The Industrial Revolution

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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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DISTRESS OF HAND-LOOM WEAVERS 791 conferred on the weavers was to help them to leave a decaying AD trade!; this was more a matter for individual and charitable ’ action than for administrative interference. The competition between hand-weaving and power-weav- The power ; . - . 3 loom was ing brings out one aspect of the case which was less noticeable super- in connection with spinning. The series of inventions, which gs... led up to the self-acting mule, introduced an extraordinary improvement, in the quality—the firmness and regularity— of the yarn, as well as in the pace at which it could be produced. These advantages occurred to a much smaller extent in weaving ; in 1840 it was doubtful whether machines could ever be invented which would weave fabrics of which only small quantities were required or in regard to which there were rapid changes of fashion?; while the rates of wages of hand-weavers of low-class goods enabled the em- ployers to produce very cheaply, and there was scarcely any saving in machine production®. To some extent the power- loom was better and cheaper; and as it was more readily applicable to some materials and qualities of goods than to others, there was a curious difference in the extent to which it was used in different trades. The real issue, however, lay and thecon- deeper; it was not so much the competition of a machine of weaving with a hand implement, as competition between two systems “factories of industrial organisation. The hand-loom weaver was the last survival of cottage industry; he had been drawn into the capitalist system and become a wage-earner, but he still anjoyed a measure of independence as to his hours of working and his habits of life. He clung to his liberty, and was most reluctant to seek other employment, even when his takings ' Mr W. E. Hickson, one of the assistant commissioners in 1840, summarised his opinion thus: ‘I believe the young men are either earning better wages, or are abandoning the trade. The class entitled to the most commiseration consists of the old, of whom there are many, who, having lived on in hope of better times, while the trade has gradually declined, now find themselves, with failing sight, and failing limbs, strength scarcely sufficient to throw the shuttle, and none to belp (their children married and gone away), left to depend upon the miserable pittance they can yet earn at the loom, which they cannot leave till they leave the world and the trade together.” Reports, 1840, xx1v. 650. 3 This was the case with Paisley shawls, Accounts, 1839, xr11. 543. See also Reports, 1840, xx1v. 651. 8 Mr Symons writes, ‘‘ The power-loom is applicable to many fabrics which the exceedingly low rate of wages alone enables the hand-loom to obtain.” Accounts, 1839. x11. 609.

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