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 “ Hitherto' the rude implements required for the cultiva- tion of the soil, or the household utensils needed for the comfort of daily life, had been made at home. The farmer, his sons, and his servants, in the long winter evenings carved the wooden spoons, the platters, and the beechen bowls; plaited wicker baskets; fitted handles to the tools; cut willow teeth for rakes and harrows, and hardened them in the fire; fashioned ox-yokes and forks; twisted willows into the traces and other harness gear. Travelling carpenters visited farm- houses at rare intervals to perform those parts of work which needed their professional skill. The women plaited the straw for the neck-collars, stitched and stuffed sheepskin bags for the cart-saddle, wove the straw or hempen stirrups and halters, peeled the rushes for and made the candles. The spinning-wheel, the distaff, and the needle were never idle; coarse home-made cloth and linen supplied all wants; every farm-house had its brass brewing kettle....All the domestic industries by which cultivators of the soil increased their incomes, or escaped the necessity of selling their produce, were now supplanted by manufactures.” and the While by-employments were dying out, there was also a onony to tendency for weavers and other craftsmen to migrate from io towne, the villages to the towns?, and this would certainly affect the village prosperity by reducing the demand for its produce. The small manufacturing population created a demand on the spot; and articles could be sold which might not perhaps bear the expense of transport to the towns. It might appear that the villager would gain by the improvement in produc- tion and would pay less for his clothes?; but the double cost of carriage, of his produce to the town and his purchased cloth to the village, would diminish his receipts, and might enhance the price which he had formerly paid, so that his gain from this source would hardly be appreciable. This destruction of local demand was certainly an imvnortant matter. 122 1 Prothero, Pioneers, 67. For an interesting picture of village life in Hamp- shire at a later date, see Thorold Rogers, Siz Centuries, 502. 2 This trend of the industrial population had been foreseen by Sir J. Steuart, Works, 1. 113. 8 On the change in the habits of farm servants compare Select Committee on Agriculture. in Reports. 1833, v. questions 6174-7. 10324 {.

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