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