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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A.D. 1776 —1850. who ignored the results of Owen's experience. The low standard o, comfort o, hand-loom WeAVers was not treated as a subject for State inter- ference. LAISSEZ FAIRE of increased care and attention was very noticeable when the hours were shortened, and that waste was avoided. He had for a time reduced the hours of work at New Lanark, without loss; and he found that when they were lengthened again, the product was not increased in proportion to the increase of hours’. He had already demonstrated, in his own experience, that the policy of working excessive hours was unsound, not merely on humanitarian, but on economic grounds. As this view was gradually confirmed by subsequent observation, the attitude of public opinion towards restrictive legislation underwent a marked change? The benefits, which accrued to the population employed in textile factories under the modern system of centralised supervision, have been so great that efforts are being steadily pressed on for bringing all sorts of other industries under similar control. 270. The agitation of the factory operatives for State interference with their hours of labour, which was being carried on so vigorously in 1840 has eventually been suc- cessful. There was, however, another class of the manufac- turing population who were in a very serious plight, and on whose behalf State intervention was demanded. The hand- loom weavers were suffering from the irregularity and un- certainty of employment; it was impossible for them to maintain a decent standard of comfort, and a commission was appointed in 1839 to see whether anything could be done to place them in more favourable conditions. The principles of laissez faire had such a strong hold that it was not to be expected that the weavers would obtain much support ; and as we look back we may see that this was not a case in which it was desirable for Government to interfere. The factory industries were growing; and it was distinctly advantageous to have lines authoritatively laid down along which they should develop. But hand-loom weaving was already doomed; the competition of the power-loom was threatening to drive it out of existence, at all events in some branches of manufacture. The only benefit which could be 1 Reports, 1816, mx. 255, 272, also 1833, xx. 194. 2 The publication of the Reports of the Children’s Employment Commission, which was moved for by Lord Shaftesbury in 1861, appears to have been the occasion of this change, Hutchins and Harrison, op. cif. 150.

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