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. State action seemed smpracti- rable : hut there has heen tm- provement s wages rom other snfluences, 300 LAISSEZ FAIRE ‘here had never been the same jealousy of machinery, and .here was reason to believe that the introduction of the sower-loom would invigorate the trade and provide in- sreased occupation’, No measure which Parliament could have taken would have served to prevent the fall of wages 1nder these circumstances; the policy of attempting to lay jown a minimum rate and fix living wages had been aban- joned?, the scheme which Owen had advocated? of limiting the out-put of machinery in the interest of the hand workers would have been disastrous to the trade of the sommunityt. No legislative enactment was the outcome of this inquiry; and improvement in wages has been gradually brought about with the steady increase of trade, especially since 1850, and the success with which Trade Unions have urged their demands from time to time. It is in districts where cottage industry survives that the starvation wages and unsanitary conditions’, which were common in the thirties and forties, still prevail. 1 Labour shifting had to be taken into account (Beports, 1840, xxmi1. 431). 1 It would have been a great advantage if the rate of pay could have been maintained. The Report of the Select Committee on Manufacturers’ Employment points out the important difference which arises in a falling market, according as masters maintain the rate of pay and diminish the employment, or try to force the market by giving an increased out-put at a lower rate of pay. Reports, 1830, £. 227. 8 Life of Robert Owen. Sup. Ap. p. 55. « One of the most interesting parts of the Commissioners’ Report contains the results of the enquiry they instituted in regard to the condition of hand-loom weavers on the Continent. Their comfort contrasted strikingly with the misery of the operatives at home. In Austria, in Switzerland, the work was done, as bad been formerly the case in England, by the peasantry. Weaving was a by- oecupation (Accounts, 1839, xLir. 623, 629) ; though wages were low, the people were able to live in comfort, as they had two mainstays to the household. Only in one country did they report a state of affairs that at all corresponded with the sondition of the English operatives, this was in Normandy (Accounts, 1839, xL11, 639): the only Scottish weavers who are specified as having a by-occupation were those of Largs, who did a little fishing (Zb. 519). In this case also weaving was practised as a sole occupation by those who had no other means of support. The English weavers were dependent on the fluctuating basis of trade instead of the solid basis of land. They were exposed to all the variations of circumstances which might arise from changes in foreign markets or contractions of credit. When times were bad they suffered far more severely than the continental peasant, who had his holding to rely on, and though they might get far higher wages than he ever dreamed of, they were not able to recoup themselves for losses in bad times. s Mr Hickson's comparison ig very instructive: * With regard to health, having

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