Chapter XLIV: Section I: Industrial Organisation and Social Conditions (1)

1. Defoe's Account of the West Riding Cloth Industry, 1724--2.
Defoe's Account of the Woollen Trade, _temp._ George II.--3. Defoe's
Account of the Corn Trade, _temp._ George II.--4. Defoe's Account of
the Coal Trade, _temp._ George II.--5. A Description of Middlemen in
the Woollen Industry, 1739.--6. Report on the Condition of Children
in Lancashire Cotton Factories, 1796--7. The Newcastle Coal Vend,
1771-1830--8. The old Apprenticeship System in the Woollen Industry,
1806--9. A Petition of Cotton Weavers, 1807--10. Depression of Wages
and its Causes in the Cotton Industry, 1812--11. Evidence of the
Condition of Children in Factories, 1816--12. Change in the Cotton
Industry and the Introduction of Power-loom Weaving, 1785-1807--13.
Evidence by Factory Workers of the Condition of Children, 1832--14.
Women's and Children's Labour in Mines, 1842--15. Description of the
Condition of Manchester by John Robertson, Surgeon, 1840.

The documents in this section are intended to illustrate changes in industry and their effects on social conditions between 1660 and 1846. Eight extracts illustrate the condition of industries in the period, their structure, organisation and methods (Nos. 1 to 5, 7, 8 and 12). The first five refer to the early part of the eighteenth century and have a double interest. They record the old conditions in the woollen industry and the wool, corn and coal trades, and enable us to estimate the completeness of the change which was coming (Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5). They show also how far advanced already was the organisation of markets and middlemen, and vertical control. A description of the conditions of the old apprenticeship system in the woollen industry is added (No. 8). Evidence before Committees on the Coal Trade gives an account of the important monopoly agreements and limitations of output which the peculiar conditions of the industry produced (No. 7). An example of the mechanical inventions which revolutionised industry at the close of the period is taken from an autobiographical pamphlet by a pioneer in power-loom cotton weaving (No. 12).

The pressure of industrial change on human life had been felt for some time before the application of new motive-power to machinery took full effect. The fluctuations of the cotton weaving industry and the depression of wages, aggravated by the French wars and trade restrictions, are illustrated by a petition of weavers (No. 9) and by evidence before a committee on the Orders in Council (No. 10). The rest of the extracts refer chiefly to the employment of children under the new industrial conditions. The report of Dr. Perceval in 1796 (No. 6) helped to produce the original Factory Act (See Pt. III, Section III, No. 9). The evidence of Peel and Owen before the committee of 1816 is given as the testimony of exceptional employers (No. 11). It supplements the picture painted by children, parents and overseers before Sadler's committee (No. 13). The Commission of 1842 (No. 14) supplies evidence of the conditions under which women and children worked in the coal mines. A brief description by a surgeon of the condition of Manchester in 1840 is added as giving some indication of the part played by housing conditions in the Industrial Revolution (No. 15).

AUTHORITIES

On Industrial Organisation the principal modern writers are Unwin,
_Industrial Organisation in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries_;
Cunningham, _English Industry and Commerce, Modern Times_; Mantoux,
_La Révolution Industrielle_; Toynbee, _The Industrial Revolution_;
Marx, _Capital_, Vol. II; Hobson, _The Evolution of Modern
Capitalism_, _Social England_ (edited Traill); H. Levy, _Monopoly and
Competition_. Consult also Smiles, _Lives of the Engineers_, _Lives
of Boulton and Watt_, _Industrial Biography_; Meteyard, _Life of
Wedgwood_; Chapman, _The Cotton Industry_; Galloway, _Annals of
Coalmining_; Boyd, _History of the Coal Trade_; Lloyd, _The Cutlery
Trades_; Leone Levi, _History of British Commerce_; Porter, _The
Progress of the Nation_, and _The Victoria County History_, _passim_
(articles on social and economic history and on industries). For
social conditions and changes consult Mantoux, Cunningham, Marx, and
other writers above-mentioned, and Hutchins, _The Public Health
Agitation_; Cooke Taylor, _The Factory System_ and _Introduction to
the Factory System_; Webb, _History of Trade Unionism_.

Bibliographies are given by Cunningham, _op. cit._, Part II; Unwin,
_op. cit._; Mantoux, _op. cit._; _Social England_; Hutchins and
Harrison, _History of Factory Legislation_; Webb, _op. cit._;
Cambridge Modern History, Vol. X.

_Contemporary._--(1) The chief printed documentary evidence is to be
found in the numerous reports of Committees and Commissions. For
children's employment see the following Reports: on the State of
Children in Manufactories, 1816 (III); on the Bill to regulate the
labour of Children, 1832; on Children in Factories, 1833 (XX and
XXI); on Children in Mines and Manufactories, 1842 (XV, XVI, XVII);
on Children's Employment, 1843 (XII-XV). On conditions of wages and
employment see Reports on Petitions; of Framework Knitters,
1778-1779; of Woolcombers, 1794; of Calico Printers, 1804 (V) and
1806 (III); of Hand-loom Weavers: 1834 (X) and 1835 (XIII), 1839
(XIII) and 1840 (XXII and XXIV); also Reports on the Apprenticeship
Laws, 1813 (IV); on the Woollen Manufacture, 1806 (III); on Silk and
Ribbon Weavers, 1818 (X). The organisation of the Coal Industry is
described in Reports on the Coal Trade. See also the Letter Books of
Holroyd and Hill (ed. Heaton, Halifax Bankfield Museum Notes, Series
II, No. 3).

(2) Contemporary literary evidence for the earlier part of the period
is to be found in Defoe, A Tour through the Whole Island of Great
Britain, and The Complete English Tradesman; Smith, Memoirs of Wool
(a collection); Young, Tour through the North of England, gives a
brief survey of the Country in 1770. The changes in industrial
methods are described in W. Radcliffe, Origin of the New System of
Manufacture, commonly called Power-loom Weaving, Memoir of Edmund
Cartwright, and Histories of the Cotton Manufactures by Ure and
Baines. Life under the new conditions is described by Gaskell, The
Manufacturing Population, and Artizans and Machinery, and Owen,
Observations on the Manufacturing System. See also G. Dyer, The
Complaints of the Poor People of England; C. Hall, The Effects of
Civilisation; J. Brown, Memoir of Robert Blincoe (a child
factory-worker); and, for public health, Kay, Moral and Physical
Condition of the Working Classes; Richardson, The Health of Nations
(Chadwick's writings); Reports 1800 (X) and 1830 (VII); Sanitary
Conditions in large towns are described in Reports on Health of
Towns, 1840 (XI) and 1845 (XVIII), and on Sanitary Conditions, 1844
(XVII).

1. DEFOE'S ACCOUNT OF THE WEST RIDING CLOTH INDUSTRY [_D. Defoe, A Tour Through Great Britain, Vol. III, pp. 144-146, Ed. 1769_], 1724.

From Blackstone Edge to Halifax is eight miles; and all the way, except from Sowerby to Halifax, is thus up hill and down; so that, I suppose, we mounted up to the clouds, and descended to the water-level, about eight times in that little part of the journey.

But now I must observe to you, that after we passed the second hill, and were come down into the valley again; and so still the nearer we came to Halifax, we found the houses thicker, and the villages greater in every bottom; and not only so, but the sides of the hills, which were very steep every way were spread with houses; for the land being divided into small inclosures, from two acres to six or seven each, seldom more, every three or four pieces of land had an house belonging to them.

In short, after we had mounted the third hill we found the country one continued village, though every way mountainous, hardly an house standing out of a speaking distance from another; and as the day cleared up, we could see at every house a tenter, and on almost every tenter a piece of cloth, kersie, or shalloon; which are the three articles of this country's labour.

In the course of our road among the houses, we found at every one of them a little rill or gutter of running water; if the house was above the road, it came from it, and crossed the way to run to another; if the house was below us, it crossed us from some other distant house above it; and at every considerable house was a manufactory; which not being able to be carried on without water, these little streams were so parted and guided by gutters or pipes, that not one of the houses wanted its necessary appendage of a rivulet.

Again, as the dyeing-houses, scouring-shops, and places where they use this water, emit it tinged with the drugs of the dyeing vat, and with the oil, the soap, the tallow, and other ingredients used by the clothiers in dressing and scouring, etc., the lands through which it passes, which otherwise would be exceeding barren, are enriched by it to a degree beyond imagination.

Then, as every clothier must necessarily keep one horse, at least, to fetch home his wool and his provisions from the market, to carry his yarn to the spinners, his manufacture to the fulling-mill, and when finished, to the market to be sold, and the like; so every one generally keeps a cow or two for his family. By this means, the small pieces of inclosed land about each house are occupied; and, by being thus fed, are still farther improved from the dung of the cattle. As for corn, they scarce sow enough to feed their poultry.

Such, it seems, has been the bounty of nature to this county, that two things essential to life, and more particularly to the business followed here, are found in it, and in such a situation as is not to be met with in any part of England, if in the world beside; I mean coals, and running water on the tops of the highest hills. I doubt not but there are both springs and coals lower in these hills; but were they to fetch them thence, it is probable the pits would be too full of water: it is easy, however, to fetch them from the upper parts, the horses going light up, and coming down loaden. This place, then, seems to have been designed by providence for the very purposes to which it is now allotted, for carrying on a manufacture, which can nowhere be so easily supplied with the conveniences necessary for it. Nor is the industry of the people wanting to second these advantages. Though we met few people without doors, yet within we saw the houses full of lusty fellows, some at the dye-vat, some at the loom, others dressing the cloths; the women and children carding, or spinning; all employed from the youngest to the oldest; scarce any thing above four years old, but its hands were sufficient for its own support. Nor a beggar to be seen, nor an idle person, except here and there in an alms-house, built for those that are ancient, and past working. The people in general live long; they enjoy a good air; and under such circumstances hard labour is naturally attended with the blessing of health, if not riches.

From this account, you will easily imagine, that some of these remote parts of the North are the most populous places of Great Britain, London and its neighbourhood excepted.

2. DEFOE'S ACCOUNT OF THE WOOL TRADE AND WOOLLEN INDUSTRIES [_D. Defoe, The Complete English Tradesman, Ed. 1841, Vol. II, pp. 188-93_], _temp._ George II.

First, the wool itself, being taken from the sheep's back, either by the shearer, the farmer, or by the fellmonger from the skin, becomes a subject of trade; and is either sold to the stapler, or wool merchant, and by him to the manufacturer, or is carried by the farmer and fellmonger, as is sometimes the case, to the particular counties where it is consumed.

These staplers and wool dealers are scattered all over the kingdom, and are a very important and considerable sort of tradesmen, being the first tradesmen into whose hands the said wool comes for sale: the principal towns in England where they are found to be in any numbers together, are in London, or Southwark rather, being principally in Barnaby Street, and the town of Blandford in Dorsetshire; there are also some in Norwich and in Lincolnshire, and in Leicestershire a great many.

Stourbridge fair is famous for the great quantity of wool sold there, and which goes beyond any other fairs or markets in all the north or east parts of England.

But wherever the wool is carried, and by whomsoever it is sold, this of course brings it to the first part of its manufacturing; and this consists of two operations:

1. Combing. 2. Carding.

The combers are a particular set of people, and the combing a trade by itself; the carding, on the other hand, is chiefly done by workmen hired by the clothiers themselves; the combers buy the wool in the fleece or in the pack, and when it is combed, put it on to the next operation on their own account. The carding is generally done by hired servants, as above; these operations hand on the wool to the next, which is common to both, viz., the spinning.

But before it comes this length, it requires a prodigious number of people, horses, carts or wagons, to carry it from place to place; for the people of those countries where the wool is grown, or taken as above, are not the people who spin it into yarn.

On the contrary, some whole counties and parts of counties are employed in spinning, who see nothing of any manufacture among them, the mere spinning only excepted.

Thus the weavers of Norwich and of the parts adjacent, and the weavers of Spitalfields in London, send exceeding great quantities of wool into remote counties to be spun, besides what they spin in both those populous counties of Norfolk and Suffolk; particularly they employ almost the whole counties of Cambridge, Bedford, and Hertford; and besides that, as if all this part of England was not sufficient for them, they send a very great quantity of wool one hundred and fifty miles by land carriage to the north, as far as Westmoreland, to be spun; and the yarn is brought back in the same manner to London and to Norwich.

This vast consumption of wool in Norfolk and Suffolk is supplied chiefly out of Lincolnshire, a county famous for the large sheep bred up for the supply of the London markets, as the western manufacturers are supplied from Leicestershire; of which in its place.

Nor is all this sufficient still; but as if all England was not able to spin sufficient to the manufacture, a very great quantity of yarn, ready spun, is brought from Ireland, landed at Bristol, and brought from thence by land carriage to London, and then to Norwich also.

The county of Essex, a large and exceedingly populous county, is chiefly taken up with the great manufacture of bays and perpets; the consumption of wool for this manufacture is chiefly bought of the staplers in London; the sorting, oiling, combing, or otherwise preparing the wool, is the work of the master manufacturer or bay maker; and the yarn is generally spun in the same county, the extent of it being not less than between fifty and sixty miles' square, and full of great and populous towns, such as Colchester, Braintree, Coggeshall, Chelmsford, Billericay, Bishop Stortford, Saffron Walden, Waltham, Romford, and innumerable smaller but very populous villages, and, in a word, the whole county full of people.

The western part of England, superior both in manufactures and in numbers of people also, are not to be supplied either with wool or with spinning, among themselves, notwithstanding two such articles in both, as no other part of England can come up to by a great deal, viz.:

1. Notwithstanding the prodigious numbers of sheep fed upon those almost boundless downs and plains in the counties of Dorset, Wilts, Gloucester, Somerset, and Hampshire, where the multitudes, not of sheep only, but even of flocks of sheep, are not to be reckoned up; insomuch that the people of Dorchester say there are six hundred thousand sheep always feeding within six miles round that one town.

2. Notwithstanding the large and most populous counties of Wilts, Somerset, Gloucester, and Devon, in which the manufacture being so exceeding great, all the women inhabitants may be supposed to be thoroughly employed in spinning the yarn for them, and in which counties are, besides, the populous cities of Exeter, Salisbury, Wells, Bath, Bristol, and Gloucester; I say besides these, the greatest towns, and the greatest number of them that any other part of the whole kingdom of Great Britain can show, some of which exceed even the great towns of Leeds, Wakefield, Sheffield, etc., in the North; such as Taunton, Devizes, Tiverton, Crediton, Bradford, Trowbridge, Westbury, Froome, Stroud, Biddeford, Barnstaple, Dartmouth, Bridgewater, Mynhead, Poole, Weymouth, Dorchester, Blandford, Wimbourn, Sherbourne, Cirencester, Honiton, Warminster, Tewksbury, Tedbury, Malmsbury, and abundance of others, too many to set down; all which I mention, because those who pretend to have calculated the numbers of people employed in these four counties assure me that there are not so few as a million of people constantly employed there in spinning and weaving for the woollen manufacture only; that besides the great cities, towns, and seaports, mentioned above, there are not less than one hundred and twenty market towns, six large cities, and fifteen hundred parishes, some of which are exceeding full of people.

And yet, notwithstanding all this, such is the greatness of this prodigious manufacture, that they are said to take yearly thirty thousand packs of wool, and twenty-five thousand packs of yarn ready spun from Ireland.

From hence, take a short view of the middle part of England: Leicester, Northampton, and Warwick shires have a prodigious number of large sheep, which, as is said of Lincolnshire, are bred for the London markets; the wool, consequently, is of an exceeding long staple, and the fineness is known also to be extraordinary.

This wool is brought every week, Tuesday and Friday, to the market at Cirencester, on the edge of Gloucester and Wilts; the quantity is supposed to be at least five hundred packs of wool per week.

Here it is bought by the woolcombers and carders of Tedbury, Malmsbury, and the towns on all that side of Wilts and Gloucester, besides what the clothiers themselves buy; these carry it out far and near among the poor people of all the adjacent countries, for the spinning; and having made the yarn, they supply that manufacture as far as Froome, Warminster, and Taunton; and thus the west country is furnished.

The north requires another inspection; the rest of the Leicestershire wool merchants, who do not bring their wool southward, carry it forward to the north, to Wakefield, Leeds, and Halifax; here they mix it with, and use it among the northern wool, which is not esteemed so fine.

Not forgetting, notwithstanding, that they have a great deal of very fine wool, and of a good staple, from the wolds or downs in the East Hiding of Yorkshire, and from the bishoprick of Durham, more especially the banks of the Tees, where, for a long way, the grounds are rich, and the sheep thought to be the largest in England.

Hither all the finest wool of those countries is brought; and the coarser sort, and the Scots' wool, which comes into Halifax, Rochdale, Bury, and the manufacturing towns of Lancashire, Westmoreland, and Cumberland, are employed in the coarser manufactures of those countries, such as kerseys, half-thicks, yarn stockings, duffields, rugs, Turkey work, chairs, and many other useful things, which those countries abound in.

3. DEFOE'S ACCOUNT OF THE CORN TRADE [_D. Defoe, The Complete English Tradesman, Ed. 1841, Vol. II, pp. 177-182_], _temp._ George II.

As the corn trade is of such consequence to us, for the shipping off the overplus, so it is a very considerable business in itself; the principal people concerned in it, as a trade, are, though very numerous, yet but of four denominations;--

1. Cornfactors;
2. Mealmen;
3. Maltsters;
4. Carriers.

1. Cornfactors; these, as corn is now become a considerable article of trade, as well foreign as inland, are now exceeding numerous; and though we had them at first only in London, yet now they are also in all the great corn markets and ports where corn is exported through the whole island of Britain; and in all those ports they generally correspond with the corn factors in England.

Those in the country ride about among the farmers, and buy the corn even in the barn before it is threshed; nay, sometimes they buy it in the field standing, not only before it is reaped, but before it is ripe. This subtle business is very profitable; for, by this means, cunningly taking advantage of the farmers, by letting them have money before-hand, which they, poor men, often want, they buy cheap when there is a prospect of corn being dear; yet sometimes they are mistaken too, and are caught in their own snare; but indeed, that is but seldom; and were they famed for their honesty, as much as they generally are for their understanding in business, they might boast of having a very shining character.

2. Mealmen; these generally live either in London or within thirty miles of it, that employment chiefly relating to the markets of London; they formerly were the general buyers of corn, that is to say, wheat and rye, in all the great markets about London, or within thirty or forty miles of London, which corn they used to bring to the nearest mills they could find to the market, and there have it ground, and then sell the meal to the shopkeepers, called mealmen, in London.

But a few years past have given a new turn to this trade, for now the bakers in London, and the parts adjacent, go to the markets themselves, and have cut out the shopkeeping mealmen; so the bakers are the mealmen, and sell the fine flour to private families, as the mealmen used to do. And as the bakers have cut out the meal shops in London, so the millers have cut out the mealmen in the country; and whereas they formerly only ground the corn for the mealmen, they now scorn that trade, buy the corn, and grind it for themselves; so the baker goes to the miller for his meal, and the miller goes to the market for the corn.

It is true, this is an anticipation in trade, and is against a stated wholesome rule of commerce, that trade ought to pass through as many hands as it can; and that the circulation of trade, like that of the blood, is the life of the commerce. But I am not directing to what should be, but telling what is; it is certain the mealmen are, in a manner, cut out of the trade, both in London and in the country, except it be those country mealmen who send meal to London by barges, from all the countries bordering on the Thames, or on any navigable river running into the Thames west; and some about Chichester, Arundel, and the coast of Sussex and Hampshire, who send meal by sea; and these are a kind of meal merchants, and have factors at London to sell it for them--either at Queenhithe, the great meal-market of England, or at other smaller markets.

By this change of the trade, the millers, especially in that part of England which is near the Thames, who in former times were esteemed people of a very mean employment, are now become men of vast business; and it is not an uncommon thing to have mills upon some of the large rivers near the town, which are let for three or four hundred pounds a year rent.

3. Maltsters; these are now no longer farmers, and, as might be said, working labouring people, as was formerly the case, when the public expense of beer and ale, and the number of alehouses, was not so great, but generally the most considerable farmers malted their own barley, especially in the towns and counties, from whence they supplied London, and almost every farmhouse of note.

As the demand for malt increased, those farmers found it for their purpose to make more and larger quantities of malt, than the barley they themselves sowed would supply; and so bought the barley at the smaller farms about them; till at length the market for malt still increasing, and the profits likewise encouraging, they sought far and near for barley; and at this time the malting trade at Ware, Hertford, Royston, Hitchin, and other towns on that side of Hertfordshire, fetch their barley twenty, thirty, or forty miles; and all the barley they can get out of the counties of Essex, Cambridge, Bedford, Huntingdon, and even as far as Suffolk, is little enough to supply them; and the like it is at all the malt-making towns upon the river of Thames, where the malt trade is carried on for supply of London, such as Kingston, Chertsey, Windsor, High Wycombe, Reading, Wallingford, Abingdon, Thame, Oxford, and all the towns adjacent; and at Abingdon in particular, they have a barley market, where you see every market-day four or five hundred carts and wagons of barley to be sold at a time, standing in rows in the market-place, besides the vast quantity carried directly to the maltsters' houses.

The malt trade thus increasing, it soon came out of the hands of the farmers; for either the farmers found so much business, and to so much advantage, in the malting-trade, that they left off ploughing, and put off their farms, sticking wholly to the malt; or other men, encouraged by the apparent advantage of the malting-trade, set it up by itself, and bought their barley, as is said above, of the farmers, when their malt trade first increased; or both these together, which is most probable; and thus malting became a trade by itself.

Again, though the farmers then generally left off malting in the manner as above, yet they did not wholly throw themselves out of the profit of the trade, but hired the making of their own malt; that is, to put out their barley to the malthouses to be made on their account; and this occasioned many men to erect malthouses, chiefly to make malt only for other people, at so much per quarter, as they could agree; and at intervals, if they wanted full employ, then they made it for themselves; of these I shall say more presently.

Under the head of corn factors, I might have taken notice, that there are many of those factors who sell no other grain than malt; and are, as we may say, agents for the maltsters who stay in the country, and only send up their goods; and assistants to those maltsters who come up themselves.

The mentioning these factors again here, naturally brings me to observe a new way of buying and selling of corn, as well as malt, which is introduced by these factors; a practice greatly increased of late, though it is an unlawful way of dealing, and many ways prejudicial to the markets; and this is buying of corn by samples only. The case is thus:--

The farmer, who has perhaps twenty load of wheat in his barn, rubs out only a few handfuls of it with his hand, and puts it into a little money-bag; and with this sample, as it is called, in his pocket, away he goes to market.

When he comes thither, he stands with his little bag in his hand, at a particular place where such business is done, and thither the factors or buyers come also; the factor looks on the sample, asks his price, bids, and then buys; and that not a sack or a load, but the whole quantity; and away they go together to the next inn, to adjust the bargain, the manner of delivery, the payment, etc. Thus the whole barn, or stack, or mow of corn, is sold at once; and not only so, but it is odds but the factor deals with him ever after, by coming to his house; and so the farmer troubles the market no more.

This kind of trade is chiefly carried on in those market-towns which are at a small distance from London, or at least from the river Thames; such as Romford, Dartford, Grayes, Rochester, Maidstone, Chelmsford, Malden, Colchester, Ipswich, and so down on both sides the river to the North Foreland, and particularly at Margate and Whitstable, on one side; and to the coast of Suffolk, and along the coast both ways beyond, and likewise up the river. Also,

At these markets you may see, that, besides the market-house, where a small quantity of corn perhaps is seen, the place mentioned above, where the farmers and factors meet, is like a little exchange, where all the rest of the business is transacted, and where a hundred times the quantity of corn is bought and sold, as appears in sacks in the market-house; it is thus, in particular, at Grayes, and at Dartford: and though on a market-day there are very few wagons with corn to be seen in the market, yet the street or market-place, nay, the towns and inns, are thronged with farmers and samples on one hand, and with mealmen, London bakers, millers, and cornfactors, and other buyers, on the other. The rest of the week you see the wagons and carts continually coming all night and all day, laden with corn of all sorts, to be delivered on board the hoys, where the hoymen stand ready to receive it, and generally to pay for it also: and thus a prodigious corn trade is managed in the market, and little or nothing to be seen of it.

4. DEFOE'S ACCOUNT OF THE COAL TRADE [_D. Defoe, The Complete English Tradesman, Ed. 1841, Vol. II, pp. 172-173_], _temp._ George II.

The Newcastle coals, brought by sea to London, are bought at the pit, or at the steath or wharf, for under five shillings per chaldron; I suppose I speak with the most; but when they come to London, are not delivered to the consumers under from twenty-five to thirty shillings per chaldron; and when they are a third time loaded on board the lighters in the Thames, and carried through bridge, then loaded a fourth time into the great west country barges, and carried up the river, perhaps to Oxford or Abingdon, and thence loaded a fifth time in carts or wagons, and carried perhaps ten or fifteen, or twenty miles to the last consumer; by this time they are sometimes sold from forty-five to fifty shillings per chaldron; so that the five shillings first cost, including five shillings tax, is increased to five times the prime cost. And because I have mentioned the frequent loading and unloading the coals, it is necessary to explain it here once for all, because it may give a light into the nature of this river and coast commerce, not in this thing only, but in many others; these loadings are thus:--

1. They are dug in the pit a vast depth in the ground, sometimes fifty, sixty, to a hundred fathoms; and being loaded (for so the miners call it) into a great basket or tub, are drawn up by a wheel and horse, or horses, to the top of the shaft, or pit mouth, and there thrown out upon the great heap, to lie ready against the ships come into the port to demand them.

2. They are then loaded again into a great machine called a wagon; which by the means of an artificial road, called a wagon-way, goes with the help of but one horse, and carries two chaldron, or more, at a time, and this, sometimes, three or four miles to the nearest river or water carriage they come at; and there they are either thrown into, or from, a great storehouse, called a steath, made so artificially, with one part close to or hanging over the water, that the lighters or keels can come close to, or under it, and the coals be at once shot out of the wagon into the said lighters, which carry them to the ships, which I call the first loading upon the water.

5. A DESCRIPTION OF MIDDLEMEN IN THE WOOLLEN INDUSTRY [_J. Smith, The Memoirs of Wool, Vol. II, pp. 310-313, 1747_], 1739.

THE TYRANNY OF THE BLACKWEL-HALL FACTORS.

The sufferings of the poor employed in working up Spanish wool, are not owing to the unmercifulness of the clothiers, but the tyranny of Blackwel-Hall factors; who though originally but the servants of the makers, are now become their masters, and not only theirs, but the wool merchants and drapers too.

Perhaps, sir, you may ask how it is possible that these men, who style themselves but factors or agents, could find means to lord it as tyrants over their employers? Why thus: they have managed it so, that the merchant dare not sell his wool to the clothier, nor the clothier presume to buy it of the merchant. On this grand point their whole power is founded. To make this clear, sir, you are to understand, that in the year 1695, the clothiers finding themselves in much the same circumstances they are at present, by their credit given to the drapers on one hand, and their being obliged to purchase wool of the factors, on the other, applied in a body to parliament for relief, and an act was accordingly past for restoring to them Blackwel-Hall for a market, limiting the credit to be given for their goods, to six months; obliging the factor to demand notes of hand of the draper, payable in that term, for the use of the clothier, on penalty of forfeiting double the value of the debt; and in case the draper refused to give such notes, so demanded, fining him 20s.

For a little while, this act had its desired effect; these notes were immediately returned to the clothier, who carried them to market for wool, etc., and by that means, made them answer in trade almost as well as cash itself. The factors thus stripped of the most valuable part of their business, immediately concerted such measures as rendered the whole act ineffectual, and put it in their power to tyrannize over the clothiers as much as ever. This was done, by tampering with those of the trade, whose circumstances were most precarious, who induced by the promise of a speedy sale for their goods, prior to those of any other maker, were easily prevailed upon to forego the advantage of the notes granted them by Parliament. This fatal precedent being once set, the factors instantly exacted a like compliance from all the rest; and if any refused not one piece of their cloth was sold. By which means, being obliged to keep their workmen employed in the interval, their whole stock, though ever so large, was exhausted; and the more stock they had, the more it became their interest to truckle to their old oppressors, and again take off their wool on what terms they pleased.

This important point carried, like true politicians, they resolved to pursue their blow, and add some new acquisitions to what they possessed before. Accordingly, they again allowed the drapers such unreasonable credit, that it was impossible for the most substantial clothier to carry on the trade, while the returns were so slow and precarious. On an universal complaint therefore of this grievance, they graciously condescended to insure the debt to be paid, twelve months after it was contracted; but in return of so great a favour, insisted on two and a half per cent. as a reward; and if any was rash or stubborn enough to disrelish or oppose this new imposition, he had the mortification to wait six months longer for his money, that is to say, a year and a half in all; which, together with the three months the cloth is in making, and three that (one piece with another) it continues in the hall, before it is sold off, make two years in the whole. Now let any one judge how large a stock is absolutely necessary to carry on a trade, under all these disadvantages, particularly when 'tis recollected, that the clothier is obliged to pay his workmen ready money all this while, whether his goods are vended or no; and that the modest factor always insists on his being paid for his wool, with the first money he receives for the cloth.

Neither is even this all. But if the clothier, hard drove by so vast and so continued a charge, should be compelled, as too many are, to draw upon the factor for money before 'tis due, according to their calculation, one misfortune makes way for another; and he must pay an extravagant premium for the advance, probably, of his own money. Nor are you to wonder, sir, that these worthy gentlemen are so solicitous to monopolise the whole market of Spanish wool; since, on a medium, they get four pounds on every pack. Now a considerable clothier may be supposed to work up 80 packs a year; which is in a manner a rent charge of 320l. to the factor annually; for it is more than probable that this very wool is purchased with the clothiers' cash; and while the factor grows rich without any risk, and with very little trouble the clothier is doubly excised, both for what he receives, and what is not only withheld, but employed so manifestly to his prejudice.

'Tis farther to be observed, that as by far the greatest part of a clothiers' stock must of necessity be lodged in the factors hands, if he (the clothier) happens to break, or die insolvent (as in spite of a whole life of toil and industry, many of them do) the factor immediately seizes on the whole; it being (says he) a pledge for money advanced, wool sold, etc., so that the rest of the creditors seldom receive a farthing, while he, to whom the poor man's calamity is principally owing, runs away with all.

Besides these capital grievances, there are several others, which though inferior in degree, are, when added together, no small increase of the load; such as the factors lumping the charges for warehouse-room in the hall, porterage, pressing, packing, etc., every article of which ought to be particular; as likewise sending out cloths to the drapers at the expense of the clothier, not for sale; but one would be almost tempted to think, to supply the shops with the paper and packthread they are secured with; since they are returned stripp'd of both, tumbled from end to end, exposed to all weather and accidents, and in such a condition as renders it absolutely necessary to have them cleaned, pressed, and packed anew. And all this, after they have been out of the hall six or eight weeks; though the above quoted act of Parliament provides that every cloth shall be reputed sold, after it hath been detained eight days.

One would think, sir, I had already mentioned grievances enough, not only to justify the clothier, but to excite the concern of the whole people in their favour, and the aid of the legislature in their redress. But there is yet another behind, which ought not to be omitted. It is this. These worthy factors, not content with all these various methods of oppression, to crown the whole, often set up people to act as master clothiers, on their stock, during any little glut of business; and as it is easy to imagine, give all the cloth so made, the preference of the market, though perhaps in all respects, least deserving of it. Hence, those that trade on their own bottoms, and employ the poor in good and bad times alike, are liable to all the disadvantages of the one, with little or no share in the benefits of the other. And hence, more people are admitted into trade, than the trade can possibly maintain; which opens a new door to the tumults and riots so lately felt.

6. REPORT ON THE CONDITION OF CHILDREN IN LANCASHIRE COTTON FACTORIES [_Report of Committee on State of Children in Manufactories, 1816 (III), pp. 139-140_], 1796.

Resolutions for the consideration of the Manchester Board of Health, by Dr. Perceval, January 25, 1796.

It has already been stated that the objects of the present institution are to prevent the generation of diseases; to obviate the spreading of them by contagion; and to shorten the duration of those which exist, by affording the necessary aids and comforts to the sick. In the prosecution of this interesting undertaking, the Board have had their attention particularly directed to the large cotton factories established in the town and neighbourhood of Manchester; and they feel it a duty incumbent on them to lay before the public the result of their inquiries:--

1. It appears that the children and others who work in the large factories, are peculiarly disposed to be affected by the contagion of fever, and that when such infection is received, it is rapidly propagated, not only amongst those who are crowded together in the same apartments, but in the families and neighbourhoods to which they belong.

2. The large factories are generally injurious to the constitution of those employed in them, even where no particular diseases prevail, from the close confinement which is enjoined, from the debilitating effects of hot or impure air, and from the want of the active exercises which nature points out as essential in childhood and youth, to invigorate the system, and to fit our species for the employments and for the duties of manhood.

3. The untimely labour of the night, and the protracted labour of the day, with respect to children, not only tends to diminish future expectations as to the general sum of life and industry, by impairing the strength and destroying the vital stamina of the rising generation, but it too often gives encouragement to idleness, extravagance and profligacy in the parents, who, contrary to the order of nature, subsist by the oppression of their offspring.

4. It appears that the children employed in factories are generally debarred from all opportunities of education, and from moral or religious instruction.

5. From the excellent regulations which subsist in several cotton factories, it appears that many of these evils may, in a considerable degree, be obviated; we are therefore warranted by experience, and are assured we shall have the support of the liberal proprietors of these factories, in proposing an application for Parliamentary aid (if other methods appear not likely to effect the purpose), to establish a general system of laws for the wise, humane, and equal government of all such works.

7. THE NEWCASTLE COAL VEND

[_Reports from Committees on the Coal Trade, 1800 (X), p. 540, and 1830 (VIII), pp. 6 and 254-5_], 1771-1830.

(_a_) 1800.

_Evidence of Francis Thompson (formerly manager of Washington colliery)._

Is there any regulation or limit as to price they[317] may give to the coal-owners?

In August, September, and October, 1771, I found great irregularities in the Coal Trade, particularly with respect to the measure. I communicated my sentiments to two of the most respectable agents of the owners ...; upon which it was agreed that a meeting should be had of the coal owners belonging to Sunderland, to be convened by me, and the coal owners at Newcastle, to be convened by a Mr. Gibson and Mr. Morrison, which was done; and we had three or four meetings, and I was appointed Secretary.... Since that time, according to the best enquiries I have been able to make, the coal owners have had frequent meetings for the purpose of stipulating the vends[318]; that is, that five of the collieries of the best coals, viz., Walls End, Walker, Wellington, Hebburn, and Heyton, are permitted to vend the greatest proportion, and at the best price; after that there is a second class, which sells one shilling per chaldron lower, being coals of an inferior quality, and also less in proportion as to quantity; there is likewise a third class, at a shilling less than the second, and who are allowed to sell a still less proportion as to quantity.

By what means do you understand those vends have been limited? By the meetings of the coal owners frequently for the purpose of ascertaining the vends.

Was there any positive agreement for that purpose? That cannot be well known, being contrary to Act of Parliament.

(_b_) 1830.[319]

The proprietors of the best coals are called upon to name the price at which they intend to sell their coals for the succeeding twelve months; according to this price, the remaining proprietors fix their prices; this being accomplished, each colliery is requested to send in a statement of the different sorts of coals they raise, and the powers of the colliery; that is, the quantity that each particular colliery could raise at full work; and upon these statements the committee, assuming an imaginary basis, fix the relative proportions, as to quantity, between all the collieries, which proportions are observed, whatever quantity the markets may demand. The committee then meet once a month, and according to the probable demand of the ensuing month, they issue so much per 1000 to the different collieries; that is, if they give me an imaginary basis of 30,000 and my neighbour 20,000, according to the quality of our coal and our power of raising them in the monthly quantity; if they issue 100 to 1000, I raise and sell 3,000 during the month, and my neighbour 2,000; but in fixing the relative quantities, if we take 800,000 chaldrons as the probable demand of the different markets for the year; if the markets should require more, an increased quantity would be given out monthly, so as to raise the annual quantity to meet that demand, were it double the original quantity.

_Evidence of Robert William Brandling._[320]

What means have been resorted to in the north of England, with a view to keep the price of coal at such a rate as should compensate the owners of these collieries in which the expense of raising is the greatest?

We have entered into a regulation at different times, which regulation is in existence now, and which has for its object to secure us a fair uniform remunerating price, and enables us to sell our coals at the port of shipment under our immediate inspection, instead of being driven by a fighting trade, to become the carrier of our coals, and to sell them by third persons in the markets to which they are consigned; thereby trusting our interests to those over whom we have no direct control whatever.

So that practically the real quantity to be sold is fixed with reference to each colliery each month?

Yes. The basis originally fixed, is the proportion taken between all the collieries?

It is merely an imaginary quantity to fix the relative proportions.

Has the scale of prices now in operation been varied materially from that which was adopted when the regulation of the vend was last on?

I have already stated in my evidence that ours is a competition price, that we endeavour to get the best price we can, which is a little below what the consumer can get the same article for elsewhere. In the regulation in 1828 we found we had fixed our prices too high; the consequence was, it created an immediate influx of coals from Scotland, Wales and Yorkshire, and more especially from Stockton; so that when the coal-owners met together, to enter into another arrangement last year, we were obliged to fix our prices a little lower.

[Footnote 317: The fitters or agents between coal-owners and ship-owners.]

[Footnote 318: The name by which the agreements as to output were known.]

[Footnote 319: Report from Committee on the Coal Trade, 1830 (VIII), p. 6.]

[Footnote 320: _Ibid._ pp. 254-5.]

8. THE OLD APPRENTICESHIP SYSTEM IN THE WOOLLEN INDUSTRY [_Report of Committee on the Woollen Industry, 1806 (III), p. 5_], 1806.

_Evidence of Mr. James Ellis_,[321] 18 _April_, 1806.

Do you instruct this apprentice in the different branches of the trade?

As far as he has been capable I have done.

Will you enumerate the different branches of the trade which you yourself learnt, and in which you instruct your apprentice?

I learnt to be a spinner before I went apprentice; my apprentice was only eleven years old when I took him; when I went apprentice I was a strong boy, and I was put to weaving first; I never was employed in bobbin winding myself while I was apprentice; I had learned part of the business with my father-in-law before I went; I knew how to wind bobbins and to warp; after that I learned to weave; we had two apprentices, and after I had been there a little while we used to spin and weave our webs; while one was spinning the other was weaving.

Did you also learn to buy your own wool?

Yes; I had the prospect of being a master when I came out of my time, and therefore my master took care I should learn that.

Does that branch require great skill?

Yes, it does; I found myself very deficient when I was loose.

Different sorts of wool are applicable to different dyes and different manufactures?

Yes; I was frequently obliged to resort to my master for information as to the dyeing and buying wool.

Does it not require great skill to dye according to pattern, even when you have bought wool?

Yes.

Were you also instructed in that?

Yes; I kept an account all the time I was apprentice of the principal part of the colours we dyed, and practised the dyeing: I always assisted in dyeing; I was not kept constantly to weaving and spinning; my master fitted me rather for a master than a journeyman.

And you instruct your apprentice in the same line?

Yes; we think it a scandal when an apprentice is loose if he is not fit for his business; we take pride in their being fit for their business, and we teach them all they will take.

[Footnote 321: A clothier of Harmley, near Leeds, working with an apprentice, two hired journeymen and a boy, and giving some work out.]

9. A PETITION OF COTTON WEAVERS [_House of Commons Journals, 47 Geo. III, 1807, Feb. 26_], 1807.

A petition of the several Journeymen Cotton Weavers resident in the counties of Lancaster, Chester, York, and Derby, was presented and read; setting forth, That the petitioners suffer great hardships by the reduction of their wages, and that whenever the demand for goods becomes slack, many master manufacturers adopt the expedient of reducing wages, thereby compelling the petitioners, in order to obtain a livelihood, to manufacture greater quantities of goods at a time when they are absolutely not wanted, and that great quantities of goods so manufactured are sacrificed in the market at low prices, to the manifest injury of the fair dealer, and the great oppression of the petitioners, who are reduced one half of the wages they are justly entitled to, and in many cases, are not able to earn more than nine shillings per week: And therefore praying, That leave may be given to bring in a bill to regulate, from time to time, the wages of the petitioners.

10.--DEPRESSION OF WAGES AND ITS CAUSES IN THE COTTON INDUSTRY [_Report of Committee on Orders in Council_, 1812 (_III_),_pp_. 218 _and_ 267-272], 1812.

_Thursday, May 14, 1812._

_Evidence of James Kay_ (_cotton and woollen manufacturer, of Bury_).

What used to be the price of cotton per piece in 1807?--I took out the manufacturing prices for three years before 1807, and four years since. Those are minutes from your own books?--Yes, in May, 1805, for the quality goods called Blackburn supers we gave six shillings; in May, 1806, we gave the same; in May, 1807, we gave the same; in November, 1807, we dropped them to 5s. 6d.; in December, 1807, to 5s.; in January 1808 to 4s. 6d.; in May 1808 they were at 4s.; it was at the time they were very much distressed, and rioting. In May, 1809, we gave 4s., in March, 1810, we, gave 7s.; in April, 6s.; and in May the same. In May, 1811, we again gave 4s.; and at the present time we give 4s. 6d.

_Evidence of Jeremiah Bury_ (_cotton manufacturer of Stockport_).

_Friday, May 15, 1812._

What might a man make at weaving, in the year 1810?--A man weaving plain work, in the year 1810, might make probably from 12s. to 15s. a week.

At plain work now what may a person earn?--The same man now would not make more than ten or twelve shillings.

What might a man in full employment, in 1810, make in spinning?-- ... I apprehend that a man might make from fifteen to twenty-five shillings a week in spinning.

What will the same man make now?--I think a man now might make from thirteen or fourteen to eighteen shillings.

Do you ever recollect so great distress as there is at present?--Never; I have known the trade these thirty years, but I never knew anything like it.

Your manufactures went to the Continent pretty extensively till the year 1807?--Yes, we sold to the merchants who sent to the Continent.

Can you tell what interrupted that trade?--We had no further trade when the Continent was shut up.