The Industrial Revolution

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1027928145

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-159926

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Cunningham, William http://d-nb.info/gnd/128907487

Title:: The Industrial Revolution

Place of publication:: Cambridge

Publisher:: The University Press

Year of publication:: 1922

Scope:: xxii S., S. 404-886

Digitisation:: 2021

Collection:: Economics Books

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DIFFERENTIATION OF AN EMPLOYING CLASS IN TRADES 511 the clothiers”; they were accused, but apparently on in- A.D. 1689 sufficient grounds, of making false yarn. Many of the poor —He. spinners appear to have been wage-earners, and to have been very badly off. “If the poore spinner shall depend only apon the Clothier for worke, the Clothier at this time gives boo little wages, as the poor Spinner can hardly live, it may well be feared they will then give less, and will thus make shoyce of the prime spinners out of the whole number of spinners, and turn of the reste, which may be of ill conse- quence” The competition of two classes of capitalists was avidently regarded as beneficial to labour. The new method of organisation was also being adopted in the trades which were occupied in finishing the cloth. So long as the domestic system held its own among the weavers, and in there was at least a possibility that the cloth-worker would il be an independent man, who had purchased the goods on which he exercised his skill?, and this appears to have been the form in which the trade was conducted in London in 16345. But the extension of capitalism, through the energy of employers who desired to control the whole process of pro- duction, tended to change the economic status of this calling. Clothworking ceased to be a separate trade, and became a mere department of an industrial undertaking organised by an employer. This change in the position of their business necessarily involved an alteration in the character of the organisations among the cloth-workers. The function, which their companies had formerly discharged, of maintain- ing the quality of workmanship, was henceforth performed hy capitalist employers, so that associations were no longer needed for this purpose. The transitional phase is clearly marked at Ipswich in 1620. The Clothworkers’ Company there, obviously retained its character as an association of domestic workers; certain members protested against the manner in which their Company was controlled “ by poor and Capitalist supervision proved beneficial 1 8. P.D. C. I. coxrm. 23. 1 As early as 1565, however, there were drapers at Shrewsbury who purchased Welsh cloth, and employed shearmen and clothiers at Shrewsbury to earn wages by dressing and finishing these goods (8 El. ¢. 7). In Yorkshire, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the men engaged in this business appear to have been wage-earners employed either by cloth merchants. or the domestic weavers. 3Q. P.D CI conxxvo. 104.

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