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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0 1 n. mn er °y re do 8 it, an « Chad THE PROBLEMS OF POVERTY 565 and to pay high rents for pasture land!, though their agri- AD 1s culture was backward in the extreme? The woollen weavers, ’ in all parts of the country, appear to have enjoyed allotments or large gardens; but some of those who were engaged in the more recently introduced cotton industry were aggre- gated in towns, and suffered from the want of healthful relaxation which could be combined with work at their looms®. In many small towns like Kettering the artisans had allotments or pasture rights; and hence it may be said that, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, there was a large part of the industrial population® which was not yet divorced from rural employments, This double source of income gave an immense stability aud thelr oy . “ . 08LLIon to the labourers’ position; but it did not necessarily con- was so duce to energy. Labourers and artisans could afford to be **® idle at times, and they had comparatively little incentive bo work; the possibilities of enjoyment within their reach were very limited. The yeoman farmers, who formed the class immediately above the labourers, led a sordid life®; \ Annals of Agriculture, XxvIr. 309. } Ann. of Agricul. x1.135. “The land in this part is almost wholly occupied in small plots or farms, by manufacturers, merely for the convenience of keeping a few cows, for milk for their children, apprentices, and inmates, and a horse to job to and from the mills, market, ete., hence it is, that the business of a farmer has, for a long time, been a subordinate consideration with almost every manufacturer, his views and ideas are narrow and contracted, and are confined to the cloth trade; in this method he jogs on; and such is the force of prejudice, that if any- one does not follow the old course of husbandry, he is frequently langhed at by his neighbours, and very invidiously considered as a visionary and an innovator ; and the chief reason which they advance in defence of this old antiquated pro- cedure, is that their forefathers have practised it.” 3 Ib. xxxvi. 546. b Ip. xxx1X. 259, 244 note. > At West Bromwich, the seat of the nail trade, agriculture “is carried on so connectedly with manufactures that it is subservient to them.” Ib. Iv. 157. ¢ Arthur Young's testimony is clear: “From all the observations I have made, [ am convinced that the latter, when on an equality with the former (little farmer) in respect of children, is as well fed, as well clothed, and sometimes as well lodged as he would be, was he fixed in one of these little farms; with this difference—that he does not work near so hard. They fare extremely hard— work without intermission like a horse—and practise every lesson of diligence and frugality, without being able to soften their present lot" (Farmer's Letters, 114) ; and their hopes of saving enough to take a larger holding were seldom realised. Harte also expresses himself decidedly; he holds that the little farmer at a rent of thirty or forty pounds a year “ works and fares harder and is, in effect, poorer than ihe day labourer he employs. An husbandman thus circumstanced, is, beyond

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