The total number of persons of both sexes and of all ages from 3 years upwards, employed in
stocking
making in England, was in 1862 about 129,000.
Marx - Capital-Volume-I
, n.
415.
171 And now forsooth children are employed at file-cutting in Sheffield.
172 --Ch. Empl. Comm. , V. Rep. 1866,? p. 3, n. 24; p. 6, n. 55, 56; p. 7, n. 59, 60.
173 l. c. , pp. 114, 115, n. 6, 7. The commissioner justly remarks that though as a rule machines take the place of men, here literally young persons replace machines.
174 See the Report on the rag trade, and numerous details in --Public Health, VIII. Rep. ? Lond. 1866, app. , pp. 196, 208.
175 --Ch. Empl. Comm. V. Rep. , 1866,? pp. xvi-xviii, n. 86-97, and pp. 130-133, n. 39-71. See also III. Rep. , 1864, pp. 48, 56.
176 --Public Health. Sixth Rep. ,? Lond. 1864, pp. 29, 31.
177 l. c. , p. 30. Dr. Simon remarks that the mortality among the London tailors and printers between the ages of 25 and 35 is in fact much greater, because the employers in London obtain from the country a great number of young people up to 30 years of age, as --apprentices? and --improvers,? who come for the purpose of being perfected in their trade. These figure in the census as Londoners, they swell out
? ? 347 Chapter 15
the number of heads on which the London death-rate is calculated, without adding proportionally to the number of deaths in that place. The greater part of them in fact return to the country, and especially in cases of severe illness. (l. c. )
178 I allude here to hammered nails, as distinguished from nails cut out and made by machinery. See --Child. Empl. Comm. , Third Rep. ,? pp. xi. , xix. , n. 125-130, p. 52, n. 11, p. 114, n. 487, p. 137, n. 674.
179 --Ch. Empl. Comm. , II. Rep. ,? p. xxii, n. 166.
180 --Ch. Empl. Comm. , II. Rep. , 1864,? pp. xix. , xx. , xxi.
181 l. c. , pp. xxi. . xxii.
182 l. c. , pp. xxix. , xxx.
183 l. c. , pp. xi. , xii.
184 --Child. Empl. Comm. , I. Rep. 1863,? p. 185.
185 In England millinery and dressmaking are for the most part carried on, on the premises of the employer, partly by workwomen who live there, partly by women who live off the premises.
186 Mr. White, a commissioner, visited a military clothing manufactory that employed 1,000 to 1,200 persons, almost all females, and a shoe manufactory with 1,300 persons; of these nearly one half were children and young persons.
187 An instance. The weekly report of deaths by the Registrar-General dated 26th Feb. , 1864, contains 5 cases of death from starvation. On the same day The Times reports another case. Six victims of starvation in one week!
188 --Child. Empl. Comm. , Second Rep. , 1864,? p. lxvii. , n. 406-9, p. 84, n. 124, p. lxxiii, n. 441, p. 68, n. 6, p. 84, n. 126, p. 78, n. 85, p. 76, n. 69, p. lxxii, n. 483.
189 --The rental of premises required for workrooms seems the element which ultimately determines the point; and consequently it is in the metropolis, that the old system of giving work out to small employers and families has been longest retained, and earliest returned to. ? (l. c. , p. 83, n. 123. ) The concluding statement in this quotation refers exclusively to shoemaking.
190 In glove-making and other industries where the condition of the work-people is hardly distinguishable from that of paupers, this does not occur.
191 l. c. , p. 83, n. 122.
192 In the wholesale boot and shoe trade of Leicester alone, there were in 1864, 800 sewing-machines already in use.
193 l. c. , p. 84, n. 124.
194 Instances: The Army Clothing Depot at Pimlico, London, the Shirt factory of Tillie and Henderson at Londonderry, and the clothes factory of Messrs. Tait at Limerick which employs about 1,200 hands.
195 --Tendency to Factory System? (l. c. , p. lxvii). --The whole employment is at this time in a state of transition, and is undergoing the same Change as that effected in the lace trade, weaving, &c. ? (l. c. , n. 405. ) --A complete revolution? (l. c. , p. xlvi. , n. 318). At the date of the Child. Empl. Comm. of 1840 stocking making was still done by manual labour. Since 1846 various sorts of machines have been introduced, which are now driven by steam.
The total number of persons of both sexes and of all ages from 3 years upwards, employed in stocking making in England, was in 1862 about 129,000. Of these only 4,063 were, according to the Parliamentary Return of the 11th February, 1862, working under the Factory Acts.
196 Thus, e. g. , in the earthenware trade, Messrs. Cochrane, of the Britain Pottery, Glasgow, report: --To keep up our quantity we have gone extensively into machines wrought by unskilled labour, and every
? ? 348 Chapter 15
day convinces us that we can produce a greater quantity than by the old method. ? (--Rep. of Insp. of Fact. , 31st Oct. , 1865,? p. 13. ) --The effect of the Fact. Acts is to force on the further introduction of machinery? (l. c. , pp. 13-14).
197 Thus, after the extension of the Factory Act to the potteries, great increase of powerjiggers in place of hand-moved jiggers.
198 --Report of lnsp. of Fact. , 31st Oct. , 1865,? pp. 96 and 127.
199 The introduction of this and other machinery into match-making caused in one department alone 230 young persons to be replaced by 32 boys and girls of 14 to 17 years of age. This saving in labour was carried still further in 1865, by the employment of steam power.
200 --Ch. Empl. Comm. , 11. Rep. , 1864,? p. ix. , n. 50.
201 --Rep. of Insp. of Fact. , 31st Oct. , 1865,? p. . 22.
202 --But it must be borne in mind that those improvements, though carried out fully in some establishments, are by no means general, and are not capable of being brought into use in many of the old manufactories without an expenditure of capital beyond the means of many of the present occupiers. ? --I cannot but rejoice,? writes Sub-Insp. May, --that notwithstanding the temporary disorganisation which inevitably follows the introduction of such a measure (as the Factory Act Extension Act), and is, indeed, directly indicative of the evils which it was intended to remedy, &c. ? (Rep. of Insp. of Fact. , 31st Oct. , 1865. )
203 With blast furnaces, for instance, --work towards the end of the week being generally much increased in duration in consequence of the habit of the men of idling on Monday and occasionally during a part or the whole of Tuesday also. ? (--Child. Empl. Comm. , III. Rep. ,? p. vi. ) --The little masters generally have very irregular hours. They lose two or three days, and then work all night to make it up. . . . They always employ their own children, if they have any. ? (l. c. , p. vii. ) --The want of regularity in coming to work, encouraged by the possibility and practice of making up for this by working longer hours. ? (l. c. , p. xviii. ) --In Birmingham . . . an enormous amount of time is lost . . . idling part of the time, slaving the rest. ? (l. c. , p. xi. )
204 --Child. Empl. Comm. , IV. , Rep. ,? p. xxxii. , --The extension of the railway system is said to have contributed greatly to this custom of giving sudden orders, and the consequent hurry, neglect of meal- times, and late hours of the workpeople. ? (l. c. , p. xxxi. )
205 --Ch. Empl. Comm, IV. Rep. ,? pp. xxxv. , n. 235, 237.
206 --Ch. Empl. Comm. IV. Rep. ,? p. 127, n. 56.
207 With respect to the loss of trade by non-completion of shipping orders in time, I remember that this was the pet argument of the factory masters in 1832 and 1833. Nothing that can be advanced now on this subject, could have the force that it had then, before steam had halved all distances and established new regulations for transit. It quite failed at that time of proof when put to the test, and again it will certainly fail should it have to be tried. ? (--Reports of Insp. of Fact. , 31 Oct. , 1862,? pp. 54, 55. )
208 --Ch. Empl. Comm. IV. Rep. ,? p. xviii, n. 118.
209 John Bellers remarked as far back as 1699: --The uncertainty of fashions does increase necessitous poor. It has two great mischiefs in it. 1st, The journeymen are miserable in winter for want of work, the mercers and master-weavers not daring to lay out their stocks to keep the journeymen employed before the spring comes, and they know what the fashion will then be; 2ndly, In the spring the journeymen are not sufficient, but the master-weavers must draw in many prentices, that they may supply the trade of the kingdom in a quarter or half a year, which robs the plough of hands, drains the
? ? 349 Chapter 15
country of labourers, and in a great part stocks the city with beggars, and starves some in winter that are ashamed to beg. ? (--Essays about the Poor, Manufactures, &c. ,? p. 9. )
210 --Ch. Empl. Comm. V. Rep. ,? p. 171, n. 34.
211 The evidence of some Bradford export-houses is as follows: --Under these circumstances, it seems clear that no boys need be worked longer than from 8 a. m. to 7 or 7. 30 p. m. , in making up. It is merely a question of extra hands and extra outlay. If some masters were not so greedy, the boys would not work late; an extra machine costs only ? 16 or ? 18; much of such over-time as does occur is to be referred to an insufficiency of appliances, and a want of space. ? --Ch. Empl, Comm. V. Rep. ,? p. 171, n. 35, 36, 38.
212 l. c. A London manufacturer, who in other respects looks upon the compulsory regulation of the hours of labour as a protection for the workpeople against the manufacturers, and for the manufacturers themselves against the wholesale trade, states: --The pressure in our business is caused by the shippers, who want, e. g. , to send the goods by sailing vessel so as to reach their destination at a given season, and at the same time want to pocket the difference in freight between a sailing vessel and a steamship, or who select the earlier of two steamships in order to be in the foreign market before their competitors. ?
213 --This could be obviated,? says a manufacturer, --at the expense of an enlargement of the works under the pressure of a General Act of Parliament. ? l. c. , p. x.
171 And now forsooth children are employed at file-cutting in Sheffield.
172 --Ch. Empl. Comm. , V. Rep. 1866,? p. 3, n. 24; p. 6, n. 55, 56; p. 7, n. 59, 60.
173 l. c. , pp. 114, 115, n. 6, 7. The commissioner justly remarks that though as a rule machines take the place of men, here literally young persons replace machines.
174 See the Report on the rag trade, and numerous details in --Public Health, VIII. Rep. ? Lond. 1866, app. , pp. 196, 208.
175 --Ch. Empl. Comm. V. Rep. , 1866,? pp. xvi-xviii, n. 86-97, and pp. 130-133, n. 39-71. See also III. Rep. , 1864, pp. 48, 56.
176 --Public Health. Sixth Rep. ,? Lond. 1864, pp. 29, 31.
177 l. c. , p. 30. Dr. Simon remarks that the mortality among the London tailors and printers between the ages of 25 and 35 is in fact much greater, because the employers in London obtain from the country a great number of young people up to 30 years of age, as --apprentices? and --improvers,? who come for the purpose of being perfected in their trade. These figure in the census as Londoners, they swell out
? ? 347 Chapter 15
the number of heads on which the London death-rate is calculated, without adding proportionally to the number of deaths in that place. The greater part of them in fact return to the country, and especially in cases of severe illness. (l. c. )
178 I allude here to hammered nails, as distinguished from nails cut out and made by machinery. See --Child. Empl. Comm. , Third Rep. ,? pp. xi. , xix. , n. 125-130, p. 52, n. 11, p. 114, n. 487, p. 137, n. 674.
179 --Ch. Empl. Comm. , II. Rep. ,? p. xxii, n. 166.
180 --Ch. Empl. Comm. , II. Rep. , 1864,? pp. xix. , xx. , xxi.
181 l. c. , pp. xxi. . xxii.
182 l. c. , pp. xxix. , xxx.
183 l. c. , pp. xi. , xii.
184 --Child. Empl. Comm. , I. Rep. 1863,? p. 185.
185 In England millinery and dressmaking are for the most part carried on, on the premises of the employer, partly by workwomen who live there, partly by women who live off the premises.
186 Mr. White, a commissioner, visited a military clothing manufactory that employed 1,000 to 1,200 persons, almost all females, and a shoe manufactory with 1,300 persons; of these nearly one half were children and young persons.
187 An instance. The weekly report of deaths by the Registrar-General dated 26th Feb. , 1864, contains 5 cases of death from starvation. On the same day The Times reports another case. Six victims of starvation in one week!
188 --Child. Empl. Comm. , Second Rep. , 1864,? p. lxvii. , n. 406-9, p. 84, n. 124, p. lxxiii, n. 441, p. 68, n. 6, p. 84, n. 126, p. 78, n. 85, p. 76, n. 69, p. lxxii, n. 483.
189 --The rental of premises required for workrooms seems the element which ultimately determines the point; and consequently it is in the metropolis, that the old system of giving work out to small employers and families has been longest retained, and earliest returned to. ? (l. c. , p. 83, n. 123. ) The concluding statement in this quotation refers exclusively to shoemaking.
190 In glove-making and other industries where the condition of the work-people is hardly distinguishable from that of paupers, this does not occur.
191 l. c. , p. 83, n. 122.
192 In the wholesale boot and shoe trade of Leicester alone, there were in 1864, 800 sewing-machines already in use.
193 l. c. , p. 84, n. 124.
194 Instances: The Army Clothing Depot at Pimlico, London, the Shirt factory of Tillie and Henderson at Londonderry, and the clothes factory of Messrs. Tait at Limerick which employs about 1,200 hands.
195 --Tendency to Factory System? (l. c. , p. lxvii). --The whole employment is at this time in a state of transition, and is undergoing the same Change as that effected in the lace trade, weaving, &c. ? (l. c. , n. 405. ) --A complete revolution? (l. c. , p. xlvi. , n. 318). At the date of the Child. Empl. Comm. of 1840 stocking making was still done by manual labour. Since 1846 various sorts of machines have been introduced, which are now driven by steam.
The total number of persons of both sexes and of all ages from 3 years upwards, employed in stocking making in England, was in 1862 about 129,000. Of these only 4,063 were, according to the Parliamentary Return of the 11th February, 1862, working under the Factory Acts.
196 Thus, e. g. , in the earthenware trade, Messrs. Cochrane, of the Britain Pottery, Glasgow, report: --To keep up our quantity we have gone extensively into machines wrought by unskilled labour, and every
? ? 348 Chapter 15
day convinces us that we can produce a greater quantity than by the old method. ? (--Rep. of Insp. of Fact. , 31st Oct. , 1865,? p. 13. ) --The effect of the Fact. Acts is to force on the further introduction of machinery? (l. c. , pp. 13-14).
197 Thus, after the extension of the Factory Act to the potteries, great increase of powerjiggers in place of hand-moved jiggers.
198 --Report of lnsp. of Fact. , 31st Oct. , 1865,? pp. 96 and 127.
199 The introduction of this and other machinery into match-making caused in one department alone 230 young persons to be replaced by 32 boys and girls of 14 to 17 years of age. This saving in labour was carried still further in 1865, by the employment of steam power.
200 --Ch. Empl. Comm. , 11. Rep. , 1864,? p. ix. , n. 50.
201 --Rep. of Insp. of Fact. , 31st Oct. , 1865,? p. . 22.
202 --But it must be borne in mind that those improvements, though carried out fully in some establishments, are by no means general, and are not capable of being brought into use in many of the old manufactories without an expenditure of capital beyond the means of many of the present occupiers. ? --I cannot but rejoice,? writes Sub-Insp. May, --that notwithstanding the temporary disorganisation which inevitably follows the introduction of such a measure (as the Factory Act Extension Act), and is, indeed, directly indicative of the evils which it was intended to remedy, &c. ? (Rep. of Insp. of Fact. , 31st Oct. , 1865. )
203 With blast furnaces, for instance, --work towards the end of the week being generally much increased in duration in consequence of the habit of the men of idling on Monday and occasionally during a part or the whole of Tuesday also. ? (--Child. Empl. Comm. , III. Rep. ,? p. vi. ) --The little masters generally have very irregular hours. They lose two or three days, and then work all night to make it up. . . . They always employ their own children, if they have any. ? (l. c. , p. vii. ) --The want of regularity in coming to work, encouraged by the possibility and practice of making up for this by working longer hours. ? (l. c. , p. xviii. ) --In Birmingham . . . an enormous amount of time is lost . . . idling part of the time, slaving the rest. ? (l. c. , p. xi. )
204 --Child. Empl. Comm. , IV. , Rep. ,? p. xxxii. , --The extension of the railway system is said to have contributed greatly to this custom of giving sudden orders, and the consequent hurry, neglect of meal- times, and late hours of the workpeople. ? (l. c. , p. xxxi. )
205 --Ch. Empl. Comm, IV. Rep. ,? pp. xxxv. , n. 235, 237.
206 --Ch. Empl. Comm. IV. Rep. ,? p. 127, n. 56.
207 With respect to the loss of trade by non-completion of shipping orders in time, I remember that this was the pet argument of the factory masters in 1832 and 1833. Nothing that can be advanced now on this subject, could have the force that it had then, before steam had halved all distances and established new regulations for transit. It quite failed at that time of proof when put to the test, and again it will certainly fail should it have to be tried. ? (--Reports of Insp. of Fact. , 31 Oct. , 1862,? pp. 54, 55. )
208 --Ch. Empl. Comm. IV. Rep. ,? p. xviii, n. 118.
209 John Bellers remarked as far back as 1699: --The uncertainty of fashions does increase necessitous poor. It has two great mischiefs in it. 1st, The journeymen are miserable in winter for want of work, the mercers and master-weavers not daring to lay out their stocks to keep the journeymen employed before the spring comes, and they know what the fashion will then be; 2ndly, In the spring the journeymen are not sufficient, but the master-weavers must draw in many prentices, that they may supply the trade of the kingdom in a quarter or half a year, which robs the plough of hands, drains the
? ? 349 Chapter 15
country of labourers, and in a great part stocks the city with beggars, and starves some in winter that are ashamed to beg. ? (--Essays about the Poor, Manufactures, &c. ,? p. 9. )
210 --Ch. Empl. Comm. V. Rep. ,? p. 171, n. 34.
211 The evidence of some Bradford export-houses is as follows: --Under these circumstances, it seems clear that no boys need be worked longer than from 8 a. m. to 7 or 7. 30 p. m. , in making up. It is merely a question of extra hands and extra outlay. If some masters were not so greedy, the boys would not work late; an extra machine costs only ? 16 or ? 18; much of such over-time as does occur is to be referred to an insufficiency of appliances, and a want of space. ? --Ch. Empl, Comm. V. Rep. ,? p. 171, n. 35, 36, 38.
212 l. c. A London manufacturer, who in other respects looks upon the compulsory regulation of the hours of labour as a protection for the workpeople against the manufacturers, and for the manufacturers themselves against the wholesale trade, states: --The pressure in our business is caused by the shippers, who want, e. g. , to send the goods by sailing vessel so as to reach their destination at a given season, and at the same time want to pocket the difference in freight between a sailing vessel and a steamship, or who select the earlier of two steamships in order to be in the foreign market before their competitors. ?
213 --This could be obviated,? says a manufacturer, --at the expense of an enlargement of the works under the pressure of a General Act of Parliament. ? l. c. , p. x.
