this subject: --It (namely, the --allowance for deterioration of machinery") is also intended to cover the loss which is constantly arising from the superseding of machines before they are worn out, by others of a new and better construction. ?
65 --It has been estimated, roughly, that the first individual of a newly-invented machine will cost about five times as much as the construction of the second. ? (Babbage, l. c. , p. 349.
66 --The improvements which took place not long ago in frames for making patent net were so great that a machine in good repair which had cost ? 1,200, sold a few years after for ? 60 . . . improvements succeeded each other so rapidly, that machines which had never been finished were abandoned in the hands of their makers, because new improvements bad superseded their utility. ? (Babbage, l. c. , p. 233. ) In these stormy, go-ahead times, therefore, the tulle manufacturers soon extended the working day, by means of double sets of hands, from the original 8 hours to 24.
67 --It is self-evident, that, amid the ebbings and flowings of the markets and the alternate expansions and contractions of demand, occasions will constantly recur, in which the manufacturer may employ additional floating capital without employing additional fixed capital. . . if additional quantities of raw material can be worked up without incurring an additional expense for buildings and machinery. ? (R. Torrens: --On Wages and Combination. ? London, 1834, p. 64. )
68 This circumstance is mentioned only for the sake of completeness, for I shall not consider the rate of profit, i. e. , the ratio of the surplus value to the total capital advanced, until I come to the third book.
69 Senior, --Letters on the Factory Act. ? London, 1837, pp. 13, 14.
70 --The great proportion of fixed to circulating capital . . . makes long hours of work desirable. ? With the increased use of machinery, &c. , --the motives to long hours of work will become greater, as the only means by which a large proportion of fixed capital can be made profitable. ? (l. c. , pp. 11-13. ) --There are certain expenses upon a mill which go on in the same proportion whether the mill be running short or full time, as, for instance, rent rates, and taxes, insurance against fire, wages of several permanent servants, deterioration of machinery, with various other charges upon a manufacturing establishment, the proportion of which to profits increases as the production decreases. ? (--Rep. of Insp. of Fact. for 31st Oct. , 1862,? p. 19. )
71 Why it is, that the capitalist, and also the political economists who are imbued with his views, are unconscious of this immanent contradiction, will appear from the first part of the third book.
72 It is one of the greatest merits of Ricardo to have seen in machinery not only the means of producing commodities, but of creating a --redundant population. ?
73 F. Biese. --Die Philosophie des Aristoteles,? Vol. 2. Berlin, 1842, p. 408.
74 I give below the translation of this poem by Stolberg, because it brings into relief, quite in the spirit of former quotations referring to division of labour, the antithesis between the views of the ancients
? ? 334 Chapter 15
and the moderns. --Spare the hand that grinds the corn, Oh, miller girls, and softly sleep. Let Chanticleer announce the morn in vain! Deo has commanded the work of the girls to be done by the Nymphs, and now they skip lightly over the wheels, so that the shaken axles revolve with their spokes and pull round the load of the revolving stones. Let us live the life of our fathers, and let us rest from work and enjoy the gifts that the Goddess sends us. ?
--Schonet der mahlenden Hand, o Mu? llerinnen, und schlafet Sanft! es verku? nde der Hahn euch den Morgen umsonst! Da? o hat die Arbeit der Midchen den Nymphen befohlen, Und itzt hu? pfen sic leicht u? ber die Ra? der dahin,
Dass die erschu? tterten Achsen mit ihren Speichen sich wa? lzen, Und im Kreise die Last drehen des wa? lzenden Steins.
Lasst uns leben das Leben der Va? ter, und laBt uns der Gaben Arbeitslos uns freun, welche die Go? ttin uns schenkt. ?
(Gedichte aus dem Griechischen u? bersetzt von Christian Graf zu Stolberg, Hamburg, 1782. )
75 There are, of course, always differences, in the intensities of the labour in various industries. But these differences are, as Adam Smith has shown, compensated to a partial extent by minor circumstances, peculiar to each sort of labour. Labour-time, as a measure of value, is not, however, affected in this case, except in so far as the duration of labour, and the degree of its intensity, are two antithetical and mutually exclusive expressions for one and the same quantity of labour.
76 Especially by piece-work, a form we shall investigate in Part VI. of this book.
77 See --Rep. of lnsp. of Fact. for 31st October, 1865. ?
78 Rep, of Insp, of Fact. for 1844 and the quarter ending 30th April, 1845, pp. 20-21.
79 l. c. , p. 19. Since the wages for piece-work were unaltered, the weekly wages depended on the quantity produced.
80 l. c. , p. 20.
81 The moral element played an important part in the above experiments. The workpeople told the factory inspector: --We work with more spirit, we have the reward ever before us of getting away sooner at night, and one active and cheerful spirit pervades the whole mill, from the youngest piecer to the oldest hand, and we can greatly help each other. ? (l. c. , p. 21. )
82 John Fielden, l. c. , p. 32.
83 Lord Ashley, l. c. , pp. 6-9, passim.
84 Rep. of Insp. of Fact. for Quarter ending 30th September, 1844, and from 1st October, 1844, to 30th April, 1845, p. 20.
85 l. c. , p. 22.
86 --Rep. of lnsp. of Fact. for 31st October, 1862,? p. 62.
87 This was altered in the --Parliamentary Return? of 1862. In it the actual horse-power of the modern steam engines and water wheels appears in place of the nominal. The doubling spindles, too, are no longer included in the spinning spindles (as was the case in the --Returns? of 1839, 1850, and 1856); further, in the case of woollen mills, the number of --gigs? is added, a distinction made between jute and hemp mills on the one hand and flax mills on the other, and finally stocking-weaving is for the first time inserted in the report.
88 --Rep. of Insp. of Fact. for 31st October, 1856,? pp. 13-14, 20 and 1852, p. 23. 89 l. c. , pp. 14-15.
90 l. c. , p. 20.
? ? 335 Chapter 15
91 --Reports, &c. , for 31st October, 1858,? pp. 0-10. Compare --Reports, &c. , for 30th April, 1860,? p. 30, sqq.
92 --Reports of lnsp. of Fact. for 31st Oct. , 1862,? pp. 100 and 130.
93 On 2 modern power-looms a weaver now makes in a week of 60 hours 26 pieces of certain quality, length, and breadth; while on the old power-looms he could make no more than 4 such pieces. The cost of weaving a piece of such cloth had already soon after 1850 fallen from 2s. 9d. to 5 1/8d.
--Thirty years ago (1841) one spinner with three placers was not required to attend to more than one pair of mules with 300-324 spindles. At the present time (1871) he has to mind with the help of 5 piecers 2,200 spindles, and produces not less than seven times as much yarn as in 1841. ? (Alex. Redgrave, Factory Inspector - in the Journal of Arts, 5th January, 1872. )
94 --Rep. of Insp. of Fact. for 31st Oct. , 1861,? pp. 25, 26.
95 The agitation for a working day of 8 hours has now (1867) begun in Lancashire among the factory operatives.
96 The following few figures indicate the increase in the --factories? of the United Kingdom since 1848:
Quantity Exported. 1865.
COTTON
Cotton yarn lbs. 103,751,455
Sewing thread lbs. 4,648,611
Cotton cloth yds. 2,015,237,851
FLAX & HEMP
Yarn lbs. 36,777,334
Cloth yds. 247,012.
