The Industrial Revolution

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 178263682X

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-177433

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Vierkandt, Alfred http://d-nb.info/gnd/118804472

Title:: Gesellschaftslehre

Edition:: 2., völlig umgearb. Aufl

Place of publication:: Stuttgart

Publisher:: Enke

Year of publication:: 1928

Scope:: XI, 484 Seiten

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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

Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: 1. Kapitel. Die sozialen Anlagen des Menschen und das Wesen der Gesellschaft

Collection:: Economics Books

COTTON WEAVERS AND WAGES ASSESSMENT 635 increase the production, as the weavers worked longer hours 45, ti in the hope of -making up the old rate of income?; and they were forced into deeper and deeper misery. As was to be proved ” . 4 ¥ tive; expected, the small masters, who were not in a substantial ineffective position, were chiefly to blame for cutting prices lower and lower; many of the employers would have been willing to see some method adopted for fixing a minimum wage for the weavers, and gave in their adhesion to the policy which was advocated by the men? The workmen had been unsuccessful in getting the Arbitration Act amended so as to meet their expectations’, and in 1808 an attempt was made to induce Parliament to fix a statutory minimum for weavers’ wages. The feeling of the House was decidedly against such a measure, however; though the appeal of the Lancashire and the . . . weavers weavers was 80 piteous that it could not be ignored alto- gemanded gether. A Select Committee took evidence on the subject, and reported very decidedly against the proposal as im- practicable and likely to aggravate the distress. At length in 1812 the weavers discovered that there was no need to agitate for fresh legislation, as the law of the land already provided all that they asked for. They appealed to the an Shsage- . . . s ment 0, magistrates in Quarter Sessions to have the Elizabethan Act their wage ‘ der t. for the assessment of wages put into effect; but the only “iy pf result was that the subject came once more under the notice 1963 of Parliament®, and Lord Sidmouth proceeded to move for + Reports, ete., 1808, mm. 119. ! Many of the mill-owners as well as the hands would have welcomed it. “¢Do you know whether the head Manufacturers of Bolton are desirous of this minimam ?’ ¢The head manufacturers in general are. Mr Sudell told me he wished it might take place, and he should call a meeting in Blackburn about it; the smaller Manufacturers in our town in general have petitioned for it; there are very few who have objected to it'.” Reports, Misc. 1808, m. 119. See also pp. 98, 108, and Petition, Commons Journals, LXIV. 95. 8 The amending Act of 1804 (44 Geo. IIL. c. 87) was no more successful than the original measure. ¢ The project was again mooted in 1835 as a remedy for the distress among the cotton-weavers. It was advocated by Mr John Fielden. Select Committee on Hand-Loom Weavers, Reports, etc. 1835, xm. p. 81, questions 43, 45, 46. 5 The change in the tone of parliamentary discussion is very noticeable, if we compare the debate in 1795 on Mr Whitehead’s bill for fixing a minimum wage, which was read a second time nem. con. and was sympathetically criticised by Fox (Parl. Hist. xxx. 700), with that on the cotton weavers’ Bill in 1808. Mr Rose bimself, in introducing the Bill, indicated his dissent from its principles and excused bimself on the ground that he was acting “in compliance with the wishes

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