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.