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

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

LAISSEZ FAIRE and to a lowering of the status of the workmen. Petitions in support of this opinion poured in from all parts of the and despite country, and all sorts of trades’. But a mere mass of evidence the evi- . yo z . . the «vi. had no chance of producing conviction in minds which were fase thoroughly imbued with a belief in the all-sufficiency of eco- » pomic principles. Mr Sergeant Onslow urged the repeal of the Act, and remarked that “the reign of Elizabeth, though glorious, was not one in which sound principles of commerce were known” Mr Phillips, the member for Ilchester, was still more decided. * The true principles of commerce,” he said, “ appeared at that time to be misunderstood, and the Act in question proved the truth of this assertion. The persons most competent to form regulations with respect to trade were the master manufacturers, whose interest it was to have goods of the best fabric, and no legislative enactment could ever effect so much in producing that result as the merely leaving things to their own courses and operation®.” On this subject the politicians were only giving effect to the conclusions of economists of repute. Chalmers had been brief, but to the point. «This law, as far as it requires apprentice- ships, ought to be repealed, because its tendency is to abridge the liberty of the subject, and to prevent competition among workmen” Adam Smith, with his experience of the laxer Scottish usage, had condemned the English system®, and it may be doubted if any of his followers, at the beginning of this century, would have dissented from his conclusion on this point. Once again laissez faire, pure and simple, triumphed through the influence of, and with the approval of economists, and the apprenticeship system was not modified, but swept away in 1814¢. It thus came about that the whole Elizabethan labour code, both as regards wages and apprentices, was for- mally abolished. We may notice, however, that whereas the wages clauses had been regarded as a mere dead letter, the House of Commons believed that apprenticeship was in most cases an exceedingly good thing, and that it was already so 360 1 It appears that there were 300,000 signatures against, and 2000 in favour of repeal. Parl. Debates, XXV1L. 574. 3 Parl. Debates, Xvi 564, see also 881. 8 Tb. 572. t Chalmers, Estimate, p. 86. 8 Wealth of Nations, p. 50. 3 54 Geo. III. c. 96.

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