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THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND AND 
 ON THE CONTINENT. 
 

 The Cotton Trade in England 
 and on the Continent. 
 
 A STUDY IN THK FIBLI) OF THK COTTON INDUSTRY. 
 
 BY 
 
 Dr. a. VON SCHULZE-GAEVEENITZ, 
 
 Freiburg i. B. 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN UY 
 
 OSCAE S. HALL, m. i. mech. e., bury. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT, AND CO., LTD. 
 
 MANCHBSTEK : 
 
 MARSDEN AND CO., LTD., CARR STREET. 
 
 1895. 
 

 fVy3H3o 
 
WOKKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 1. ZuM SociALEX Friedev. Leipzig, 181)0. 2 Vols. Translated ioto English : 
 
 Social Peace. Swan. Sonnenschein & Co. 1893. 
 
 Abridged Russian Edition by Goldenseiser. Kieff. 
 
 2. Thomas Carlyle's Welt und Gesellschai!TS-ansciiauu>g. Dresden, 18*J:^. 
 
 3. Der Nationalismus in Rdssijind und Seine wirtiisciiaftlichen Trager. 
 
 Preussische Jahrbiicher. Januar, Februar, Miirz, 1894. 
 
 The French translation of this work " Der Grossbetrieb," will 
 appear this year. 
 
 109480 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. Pajres 
 Lntrodoctio.v 1 
 
 CHAPTEll II. 
 
 The Development of CENXRALiSAtioN ix the English Cotton Tkaue ... 10 
 
 I.— The Origin of the Factory System ID 
 
 II. — The Cotton Industry under the Influence of International 
 
 Competition o 1 
 
 CHAPTEK III. ' 
 
 The Present Position of the English Cotton Industry Compared with 
 ITS Position in the "Thirties," and the Present Position of the 
 German Cotton Industry (53 
 
 I.— Organisation and Division of Labour of the Industry G5 
 
 II.— Replacement of Raw Materials and Labour by Capital 85 
 
 A, — Sp innuuj 85 
 
 B. — Weavin<j 104 
 
 III.— Labour UG 
 
 A. — Farther Proofs and Measons for the Statement Advanced. .AIG 
 
 B. — The Factor If Lahour of Ltincaiihire\s Cotton Indnslrij .130 
 
 IV. — Comparison between the Costs of Production in England and 
 
 Germany 147 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Influence of Centralised Industrial Development on the Division 
 OF the Nation's Income ^ 104 
 
 I. — Generally 104 
 
 II. — Proofs from Lancashire 173 
 
 Conclusion 205 
 
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 We live in trouWe<l and iiioinentous times.* Discordant voices 
 resound on every side. Tlie social aspirations of daily bre^id 
 toilers seem to many to be in direct antagonism to all existing 
 and peaceful relations, to ultimate economical welfare. The 
 upward striving of the masses appears to many minds to threaten 
 the very core of vvholc industries, to .«ap their oconoirjical founda- 
 tions. Capital is jealously and quietly putting on its armour; 
 Labour is eag«-rly e(]uip])ing itself for further fray and the 
 defence of its already achieved position. Whatever be the 
 outcome, there Keems inevitably close at hand a period of sufi'eiing 
 and privaticn for many— the unavoi lable companion of transition 
 from one economical stage tO' another. And if the result of the 
 agitation should place this country at an economical disadvantage 
 the battle will at ni> distant peiiod be renewed, probably many 
 steps retraced, and bring further discontent and distress in its 
 train. It therefore behoves all parties to the struggle to- study 
 the question minutely, to weigh carefully all that can be said in 
 each other's favoiu', all that can be brought forward to show 
 lucidly the position which ought to be taken up for the economical 
 welfare of the community in general. 
 
 Without committing myself to the whole of the i)Ositions taken 
 up by Dr. G. von Schulze-Gae\'ernitz, I came to the conclusion whilst 
 reading the work that within it lay ihe elements by which the 
 future position of our whole industries and economical prosperity 
 might be guided to a safe haven. It seemed to nid tliat such an 
 udmirablo work should be as widely distributed as jjossiblc : that 
 
many uiisleadiiig and niiycliicvijiis ideas — jjrobably iioue the 
 less due to hone«t couvictiou — would be dispersed by a. careful 
 perusal of the results of the Professor's patieut, industrious 
 inquiry and research. These were the reasons which induced me 
 to undertake the translation. Tlie results of my work — ^accom- 
 plished in leisure moments snatched from an active business 
 life — in translating, I leave to the reader to judge and criticise 
 leniently. I have tried to reproduce as simply as possible the 
 exact meiiniiig intended in the oiiginal. A few additions to the 
 original work have been made by the author, and the whole book 
 has undergone careful revision to bring it up to datei. 
 
 AVhatever be the merits or demerits of the translation, I 
 trust it will Ijc favom-ably received and carefully studied by all 
 tliose who have the welfaie of c»ur industries, and espcnally the 
 prosperity of the staple trade of Lancashire, at heart. 
 
 OSCAR S. HxVLL/ 
 Bury. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 BY THE EDITOR OF THE "TEXTILE MEKCUiiY.' 
 
 The student of industrial, political, and social matters, coming 
 to the investigation of the developments of the 19th century, will 
 find in these subjects ample mateiiai to engage the services of 
 schoolsful of colleagues. In no preceding period was the fer- 
 ment of material science, mechanical invention, industrial change, 
 political revolution, and social progress so active as during the 
 century now nearing its close. No time in the past can compare 
 with it, and, so far as we can see, though the futm*e centuries 
 may have nmch in store, they are not likely to eclipse it in any 
 similar period of time. It seems to us that it will be much more 
 accordant with the natural sequence of events, if the past affords 
 grounds for any safe inferences regarding the future, that a long 
 period of comparative repose should follow one of such unpre- 
 cedented activity. Such periods succeeded the collapse of the 
 Roman Empire, the Crusades, and the Reformation, and inter- 
 vened between the English Revolution of 1688 and the French 
 uprising of a century later. In these intervals there was little 
 of intellectual activity, and less of social and industrial progress, 
 whilst science in its best sense had hardly been born. These facts 
 form a basis for the above reasonable and natm'al conclusion. Should 
 it bo realised, the students will be able to work at their investigations 
 of 19th century life and progress undistm'bed by the noise of 
 
contemporaneous disputes, the excitements of new scientific dis- 
 coveries, or the rapid spread of economic and social theories 
 that may contain within themselves the germs of social salvation 
 or destruction. We venture to predict that it will be the latter 
 phases of 19 th century development which will excite the most 
 cuiious interest in the minds of future students of social progress, 
 because the factor that has been active amidst the numerous 
 causes contributing so very largely to the amelioration of the lot 
 of the human race — and under the influences of which it has 
 benefited so enoi-mously, and yet is not satisfied — will to a large 
 degree be hidden from superficial inspection. At no period in 
 the history of mankind has the task of labour been so light, or 
 its reward so large and generous. And yet, notwithstanding 
 this, a wave of dissatisfaction with the new conditions seems, 
 during the past few years, to have spread over the industrial 
 world. Tliis has been followed by the development of a feeling 
 of hostility to every one of the new and beneficent factors of 
 progress that have come into being during the century, which 
 threatens their destruction. Is the basis of this movement a 
 gross mental delusion — a hideous nightmare — which has taken 
 possession for a time of the intellectual nature of the industrial 
 classes, and from which we may hope that in an early time they 
 will shake themselves heel This .is our imj)ression. We need 
 not wonder that the phenomena to which we have referred are 
 beginning to engage the earnest and careful attention of inquirers 
 of high cultm'e, independent thought, and philosophic minds, 
 and that these are making careful inquisition into the facts in 
 order to discover whether the popular impression is in any sense 
 justified, or whether it is the delusion we believe it to be. If the 
 former, it will bo incumbent upon those resi)onsiblo for the con- 
 duct of our political destinies to so guide the ship of State which 
 caiTies our affairs that it shall not run upon breakers whose 
 
Xlll. 
 
 presence has tlnis clearly been pointed out. If the Latter, it will 
 be the duty of the investigators to so state the truths and conclu- 
 sions to which they have been le<l as to dissipate the causeless 
 fears and misconceptions now so widely entertained amongst our 
 industrial classes, and more or less shared in by others in whom 
 such a degree of intelligence prevails as might have been thought 
 would have safeguarded them from the intrusions of philosophic 
 heresies. 
 
 Amongst the foremost of the investigators of the industrial 
 and social problems that confront society today is Dr. G. von 
 Schulze-Gaevernitz, of Freiburg i.B., whose recent work on " Social 
 Peace " commanded a gi'eat deal of attention in circles capable of 
 appreciating it. It was patent on the face of the problem he set 
 out to solve, if possible, that the industrial world is in a state of 
 transition brought about by the introduction of mechanical appli- 
 ances for the better performance of labour, and the consequent 
 supersession of the mass of handicraft workers that had pre- 
 viously supplied the world's requirements. It was inevitable 
 that in the reorganisation of the armies of labour on the new 
 lines much friction should occur and much contention arise as 
 to the equitable distribution of the profits of labour, owing to the 
 shifting of the burden of the task from the man to the machine. 
 These points form the crux of the industrial disputes, the 
 fretpient occurrence and repetition of which are inflicting such 
 enormous losses upon communities .at the present time that they are 
 doing a great deal to destroy all the benefits that the world 
 rationally expects to reap from the progress that has been made. 
 The economic principles upon which profits are distributed have 
 been called in question by the leaders of the workpeople, who are 
 inciting them to repudiate them and to demand the substitution 
 of others that, certainly on a first glance, do not present many 
 commendable features. It is into the working of the existing 
 
XIV. 
 
 principles, the equity of the allocation of profits under them, and 
 the merits of the principles proposed to be substituted for them 
 that inquiry must bo made. Also to discover whether there is 
 an}'thing necessarily beneficial or the opposite in the organisation 
 of machinery with human supervision, to produce on a large scale 
 what was until the introduction of machinery perforce produced 
 on a small scale by human labour alone. These are some of the 
 pha-ses of the problems which Dr. von Schulze-Gaevernitz has 
 undertaken to investigate. The results of his inquiries in their 
 several aspects he has placed before the world in his recent work 
 on " Social Peace." He was so struck, however, by the phe- 
 nomena presente<l in the origin, development, organisation, and 
 social results attending the growth of the modern cotton in- 
 dustry — the parent of all mechanical industries — that he has 
 preferred to treat this subject in a separate work, in order to d» 
 full justice to its teachings. Tliis work waa issued in Germany 
 in the autumn of 1893, and immediately on its appearance 
 the present writer, the editor of " TTie Textile Mercury," entered 
 into communication ^vith Dr. Schulze-Gaevemitz, with a view to its 
 translation and reproduction in this country. Tlie author immedi- 
 ately consented, and the work was tiierefore put in hand. Mr. 
 Oscar S. Hall, M I. Mech. E., of the old and well-known firm of 
 machinists (Messrs, Robert Hall and Sons, Bury, Limited) of 
 Bury, voluntarily undertook the work. Mr. Hall brought to the 
 task exceptionally high qualifications in a thorough knowledge of 
 German, acquired by residence in the countrA-, and maintained 
 and increased by frequent visits and an extensive commercial 
 intercourse with it. To add to this, he is familiar with the history 
 of the development of machinery in the cotton industry, and is a 
 technical expert in all that relates to its present condition both 
 at home and on the Continent. Few people could bring to the 
 task a more extensive or perfect repertory of knowledge of the 
 subjei^t ia these respects than did Mr. Hall. When we add that 
 
XV. 
 
 he possesses literary ability of a high order we have said all 
 that is necessary to justify the statement that the author has 
 been exceptionally fortunate in that the translation of his im- 
 portant work has fallen into such capable hands. We conclude 
 these introductory remarks with one further observation. We 
 have never yet been able to arrive at the conclusion that under 
 any circumstances man could attain infallibility in his researches 
 and conclusions; but even if we could have done so we should 
 lack the infallible perception of discriminating the individual in 
 which it reposed. This being the case, we desire to say that the 
 author alone will be responsible for the opinions expressed. We 
 say this in justice to Dr. Schulze-Gaevernitz and ourselves and the 
 translator, and at the same time beg to express our appreciation of 
 the high privilege he has so freely and fully accorded to " The Textile 
 Mercury" of translating, publishing, and republishing this im- 
 portant contribution to the economic science of modern industry. 
 The translation first appeared in " The Textile Mercury," from the 
 pages of which it is now. reproduced, and the editor bespeaks for it 
 the careful perusal of those interested in the cotton trade, in social 
 developments, and the favour of the public generally. 
 
 Rd. marsden. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 In whaiL-relation dnfta fy.fvnoTinV.al progrrftSR at.fl.Tifl to t.hft nf|- 
 yancem ent of the w orking classes? What value has a higher or 
 lower standard of living for the economical power development 
 of a nation ? These questions have long been subjects of controversy. 
 Tliere is certainly a development noticeable in the arguing of 
 different opinions. One view was originally only opposed by few ; 
 as time went on this was universally vetoed by science, and the 
 opposite opinion almost generally accepted, whilst the former 
 view was still adhered to and defended only by a minority, especi- 
 ally by practical men in countries and in industries which have 
 lagged behind in economics. 
 
 The discussion takes different phases at different periods. So 
 long as wages maintained a normal fixed position the variation 
 in the price of wheat was the deciding element for the standard 
 of living of the working classes. It was therefore asked whether 
 high or low prices of food were essential for the economical 
 development of a nation. To which in England was added the 
 further query, whether the State by means of legislative measures, 
 and especially by bounties on the export of wheat, should or 
 should not keep the prices of human necessaries high (1). But 
 since, in this century, the fixing of wages by custom and law has 
 disappeared, the question has been amended to whether low or 
 high wages have to be viewed as an economical advantage for a 
 country; whether economical progress — and in this connection 
 we think at the present time principally about the development 
 of the centralised industrial system (2) — means the elevation or 
 retrogression of the classes in its service. 
 
 1. R. Faber: " Die Entstehung des Agrarschutzes in England " (Strassburg, 
 1888), pp. 112—114. 
 
 2. That is, the factory system. — Translator. 
 
 B 
 
s- 
 
 2 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 I. The history of the question under discussion extends 
 back, like that of so many national economical teachings, to that 
 great observer, Sir William Peity, who first deserves, if anyone 
 ^at all, to be called the Father of National Economy. In his 
 "Political Ai-ithmetic" (London, 1691) Petty defends taxes upon 
 foods, etc., which he maintained increased the wealth of a country. 
 Besides taking the view that \v4th prices of food high men 
 invested their money in less perishable articles, he gives, in proof 
 of this statement, the experience of weaving overlookers who 
 employed workmen on day wages. If wheat was cheap, labour 
 tended to be dearer in the same proportion, because in such 
 I times the workers were so extravagant and dissolute that they 
 1 thought simply about eating and drinking. For this reason an 
 abundant harvest was a misfortune for the people if the Govern- 
 ment did not keep the price of wheat high. But in a special 
 manner, according to Petty, did this relation apply to Ireland. 
 In that country the standard of living was such a low one, par- 
 ticularly after the introduction of that " root similar to bread " — 
 the potato — that two hours' daily labour sufficed to satisfy all 
 ordinary needs. In order to stir up the Irish people from their 
 laziness, a heavy system of taxation was requisite (3). In another 
 place Petty also demands in the interests of economical progress 
 that the conditions of living should be made harder for the people. 
 The working hours of those times were 12 daily, including two 
 hours' stoppage, therefore in reality 10 hours, and three meals 
 daily were customary. Petty demands that the time for dinner 
 should be reduced by half-an-hour, and that Fridays should be 
 fasting days. Herewith, he says, the English people will become 
 richer, and the income of the State would increase (4). 
 
 The most celebrated writers of that time were of the san.o 
 opinion as Petty. Sir William Templ e recommended the taxation 
 of food in order to enforce general industry in Ireland (Works, 
 vol. I., pp. 60, 114) (5). In a fertile country industry does not as a 
 rule flourish, because the cheapness of food makes it possible 
 
 3. William Petty: " Political Arithmetic" (London, 1691), pp. 35, 42, 45 
 
 4. William Petty : " Political Survey of Ireland"(London, 1719> " Verbum 
 Sapienti," p. 12. 
 
 r 5. " I conceive the true original grounds of trade to be a great multitude of 
 
 f)eople crowded into a small compass of land, whereby all things necessary to 
 ife become dear, and all men who have possessions are induced to parsimony ; 
 but those who have none are forced into industry and labour, or else to want " 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT, 3 
 
 for the worker to abstain from labour, and consequently tends 
 to raise its price (6). Petty, as well as Temple and many others, 
 pointed to the example and teaching of the Dutch. Indeed De 
 Witt had already demanded high taxes in order to encourage an 
 inventive spirit, industry, and frugality, as well as a strict poor- 
 law, with bureaucratic reduction of wages (7). 
 
 This point of view is most minutely justified by John 
 Houghto n, in "A Collection of Letters for the Improvement of 
 Husbandry and Trade" (London, No. 6, June 16th, 1683, p. 174). 
 In consequence of several bad harvests the price of wheat at that 
 time had considerably risen. Tlie result, Houghton thought, was 
 in no wise to be viewed as a disadvantage, but rather as an 
 economical advantage. If the price of wheat was lower the poor 
 would work less, because with less exertion they could earn the 
 necessaries of life. This, he says, follows from general psycho- 
 logical observation. The landed nobility spend their time mostly 
 in recreation and sports, instead of working, because they possess 
 means for years to come — for eating, for drinking, and for main- 
 taining themselves. Should, however, one of their circle come to 
 grief, he immediately looks out for some public post and occupa- 
 tion. The rich tradesman retires from business when he has 
 succeeded in entering the ranks of the landed gentry. The poor 
 craftsman, on the other hand, who can never hope to call a 
 fortune of £10 his own, scarcely takes the trouble to get 10s. into 
 his hand at once. If he can earn sufficient in three days to live 
 up to his usual standard for a week, he does not work the 
 remaining four days. The same thing is true of the labourer, 
 who does not work any more than is necessary to earn his bare 
 livelihood. Instances were provided by lace and stocking makers. 
 As soon as their wages were high they were seldom seen at their 
 work on Mondays and Tuesdays, scarcely even on Wed- 
 nesdays and Thursdays. They spent those days prefer- 
 ably in alehouses, and in low debauchery. With high wages and 
 cheap prices of food the majority of workmen employed in the 
 various trades followed the same course. On the other hand, 
 never did they work so hard as in dear times. By their lack of 
 means the invention of useful labour-saving machinery received 
 
 6. Compare A Young : " The Farmers' Letters to the People of England " 
 (London, 1768), p. 35, where, in the preface, a number of further adherents 
 to this opinion are given. 
 
 7 Compare " Essays on Trade and Commerce " (London, 1770), p. 49. 
 
4 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 an immediate impetus ; by their deep poverty " submissive ser- 
 vants " were farmed from the working classes. In fact, competition 
 between the workers in such times caused cheap wages. When 
 left to itself, development moved in a circle. Cheap prices 
 induced laziness; this, in turn, want and dearness; the latter 
 industry and abundance. If, on the other hand, by wise govern- 
 mental regulations high prices of food could be permanently 
 fixed, it would also enforce application to be constant, and thereby 
 a permanent surplus of production would be attained, which 
 creates the opportunity for the conquest of foreign markets. 
 
 Therefore, let it be the duty of the King to keep the price of 
 wheat high by the re-introduction of bounties or export- 
 premiums (8). 
 
 r II. There had already arisen during the last century, in 
 opposition hereto, defenders of cheap food, especially opposers of 
 the artificial raising of prices. The first defender of this stand- 
 point, as far as I know, is Josiah Child , as early as 1693. He 
 attacks the custom of fixing remuneration, which was made in 
 the interest for low wages. This was possible as long as England 
 was not a country with handicrafts. At that juncture, however, 
 low wages must cause the emigration of the cleverest artisans to 
 better-paying countries, as already, indeed, numerous English 
 seamen had withdrawn to Holland (9). 
 
 More in detail Jacob Vanderlint advances the same view in 
 " Money Answers all Things " (London, 1 734). Tliis writer asserts 
 that double proposition which has ever since been taken as an 
 axiom by the adherents of high wages and low prices of food. At 
 some time or other — and herein he has a forcible argument on 
 his side — a population capable of consuming is necessary for the 
 development of trade. He turns against the writers of that day 
 who opposed the raising of the people's needs as being luxurious. 
 This was not the reason of the low ebb of trade — much 
 * rather was it the lack of means of the great masses of consumers 
 (pp. 21, 160). In addition to this, Vanderlint also casually draAvs 
 attention to the fact that higher wages for the working man are 
 an incentive for more work (p. 122). 
 
 8. The same opinion is given also in J. Houghton's "Husbandry and Trade 
 Improved." Revised, corrected, and published by R. Bradle (London, 1727^, 
 p. 266. 
 
 9, Josiah Child ; " New Discourse of Trade "(London, 1693), pp. 10 and 11. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 5 
 
 Postlethwa it and Nathaniel Foster join with this writer in 
 supporting the same view (10). Postlethwait starts on the same 
 lines as Vanderlint, firstly in the matter of consumption. Wher- 
 ever are many poor people, there, he maintains, the home market 
 is insignificant. The luxury of the few cannot by any means 
 replace the consumption of many ; therefore too great an inequality 
 of wealth is against the trade interests of the country. From 
 this point of view high wages and low prices of food are to be 
 promoted. The latter caused, in addition, an increase of the popu- 
 lation, and, therewith, of the quantity of work accomplished. In 
 close connection appears also the second standpoint : the idleness 
 of the working classes was not a consequence of an hereditary 
 fault, but rather depended upon the fact that they lacked the 
 incentive for labour. In order to make them work more there 
 must be the motive of bettering their position placed before 
 them (11). In like manner Postlethwait defends the granting of a 
 cheap leisure time to the workers (12). 
 
 Foster (13), clearly influenced by Mirabeau . Rousseau , and kin - 
 dred writer s, takes a similar position. He is indebted to them 
 for a criticism of the question more from the stand- 
 point of the workmen. The opinion that high prices of food and 
 low wages were desirable was "a teaching which avarice has 
 grasped with eagerness and turned to account for its own object." 
 Men believe nothing easier than an untruth which brings them 
 personally an advantage. To prove this he points to the physio^ 
 logical experience that want certainly stimulated to energy, but 
 only that want which could be overcome by energy. It was 
 quite different if the exertion was not sure of success. A man 
 who the more he laboured was so much the more highly taxed 
 worked, according to experience, as little as possible. Foster, 
 
 10. Postlethwait, in his " Great Britain's Commercial Interest Explained 
 and Improved " (2nd. ed. , London, 1775), especially pp. 13, 16. 43. The 
 Supplement to the " Universal Dictionary of Trade and Commerce," quoted by 
 Marx, I have not succeeded in finding in the Library of the British Museum. 
 N. Foster : " Enquiry into the Causes of the Present High Prices of Provisions " 
 (London, 1767), pp. 56, 60. Similarly, Dangueille recommends (" Avantages 
 et Desavantages de la France et Grande Bretagne." p. 293) high wages in the 
 interest of consumption ; quoted by A. Young, " Farmer's Letters," p. 38. 
 
 11. "I take it for a maxim that no class of people will ever want industry if 
 they do not want encouraging motives thereto " (p. 43). 
 
 12. " Dictionary of Trade and Commerce. " I. — Preliminary Discourse, p. 751. 
 
 13. " Enquiry into the Causes of the Present High Prices of Provisions" 
 (London, 1767), pp. 56—62 
 
6 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 first linking himself to Mirabeau, points out, in confirmation, the 
 peasant serfs of the Continent. The same, however, would apply 
 to the Enp:lish workman if by bureaucratic regulations, either in 
 fixing wages or in making the necessaries of life dearer, the 
 reward of working more was eventually withdrawn from him. 
 Such a policy must lead, if not to rebellion, to general stupidity 
 and lethargy. The author denies the proposition that with high 
 wages and low prices less work would be done than imder the 
 opposite conditions. It is true that in an isolated case a sudden 
 rise of wages might lead to less work being accomplished; but, 
 generally, there would be more vigour and cheerfulness thrown 
 into work the more the worker could better his position thereby. 
 A similar view, though not clearly defined, and without sufficient 
 proof, is taken by J. Anderson (14). The writers here mentioned 
 as being friendly to the working classes are generally behind, 
 when compared with the advocates of the opposite opinion, because 
 they bring forward fewer results of observation than these latter, 
 and limit themselves mainly to general assertions. Josiah Tucker, 
 who judges the problem solely from the point of view of experience, 
 and thereby arrives at a defence of high wages, draws attention 
 to the fact that in a country with high wages and plenty of capital 
 only those products wei'e brought forth which required plenty of 
 labour, whilst less cultivated countries with low wages had their 
 strength in goods in the production of which Nature had a large 
 and human labour a slight share. Tucker quotes an array of 
 instances in confirmation of his statement. Scotland produced 
 timber ; England wheat, requiring niore labour ; certain portions 
 of the South of England, garden products, needing still more 
 labour ; in spite of which agricultural wages in the latter districts 
 were the highest, and in England higher than in Scotland. Horn, 
 wool, and hides were produced in countries with low wages ; 
 their manipulation took place where the wages were high. Not>- 
 withstanding which, labour had in the first case a small, in the 
 second a large share in the production. Holland, which did not 
 produce a single- log of timber, and where the wages were high, 
 was pre-eminent in shipbuilding. Tucker ascribes these facts, 
 in addition to the possession of larger capital, to the reason 
 that more skilled and more trained labour was evolved in con- 
 sequence of greater division of work. It may be cheaper to pay 
 
 14. James Anderson: " Observations on the Means of Exciting a Spirit of 
 National Industry" (Edinburgh, 1777), p. 277. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 7 
 
 a capable workman 2s. 6d. per day than to employ a bad on© for 
 6d. The high wages of the richer country had, further, the result 
 of attracting the most able workers from the countries paying less 
 wages. Thus high wages were in no wise a disadvantage for a 
 nation's economy, but were rather a sign of a higher stage of 
 development (15). 
 
 III. But the writers mentioned represent by no means the pre- 
 dominating opinion until the timo of Adam Smith. On the 
 contrary, they evoked a violent opposition. Several anonymous 
 articles appeared against PostlethAvait ; for instance, the " Essays 
 on Trade and Commerce" (London, 1770), and " Considerations on 
 Taxes" (London, 1765). The most ordinary knowledge of man- 
 kind taught that English workmen only worked for a bare liveli- 
 hood. High prices alone impelled them to continuous labour. 
 With low prices hours of labour were shorter, and still the! 
 workers were less industrious than with higher prices and longer 
 hours, b ecause in dear times the woi kmen were obli ged to ap^ly; 
 t hemselves to satisfy t heir maaters . The French workman accom- 
 plished more, although he neither ate meat nor drank beer, tol 
 which the English workman believed he had a birthright. The] 
 latter was the laziest workman in the world. In order to improve 
 him, the main point was to so raise the prices of food by legislative 
 measures that he could not earn more by six days' continuous 
 labour than a bare living. In addition, this writer demands 
 authoritative fixing of wages and wjQrking hours — therefore, in 
 other words, a normal wage and a normal working day, but in 
 exactly the opposite interest to that in which these demands are 
 put forward to-day ; a maximum rate of remuneration which might 
 not be exceeded, and a minimum time of labour (1 4 hours, includ- 
 ing meal-times) (16) below which might not be worked. 
 
 A. '^oung takes up the same position, also opposing the other 
 view (iTy. He learned during his travels that business men and 
 manufacturers in Manchester preferred high to low prices of 
 
 15. Compare Josiah Tucker: " Four Tracts on Political and Commercial 
 Objects "(Gloucester, 3rd edition, 1774\ especially pp. 30 and 40. 
 
 16. " The poor work only for the bare necessaries of life and for the means 
 of a low debauch. When this is obtained they cease to labour till roused 
 
 again by necessity." — The second of the works quoted in note 10. 
 
 17. '< A Farmer's Letters to the People of England " (London, 1768), 
 pp. 34-40, 201-210; further, "Political Arithmetic," pp. 110-111; further, 
 '« Six Months' Tour in the North of England " (1770), vol. Ill, pp. 242-50. 
 
8 THE COTTON TEADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 wheat — the cloth industry languished on account of the too great 
 cheapness of corn. He demands that food shall be made dearer 
 and wages be lowered by bureaucratic control, in order to stimulate 
 England's commerce and trade. 
 
 Young, and the anonymous writers just mentioned, differ from 
 Houghton, who had noticed in a raising of the ordinary wants of the 
 workers an incentive to increased labour. They on the contrary 
 ^ believed that a raising of the standard of living was not possible 
 for a workman. Any balance of earnings above the necessary 
 cost of living meant only more ale, more " spreeing," more head- 
 aches, and less work. Therefore these Avriters wished to chain 
 down the workman by legislation to the minimum standard of life. 
 
 Benjamin Franklin came also to the same conclusion in his 
 "Observations concerning the Increase of Mankind," though he 
 / later on changed it for exactly the opposite opinion (18). 
 
 IV. The writers mentioned were opposed by Adam Smith in his 
 principal work (" Wealth of Nations," vol. I., chap. 8). He teaches 
 that high wages and low wheat prices mean an increase in labour 
 capacity. Well-nourished men worked better than those poorly 
 fed ; those who were cheerful and contented better than the down- 
 trodden ; healthy better than such as frequently succumbed to 
 illnesses. The opposite view depended upon the fact that in dear 
 V- years the workmen were certainly more submissive and dependent, 
 but by no me$ins more capable of labour, than in cheap years. 
 
 Adam Smith based these statements upon the proofs given by 
 Messance, Receiver of Taxes at St. E^tienue, in ''Notes on the 
 Population of Auvergne, Lyons, and Rouen " (Paris, 1 766). The 
 passages relating hereto are on pages 287-92 and 305-8. Messance 
 differed from the opinion that the workman only laboured for a 
 bare existence, and that when this was attained he fell a prey to 
 idleness. On the contrary, after satisfying his hunger he worked 
 on more diligently to satisfy the higher wants of his life. He 
 bought industrial productions, and spent his money on a better 
 house and better furniture. Especially in years of cheap wheat 
 was more clothing bought, and therefo!e more cloth woven, than 
 in bad years. To the cheapening of wheat prices as well as the 
 increase of wages during the last century was the prosperity 
 
 18 Compare Boscher : ♦♦ Handbuch," vol. I., par. 173, note 3. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 9 
 
 of French trade to be in the first place ascribed. Just 
 so the development in stock-farming and garden and vine 
 culture, the products of which now for the first time found con- 
 sumers. Even the farmers themselves had not suffered to any extent 
 by the falling of wheat prices. Messance proceeds, like Postle- 
 thwait, in the first instance on the ground of increased consump- 
 tion, although he mentions also the increase of industriousness and 
 labour power in consequence of lower wheat prices and higher 
 wages. In the cloth factories at Elbeuf and the silk and linen 
 mills at Rouen we have the proofs. Messance communicates a 
 number of tables, which, as Receiver of Taxes, stood at his service. 
 From these, indeed, it was clear during 1740 and 1763 that the 
 years of dear wheat had been mostly years of less produc- 
 tion, and vice versa; that in every case the dearest showed the 
 least, the cheapest the largest production. 
 
 V. The teaching of Adam Smith was, however, far from taking 
 immediate root. The almost universally accepted wage-theory 
 of Ricardo stood as more important in opposition. Ricardo 
 
 certainly acknowledges clearly that the minimum standard of 
 living, to which according to him the worker was chained, de- 
 pended upon the customary standard of living. But in his further 
 statements, as in those of his supporters, this customary limit, 
 though capable of being raised, disappeared behind the bare mini- 
 mum of existence, solely decided by physiological laiKfi. The 
 economical prosperity of a country — i.e., according to the personal 
 economical standpoint of Ricardo, the profit of the employers — 
 depended, for him, on low wages. Therefore, countries in which 
 wages were low had an advantage over countries with high wages. 
 In the latter countries capital was to be led into the channels in 
 which the least labour in its own country was necessary— a step 
 backward from the theory of Tucker (19). According, therefore, 
 to Ricardo, centralised industrial development (20), which he had 
 already in his mind, does not necessarily at the same time mean 
 social development ; for however much national economy advanced 
 and riches increased the worker remained chained to the minimum 
 standard of life. That which A. Young had uttered as a practical 
 demand was with Ricardo a law of nature J 
 
 19. Compfire. on Ricardo's position, Herkner: " Die sociale Reform als Gebot 
 des wirtschaftlichen Fortschritts " (Leipzig, 1891), p. 12. 
 
 20. Factory system development. — Translator. 
 
y 
 
 10 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 Whilst Ricardo himself stands upon the platform of the 
 capitalist, his wage-theory has become the basis of all those move- 
 ments which, on principle, oppose the present economical develop- 
 ment depending upon privilege and property — the starting-point 
 of radical as well as reactionary Socialists. For both of these the 
 maxim cannot be dispensed with that by reason of the existing 
 economical arrangement the worker cannot raise his status in any 
 case, but is irredeemably fettered down to the subsistence mini- 
 mum. Only a complete upheaval of the groundwork of this 
 arrangement, the abolishing of privilege and property, can bring 
 deliverance to the working classes. But the turning of the tables 
 will be made possible by the fact that in the present economical 
 system the cleft between those possessing means and those without 
 always becomes wider. The expropriated at last expropriate the 
 expropriators. 
 
 The wage-theory of Ricardo is most clearly the foundation of 
 the Communistic manifesto in which Marx and Engels first formu- 
 lated the progi-amme of Continental Social Democracy. The 
 teaching aj)peared here in the definitely expressed form that it was 
 modern centralised industry, especially the machine, which pressed 
 down the worker unceasingly. "By the spread of machinery 
 and the division of labour the work of the proletarian has lost its 
 independent character, and therewith all attraction for the worker. 
 The expenses of the worker limit themselves, therefore, almost 
 solely to the necessaries of life, which he needs for existence and 
 the propagation of his race. Tlie price of an article, consequently 
 also of labour, is equal to its cost of production. In the same 
 proportion that adversity of labour increases do, therefore, wages 
 fall." "The modem worker, instead of raising his status along 
 with the progress of industry, always falls deeper below the condi- 
 tion of his own class." This teaching, which Karl Marx (21) as 
 unconditionally supports in "Capital," has found an eloquent 
 defender in Lassalle. "For you, gentlemen," he cried to the 
 workers, " always the bare necessaries of life ; for the employer's 
 share, all the balance remaining from the result of labour." 
 Lassalle does not recognise a social advance on the basis of an 
 economical one ; hence his scoffing at the English trade unions as 
 "the ineffectual experiment of the commodity Labour to demean 
 itself as Humanity." 
 
 21 K. Marx, 4th edition, vol. I., pp. 226-61. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 11 
 
 The teaching of react ionary Socialism is nothing different with 
 regard to the consequences of the modern economical system for 
 the worker. Represented in England by the early novels of Disraeli 
 and contemporary High Churchism (22), it has found its most 
 spirited adherents in Germany. In the numerous volumes of the 
 " Berlin Revue," and in Glaser's " Annuals," this tendency in the 
 years of the " fifties " and " sixties " has culminated in a social- 
 political programme which H. Wagener, in 1855, collected in the 
 "Outline for a Programme of the Right." This party, as it on 
 the one hand glances backward to the Mercantile-State of Fred- 
 erick the Great and Frederick William I., has on the other hand 
 become the basis of later State-Socialism. 
 
 Through all the volumes of the works mentioned the main 
 thought shows itself, that the modern economical system founded 
 on freedom and property, and especially centralised industry 
 raised on this foundation, tramples down the.worker irredeemably. 
 Far from the fact that continuous economical development means 
 at the same time social progress, the view is taken that deliverance 
 depends upon banishing "the principles of 1789" and in going 
 back to the old Guild trade-rights, coupled with the fixing of wages 
 by the State. 
 
 The most important of these writers, Lavergne-Peguilhen, 
 attributes an implacable struggle between Capital and 
 Labour to the present economical system. It burdened 
 the worker more heavily than the feudalism of the 
 Middle Ages, and even than slavery (23). Similarly, Her- 
 mann Wagener speaks df the economical system of to-day as a 
 " despairing and annihilating struggle which everywhere can only 
 lead to the complete social and political subjection of the less 
 powerful — to modem slavery without masters" (24). The 
 bourgeoisie invited the worker, " like a lame man, to a race," and 
 under the scornfully invented pretext of freedom of trade, by the 
 overwhelming influence of their means shut him out from trade. 
 Freedom of trade means for the worker nothing more than the 
 freedom to seek out for himself that trade wherein he wishes to 
 
 22. Compare ray book ' ' Oq Social Peace, "German edition, vol. I. , pp. 877-99. 
 
 23. Lavergne-Peguilhen : "The Conservative Social Teaching," second 
 number ; " The Orpranic State Teaching." Berlin. 1870 (Collected Essays from 
 the " Fifties" and " Sixties," p. 128). Compare also pp. 59, 60, 124. 
 
 24. H. Wagener: "The Small but Important Party" (Berlin, 1885), 
 wherein the programme of the Eight of 1855 is communicated, pp. 8 and 9. 
 
12 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 suffer from hunger (25). In fact centralised industry needed 
 pauperism, so that the price of labour power did not increase 
 beyond the cost of its production. The modem industrial system 
 and its representatives had therefore the highest interest in pre- 
 venting the advancement of the worker (26). Similarly, says 
 Prof. Glaser, intimately connected with the writer mentioned, " No 
 real judge of the teachings of national economy will assert that 
 under the present condition of production in European States the 
 working class as a class can raise itself by its own power from its 
 position" (27). England is, according to this writer, because 
 economically the furthest developed, in the worst social 
 position — the country of massed distress, close on the brink of 
 revolution. 
 
 To these fathers of the present State-Socialism Catholic authors 
 like Joerg, Bishop Ketteler, and others link themselves. Accord- 
 ing to all of them the impossibility of an elevation of the workers 
 on the basis of the existing economical system is an axiom, and by it 
 they support their more or less far-reaching Socialistic de- 
 mands (28). 
 
 VI. This teaching, like that of Radical Socialism, depends on the 
 common principle of view that the modem economical development 
 binds the worker to the minimum standard of life, and that on 
 this basis a continuous improvement of his position, especially by 
 increases of wages, is impossible. This view, which is nothing 
 else than a condensation of Ricardo's wage-theory, has been aban- 
 doned in later literature. The so-called Manchester school, as well 
 as the historical school, acknowledges the possibility, even the 
 necessity, of a rise in the standard of living of the workers, also 
 continuous increases of wages, on the ground and as a consequence 
 of economical progress. 
 
 25. Compare Wa^ener's speech on the occasion of the proposal of Schulze- 
 Delit«ch regarding the coalition right of employer and employed, sitting of 
 the Prussian Parliament, llth Feb. 1865. Further: " Pasfr', Present, and 
 Future of National Political Economy." by Oswald Stein (a known pseudonym 
 for Wagener). Berne and Leipzig, 1880, p. 126. 
 
 26. Wagener's " Staatslexikon," vol. XV., Art, " Pauperism." Further, 
 the book just quoted, pp. 131, 132, 122 
 
 27. Compare 61 aser : "Elevation of the "Working Classes to Economical 
 Independence " (Berlin, 1865). 
 
 28. Jorg : " History of the Social-Political Parties in Germany " (Freiburg i. 
 Br., 1867), p. 36. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 13 
 
 In this way Maccullpch (29) explains the higher wages of America, 
 of England, and of Holland as by no means an economical disad- 
 vantage compared with the lower wages of the Irish, Poles, and 
 Hindoos. The difference was more than balanced by greater 
 industry and increase in the amount of work done. Senior says 
 the same thing — in spite of lower wages the price of labour was 
 dearer in France than in England (30). Rau and Roscher are of 
 the same opinion (31). The last-mentioned author supports it with 
 an abundance of interesting experiences, gained in all countries. 
 
 We find a similar change of theory respecting the hours of 
 labour. Whilst formerly the use of machinery as long as possible 
 was considered desirable, and every reduction of the hours of 
 labour was looked upon as a loss, later on the economical advan- 
 tages of a gradual curtailment of the hours of labour were generally 
 recognised. Especially well known is the change which the views 
 of Senior underwent in this direction. Whilst he had declared, in 
 his "Letters concerning the Factory Acts of 1837," the reduction 
 of the hours of labour from twelve to ten would ruin the cotton 
 industry, because just in the last two hours was the employers' 
 profit realised, he withdrew this teaching in 1863 , at the Congress 
 of Social Science, in Edinburgh, as erroneous, and recommended 
 the extension of the ten-hours law to a number of other industries. 
 
 The views of Macaulay changed in a similar manner. Formerly 
 an opponent of the Factory Acts, he made, later, a brilliant speech 
 in defence of the ten-hours law. He closed this speech with these 
 memorable words, since so often quoted : " If we are ever com- 
 pelled to retire from the paramount position amongst trading 
 nations we shall not give way to a race of degenerated dwarfs, but 
 to some other strong nation excelling us in physique and genius " — 
 referring to the then extreme hours of labour of some German 
 factories and the quoted bad residts of recruiting in German indus- 
 trial districts. 
 
 German national economists agree with the English. According 
 to Emminghaus (32), for instance, the shortening of the hours of 
 labour means in no wise always an economical disadvantage ; fre- 
 
 29. " Principles of Political Economy," 2nd editien (London, 1830), p. 397. 
 
 30. " Political Economy," 5th edition (London. 1863), p. 143. 
 
 31. Rau : " Volkswirtschaftslehre," par. 201a ; Roscher : " Volkswirtschafts- 
 lehre,"!., par. 40, par. 173. 
 
 32. A. Emminghaus: "Allgemeine Gewerkslehre "(Berlin, 1868), pp. 
 78-90. 
 
14 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 quently the same production was realised with shortened hours of 
 labour. But if with shortened hours of labour the same amount 
 in wages on piecework could be paid, this had at once to be recog- 
 nised as an advantage for the employer. 
 
 Tlie severest attack against the theory of Ricardo was made by 
 Brentano, in the first instance in his " Arbeitergilden der Gegenwart." 
 As a result the wage-theory of Ricardo became untenable also for 
 those hitherto its supporters, whose interests were bound up with 
 it. After Fr. Lange had already acknowledged this in the intro- 
 duction to a later edition of his " Arbeiter-frage " (33), it was only 
 a question of time until the representatives of German Social 
 Democracy also acknowledged the scientific advance. This occurred 
 at the Congress at Halle in 1890, where even the former wage-law 
 was abandoned (34). 
 
 Brentano enforces in detail the teaching above described, that 
 the gradual raising of wages and shortening of the hours of labour, 
 being used for elevating the standard of living, is economically 
 justified, in that they bring forth a higher capacity for work. 
 Brentano has, in his writings as well as his lectures, given frequent 
 expression to the conviction that the elevation of the working 
 classes by continuous development of the existing economical 
 system harmonises, indeed, even on the basis of economical pro- 
 gress, and follows as a matter of course — a teaching which must 
 be the foundation of all social strivings after peace (35). It is neces- 
 sary for me here to thankfully acknowledge that for the incentive 
 to which the present work is owing I am indebted to the gentleman 
 mentioned. 
 
 Herkner follows Brentano's steps, in his meritorious work — 
 " Social Reform a Demand of Ec onomical Progress" (Leipsic, 1891). 
 Herkner expressly teaches the utility of all efforts vriih. a tendency 
 to the elevation of the working classes, especially of legislative 
 enactments tending to the economical development of strength. 
 
 33. F. A. Lange: "Die Arbeiterfrage," third edition, 1875, p. 190. 
 
 34. Compare Brentano : Meine Polemik mit Karl Marx (Berlin, 18w>), 
 p. 7. 
 
 35. Compare Brentano: ''The Teaching on the Increase of Wages — 
 Annual for National Economy and Statistics," published bv Hildebrand, vol. 
 XVI. (1871), pp. 251-91; also <' On the Relation between Wages and Hours 
 of Labour to the Capacity for Labour " (Leipzig, 1876). 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 15 
 
 VII. Let US now interrogate practical men. Among them pre- 
 dominates by no means the same unanimity as at present exists in 
 theoretical circles. On one side stand the English and Americans ; 
 on the other, many of the Germans. 
 
 Chief amongst them, the best known is Brassey, who, in his 
 " Work and Wages," has gathered together the experiences of his 
 father — the greatest railway contractor in the world. Brassey's 
 conclusion I have spoken of in another place (36). It was a mis- 
 take, he says, that the higher wages of England meant an eco- 
 nomical disadvantage ; rather was the price of a defined piece of 
 work in England by no means higher, in many cases certainly 
 lower, than in the remainder of Europe, which exhibited a far 
 lower standard of living of the workers. In a similar manner 
 Lowthian Bell, a distinguished ironmaster in England, declares, in 
 his '' Manufacture of Iron and Steel," that tlie weekly earnings of 
 the workers engaged at the English furnaces were certainly con- 
 siderably higher than on the Continent, in spite of which a lower 
 amount of wages was paid per ton of pig-iron in Cleveland than in 
 Germany. The same result holds good, according to Schoenhof, in 
 comparing the American production of pig-iron with the 
 European (37). 
 
 Generally, the two Americans — Edward Atkinson and J. Schoen- 
 hof — support as decidedly as possiible the opinion of Brassey. 
 Both are men of business. Atkinson is engaged practically in the 
 cotton trade of Massachusetts (38). Both declare that economical 
 progress, which is at the present day progress from Isolated to 
 Centralised Industry, from hand to machine work, necessarily 
 brought in its train a continuous elevation of the status of the 
 workers. The high weekly wages which countries the most eco- 
 nomically developed exhibited were in no wise a disadvantage for 
 them in the competition of nations. They were nothing more than 
 a sign of technically-developed trade conditions — especially of the 
 triumph of centralised establishments over antiquated methods of 
 production. In spite of the higher weekly wages of the workers, 
 in consequence of better machinery and of greater capacity for 
 _ - , 
 
 36. "Social Peace," vol. 11, pp. 261-5. 
 
 37. J. Schoenhof: " Industrial Situation " (New York, 1885), p. 77. 
 
 38. Edward Atkinson: "Distribution of Products," 4th edition (New 
 York, 1890). Also : «' The Margin of Profits. " Further : J. Schoenhof, ' ' In- 
 dustrial Situation " (New York, 1885). 
 
^ 
 
 16 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 work, the cost of labour in America for most of the goods pro- 
 duced, especially by means of Centralised Industry, was lower than 
 in the competing industries of Europe. 
 
 The opposite view is held by numerous practical Germans. 
 According to the opinion of many of these, the sudden and con- 
 siderable increase of wages which took place at the beginning of 
 the "seventies" has by no means resulted in economical progress. On 
 many sides was the view defended, in the press as well as 
 in the Reichstag, that these increased wages represented a 
 weakening of German industry compared with foreign, and ,i cur- 
 tailment of exports. Far from the increase of wages being accom- 
 panied by a corresponding raising of labour capacity, they had 
 rather in most cases caused a diminution in the work accomplished. 
 This view was taken, for instance, by the Prussian Minister of 
 Commerce, in a Rescript of 28th March, 1876, to the head Mining 
 Departments (39). The same view is expressed in the "Memoir of 
 the Association of German Iron and Steel Employers" which 
 appeared in 1875 (40), and in the Government inquiries concerning 
 the Iron Trade, as well as the Cotton and Linen Industries, in 
 1878 (41), herein with special confirmation by German ironmasters 
 and some spinners. As a means for raising the labour capacity it 
 is recommended, in the Rescript above quoted, to lower the rate 
 of piecework, by which the most effectual incentive for work 
 would be given — advice similar to that of A. Young and those 
 writers of the last century' mentioned along with him. If we 
 hie to the agricultural East of Germany, the teaching of the con- 
 trary relation between height of wages and labour capacity would 
 meet with few doubters. 
 
 We have, therefore, to record a variation between the older 
 theory and the yoimger, and also between practical men of 
 different countries. Is it possible that one of the two sides is alone 
 correct — the other simply wrong? Such an assumption is for- 
 bidden by the abundance of undoubted facts with which each of 
 the two views is justified by its adherents. Rather is the variance 
 only to be solved by accepting it as the result of development. 
 One must accept that the theoretical view, from Sir William Petty 
 
 39. Compare Brentano: "On the Relation of Wapes and Hours of 
 Labour to the Work Accooaplished " (Leipzig, 1876), pp. 6-7. 
 
 40. Berlin : Printing Office of the " Berliner Borsenzeitung," p. 21. 
 
 41. In the original the aathor, in his foot-note, gives the pages and ques- 
 tions here referred to. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 17 
 
 to A. Young, corresponds to an older, that of the newer national 
 economists to an advanced stage of development. Could we still 
 be doubtful about suoh a solution of the divergence, it is made a 
 certainty by the fact that one of the most decided adherents to 
 the newer theory himself denies its applicability for India (42). In 
 India, says Brassey, one has observed, contrary to experience in 
 England, that a higher wage lessened the capacity. 
 
 If, otherwise, the change in the teaching depends on a change of 
 circumstances, this latter must extend back to that economical 
 reversal encircling everything which distinguishes the economical 
 life of the present from that of the foregoing century. Wherein 
 did it consist? From a system of independent economical 
 units regulated by privilege and birth was evolved, with the im- 
 provement of competition, an international establishment riveted 
 into an independent whole by division of labour and by barter. Thi s 
 change caused, on the one hand, a. change in the method of pro- 
 duction. In place of hand-labour appeared modern Centralised 
 Industry (43), and further, a certain psychological reversal. There 
 arose new ways of thinking and, therewith, new men — new types 
 of employers, and of workers. 
 
 To the degree that this alteration develops itself the changed 
 theory corresponds. In purely customary circumstances, the old 
 teaching obtains everywhere ; to the extent that the conditions 
 glide away from the ordinary average character and are drawn 
 into the world's economy, the theory begins to waver. In the 
 same degree that the reversal has developed with the triumph of 
 Centralised Industry over the older forms of production, the new 
 teaching becomes acknowledged, first by the theorists, then by 
 practical men, of nations in which the economical reversal com- 
 pletely exists. In countries on the point of changing, many prac- 
 tical men cling to the old teaching. 
 
 This development should be followed closely in the most im- 
 portant branches of trade. It should be shown how this economi- ^ 
 cal development on the one hand means technical, then social pro- 
 gress, and how the elevation of the working class necessarily moves 
 hand in hand with it. Nothing should be more fitting to combat 
 that social pessimism which supposes that modem development of 
 
 42 *' Work and Wages," 2nd edition (London, 1872), p 88, 
 43. The factory system. — Translator. 
 
 1^ 
 
18 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 affairs leads to a breaking-u p of society , or to a dilemma which is 
 only to be loosened with powder and shpj. Among great indus- 
 tries there are two specially adapted for this proof — the Iron Trade 
 and the Cotton Industry. Both extend over the whole world, and 
 produce everywhere the same, or at least similar, articles. The 
 productions of both are measurable and comparable either by 
 length or weight. Both are, in addition, the leading trades of 
 the most important industrial countries in the world. 
 
 But the Cotton Industry has one advantage over the 
 Iron Trade. In it machinery has for a century obtained the upper 
 hand, and has more and more confined human exertions to the 
 minding of the machine. Tlie Iron Trade is different. The 
 Bessemer and Siemens processes have only recently put mechanical 
 power into a leading position, whilst with the puddlers of to-day 
 that older type of skilled and strong-sinewed hand-labour dies out. 
 But the English Cotton Industry, which presents the longest his- 
 tory of all modern Centralised Industry, is particularly suitable 
 for an examination of the economical and social tendencies of the 
 modern economical system. We seek in the history of the English 
 Cotton Trade those traits which can everywhere be deemed of 
 value as general characteristics of centralised industrial forms af 
 production. 
 
 Therefore, if I beg the reader to accompany me yet again to 
 England, this happens in the sense in which once Sir William Petty 
 and other contemporary Englishmen studied Holland, and thereby 
 helped to establish the greatness of their own native country. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 19 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Development of Centralisation in the English Cotton 
 Industry. 
 
 \ /. — TJie Origin of the Factory System. 
 
 India, the ancient seat of trade, is also the home of the cotton 
 industry. Alexander the Great found, even in his time, the natives 
 clothed in cotton garments. Indian woven goods have been from 
 ancient times imported into Europe as articles of luxury. The 
 Arabians brought many trades and arts, including the cotton 
 industry, to Europe. Wherever they pushed their way they 
 grew the cotton plant ; especially did its culture flourish on all the 
 coasts of the Mediterranean. Spain and Sicily spun and wove 
 cotton in the 11th and 12th centuries. 
 
 When, in later times, the economical point of importance in 
 Europe advanced north of the Alps, it was followed by the cotton 
 industry. Flemish and German towns became its seat. England, 
 at that time depending solely upon agriculture and its products, 
 was not the place for an industry of luxury, as the cotton trade 
 was at that time. It required, as essentials, trade, and consumers 
 who had become rich by trade. Venice was the cotton market of 
 the world — the Liverpool of those days; Antwerp the seat of 
 manufacturing — the Manchester of that period. 
 
 As was often similarly the case, foreign immigrants also laid 
 the foundation of the English cotton industry — refugees who 
 sought a home in England after the destruction of Antwerp by 
 Alba, in 1585. Many of them settled in Manchester and Bolton, 
 which towns were at that time the seat of woollen weaving. 
 Foreign weavers were particularly attracted to Manchester by 
 the permission to fell wood for building and burning, as they 
 wished, in the College woods situated in the vicinity of the city — 
 
20 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 a sign of very primitive economical conditions. From that time 
 the import of cotton into England is mentioned. But how little 
 important was the manipulation of cotton, even at the tmn of 
 the centur}% is shown by the fact that in the Elizabethan poor- 
 laws the various occupations, notably the spinning of flax, hemp, 
 and wool, are recommended as employments in workhouses, 
 whilst cotton is not mentioned by a single word. 
 
 It was the transference of the world's highways of commerce, 
 in connection with political events, which caused Germany and 
 Flanders to give way, economically, to Holland, and later on to 
 England. On this basis is the flourishing of the English cotton 
 industry to be understood. Already Lewis Roberts, in his 
 "Treasure of Traffic," published in 1641, mentions the cotton 
 industry of Manchester as a flourishing trade. Daniel De Foe 
 finds, on his " Tour through the whole Island of Great Britain," 
 in 1727, the town of Manchester in an astonishing state of 
 progress. In a few years its population had doubled. This has 
 to be ascribed, he says, before everything else, to the cotton in- 
 dustry, which has flourished so exceedingly during the last 40 
 years. 
 
 The art and manner of manufacturing was at that time, 
 according to Guest, as follows (1). The warp for the woven 
 goods consisted of linen yarn, mostly imported from Germany. 
 Cotton for this purpose could not yet be spun strong enough. 
 The weft was cotton yarn, which was spun by coimtry people in 
 the vicinity of Manchester. Tlie weaver was an independent 
 hand-worker. He bought yarns, and brought the woven goods 
 to the Manchester market for sale. In the degree that the 
 industry produced not only for local needs but also for more 
 distant markets, and the striving to cheapen the production costs 
 extended with competition, the independent weaving master 
 gave way to the wage worker who received the yarns for 
 weaving from the merchant. The merchant origin- 
 ally sold the woven goods himself, by carrying them on the backs 
 of packhorses through the country. Up to this point merchant 
 and weaver stood socially equal. But in proportion as the 
 merchant became the giver-out of the yams he began to get the 
 sales effected by commercial travellers and pattern books. This 
 change is put by Guest at 1740. 
 
 1 Guest: "History of Cotton Manufacture " (1820, p. 7> 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 2l 
 
 With the extension of the market this method of selling was 
 not sufficient. The merchant separated himself from the giver- 
 out of yarns, who moved from Manchester to the weaving 
 villages situated around Manchester, and this latter sold to the 
 merchant. Thus worker, manufactm-er, and merchant divided 
 themselves into three separate functions which ai*e still to-day 
 the main essentials of the industry. 
 
 But, in spite of trading activity, England's cotton industry 
 had to deal witli a superior competitor. As the European Con- 
 tinent and America are to-day with respect to England, so was 
 England at this time with respect to the Indian cotton in- 
 dustry — dependent on coarse yarns and woven goods. As to its 
 further development it is important to note that the English 
 cotton industry was already exposed to international competition 
 in a larger degree at a time when bad country roads on the Con- 
 tinent still scarcely made this competition felt. 
 
 India was in the last century, compared with Europe, still an 
 industrial country which chiefly interchanged trade products, 
 especially cotton and silk goods, for natural products, principally 
 metals. As early as 1 708 De Foe complained about the importa- 
 tion of Indian cotton goods into England. It had become the 
 general fashion for ladies to wear calicoes and muslin, following 
 the example set by the Queen. Not only clothing, but also 
 bedding and curtains, were made from foreign stuffs. De Foe's 
 complaint is more worthy of attention as it happened at a time 
 when the law prohibiting printed Indian calicoes already existed 
 (1700). Again and again similar complaints appeared, such as 
 that the " depravity of the nature of woman " by the passion for 
 foreign clothing ruined the home industry (2). That through- 
 out the whole century Indian competition existed very keenly is 
 proved by the following occurrence. In the year 1775 a "Pa- 
 triotic Society" was founded in Edinburgh with the object of 
 opposing the fashion for Indian cotton apparel. It was deter- 
 mined to boycott every man who associated with ladies wearing 
 cotton. It is also said that at this juncture the use of Indian 
 stuffs was general — of course only in well-to-do circles of 
 society (3). If, even, the complaints mentioned about the use of 
 
 2. Compare Baines' " History of the Cotton Manufacture "(London, 1885), 
 pp. 79, 82, 104. 
 
 3. Ure : " The Cotton Manufacture " (London, 1836), L p. 190. 
 
''\ 
 
 22 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 cotton goods were first raised in the interest of the English 
 woollen and linen industries — these were at the time still the 
 more important industries — it is clear, that the pressure of Indian 
 competition affected in the highest degree the English cotton 
 industry. 
 
 What a revolution took place in the foliowins: decades is shown 
 by a petition of Indian merchants in 1 83 1 . The petitioners complain 
 that in India home productions were supplanted by English, and 
 they demand, without promising themselves even by its aid 
 much relief, the withdrawal of import duties in England, so that 
 both countries might be at least treated on an equality (4). 
 
 In the interval the change to machinery and the modem factory 
 system took place. In 1760, says Baines, machinery in Eng- 
 land was as primitive as in India; after that time inventions 
 followed each other rapidly. In the last decade of the past 
 century the first muslin yarns — up to this time a monopoly of 
 India — were spun in England. In that period occurred the 
 tremendous revolution which first transformed the cotton industry 
 of England and placed it at the head of trading as well as social 
 development — that revolution which extended first to Lancashire, 
 then to the whole of England, then to the West of Europe, and 
 re-arranged the economical conditions of the world. Tliis change 
 raised up new classes, firstly the middle, which became the chief 
 in the State — in the place of the old agrarian influence — followed 
 by the upward-aspiring working class. To the extent that 
 a nation makes such a change its otS'n, and completes its produc- 
 tions by the^machine, in that degree does it stand to-day ahead 
 in economical power amongst the nations of the world. 
 
 From what cauaes did this change arise? Marx, who depicts 
 the development of machinerj^ in a very clear manner, has no 
 answer thereto. He believes that machinery' was invented because 
 natural science was far enough advanced to create such inventions. 
 How mistaken such a belief is Brentano has pointed out (5). 
 He has specially called attention to the fact that by no means 
 scientific searchers, but men of the most various callings, mostly 
 of industrial ])ursuits — Cartwright alone was a clea^unan — created 
 the inventions, by reason of the jiractical wants of the time. A 
 
 4. Compare Baines, p. 82. 
 
 o. Comnare Brentano: "On the Causes of the Present Social Distress " 
 (Leipzig, 1889), p. 7. 
 

 AND ON THE CONTINENT. I rikffV^f>p.^ 
 
 further proof in contradiction of Marx's theory is, that simil 
 machines had already been used here and there for centuries 
 •without in their time attaining any economical importance. The 
 application of steam power for lifting loads is centuries old. 
 Peter the Great had applied, after the manner of the Dutch, a steam 
 engine for the watering of his gai'dens. The combination of a 
 number of spindles ^vith bobbins in a creel or frame, and the 
 setting into operation of bobbins as well as spindles by mechanic- 
 al means, was an arrangement of Italian silk-spinning introduced 
 by Sir Thomas Lombe into Derby before there was any mention 
 of machinery in the cotton industry (6). Tlie so-called Saxon 
 spinning wheel — an old German invention — ^the forerunner of the 
 later throstle — had already made the greatest portion of the 
 spinning process mechanical ; for instance, the twisting of 
 the threiid and the winding-on of the same without the aid of 
 the human hand (7). The woman spinning had only to perform 
 the drawing-out of the thread by manual labour. This spinning- 
 wheel was used for a long time in Germany for spinning flax, but 
 a combination of this arrangement in some way with that of the 
 Italian, which appears to have been somewhat similar, was not 
 thought of. Johann Beckmann relates, in the first volume of 
 his "Contributions to the History of Inventions" — and, with the 
 exception of the date, Marx in " Kapital " makes exactly the same 
 statement — that as early as about 1579, powerloom weaving had 
 been invented in Dantzic. 
 
 Therefore it was not technical p^roimds which led to the 
 economical reversal towards the end of the last century. Much 
 more probably was it the accumulation of a number of economical 
 moments which led to the technical developments. Long- 
 created, or at least half-accomplished inventions, but, up to that j 
 date economically without influence, were first at this time applied 
 to form modern centralised industry. This is not the place to • 
 give in fuller detail this economical foundation of the trade revo- 
 lution, because this task requires a special examination. It is 
 sufficient to name the main ideas of the development. 
 
 I. As m.enti&ned above, society in the Middle Ages consisted 
 of a number of independent isolated groups which were only in 
 a slight manner connected to each other by interchanging. What- 
 
 6. Baines, p. 127. 
 
 7. Karmarsch: " Technologie " (Hannover, 1867), vol. II., p. 844. 
 
24 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 ever flowed to each group in the way of riches was controlled by 
 usage and privilege, especially by the position in which the repre- 
 sentative of the group was bom. The revolutionary element 
 in Middle-Age society was the merchant — a stranger in the land, 
 originally treated as an enemy. He represented, as opposed to 
 the landed proprietary of the Middle Ages, a new modem line of 
 thought. Whilst, then, the lots in life were settled by usage and 
 privilege, the stri^dng after the greatest possible profit tilled his 
 \ery soul — according to present ideas, the first " self-made man." 
 
 Conunerce brings riches. In order to favour it a new system 
 of law subservient to it must be created. Whilst justice for 
 the rest was inherited privilege, a law freed from personality was 
 created the commercial relations — a "jus gentium," as opposed 
 to " jus civile" — a common right as opposed to the special laws of 
 the Saxons, Franks, etc. The two events in the history of the 
 Roman as well as German law just mentioned depend upon the 
 development of the commercial element. Wherever this attains 
 the upper hand it leads to legal conditions which are just the 
 opposite to former ones ; in place of restriction of property, to free 
 property ; in place of limitation of the person, to personal freedom. 
 
 But for a long time the influence of the commercial element 
 was slight, and was confined to certain centres of communication, 
 markets and towns. Tlie difficulty of traffic, the badness of 
 roads, the uncertainty of law, duties, staple rights, etc., confined 
 commerce to a few valuable articles. With respect to the great 
 majority of economical commodities, competition was not felt for a 
 long time. Production and prices depended upon privilege and 
 custom. How the individual persons participating in the pro- 
 duction divided the products among themselves was regulated, in 
 like manner, by authority. Only when competition, and 
 therewith commercial ideas, seized industry, the old guilds 
 yielded to freedom of trade, and that change of production 
 occurred which led to the machine and centralised industry. 
 
 The development, for certain reasons, first occurred in England 
 during the last century, and, indeed, earliest in the cctton in- 
 dustry. A helper at the birth of the new period was here, as 
 in other places in Europe, the mercantile monarchy, "which re- 
 quired money in order to pay civil servants and soldiers, and 
 therefore favoured commerce. (Elizabeth, Cromwell, William III.) 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 25 
 
 During the last century England became the chief commercial 
 country of Europe. Even into the camp of landed proprietorship 
 the spirit of commerce entered, as is evidenced by the change 
 from customary rents to so-called rack-rents. To a still greater ^ 
 extent was industrial production seizedby the desire for the 
 greatest possible profit. But, on the other hand, with the thriv- 
 ing of commerce^industrv^ came undei* the pressure of competition^^^^-'' 
 The maritime position of England, the number of her harbours, 
 and the favourable conditions of the tides for shipping aided her 
 trafiic, whilst the bad communication on the Continent combined 
 to maintain the monopoly of trade for a long period (8). But, as 
 seen above, English cotton industry came first under' the influence 
 of competition. Therefore with competition arose the striving after 
 cheapening the costs of production, which led to production in 
 large masses, and to the application of labour-saving machinery. 
 "Communication was* the outer vehicle. Commerce the inner 
 soul, which gave the impetus to Centralised Industry " (9). 
 
 II. The first essentials of commerce — personal freedom and 
 security of property — were, during the last century, in England, 
 as a commercial country, more realised than in the still mostly 
 agrarian States of the European Continent (9a.). In the supposed 
 interest for the livelihood of the people State police-power has 
 in other countries (10) hindered the coming into use of machinery. 
 The hatred of the masses against inventions has also caused the 
 persecution of inventors everywhere. The first English manufac- 
 turers passed through this experience ; their mills were destroyed, 
 their lives threatened. Kay, the inventor of the fiy-shuttle (1733) 
 had to leave his native country, and later inventors were mostly 
 compelled to seek their fortunes in other lands. 
 
 8. According to Sir Winiam Petty (" Several Essays on Political Arithmetic," 
 (London, 1699, p. 173) carriage on land was at that time 15 to 20 times as dear 
 as ship freights. 
 
 9. Schmoller : Ueher die Entwicklung des Grossbetriehs und die sociale 
 Klassenbildung, " Preussische Jahrbiicher," vol.. LXIX., part 4. 
 
 9a. Adam Smith acknowledges, thus early, political freedom and security 
 of property as consequences of commerce, and even declares them to be the 
 most important issues (" Wealth of Nations," vol. III., chap. 4). Petty points 
 out, following the examples of the Dutch, that commercial and religious 
 freedom go hand in hand. 
 
 10. Roscher: System, III. , par. 125. Lotz: <' Archiv fiir sociale Gesetz- 
 gebung," Vol. IV. , p. 560. Thus the people of Dantzic caused the inventor of 
 the "Band-Mill" to be secretly drowned. Grassmann: " Entwicklung der 
 Augsburger Industrie" (Augsburg, 1894). At pages 13, 14 there is a passage 
 concerning a magisterial order against using machinery in the year 1826. 
 
^ 
 
 26 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 Thus, especially in Nottingham, and later in Lancashire, the 
 seat of the textile industry, were their mills destroyed and their 
 lives threatened. Thus it was with Hargreaves and Arkwright; 
 even the elder Peel was personally in danger of his life. It is 
 thus seen that the security ct the law was in England also, at that 
 time, only just so far advanced that inventions could be applied 
 under great difficulties and dangers. 
 
 (III.) The revolution in industry could only develop itself in a 
 branch which was free from legislative enactments of industry in 
 the sense of the older period. The cotton industry of the Con- 
 tinent possessed such an .enactment. One only needs to read 
 the description which Bein gives of the industry of the Voigt- 
 land in order to see that under such conditions inventions could 
 not come into existence. There everything was regulated. Spin- 
 ning took place under the control of the State, and yarns were 
 collected together by officials. The right to weave was vested 
 in membership of the Guild. The method of production was 
 strictly defined. Stat© offices for inspection exercised control. 
 Faults in woven goods were visited by punishment. In the same 
 manner the right to dispose of cotton goods was also vested in 
 members of tlie Commercial Guild. To be a trade employer 
 had almost the character of a public office. Besides other ^sen- 
 tials, a formal examination was necessary for it. The sale of 
 goods was also minutely regulated; for a long time fixing of 
 prices existed, and even a legislative fixed selling maximum for the 
 retailer. The retailer was ^obliged tcr buy the weaver's goods, 
 for which, in return, a monopoly of sale was guaranteed 
 to him. Under such conditions the application of machinery 
 was not to be thought of. Not only was the production itself 
 defined by the State, and &very deviation punishable, but, what 
 was still more important, the incentive to technical progress 
 was wanting, in that to everyone who possessed a lawfully con- 
 firmed position in the trade, to the weaver as well as to the 
 retailer, a sufficient existence was guaranteed by reason of fixed 
 arrangements, and ©very encouragement to technical improve- 
 / ment was lacking. ,' The introduction of the modern working 
 system would also ' have opposed the spirit of this legislative 
 arrangement, which had for its object an equal division of riches 
 and sought to prevent that advancement of the few which was 
 certainly inevitably connected with the modem factory system./ 
 It was competition with the productions of English machinery' 
 which first overthrew this arrangement on the Continent (11). 
 
 11. Compare Bein : " Die Industrie desVoigtlandes," II., pp. 40-45, 73-86 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 27 
 
 A similar institution controlled the English wQflHenJndustry. 
 There existed offices for the inspection of woollen_go€ds in Man- 
 chester, Rochdale,, Blackburn, and Bury (12). 
 
 Josiah Child gives (in his " New Discourse of Trade,"' London, 
 1693, p. 130) a view of the trade privileges which he had already, 
 opposed, and which regulated the woollen industry. According 
 to him, the sort and quaUty of the cloth was exactly specified by 
 law, so that ''loyal cloth" might be produced. Deviations were 
 settled by the inspecting offices. It was also defined up to 
 what length a certain piece of cloth might be stretched. Cloth 
 fulfilling the lawful conditions was mai'ked with the magisterial 
 seal, and every infringement of the existing regulations was 
 punished. In addition to this, the law fixed the number of the 
 workpeople and of the looms which one weaver might employ — 
 that is, a^ by the aforementioned German law, it fixed a limit 
 of production in the interests of property-equalisation. The 
 author mentioned demands, instead, that a faculty inspection 
 should displace the obligatory; everybody should be able to 
 make cloth to his own mind, but only the cloth produced and 
 examined according to regulations should receive the official seal 
 and so go abroad on the " public good faith of England." On 
 the other hand, Child is in favour of retjiining definite bureau- 
 cratically controlled length-measurement-s of all cloth which was 
 destined for export. Therefore, even an unquestionable reformer 
 asks to what extent the old arrangement should l)e limited, as in 
 fact this gradually occurred during the last century, especially by 
 means of the movement of the industry from the towns to the 
 country. 
 
 Whilst the woollen industry, therefore, only gradually loosened 
 the bonds of the older trade-privileges, the cotton industry was 
 a new trade, just brought into the country, whi(;h the State, in 
 protection of the older industry, handled with disfavour. Whilst 
 the one was helped forward by all the means possible— the laAv 
 is known according to which no dead should be laid in the grave 
 without a woollen shroud — the cotton industry was hampered 
 with import duties only repealed by Sir Robert Peel (after a 
 partial repeal, 1787, 1798) ; with prohibition of printed calicoes; 
 later, in place of these, loaded with heavy taxes on its' use (the 
 latter only repealed in 1831). In spite of which it was not the 
 woollen but the cotton industry whose wonderful unfolding was 
 to create the greatness of England. 
 
 12 Compare Ure : " The Cotton Manufacture," I. p. 187. 
 
28 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 It enjoyed an advantage over the woollen industry in being 
 able to develop itself in the field of the new time without hin- 
 drance. On the basis of property and freedom, the spirit of 
 commerce launched this, the first modern industry. It was not 
 by chance that the delicate fibre, its standard-bearer, was a child 
 of the distant tropics. Commerce had first brought the fibre 
 here, and Commerce had to be thanked for the freedom from 
 ancient enactments which still strangled her home-bred sisters, 
 the woollen and linen fibres (13a). 
 
 The revolution first attacked spinning so early, because up to 
 now the demand for yarns had by far outstripped the supply (13). 
 Powerloom wea\dng could not be thought of until spinning by 
 power delivered yarns in suitable quantities. The first factory, 
 in the modem sense, was the spinning mill of Arkwright, in Not^ 
 tingham, 1768. 
 
 The following moments are to be noted in the first decades 
 of the cotton industry — I. The prohibition of Indian woven goods. 
 In 1772 the first printed calicoes wholly of cotton were made in 
 England; in 1822 the first twist was exported to India, II. The 
 change of fashion to cotton among the wealthy as well as the 
 working classes. Fustian, a sort of cotton velvet, became for a 
 very long time the clothing of the English workman. III. The 
 flooding of the Continent with English yarns and woven goods. 
 In 1792 English yams appeared for the first time in large quan- 
 tities at the Leipsic fair. IV. The Napoleonic war, which hin- 
 dered the flourishing of a Continental industry, and, with the 
 tremendous extension of smuggling, scarcely harmed the English 
 cotton industry. V. The quick realisation of large fortunes in 
 the hands of the earliest manufactiu'ing families. Up to the 
 "twenties" there were, unless we except 1812 to 1814, no de- 
 pressed business years. 
 
 As early as 1801, with total exports of 18 millions, cotton 
 goods counted for 7 millions. Truly could Macculloch say that 
 the rapid growth of the cotton industry had given England the 
 
 13. Compare Baines, pp. 115, 116. 
 
 13a. Qn the other hand the German cotton industry, because older than 
 the English, was under Guild control, the Augsburg industry (compare Niibling 
 trim's Baumwollindustrie in Mittelalter, Leipzig, 1890) as well as that of the 
 Voigtland (compare Bein : " Die Industrie des VoigtlanHes," Leipzig, 1884). 
 Even in this century the existence of Guild trade limitation was a fetter pre- 
 venting the development of the Augsburg cotton industry. Compare Grass- 
 mann: " Augsburger Industrie in Jahrhundert," Augsburg, 1894, pp. 12, 13, 
 27, 29, 31, 107. Only in 1861 did the Weavers' Guild cease to exist 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 29 
 
 power and the means to withstand victoriously the long years 
 of war with France. 
 
 But this splendid economical development had another ad-\ 
 vantage, not less gratifying. It is known that England in the 
 first decades of this century possessed a social-revolutionaiy La- 
 bour party which exceeded in strength and harmfulness all later 
 similar movements on the Continent (14). This tendency, which 
 sought a forcible seizure of governing power by the workers, had 
 its chief adherents among the workers of the flourishing great 
 industry. Even Ure, depicting everything as favourably as 
 possible, has to acknowledge that nowhere in the world did such 
 bad relations exist between employers and employed (15) as in 
 the Englisli centralised industries. This is interesting, indeed, 
 if we compare therewith the present relations of Europe. 
 
 In Manchester, in 1819, the massacre took place on "Peterloo'* 
 fi.eld, caused by a charge of the yeomanry on a crowd of working 
 people which did not disperse on the reading of the Riot Act. 
 An attempt on the life of the Premier followed, and the answer 
 thereto was a coercion law, the so-called " Castlereagh's Gag 
 Bill," with extensive limitations of the right of public meeting 
 and the freedom of the Press. It was in Hyde, a stronghold of 
 spinning, and the seat of one of the oldest manufacturing families 
 — the Ashtons — where, in 1838, at a nightly gathering, the 
 workers, when asked by their leaders whether they were ready, 
 answered by volleys from rifles. At this time there existed in 
 Glasgow a system of terrorism advanced even up to assassination. 
 Houldsworth and other employers refused repeatedly to give any 
 evidence respecting workers' combinations, and the like, before 
 the Committees of Inquiry, l>ecause they would have feared for 
 their safety (16). "^ 
 
 Without going more closely into the movement, we must get 
 to know its economical foundation. 
 
 About the turn of the century, according to the declaration of 
 the manufacturer Houldsworth, potatoes, and with them oatmeal, 
 were the chief nourishment of the workers; as an occasional 
 luxury a herring served. Indulgence in meat was almost un- 
 known. It grew in proportion as the machines, becoming larger, 
 
 14. Compare my book, " On Social Peace," I., p. 55, also Brentano, in the 
 '' Prussian Annuals " (1874). 
 
 15. Ure: " Cotton Manufacture," Intro. , pp. 24, 25. 
 
 16. Ure: " Philosophy of Manufactures," pp. 348-65. 
 
30 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 necessitated the meatreating spinner, who was introduced from 
 England into Scotland. On the other hand, the large majority 
 of the workpeople were confined to the minimum standard of 
 life. A weaver did not get more than 5 to 1 2 shillings per week, 
 and the average wages of all, spinners included, was not higher 
 than 10 shillings. Against this, having regard to prices in 1839, 
 and to the indispensable minimum of clothing and nourishment, 
 a weekly sum of 34s. OJd. was necessary for a family of man, 
 wife, and three children. If we assume that man and wife were 
 employed at average wages in the cotton industry, they would 
 together have earned 20s. There would therefore be a deficiency 
 of 148. to be covered by under-nourishment, debt, or both. "No 
 wonder that we at that time heard about Chartism," remarks 
 the best authority on the English cotton industry hereto (17). 
 
 That, indeed, both these means of aid were requisitioned is 
 proved by the numerous instances contained in Blue-By)ks . n^ 
 During the last 25 years, related in 1834 a witness froin lijiiiEk- 
 ■port — a town which was inhabited solely by cotton workers — 
 the number of pawnbrokers had increased fourfold ; the turnover 
 of each threefold. A quarter of the population of the town 
 regularly pawned their household goods, and almost all clothing, 
 on the Monday, to fetch both back, as far as possible, on the 
 Saturday, after receiving their wages. The same witness affirmed 
 that the working classes bought nearly everj^thing on credit, and, 
 on account of the uncertainty of their paying, had to pay 50 per 
 cent, more than buyers for ready cash (18). 
 
 It is not necessary here to give further details. On the other 
 hand, it is to be pointed out that at that time the extensive 
 mass of cottage workers stood behind the factory operatives as 
 well ; that also in England the question of the distress of the 
 cottage weavers appeared to mock all efforts at solution. These ^ . 
 conditions were the^^cause of numerous and unwieldy inquiries. 
 They are full of telling analogies to the conditions of German 
 cottage industry as they are depicted in numerous individual 
 researches, and critically put together lately by Sombart in 
 Braun's Archiv (19). That high- water mark in the development 
 
 17. Samuel Andrew: "Fifty Years' Cotton Trade" — paper read at the 
 meetinpj of the British Association" (1887^, p. 4. David Chadwick: «' The 
 Expenditure of Wages, 1839 and 1887" — paper read at the same meeting, 
 gives the reckoning mentioned in detail. 
 
 18. Committee on Manufactures (1833), 10,547-86. 
 
 19. Braun : " Archiv fUr sociale (Jesetzgebang " (1891), part I, 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 31 
 
 of cottage industry from handicraft, where the worker is still the 
 owner of the means of production was long ago passed. In the 
 years of the "thirties" the weavers were still mostly only hirers 
 of the looms, or heavily in debt for them, and therefore at the 
 beck and call and mercy of suffering employers (20). 
 
 The reason of the cottage weavers' decline was not, in the first 
 instance, the power-loom. As early as 1808 there was an exam- 
 ination into the distress of the hand-weavers, and still there were in 
 1813 only 2,400 power-looms in Lancashire, as compared with 
 200,000 hand-looms (21). Much rather was it the marchiug of 
 the cotton industry into the world's market that disturbed rela- 
 tions depending upon monopoly or usage. Guest is certainly 
 correct in his " History of the Cotton Manufacture " (at the con- 
 clusion), when he ascribes the decline of the English cotton 
 weaver to the tremendous yarn exports to the Continent, in con- 
 junction with the cheaper prices of food thei-e. The Continental 
 cottage weaver thus in this way forced the English worker even 
 below the Continental standard of living. 
 
 On average goods weavers in Bolton earned weekly (22) : — 
 
 1797-1804 
 
 1804-U 
 
 1811-18 
 
 1818-25 
 
 1825-32 
 
 The stuff m question was at that time not yet produced by 
 
 the power-loom. It permitted, therefore, the chance of far more 
 
 favourable remuneration than the production, for example, of 
 
 printing calico. There were even wages as low as 2s. to 3s. 
 
 weekly (23). 
 
 According to^ Blue-pooks. potatoes and oatmeal were almost 
 the sole nourishn!^^^^^e cottage weavers." A housekeeping 
 
 20. Committee on Handloom Weavers in 1835 (3,375). Often did the 
 employers say to the weavers seeking work : "We have no work ; if we give 
 any, it is for God's sake. We would rather let it be undone ; but if you take 
 it, it must be at a shilling less." But the hungering weaver thinks: "One 
 potato is better than none," etc. 
 
 21. Compare Committee on Petitions from Several Cotton Manufacturers 
 
 (1808). 
 
 22. Compare Committee on Handloom Weavers of 1834 (432). 
 
 23. Committee on Manufactures (10.065, 11.750). Committee on Hand- 
 loom Weavers of 1835 (1,130-59) refers to linen weavers. 
 
 
 
 Lb. 
 
 Lb. 
 
 
 
 Wheat- Hour. 
 
 Oatmeal. 
 
 26 
 
 8 
 
 = 100 or 
 
 142 
 
 20 
 
 
 
 = 79 
 
 115 
 
 14 
 
 7 
 
 = 60 
 
 79 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 = 48 
 
 64 
 
 G 
 
 4 
 
 = 38 ,, 
 
 48 
 
32 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 budget (24) of a man in a proportionally better position, because 
 he possessed his own hand-loom, given in a Blue-Book, shows, 
 for a family of 4 persons, only half a pound of meat weekly (on 
 Sundays); for the other days weaker nourishment. One is re- 
 minded of the conditions, noted by Rechenberg and Schlieben, of 
 the hand-weavers in the Lord High Constable's district of 
 Zittau (25). Indeed Rechenberg's result may have acted in like 
 manner for the weaving population of the North of England — 
 that in many instances nothing at all would be left for the 
 parents if the children had received as much to eat as was neces- 
 sary for the formation of a healthy race. A wavering step, a 
 hollow-cheeked countenance, are given by observers at that time 
 as typical of the English workers in general (26). The average 
 hours of labour were 14 to 16. The children began to weave 
 when 9 years old, and that after they had already been 
 winders (27). 
 
 That under such circumstances the workers at that time 
 wore not consumers of the industry, follows as a matter of course. 
 What the Blue-Books contivin in this respect reminds us vividly 
 of the accounts detailed by Herkner concerning German workers' 
 budgets (28). 
 
 Thus says that weaver whose relatively favourable budget we 
 touched upon above : " As regards clothing, I do as I can. Some- 
 times I have some, sometimes very little. I borrowed coat and 
 waistcoat in order to appear before the Commission. I never 
 bought furniture in my life. My wife is even as badly situated 
 for clothing as I. Cooking-utensils I have never bought since 
 
 I was born Cotton sacking filled with straw served 
 
 as beds, and old tea-chests as chairs." (29). 
 
 24. Committee on Handloom Weavers of 1834 (7,256). " The weavers 
 subsist on the coarsest food : oatmeal, water porridge, onion porridge, potatoes. 
 The parents may drink weak tea, and very little sugar in it, and eat dry bread. 
 But even of the coarsest food they have no sufficiencv. " Compare further, 
 loc. cit., 1834 (7,643-57); further, the evidence of 'Richard Oastler, 1834 
 
 (3,736-54); similarly, Conmiittee on Manufactures (11,747). 
 
 25. Compare "Zeitschrift des kgl. Sachs. Stat Bureaus," Jahrg. 31, and 
 Rechenberg : " Die Ernahriing der Handweber in der Amtshauptmannschaft 
 Zittau" (Leipzig, 1890). 
 
 26. Compare Hermann Schulze: " Nationalokonomische Bilder aus Eng- 
 lands Volksleben " (Jena. 1853), towards the end. 
 
 27. Committee on Manufactures (11,764); Committee on Handloom 
 Weavers, 1834, the above-mentioned evidence of Oastler ; compare similarly, 
 Rechenberg, p. 37. 
 
 28. Herkner : ' ' Die sociale Reform als Gebot des wirtschaf tlichen Fortschritts ** 
 (Leipzig, 1890), p. 55. 
 
 29. Compare Conunittee on Manufactures (11,801, 11,863); Conunittee on 
 Handloom Weavers of 1834 (4,972-80> 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT, 33 
 
 It is extraordinary how long the cottage weavers, in spite of 
 their distress, enjoyed the favour of many patrons. Thus, Sir 
 Robert Peei has depicted them as loyal subjects, as opposed to 
 the factory operatives. In fact, as the economical foundations 
 of their existence were only tardily withdrawn from hereditary 
 rule, so also the ideas accompanying them. But, under 
 the pressure of high wheat prices and lowering wages, the 
 inevitable revolution or change occurred hei'e also, after the war. 
 Instead of feelings of dependency towards the authorities above 
 them, appeared doubt and hatred — hatred against the State as 
 well as the Church. Blue-Books accuse the cottagg weavers of 
 disloyalty and atheism. Alreiidy, at the riots on the field of 
 " Peterloo," in 1819, was tliis class numerously represented. 
 They fell at that time into the hands of the Chartist leaders, and 
 '• would have greeted every ui)heaval, because it could only bring 
 them an improvement." (30). 
 
 Similar conditions had just produce<l in the factory workers 
 mental tendencies similar to those of the cottage toilers. But, where- 
 as economical development led the former onward, it left nothing 
 but a decline for the cottage toiler. Tlie means were fruitless 
 with which it was thought possible to help them, as, for instance, 
 bureaucratic fixing of wages, etc. Especially was there demanded 
 a return to the old trade system whereby, it was jiointed out, 
 new life was createil for the silk industry by the Spitalfields 
 regulations (31). 
 
 Indeed, even up to the demand for taxing of machinery, 
 methods were resorted to (32) similar to those of the Frankfort 
 handicrafts, which, in 1848. by forbiddine; the factory system, 
 thought it possible to keep the world in the old grooves. But no 
 regulation ^ould cause the retreat of the economical development 
 which had strangle the cottage weavers of Lancashire in the 
 world's economy. ( Wages and profits now put international com- 
 petition in the place of officials/ The English silk industry could 
 withdraw itself from it, though unprofitably; but not so cotton 
 weaving, which, more than any other industry, was interested in 
 
 30. Committee on Handloom Weavers of 1834 (5,351-6, 7,230-42, 3,821). 
 
 31. Loc. cif., 1834 (7,577-97,8,015-72, 5,389-5,403, 5,633-4). How wrong 
 the idea is to lay the blame for the depression of handicrafts and cottage 
 industry on freedom of trade is shown by the case of Prussia, where freedom of 
 trade was introduced as early as 1810, whereas, on the other hand, the attacks 
 mentioned upon it were only made in the middle of the century. 
 
 32.'Baines, p. 501. 
 
 D 
 
^ 
 
 34 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 export Tlierefore England stood, in the first decades of the 
 century, in a social crisis of the most intricate nature, the blame 
 for which was generally laid to the factory system. This is the 
 reason for the attacks from all sides on its standai'd-bearers, the 
 " bleeding mill lords." The workers were at one in the opinion 
 that it was " King Steam " who had seduced them from the " old 
 merry England." Tliey had sworn revenge upon him, They 
 considered him the great power of the upheaval which had de- 
 stroyed all that had been ; but under his iron rule the people 
 were driven more and more to despair : they would at last destroy 
 him, as well as all Governments in the world (33). Not much 
 different was the opinion in the aristocratic seats of the South, 
 which were still "undetiled by the breath of indust^s^" The 
 factory system was as opposed to Christianity as darkness to 
 light ; all social as well, as economical evils were laid down to its 
 account (34), especially that "even the Corn Laws were inveighed 
 against." 
 
 What was the reply of Manchester manufactiu'ers to such 
 attacks from right and left? That the industrial system was not 
 to blame for the distress in the country, but merely the circum- 
 stance that it was only half introduced. On the foundation of 
 free property and contract, on competition and barter, it had 
 developed it^f : developed, further, on these foundations, the 
 economical and technical peculiarities of centralised industry, 
 and freed it from the pressure of an agrarian, interested order of 
 things. Without examining here the correctness of this point of 
 view, we next ask : How did both occur 1 
 
 77. The Cotton Jndustrt/ under the Influence of Intemntional Competifion. 
 
 'ITie unprecedented advances of the industry came to a stand- 
 still in the "thirties" — at least according to the idea of the 
 employers, whose profits during that period went down consider- 
 ably. The long-lasting business crises of the "thirties" and of 
 the beginning of the "forties" show, alongside of a series of 
 bad harvests, peculiar economical conditions. By very detailed 
 
 33. Committee on Handloom Weavers of 1834 (5,588-9). 
 
 34. Committee on Handloom Weavers of 1834 (6,891 \ 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 35 
 
 Blue-Books, as well as by tke works of Baines and Ure (1), w© 
 are in a position to obtain a clear picture of the position of the 
 industry at that time — a much more detailed one than of the 
 first ten yeai's of its development. This is easy enough to ex- 
 plain; as long as everything moves smoothly mankind does 
 not ask why and wherefore. But, since, according to the 
 proverb of Socrates, death is the " musea<(et " of philosophy, so 
 crises in the economical field cause the multitude to stand still 
 and inquire into the conditions of their existence. Hence arose, in 
 the decade under notice, a series of minute inquiries — "relief 
 inquiries." Since they were midertaken according to the 
 
 methods usual at that period in England — publicly, by means of 
 witnesses from all interested parties, and with cross-examination — 
 they form to this day, independently of their short-lived object, the 
 most valuable, and still far from exhausted, mine of economical 
 knowledge yet discovered (2). 
 
 Let us glance first at spinning, in which the modern method of 
 production has the longest history behind it. Unsuspected 
 figures show a remarkable falling-olf of its profit (3). 
 
 Price of 1 lb. of yarn,) 
 
 No. 40's twist . . J 
 Price of the necessary) 
 
 cotton for this ( 1 8 oz. ) J 
 
 ^tnd'profits """P""'''} 8 11 4 2 10 7f 4 
 
 How is this result to be explained? The English cotton 
 industry was released earlier than other trades from the rule 
 of privilege and monopoly. Asaresultthe striving after cheapening 
 of tlie costs of production had called machinery into existence. 
 But the lucky possessors of machines, which in England robbed 
 the cottage spinners of their curtailed and more or less protected 
 markets, were themselves, as against the rest of the world, in a 
 position of monopoly. One sign of this was the accumulation of 
 
 1. Baines: " History of the Cotton Manufacture" (London, 1835); Ure: 
 " Philosophy of Manufactures " (London, 1835) : Ure : <' The Cotton Manu- 
 facture," 2 vols. (London, 1836). Further: The historical portion of Ellison, 
 " Cotton Trade of Great Britain " (London, 1886), and J. C. Fielden, " Sketch 
 of the British Cotton Industry" (" Co-operative Wholesale AnnuaJ." 1887). 
 
 2. On these "Enquets" Friedrich Engels bases his "Position of the 
 Working Classes in England " (Leipzig, 1848). Also Karl Marx: " Kapital." 
 
 3. Compare Ellison: " Cotton Trade " (London, 1886), p. 61, in connection 
 with Committee on Manufactures (9,089). 
 
 3 ^ 
 
 1784. 
 8. d. 
 
 ;i797. 
 8. d. 
 
 1812. 
 8. d. 
 
 1822. 
 8. d. 
 
 1832. 
 8. d. 
 
 10 11 
 
 7 6 
 
 2 6 
 
 1 4| 
 
 11:^ 
 
 2 
 
 3 4 
 
 1 6 
 
 9 
 
 7^ 
 
86 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 fortunes by Arkwright, Peel, and others in an astonishingly 
 short time ; a proof of this is the quick and unopposable conquest 
 of, say, the Leipsic or Frankfort fairs (4). England's position 
 of monopoly lengthened the war in Europe, which occasionally 
 involved the United States. The countries mentioned were 
 at that time the markets for English cotton goods. Ipontem- 
 porary authorities were clear about these conditions. Thus Ure " 
 speaks of a "silent monopoly" which England has possessed 
 during the war (5). 
 
 All this changed with the conclusion of the war. Local 
 spinning mills sprang into existence everywhere, partly under 
 the protection of duties, as in France, but also ^vithout such, as • 
 in Switzerland. Switzerland became pre-eminently a strong com- 
 petitor of Manchester, full of energy, not only in its own, but 
 also in other Continent^il and Mediterranean maxkets (6), for 
 which water-power and a relatively damp climate made it suit>- 
 able. Switzerland also appears to be the first to have arrived 
 at the possession of fairly skilled factory laboiu*. Tlius Ure 
 remarks that in Switzerland the population preferred, in many 
 cases, factory labour to cottage industry, no easy, but so much 
 the more an important alteration in the people's usages. 
 
 Alsace also enjoyed advantages similar to those of Switzer- 
 land. Here there were already in the " thirties," even if isolated, 
 spinning mills which in number of spindles were equal to 
 the English ; for examr le, Nageli's, in Mulhouse, with 80,000 
 spindles, and that of Schlumberger and Bourcart, at Guebweiler, 
 with. 54,000 spindles. Notably was Alsace superior to England 
 in chemical knowledge, and in design for printed muslins. It 
 may certainly serve as a sign of industrial strength that the 
 Societe Industrielle petitioned foi* the introduction of a Factory 
 Act, and that the president of the Chamber of Commerce, Jean 
 Dollfus, supported a reduction of the tariffs. In his evidence 
 before the Commercial Inquiry of 1834, and in his answer to 
 certain attacks on this evidence, in 1835, he declares, strengthened ^ 
 
 4. Compare Bein : " Die Industrie des Voigtlandes," pp. 121-33. One i» 
 
 „ . Leipzig, to give np 
 
 home spinnings and weave English yarns. But as earlv as 1797 an English 
 
 compelled at once, by the appearance of English yarns in Leipzig, to give uj 
 
 merchant put cotton goods also on the market at a reduction of 25 per cent 
 
 o. Ure : " Cotton Manufacture," II. , 398. 
 
 6. Ure: "Cotton Manufacture," I., Intro., pp. 31-33; Committee on 
 Manufactures (670). / 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 37 
 
 by accurate reckonings of the costs of production, that coarse 
 numbers could be spun in Alsace not only not dearer, but rather 
 cheaper than in England. " It is cleai* that France, when every- 
 thing is considered, possesses an advantage over England, which 
 must increase in proportion as the duties on raw materials and 
 machinery are reduced" (7). 
 
 A,merica possessed another advantage — the cheapness of the 
 raw material. This made it possible for that country to compete 
 successfully with England in cotton goods, even in certain foreign 
 markets, for instance, China, Chili, and Brazil. Thus, in 1834:, 
 the imports of ^Vmerican calicoes into China amounted to 134,000 
 pieces, the English to only 75,000 (8) — a state of affairs wliich 
 since then has altered very largely in favour of England. 
 
 " The continents of Europe and America," says Ure in 1836, 
 "possessed up to some time ago, after the peace of 1814, only fac- 
 tories in such a small degree that they could by no means be viewed 
 as competitors in the world's markets. To-day, however, they 
 manipulate 750,000 bales of cotton, which is about three-fourths 
 of our consumption, and they have become dangerous competitors 
 in many markets which up to now belonged entirely to us." 
 
 The economical worth of the facts quoted is nothing less than 
 that the district of the earliest centralised industry had been 
 attacked by international competition. This applies also with 
 regard to countries of high protective duties, even to France, 
 which maintained the importation prohibition against English 
 cotton goods even after the Continental blockade. The economic- 
 al importance of smuggling, which flourished at that time, must 
 not be overlooked. It is certainly known that tremendous quan- 
 " titles of English yarns went to the Continent during and after 
 the Continental blockade. Whole industries have to attribute 
 their present situation to smuggling. Thus Ure declares — and 
 he should know — that the spinning mills of Reichenberg, 
 on the frontier of Saxony, were nothing else. than establishments 
 for reeling English yams, and that the spinning mills of Lombardy 
 
 7. Compare the description of the Alsatian industry by the expert, Ure 
 C" Cotton Manufacture," Intro. , pp. 57-93). Compare alsoEngel : " Baumwoll- 
 industrie im Konigreich Sachsen " (1851), p. 26. Further, Herkner: "Die 
 ober-elsassische Baumwollindustrie " (Strassburg, 1887), pp. 71-115. 
 
 8. Ure, pp. 52-54. Committee on Manufactures (3,845). Compare, on 
 the other hand, " Commercial Relations of the United States," No. 12 (Oct., 
 1881), p. 204. 
 
 / 
 
38 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 also had no other object than to mask the import of English yarns. 
 The value of yarns smuggled yearly into France alone is given as 
 15 to 20 million francs (9). Of the importance of smuggling we 
 find in Bein's " Industry of the Voigtland " a quantity of proofs 
 (compare pp. 88 to 91). The commerce of the Voigtland suffered 
 for instance, by long-continued rainy weather, because thereby 
 the routes for smuggling into Russia were meuie impassable. 
 
 International competition compelled England to cheapen 
 the costs of production. This effort, as it had produced Centralised 
 Industry, now drove this forward to further improvement. It was 
 compelled to bear the consequences of its own existence. Even 
 at that time also the egg-shells of decentralised industrial con- 
 ditions clung to the oldest Centralised Industry — spinning. The 
 brushing away ot these egg-shells is the history of English cotton- 
 spinning, which develops the peculiarities of Centralised Industry 
 In proportion as it has to contend for the premier position in the 
 world's markets. Looked at from this standpoint, the tremend- 
 ous mass of entangled Blue-Book reports are quite clear. The 
 complaints of textile employers and the troubles of the workers are 
 understood — the conditions of changing from half to fully cen- 
 tralised industry. But clear also become therewith the social- 
 revolutionary movements in the "thirties" and "forties." If, 
 indeed, economical conditions are really the foundation of the 
 social, the same conclusion harmonises for the latter : These 
 social movements are the infantile sicknesses of Centralised 
 Industry. 
 
 We now ask what was the result of international competition — 
 how did the striving after the cheapening of the costs of produc- 
 tion first influence spinning? It caused at once a concentration 
 of the industry in the neighbourhood of Manchester. That this 
 development occurred under the pressure of the world's market is 
 proved by the fact that formerly spinning was much less con- 
 centrated than to-day. Spinning by means of rollers, ihe most 
 important step to modem machinery, i.e., the arrangement for 
 the mechanical drawing of rovings, which before this was 'ichieved 
 by hand, was transferred by the metal preparation. Thus 
 the first yam was spun " without hands " in the middle of the last 
 century in Birmingham. The first large" factories were situated 
 near Nottingham, and the merchants of Manchester sought to 
 
 9. Ure: " Cotton Manufactures," Intro., pp. 34, 36, 63. Report of the Silk 
 Committee of 1832, p. 586. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 39 
 
 boycott them. Scotland, for a long time the home of Robert Owen, 
 was originally, one of the chief seats of spinning. The cotton in- 
 dustry was also pretty fairly extensive in Ireland at that time, 
 although it has to-day disappeared (10). 
 
 The demand for cheap production forced forward concentration. 
 The advantages of this are, apparently, the avoidance of expen- 
 sive repairing shops and reserve stocks of machinery pieces, which 
 isolated mills cannot dispense with (11). Everywhere the com- 
 plementary machine works settled in the central points of the 
 cotton industry, in })roximity to the spinning-mills. Lancashire 
 became, therefore, at the same time a chief centre of machine- 
 making. Local concentration first made possible, as well, a class 
 of workers highly and intelligently trained for the work. 
 
 But certain natural advantages made the southern portion of 
 Lancashire the earliest centre for Centralised Industry. Marching 
 from here, this industry conquered England — even the world. In 
 the North and East the district in question, smaller than Saxon 
 Voigtland, is bounded by hills, which, towards Todinorden and 
 Rochdale, attain considerable elevations, and are there divided by 
 deep valleys. 
 
 -Keeping back the dry East winds, they subject the West to 
 downpours of rain. The land is little suited for agi'iculture ; 
 therefore the population turned fairly early to cottage industry, 
 especially woollen weaving. On all sides brooks and rivers hurry 
 from these hills to the near sea. These streams provided the first 
 driving power for the machinery springing up. But under the 
 meadows, and easily accessible to men, lies that mineral whose 
 presence allows the replacement of water-power by steam-power — 
 coal. One of these water-courses — the Mersey — forms at its 
 mouth, through the influence of the Atlantic tide, one of the 
 best harbours in the world. As soon as the county possessed 
 something for barter, a central point of the world's commerce 
 could not help but spring up here, viz., Liverpool. But the 
 county has to thank the proximity of the sea for something still 
 more important — the damp sea-breezes which envelop the hills 
 and produce rains. The degree of moisture of the air is, in 
 fact, on those heights, only ten per cent, below complete satura- 
 
 10. Ure : " Cotton Manufacture," L, 287. Further, Baines, p. 219. 
 
 11. In these days also to dispense with special g^as plant, etc. Compare 
 Jannasch : '• Dieeuroptlische BaumwoUindustrie " (Berlin, 1882), p. 25. 
 
40 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 tion (1 2). This dampness was, later, to make it possible to spin 
 cotton to such a fineness here as is impossible elsewhere, or only 
 to be attained by large extra expense. How much this advant- 
 age of climate comes into consideration is shown by the fact 
 that spinning-mills more and more seek the declivities of those 
 hills where the rains are the heaviest; thus, especially, Oldham 
 instead of Manchester. 
 
 This local concentration of the trade is one of the striking 
 features of Centralised Industry. It strives after a condition 
 in which every county, every country, })roduces that for which 
 its natural essentials are most favourable, for an international 
 division of labour. But since the industry, then, more or less 
 dispersed, settles all over the whole counti*y, this wandering by 
 the few unsuitably situated must be viewed in many cases as 
 trade decline. Thus, for instance, is to be attributed the 
 particularly strong complaints, found in the Blue-Books, of the 
 Scotch spinners. 
 
 In conjunction with the concentration just described, a similar 
 one occurs within single mills. Leaving out of consideration a few 
 tremendous exceptions, spinning mills had formerly a small 
 number of spindles — often not above 1,000. They settled just 
 where the necessary water-power existed. Tlie owners spun 
 mostly on commission for the mei'chant, who delivered the 
 cotton (13), and took the yarn, exactly as to-day small commis- 
 sion s})inning-mills situated on the water-courses are still to be 
 seen in the highlands of Saxony (14). The |)ressure of the world's 
 market made such people at that time impossible in England. As 
 opposed to them, larger mills sprang up (15) With the modern 
 method of arranging a mill a double amount of capital makes 
 it possible to produce more than double the quantity. Tlie costs 
 of establishment, for instance, of a double number of spindles 
 are not double ; and the cost of buildings, land, machinery, etc., is 
 
 12. Compare Edward Atkinson: '« Science Monthly" (New York, Jan., 
 1890). Americans reckon the advantage which Lancashire possesses on account 
 of its climate at 7 per cent, of the cost of production on all fine counts. Compare 
 *« Commercial Eelations of the United States " (23rd Sept, 1882), pp. 27-37, 
 where are exact meteorological figures. 
 
 13. "Committee on Manufactures " (9,126). 
 
 14. Compare, concerning such small spinning-mills, " Government Enquets 
 on Cotton and Linen Industry " (" Shorthaud Protocols,*' pp. 142-3). They 
 have probably disappeared since then. 
 
 15. The reasons why the smaller spiuuing-mills everywhere succumbed to 
 the larger have been already followed by E. Engel in his work, '* Die 
 BaumwoUindustrie des Kouigreichs Sachsen " (1851). 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 41 
 
 less (16). The same thing applies to a portion of the costs of 
 running ; for instance, steam power, lighting, tending, etc. 
 Entirely dependent upon steam power (16a), these great spinning- 
 mills sought unrestrained the most favourable situation, especially 
 the neighbourhood of similar mills. Thus arose those factory 
 towns with workers solely trained for cotton manipulation. 
 
 Side by side with the concentration of the industry, the striving 
 after cheapening the costs of })roduction led to technical advance- 
 ments in a more contracted sphere. These lay in various direc- 
 tions. Experience taught the spinner to use raw materials to a 
 greater extent than before; to spin equally good yarns from 
 poorer cotton by improved pi"eparation machinery ; to lessen the 
 loss during spinning, and to utilise the waste itself for lower 
 qualities of yarn. In spite of this, the percentage of loss, com- 
 pared with to-day, was still high in eveiy instance. 
 
 But the most important developments lay in the replacement 
 of labour by capital and in the increase of labour capacity. Both 
 developments require one another so much that with regard to 
 greater production it cannot be said how much is due to the one 
 or* the other factor. Machines were originally small, and 
 found occupation for a great many badly-paid and under- 
 nourished workpeople, but who, on account of their great number, 
 were expensive. But since the employers had to begin to defend the 
 possession of the markets of the world, this pressure forced a con- 
 tinual lengthening of machines. The number of spindles in 
 single frames was increased, the speed of the spindles raised, the 
 traverse of the mule lengthened. Here children were not suffi- | 
 cient; grown-ui> workers were needed, who by means of an in- ^ 
 creased standard of living had to be made capable of attending to 
 the increased demands of machinery. 
 
 In spite thereof, both developments allow themselves to be 
 clearly separated into the development of technical matters and the 
 consequential alteration of labour, Tlie necessity for cheapening 
 the costs of production demanded an increase in the quantity 
 produced. This was to be attained, in the case of spinning ma- 
 
 16. Compare Committee on Manufactures (9,166). Also Jannasch : *' Die 
 europ. Baumwollindustrie " (Berlin, 1882), p. 21, according to which an engine 
 of 100 h.p. costs only one quarter as much per horse-power as an engine of 
 10 h. p. 
 
 16a. Especially did the going over to the self-actor demand steam power 
 Exclusive of preparation, according to Martin, a hand-mule spindle requires 
 0-004 and a self -actor spindle 00065 h.p. On the other hand, self-actors 
 require more preparation machinery. 
 
 -X 
 
42 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 cliinery, in two ways. One was a larger production of the single 
 spindle attained by a greater speed. At the same time the loss 
 of time by ends breaking, etc., was lessened by improvements in 
 the spinning-machine itself, and by improved carding and pre- 
 paration, in spite of the greater speed. 
 
 According to Ure and Kennedy, the capability of the spindle 
 was tremendously raised in the very years with which we are at 
 present concerned — with 40's yam from 2 hanks daily in 1820 to 
 2| up to 3 hanks in 1830 (17). As early as 1831: the daily pro- 
 duction of the spindle was 3f to 4J hanks, of course with the 
 most improved, but at that time still little-known machinery (18). 
 Tliis latter increase was in consequence of the introduction of the 
 Self-actor, invented by Koberts in 1830. Since the 
 return traverse of the mule-carriage was achieved 
 mechanically, the winding-on of the yarn spun took 
 \Asuce concurrently, witli less danger of breakages and in a shorter 
 time. Besides tliis, mechanical power, by its regularity and free- 
 dom from fatigue, being superior to human power, built the cops 
 firmer and better suited for the wciiver. Only when the 
 weiiver received weft yarn spun on self-actors could an increase 
 be considered in the hitherto low sj)eed of the loom. By the 
 introduction of the self-actor the last demand on umscular strength 
 disappeared, but certainly not, as was then thought, the adult 
 / spinner, because the minding of the more and more complicated 
 y^machines was not to be achieved with youthful helpers alone. 
 f If by the introduction of the self-actor the production per 
 single spindle was increased by 15 to 20 per cent., so also was 
 the number of spindles per spinning frame increased. In 1779 
 the operatives smashed jennies containing more than 20 spindles. 
 The water frames with which ArkwTight fomided the factory 
 system do not show more than 8 spindles, in the illustrations 
 given by Ure. The happy combination of both machines by 
 Oi'ompton — the mule — had also not more than 20 to 30 spin- 
 dles (19). At the period when Baines and Ure wrote, 400 to 600 
 spindles were the common length, whilst both, so early, described 
 machines of 1,000 to 1,100 spindles (20). Side by side \sith the 
 raising of the number of spindles occurred, not an increase, but 
 rather a decrease of labour power. 
 
 17. Ellison : " Cotton Trade," p. 65. 
 
 18. Ure : Cotton Manufacture," 11. , pp. 194-203. 
 
 19. Compare Baines. p. 201. Ure : " Cotton Manufaf-ture," 1.. pp. 259-60. 
 
 20. Ure, 11, , p. 154. Baines, p. 202. Further, Ure: " Philosophy of 
 Manufactures," p. 323 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 
 
 J.3 
 
 The consequence of the development delineated was an extra- 
 ordinary increase of production. Since the costs of working did 
 not increase in the same ratio, they were spread over a greater 
 produced quantity. Especially could a permanent reduction in 
 piece^wages be introduced. The cost of labour for a defined 
 quantity was continuously declining, owing to the advancing 
 technical skill. 
 
 Yam counts. 
 
 Hanks spun per 
 spindle per day. 
 
 Cost of labour 
 per lb. of yarn. 
 
 Cost of similar 
 labour in India. 
 
 40 .... 
 
 1812. 
 
 9 
 
 1830. 
 2-75 
 
 1812. 
 s. d. 
 1 
 
 1836. 
 F. d. 
 
 7i 
 
 1 7i 
 
 2 2i 
 
 Unchanged. 
 s. d. 
 3 4 
 
 80 .... 
 100 .... 
 
 lo 
 1-4 
 
 2 '2 
 1-8 
 
 2 2 
 2 10 
 
 6 10^ 
 11 11 
 
 150 .... 
 
 1 
 
 1-33 
 
 G G 
 
 4 11 
 
 25 
 
 200 .... 
 
 0-75 
 
 0-90 
 
 IG 8 
 
 11 G 
 
 44 7 (21) 
 
 What effect had tliis technical development on the worker? 
 It is, in the first place, to be noted that in spite of continuous 
 cheapening of work the weekly earnings of the worker went 
 higher. This phase was hidden at first by the prices of food 
 moving downwards. But it is certainly correct to measure the 
 income of the worker, not only according to its face value, but 
 also by its buying power in relation to the most important 
 nourishing foods. Looked at in this light, there occurred also at 
 that time, along with cheapening of labour, an increase in the 
 earnings of tho worker — a development which belongs to the 
 most marked peculiarities of centralised industrial progress. 
 The elder Houldsworth gave the following interesting statistics, 
 in this respect, before the Committee on Manufactures. 
 
 
 Weekly i 
 
 sroduct'n 
 
 Time 
 
 Total 
 wages. 
 
 Deduct 
 
 Net 
 
 Buying ] 
 
 power of 
 
 
 of the Spinner. 
 
 worked. 
 
 for 
 
 earnings 
 
 these net 
 
 earnings. 
 
 
 
 Lb. of 
 
 Hours. 
 
 helpers. 
 
 of 
 
 In lb. 
 
 In lb. 
 
 
 Counts. 
 
 yarn. 
 
 
 
 
 Spinner. 
 
 Flour. 
 
 Meat. 
 
 
 
 
 
 R d. 
 
 s. d. «. d. 
 
 
 
 1804.... 
 
 180 
 
 12 
 
 74 to 80 
 
 60 
 
 27 6 32 G 
 
 117 
 
 62^ 
 
 
 200 
 
 9 
 
 ,. 
 
 G7 G 
 
 31 i 36 G 
 
 124 
 
 73 
 
 1814.... 
 
 180 
 
 18 
 
 74 
 
 72 
 
 27 6 I 44 6 
 
 175 
 
 67 
 
 «i .... 
 
 200 
 
 13^ 
 
 ,, 
 
 90 
 
 30 
 
 60 
 
 239 
 
 90 
 
 1833.... 
 
 180 
 
 22* 
 
 GO 
 
 54 8 
 
 21 
 
 33 8 
 
 210 
 
 67 
 
 " •••• 
 
 200 
 
 19' 
 
 )) 
 
 65 3 
 
 22 6 
 
 42 9 
 
 (22) 
 
 267 
 
 85 
 (23) 
 
 21. Baines, p. 353. Ure : " Cotton Manufacture." II. , 425. 
 
 22. These wages are applicable for fine counts. The average wage of the 
 mule-spinner in Manchester at this time amounted to 27s. Ure: "Cotton 
 Manufacture, " II. , p. 444. 
 
 23. Prices reckoned according to the invoices of the Chetham Hospital, 
 Manchester 
 
44 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 The high counts of yarn mentioned here were, at that time, 
 as yet scarcely spun on the Continent of Europe, because it did 
 not possess the needful skilled workers for them. Tliey were 
 spun, outside of England, only by Indian hand-spinners, whose 
 dexterity up to then had been the wonder of Europe. These 
 finest Indian muslins were termed "woven ^vind"; they were 
 extraordinarily expensive, because counts of yam up to 210's 
 were not seldom in them. But although the Indian female 
 spinner of those fine yarns, up to then imattained on the newer 
 Continent, received 9d. per week, the English spinner, there- 
 fore, earning 40 to 50 times as much, the latter nevertheless 
 destroyed the ancient industrial art still existing at this time, 
 which (paradoxical enough) succumbed to dear labour, to labour 
 which, as the table on page 43 shows, was about four times as 
 dear as in England (24). 
 
 But a similar process developed also within England, in that 
 the place where the industry progressed most strongly was where 
 jjiecework wages were certainly lower, but, on the other hand, 
 the weekly earnings and standard of living of the spinner was 
 the highest. Thus at that time Manchester raised itself above 
 Glasgow, which, notwithstanding considerably loweh weekly 
 wages, paid higher piecework wages (25). 
 
 It is every^vhere a fact capable of proof that with Centralised 
 Industrial development a continuous decline of piecework wages 
 is jiccompanied with a continuous increase in the income of the 
 worker. Upon what does this result depend ? In order to under- 
 stiind it, we must grasp it as a continuation of that old-time 
 development which once raised labour from slavery to freedom. 
 The fettered or slave worker, who acomplishes labour by external 
 l)ressure, is chained to the minimum of life; the master does 
 not, as a matter of course, spend more than is absolutely necessary 
 for maintaining and perpetuating labour. It has to be viewed 
 as a permanent factor, that it was economical progress which 
 emancipated the worker. Only the most primitive tools can 
 be put into the hands of slaves (26). Economical progress de- 
 
 24. Compare Ure: " Cotton Manufacture," L. p. 45. Compare also the 
 work quoted by Roscher, I., par. 40 : "La main d'ceuvre est chere en Russie." 
 
 25. Committee on Manufactures (5,339), and Baines, p. 440. 
 
 2B. Thus slaves in America could not be trusted with horses, but only with 
 mules. Compare Roscher: "System," I., par. 71. Agricultural exhaustion 
 of land can only be pennanently connected with slavery. Compare Baines 
 •' Slave Power " (London, 1863) ; and Mackenzie Wallace : " Russia," where a 
 similar state is reported in America and Russia. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 45 
 
 mands an increasing interest of the worker in his labour, with 
 the object of impro^dng and raising his capacity for work, and 
 these are only possible on the foundation of freedom. Thus the 
 free craftsman is evolved from the serfish industrial workers, 
 originally in the interest of the master ; and the town from the 
 feudal establishment of the Middle Ages (27). But more especi- 
 ally clear, because only belonging to the last and present century, 
 is this development in the sphere of agricultm-e. The necessity 
 of more thorough cultivation compels the introduction of the free 
 labourer, whose work, though apparently dearer, is still cheaper, 
 on account of its extraordinarily greater capacity (28). 
 
 In the hand-toil of the Middle Ages, trade labour had reached 
 freedom early, and afforded not only an agreeable existence^ but 
 also honour and position in society. But the foundation of this 
 position was insecure ; it depended upon monopoly and law enact- 
 ments. It vanished with the flourishing of the world's market 
 and international competition. 
 
 Cheapening of the costs of production was now the innermost 
 principle of trading. Hand-work was therewith succeeded by 
 Centralised Industry, the oldest form of which was (^cottage in- 
 dustry, whose full attainment first created the modern factory 
 system.) But the worker sank exceedingly quickly from his 
 former height, under the pressure of the new world-market. His 
 law of life was again the minimum standard of living, beyond 
 which he had already appeared to have raised himself for good 
 mth the abandonment of slavery. The time for labour, limited 
 by custom or law, in summer (including the stoppage for 
 dinner) 12 hours, in winter until the commencement of darkness, 
 was again lengthened to the bounds of possibility. 
 
 27. The same thing is to be seen, again, in Russia, where the serf was allowed 
 to engage himself in another's trade service, and only a payment was reserved ; 
 in fact, he was freed with the exception of the payment. — Oprockbauern. 
 
 28. Compare, for instance, what Roscher(par. 71) says is the experience on 
 the Bernstorff estates. The experiences of Von Miinchausen have a similar 
 tendency. This personage, along with Bernstorff, was one of the first to 
 demand the emancipation of the serfs from the point of view of economical 
 progress. Compare Munchausen: "Detailed Particulars of the Cessation of 
 Serfdom on the Estate Steinburg " (Leipzig, 1801). Further instances, for 
 Russia, are given by Roscher (par. 71, note 6). A free mower mows as much 
 as two or three serfs ; an estate horse accomplishes as much as three to four 
 peasants' horses ; with free workers instead of serfs rye produces 8J instead of 
 3, barley 9_i instead of 4, oats 8 instead of 2| standards. All are analogies of 
 the development to be depicted here. 
 
/ 
 
 46 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 This development, in the ca«e of England, has to be followed 
 up most minutely. Up to our century the standard of living 
 for the worker stood authoritatively defined — ^the degree of 
 labour as well as of remuneration. I f he earned sufficient with three 
 days' work to live six days in the ordinary manner, he did not work 
 the other three. Therefore the merchants of Manchester told 
 A. Young that they preferred high to low food prices ; for nothing 
 but the first compelled the worker to labour. 
 
 Tliis customary foundation of existence fell with the appear- 
 ance of the modern trade system. Broken-down farmers and 
 cottage workers, workhouse cliildren, discharged soldiers — in 
 short, the poorest of the poor — were placed at the newly-invented 
 machines. It is known that the workers a})|)lied themselves to 
 factory labour only through the uttermost necessity. The iron 
 discipline and regularity of this labour itself appeared worse than 
 the imtraramelled misery of cottage workers. Only by the 
 lowest wages were those elements to be forced to regular work. 
 Tliis deterioration occurred so much the more without opposition 
 because those first workers of Centralised Industry were thus 
 first drawn from customary conditions, wh^ereas, on the other hand, 
 their employers had already completely realised the modem man. 
 Certainly the power of that first generation of English large em- 
 ployers consisted entirely in carrying out the principle of 
 economy, regardless of anything. TTie proposition : Satisfy thy 
 wants ^vith the smallest possible expense, produce at the lowest 
 cost, was of so much value to them that the choir of national 
 economists accompanying the drama declared it to be the ever- 
 lasting law of human life. 
 
 The "white slaves" which the modem factory system Isas 
 produced have been spoken of. This is more than a saying. 
 Because, in spit« of outward differences, the position of those 
 factory proletarians certainly resembles inwardly that of slaves, 
 in that they seem in a hopeless manner to be forced to the mini- 
 mum standard of living, and that every interest of the worker in 
 his work is lacking. Contemporary observers have therefrom 
 derived the immobile wage-law. They had, as we see to-day, 
 / only that stage of trade before their eyes which belongs to the 
 r^l change from scattered to centralised industry, and has only ex- 
 tended itself where that change was retarded. On the other 
 hand. Centralised Industry, which is no longer a monopoly com- 
 pared with a declining industry, requires, as we shall see more 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 47 
 
 in detail further on, for the pui-pose of cheapening production, 
 a gradual raising of labour similar to that which formerly led 
 from serfdom to freedom. That factory proletarian, whose posi- 
 tion brings to mind serfdom, is put on one side by the Central- 
 ised Industry growing up. 
 
 This follows, as a matter of fact, because the first low-standing 
 factory labour certainly did not work cheaply. As later, every- , 
 where where the factory system was introduced, one had at that 
 time to struggle in England with the irregulai'ity of labour. A | ^j^ 
 reliable authority informs us that at the turn of the century it 1 
 was impossible to keep the spinners at regular work. "Frequently 
 they spent two or three days per week in idleness and drinking, 
 and made the children who worked under them wait for them in 
 the alehouses until they decided to go to their work. When 
 they went to it, they would often work quite desperately, day 
 and night, in order to pay off their public-house score and to earn 
 more money for ' sprees ' " (29). This description reminds us of 
 that which Blue-Books to-day inform us about Indian spinning- 
 mills — large centralised establishments with the latest ma- 
 chinery. In spite of all discipline it cannot here be avoided that 
 the workers work irregularly, and stop to eat and rest themselves > 
 in between. One is therefore compelled to keep such a large 
 number of workers that those who work can take the places of 
 those who do not. It is allowed, under this arrangement, that the 
 men go out and smoke during working hours, the women suckle 
 their children, workers often remain away for weeks in order to 
 do agricultural work at their homes, and so on, As compensa- 
 tion, there are no long stoppages during which the engine stands, 
 no free Sundays, or only one per month in order to clean the 
 engine, and the working day is from 12 to 14 hours (30). 
 
 Also in Lancashire — to-day the country of the highest working 
 capacity — a similar condition existed at that time. 
 
 How little machinery had up to then entered into the people's 
 consciousness is shown by the keeping aloof, by the often inimical 
 position, of most writers, compared with whom Ure emphatically 
 took the more progressive standpoint. Thus a well-known physician 
 of Manchester complains at that time about the lot of the operative 
 
 29. Ure: "Cotton Manufacture," II. , p. 448. 
 
 30. "East India Factories" (10th Feb., 1891), pp. 23, 27, 45, etc. Com- 
 pare, further: Proceedings of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce — 
 " Bombay and Lancashire " (1888), p. 57. 
 
48 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 — " Whilst the engine runs the people must work. Men, women, 
 and children are yoked together with iron and steam. The 
 animal machine — breakable in the best case, subject to a thou- 
 sand sources of suffering, changeable every moment — is chained 
 fast to the iron machine, which knows no suffering and no weari- 
 nevss." (31) It is noteworthy how here the machine, as such, is 
 accuse^l of inhumanity ; the almost mathematical precision which 
 it requires from the worker is pictured as unendurable tyranny. 
 In all the labour movements of the first ten years of the century 
 the hatred of the masses turned against machinery. 
 
 But gra^lually a change came — a change by reason of economic- 
 al progress. It was in the "thirties" that, on the field of the 
 oldest Centralised Industry, international competition marche<^l 
 for the first time. If England would conquer it mu.st lower the 
 costs of production. How was this possible? No longer by press- 
 ing down the worker, because these were already reduced to the 
 minimum of life's wants. The only means for economical victory 
 lay, therefore, in technical improvement, as also in the lessening 
 / of the number of workers employed in comparison with the 
 / work accomplished. Both led to continuous lowering of piece- 
 [^ work prices, which was decisive in the battle of competition, and, 
 on the other hand, raised the weekly earnings of the individual 
 I worker. Similarly, as one could not put better tools in the hands 
 of slaves, neither were the increasingly complicated and more 
 valuable machines to be trusted to miserable factory proletarians. 
 / In order to increase the speed of the spindle, to raise the number 
 ' of spindles to be tended, and to lessen the number of operatives 
 per spinning mill, a worker with a higher standard of living was 
 necessary. Thus the unmeasured services of the serfs 
 ' became measured, and from the latter came freedom, from the 
 trade working slave the free craftsman, from the sen^ant of the 
 master the journeyman of the Guild ; the servant rose, but the 
 master had more than before. In the same manner, also, the 
 economical need raised the worker of Centralised Industry. 
 
 This developm.ent on the part of the worker appears to have 
 been followed by a psychological chang e similar to 
 _that which had produced the modern employer. 
 Whilst the man of the Middle Ages was born to 
 his standard of living, his wants authoritatively defined^ 
 
 31. Dr. Kflv : •< On the Moral and Physical Conditions of the Working 
 Classes " (Rtancbester, p. 24). Similarly : Gohre : •' Drei Monate Fabrik- 
 arbeiter " (Leipzig, 1891). 
 
I 
 
 AND ON THE CONTINENT. 49 
 
 a state of affairs which has survived for a longer period in the 
 lower stages of society — the modern man now also grows up in 
 the worker of centralised industry. Just as the enterprising 
 spirit of the employer pervades the whole world, "insatiable" 
 from the standpoint of a former condition of society, in the case 
 of the worker the limits to economical attainment also disappear. 
 Hja Yrnntpi, up tn now limited by cu stom, encom pass the whole 
 achievements of culture. That which he earns over and above" 
 what his bare ^existence costs he adds to his standard of living. 
 In order to satisfy his increased demands, he increases his labour 
 capacity. In this way he succumbs at last to the "l aw of the 
 greatest_D Ossible profit, " which first pervaded the merchant, then 
 the trade employer, and had produced the modem regime. The 
 best worker of the world at present is the one with the highest 
 needs, just as the cotton worker in Lowell and Fall River excels, 
 earhaps, all his fellows in labour capacity, but also in his wants 
 1(32)7 
 
 It is true that this development in the " thirties " in England 
 was only in its infancy. That, however, the later type of worker 
 was also just beginning to be evolved is proved by occasional 
 particulars in the Blue-Books. He comes upon the scene as the 
 mule- spinner of Lancashire. Thus, for instance, attention is 
 drawn to the evidence of a certain Edwin Rose, who in the 
 "twenties" or "thirties" was occupied for some time in a 
 spinning mill at Mulhouse (33). In this town at least double the 
 quantity of hands were necesaary compared with Lancashire. 
 Labour was therefore dearer, in spite of lower wages. In Mul- 
 house there were, for low counts, mostly 3 persons per 200 ends ; 
 in England per 600 to 800. It is true, according to Ure, that 
 
 32; Compare Pidgeon: *' Journal of the Society of Arts" (Jan. 1885). 
 Miss H. Martineau had already described, in her " Mind among the Spindles," 
 the high and well-regulated standard of living of the old race of labour in 
 Massachusetts. Compare, on the other hand, the following story lately 
 related to me. The proprietor of one of the largest and finest weaving-sheds 
 in Germany wished lately to persuade the best of his weavers to mind three 
 looms instead of two, as formerly. But as this arrangement met with opposi- 
 tion from the workers, he sent for one of them in order to inquire into the 
 cause of the opposition. On being made aware that the new arrangement 
 meant an increased weekly wage, the weaver answered : He and his wife 
 earned 28s. per week ; he did not wish to exert himself for more ; more money 
 .meant a "spree more." That man stood, in the field of the customary 
 standard of living, as opposed to that girl in Lancashire who to-day minds 
 four, and that in Massachusetts who to-day minds six looms. — 
 
 33. Factory Committee: Keport (1833), Part I., D. I., 121; also Mr. 
 Cowell: Supplementary Report (1834), 119. Compare also Koscher: 
 " Nationalokonomie," I., par. 40, and the therein quoted particulars of Mohl. 
 Further, Senior: '* Outlines" (London, 1863% 142. 
 
 E 
 
50 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 especially in Alsace, at that time the number of spindlesJn the 
 single frame appear to have risen quickly ; notwithstanding which 
 the production remained less than in Lancashire. The daily 
 production per 800 spindles of No. 40's yam in England was 
 661b., in France 481b. From the evidence of numerous employers, 
 given before the Examining Committee quoted, as well as before 
 that on Artisans and Machinery, it appears that the master- 
 spinners examined already looked upon the possession of better 
 labour as their chief strength against Continental competition. 
 " A spinner in England does twice a4S much as a Frenchman. The 
 latter gets up at four o'clock and worka until 10 o'clock at night. 
 But onr spinner does in 6 hours what he does in ten." 
 
 f^ith the same tendency we have also the utterances of workers, 
 as, for instance, that in spite of shortened working hours the 
 labour had become far more taxing than formerly; it was com- 
 plained that some operatives were seized by a dangerous ambition 
 to accomplish more than is fit for human nature (84-). The 
 same witness from Stockport reports that these workers, however, 
 also developed wants unknown up to then. For instance, instead 
 »)f going to the public-house they took to books and attended 
 schools — all at that time still quite exceptional circumstances. 
 Possibly this applied only to a town where, as in Stockport, the 
 second generation was already spinning, and wherein numerous 
 workhouse children had been introduced to factory labour. For 
 nothing urges fonvard the development of the modern man as 
 much as forced or willing transplantation to other fields (35). 
 
 A new type of man entered at that time into existence in 
 Lancashire — the industrial worker, born and educated for the 
 machine. He is the latest result of the modern method of working, 
 and determines its condition for some generations ahead. But 
 even then he is only developed under favourable conditions, as in 
 the most advanced great industries, before all others of England 
 and America, and still the economical power-position of a nation 
 is dependent in an increasing degree on his possession. As the 
 man of the future, he does not find his equal in the past. It is 
 not bodily power which distinguishes him, for the movements 
 
 34. Committee on Manufactures (10,552). 
 
 35. We are reminded here of colonists, who generally develop themselves 
 more quickly than their former countrymen: also of how new-arising in- 
 dustries everywhere require foreign workers. How long the later increase of 
 factory labour was fed from the poorhouses is proved by the Committee on 
 Manufactures (11,412). 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 51 
 
 requiring strength are accomplished by the machine. He re- 
 s (3mbles not , the labour virtuoso of -the- so-called manufacture 
 (division of labour without mechanical power) which, 
 Jbj reason of extensive division of labour, requires few 
 hand-touches for perfection. Tools now accomplish these touches 
 more perfectly — tools which attack more and more the field of so- 
 called " mechanical " work. Freeing the man therewith from the . ^7 ' 
 tie of the constantly developing division of labour, the perfect 
 machine simply requires watching. With increasing size and 
 speed, ^vith their augmenting productive power and complication, 
 there is, on the other hand, a continuously increasing brain - 
 attention deman ded from the operative — an understanding of the 
 therein embodied thoughtsof technicality. The man attending it 
 should be a son of the century of natural science. The modern 
 method of production also tends towards the contraction of similar 
 or increased labour capacity to a shorter time ; it is cheaper to 
 exhaust the working power in nine than in eleven hours. The 
 modern operative, as produced by the American and English 
 Centralised Industry, is the extreme opposite of that handworker 
 who, by reason of a real or legal position of monopoly, 
 " makes his customers wait." 
 
 This development has been, without doubt, hurried forward in X^ 
 England by social moments, especially by the contraction of ^v 
 children's work and the shortening of the hours of labour which 
 
 the Factory Acts caused. The workpeople's combinations, andc. 
 
 their struggles with the employers, are also to be taken into 
 account. For instance, it is undoubtedly correct that the Self- 
 actor, invented by Roberts in 1830, was designed as a weapon 
 against the spinner, and first came into general use in consequence 
 of strikes (36). Looked at from this point of view, the social 
 movements of that time, those of the philanthropic Tories, as 
 well as the workmen striving to raise themselves, first attain the 
 foundation of economical necessity. Both have done their quota 
 to urge forward technical development. This consciousness is 
 expressed unusually early in the "Edinburgh Review" of July, 
 1835. "If from the discovery of the Spinning Frame up to the 
 
 36. Ure:" Philosophy of Manufactures," 367. Ure : "Cotton Manu- 1. 
 factnre," II., 194. Committee on Manufactures (5,621, 5,421). On the other 
 hand, the so-called " cheap labour "(i.e. labour feeble, incapable of exertion) 
 held full sway on Saxon spinning up to the "sixties " with the ancient system 
 of hand-mule. Compare Martin, ' ' Der wirtschaftliche Aufschwung der Baum- 
 wollspinnerei im Kiinigreich Sachsen," Sraoller's " Jahrbuch fiir Gesetzgebung, " 
 Band xvii., Heft 3, pp. 12, 13 
 
52 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 present," it is there written, " wages had remained at a level, and 
 workers' coalitions and strikes had remained unknown, we can 
 without exaggeration assert that the industry would not have 
 made half the progress." But economical development has still 
 been the chief factor, in that it has first called Centralised In- 
 dustry and machinery in general into existence. So it was also, 
 side by side with social moments at that time, the pressure of 
 the world's markets which in England led to technical advance- 
 yV-jnent, and, therewith, to the uplifting of labour (37). 
 
 ^ What has been said shows English cotton spinning in a peculiar 
 condition of changa The lawful and real possibility of competi- 
 tion had evolved the existence of machinery, but this alone could 
 only develop the tendencies existing in it to the extent that, with 
 the entrance into being of international competition, the English 
 spinner ceased to demand monopoly prices. It is in general the 
 trading history of the 19th century which is here represented 
 within a microscosm. All characteristic delineations of modem 
 Centralised Industry present themselves in the tenets: Con- 
 centration of Capital, geographically as well as technically; 
 Replacement of Raw Material and Labour by Capital ; Increase 
 of Labour-capacity ; Upliftment of the Position of the Operative. 
 
 Far less developed were the conditions of cotton weaving, 
 which had just taken the first steps towards centralisation. Up 
 to now the manufacturers had bought yams spun by the 
 machine, and given them out to the cottage weavers. In the 
 first years after the invention of spinning machinery, which 
 allowed the English spinners to have monopoly prices simply 
 at the expense of their Continental customers, the* business of 
 English weavers of necessity flourished. At that time a tre- 
 mendous influx of men occurred in the hand-weaving industry, 
 the wages in which up to the turn of the century were splendid. 
 The so-called manufacture developed itself at thfct time 
 side by side with the real cottage weaving. Capitalists built 
 special weaving shops in order to find work therein for about 20 
 to 30 hand-weavers, whilst the preparation work was accom- 
 plished by children and old people in the same house. Every- 
 where in Lancashire, but especially in Bolton, one sees even 
 to-day these now desolate weaving shops. 
 
 37. Compare, on the other hand, concerning the Continental indvistry, 
 Committee on Manufactures (11,378, 11,382, 11,387, etc.). 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 58 
 
 All this changed with the end of the war and the beginning of 
 international competition. The change was not merely a direct 
 transition to the power-loom, but employers of hand weavers with 
 plenty of capital built spinning mills, and spinners became at the 
 same time employers of hand weavers. Especially 
 was the latter often the case, because the in- 
 creasingly unstable payments of the small manufacturers 
 led the spinners to give out the yarns themselves. 
 These were the persons who at that time drew large profits from 
 the so-called elasticity of the cottage industry, and who, according 
 to the state of trade, sold the yarns or got them woven. The 
 richest in capital amongst them began gradually to build, in 
 addition to their spinning mills, sheds for power-looms (38). 
 
 The first owners of power-looms meide, like the first spinners, 
 tremendous profits; as power weaving mills became general, 
 prices as well as profits rapidly declined. On a piece of calico, 
 for instance, 28 in. wide, 5jlb. weight, ordinary quality, there 
 was in 1829 still a sum of 5s. for the cost of production and profit, 
 in 1833 only 3s. (39). 
 
 Only after 1820 did the power-loom make more important 
 progress. But in spite of this there were still in 1830 only about 
 50,000 to 80,000 (40) power-looms, against 250,000 hand-looms. 
 With the power-loom, also, the replacement of labour by the 
 machine developed much more slowly than in spinning. 
 
 As long as the sizing of the warp had to be accomplished by 
 hand during the weaving the application of the power-loom was 
 scarcely an advantage. An alteration was for the first time 
 effected by the invention of sizing and dressing machines. From 
 that time weaving could go on without a break, and one weaver 
 could mind two looms. It does not appear that more looms 
 were anywhere at that time tended by one weaver. The increase 
 of production by the power-loom was also not very important. 
 
 38. Ure : " Cotton Manufacture," II. , p. 430. Committee on Manu- 
 factures (9,161, 9,280). 
 
 39. Committee on Manufactures (9,171-95) 
 
 40. According to Porter, 50,500; according to Ellison, 80,000 in the year 
 1829, and about 100,000 as early as 1833. Compare Baines, p. 236, where he 
 gives the above number for hand-looms. Compare Committee on Manu- 
 factures r9,449) ; Committee on Handloom Weavers, 1834 and 1835 (371-4). 
 The total number of all hand-weavers is given as one million. 
 
54 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 In the year 1823 two power-looms produced weekly seven, in the 
 year 1826 twelve pieces of shirtings, of which a hand weaver in the 
 same time could produce but two (41) 
 
 Moreover the power-loom was at that time only used 
 for the smaller portion of all woven materials — for com- 
 mon and plain gwds. In 1822 a patent wa« first 
 granted to Roberts for a power-loom with six shafts, in 
 order to produce twill-like articles ; and in the whole following 
 y^ decade experiments were being constantly made on arrangements 
 for raising and lowering several shafts, with the object of pro- 
 ducing the most simple patterns with the power-loom (42). That 
 an advance in this branch wiis slower certainly was not on account 
 of the greats- difficulty of the technical i)roblems to be overcome, 
 but that in this branch the jn-essure of the world's market^ and 
 the necessity for invention, were not felt so soon. 
 
 ' In Blue-Books we find, accordingly, nearly all manufacturers of 
 the opinion that the hand-loom could never be supplanted by the 
 power-loom; but rather that with the increase of Englisli com- 
 ioerce the nmnber of the cottage weavers must pernuuieutly 
 incrciise, as was in reality up to then the case (43). And yet the 
 Frenchman, Jacquard, had as early as 1812 invented the arrange- 
 ment called after his name, which, in connection with the power- 
 loom, was to make it possible to produce even the most intricate 
 art designs by mechanical means. At that time the production of 
 such goods required a great (juantity of labom* — the so-called 
 reader, who, according to the pattern, read aloud the figured 
 points ; and another worker, who, according to these instructions, 
 connected the couplings to which the shafts hung with the hooks 
 requiring to be drawn ; and then, besides tlie weaver, the draw- 
 boy, who during the weaving looked after the raising of the thus 
 coupled shafts (44) ; also here, therefore, by the newer inventions 
 an extraordinary replacement of Labour by Capital took place. 
 
 A jieculiar similarity with the conditions just pictured is shown 
 by the commercial organisation of the cotton industry at that 
 time. Just as modern Centralised Industry developed itself side 
 
 41. Baines, 239-40. 
 
 42. Ure : *' Cotton Manufacture," 11., 306. 
 
 43. For instance : Committee on Manufactures (11,092, 1,212): "Hand- 
 loom weavers increase and must increase " ; further, 1,198, 9,434. 
 
 44. Ure: "Cotton Manufacture," II., 281-7. Karmarsch: '* Techno- 
 logie," 973-5. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 55 
 
 by side with spiiming, the raw-material market was already the 
 most advanced product-market of the world, with which the 
 technicalities of the modem world's commerce were perfected. It 
 enjoyed already in the "thu'ties" a division of labom* developed 
 in the highest degree. As, however, on the other hand, weaving, 
 being in closer proximity to the consumers, was technically still 
 behind, so was it also with the mediating conmiercial element 
 between manufacturers and consumers. 
 
 The reasons for these results are also similar. As Centralised 
 Industiy in weaving retjuired first that of spinning, so the whole 
 cotton industiy required the cotton mai'ket. Tlie investment of 
 large sums in centralised industries was not possible until the 
 investors were certain of the regular delivery of the raw material, 
 and an organised market already lessened the dangers of extreme 
 variations of price. But the possibility of such a market was 
 produced because purely commercial, calculating pooplo came here 
 into contact with one another. It was otherwise with the relation 
 to the ccn&umer. As long as the English factory owner, as the 
 rejiresentative of the oldest centralised industry, found himself 
 in a sort of position of monopoly as compai*ed with his customers, 
 the formation of a highly developed organisation for sale was not 
 necessary. This api)eared in proportion as these advantages dis- 
 api)eared, and it was solely economical superiority which assured 
 to the English industiy its market for sale. 
 
 To the following of every industry, from the buying of the raw 
 material to the sale of tlie finished article, there are connected a 
 great many dangers of the most variable kind — dangers which, 
 however, allow themselves to be extraordinarily diminished by 
 an intimate practical knowledge of the controlling conditions. 
 Hence division of labour, wherever it is possible, in such a manner 
 that, for every risk which demands control of one of the groups 
 of ceii:aintie8 contained within it a special organ is created. 
 
 Now this was already in a high degi*ee the case in the " thirties " 
 in the cotton market. Here, on the one hand, stood the im})orting 
 merchant with his office in Liverpool. His task was to make 
 himself conversant with the American market — a risk of such 
 greatness, with the difficult traffic and communication conditions 
 of the time, that he at first even imported the cotton, not at his 
 own risk, but on commission for account of the Americans against 
 cash on account. But already in the first half of the centuiy 
 came, in place of the importing commission house, the real 
 
66 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 importer, who imported the cotton at his own risk. To deal with 
 him existed the inland merchant, mostly with his office in Man- 
 chester, who generally sold the cotton to the spinners, giving 
 long credit. His task was to watch over the influencing industrial 
 conditions — for instance, the demand to be expected, the paying 
 capabilities of the 8j)inners, etc., etc. 
 
 The more complicated the influencing conditions became 
 the less were importer and merchant in a position to deal direct 
 with one another — such would have needed also a knowledge of 
 each other's business. Hence the formation of two mediums, the 
 buying and the selling broker, €>ach of which attended only to 
 the interests of his own customers. Tlie relation of these different 
 classes of commercial life rested upon a code of unwritten laws. 
 No importer could, as Ellison (45) assures us, attempt to deal 
 direct with the buying agent; this latter would have refeiTed 
 him to the selling agent. Just as little could the buying agent 
 contract direct witli tlio importer. Tlie impoi-ters, like the 
 merchants, generally had one or more brokers, through whom 
 they permanently transacted their business. 
 
 Whilst thus, as regards the raw material, an already extreme 
 di\4sion of labour had arisen, it was absolutely wanting as regards 
 the selling of the finished article. Tliere was still wanting that, 
 at the present day, important person, the export merchant, who 
 relieves the manufacturers from a knowledge of foreign markets, 
 of the paying capacity of foreign and home buyers, etc. The 
 manufacture still dealt direct with the home retailer or the 
 foreign importer, the commercial traveller and the agent being 
 the mediums. 
 
 The manufacturer searched for the home customer by com- 
 mercial travellers. Richard Cobden was one of these in his 
 youth. Similarly was the Continent of Europe attended to (46). 
 At the most important places of the mainland the English 
 manufacturer sold as well by agents on the spot. 
 
 The trade with India, China, and East India was conducted 
 otherwise. This trade, on account of the great distances and 
 slow connections of that time, was extremely risky. Originally 
 the captain freighted his ship on his own account, so far as the 
 trade was not by reason of privileges in the hands of officials. 
 
 45. «' Cotton Trade," p. 273 
 
 46. Committee on Manufactures (2,148). 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 57 
 
 East India was only thrown open in 1815 (47). In the " twenties" 
 and "thirties" this adventurous navigator disappeared. The 
 manufacturer shipped the balance of his production at his own 
 risk. The merchant who acted for him was in fact only a 
 commission merchant, who attended to tlie shipping and gejierally 
 advanced half the value of the shipment (48). When the goods 
 arrived they were sold by native or English commission houses, 
 or put up by auction. In the best case the English manufacturer 
 could expect payment in 18 or 19 months after the departure of 
 the goods. This came either in the form of return freight^ — 
 indigo, coffee, tea, etc. — or in bills of exchange, often of a 
 questionable nature. In this way nineteen-twentieths of the 
 colonial trade was transacted, alongside of which shipments to 
 order played but a slight part. 
 
 We find, therefore, as i-egards the selling, the manufacturer 
 saddled almost alone with all risks. Instead of strictly confining 
 himself to the inner development of his manufactory, he was 
 obliged to take into consideration the political and economical 
 variations of the whole world, especially the rate of exchange on 
 India^ at that time already very fluctuating. 
 
 The home market, in the last century the most prominent, was 
 still always of larger importance. 
 
 Home Market. Export in Cotton Goods. 
 
 176G ^379,241 £220,759 according to Postlethwayt. 
 
 1819-21 £13,044,000 £15,740,000 1 „,,^ n. „ . p,,,. ^„ 
 
 1829-31 £13,331,000 £181074,000 } according to Elhson. 
 
 We notice how the export interest at the beginning of the 
 " thirties " predominated. On this basis was founded the position 
 taken up by the manufacturers of Lancashire against the Corn 
 Laws. This movement must here not be lost sight of; firstly, 
 because it was the result of the centralised industrial development, 
 as soon as the export interest was uppermost; then, because its 
 success sealed the character of the English cotton industry as an 
 export industry. The enormous increase in the export of cotton 
 goods in the following decades was one basis of the further 
 development of the centralised industrial form of production and 
 the commercial organisation corresponding to it, the details of 
 which we deal with below. 
 
 47. Compare Committee on Manufactures (2,066, 2,120) on the conditions 
 which led to the withdrawal of the privileges of the East India Company. 
 
 48. Committee on Manufactures (2,117, 2,155). 
 
58 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 The Anti-Com-Liiw League was a capitiilist movement, emanat- 
 ing from the cotton manufacturers and the Manchester Chamber 
 of Commerce, after a forward movement by the London tradesmen 
 in 1820 had remained without success. At its head stood the 
 spinner and weaver, John Bright, and the calico-printer, Richard 
 Cobden. llie large sums which were used for the agitation — 
 nearly £500,000, including the princely rewai'd of Cobden for his 
 services — are iilone a proof of the capitalistic character of the 
 movement. Tlie immediate factor of the movement was the 
 depression in trade from 1839 to 1843. In 1842 ten per cent, of 
 all cotton mills stood idle part of the time (49). The manu- 
 facturers, so says Cobden distinctly, had invested a portion of 
 their capital in the movement in order to save the remainder (50). 
 
 The working classes, up to then the most earnest opponents of 
 the Corn-Liiws, turned their backs to the movement as soon as 
 it had got into the hands of the employers. Again and again 
 they disi)erse<l meetings of the League, so that Martineau thinks 
 they went hand-in-hand with the supporters of tlie Corn-Laws. 
 Tliis is assuredly inconect; shortsighted as they were, they 
 turned themselves against their nearest opponents.) 
 
 We need not here go further into the movement, which mider 
 the name of Cobden is known all over the world. On the other 
 hand it is necessiiry to make clear the inner moving reasons 
 which drove the English cotton industry on to the political 
 platform. These are to bo sei)arated from the arguments brought 
 forward, which mostly predominate in the speeches. 
 
 The cotton niiuuifacturers of Ltincashire fought, in the expensive 
 and wearisome agitation against the Corn-Laws, in the first 
 instance in the interest of export. Export was only possible by 
 import, because cash payments between economical nations play 
 an exceedingly small part. If a nation was ptiid in cash for its 
 expoi-t-s, the store of precious metals must soon rise above the 
 usual level, and this at once result in a raising of j>rices, fiicilita- 
 tion of imports, and making exports more difficult. Further 
 consequences must be the lowering of the rate of interest and the 
 flowing away of cash reserves. In the stores of the precious 
 metals of the world, such a level ling-up would follow of itself. 
 
 49. Compare "Ash worth, Cobden, and the League "(London, 1876), p. 34. 
 
 50. Compare " Ashworth, Cobden, and the League," pp 3.9,72-75,112. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 69 
 
 As a matter of fact experience teaches that such a relation can 
 really happen, but still not beyond reasonable bounds. A few 
 millions in cash taken from or added to the stores of precious 
 metals of a country accomplish of themselves alone a raising or 
 lowering of the rate of interest which is sufficient to lead to 
 the opposite result^ and theremth cause an equality. Generally 
 the money market is of itself very sensitive to the increase 
 and decrease of amounts which do not come into consideration 
 in comparison with the gigantic sums of international exchange 
 of goods. The whole of the precious metal of a nation, including 
 that used for ornamental and industrial purposes, would not be 
 suificient to pay, even for only one year, for the imports. Thus, 
 for instance, in 1880 the whole stores of precious metals in 
 England were computed at 140 million pounds, whilst the imports 
 amounted to over 400 millions. 
 
 Looking from this point of view the cotton manufacturers of 
 Lancashire asserted that it was immaterial whether the exports 
 of their yarns and goods were placed under an export duty or the 
 imports of the goods received in exchange were subjected to an 
 import duty. As England satisfied its own industrial wants, the 
 great mass of imports could only consist of nature's products; 
 the dearer, and thcs&e natural products forming a luxury, are, how- 
 ever, only bought when the longing for food is stilled ; therefore 
 wheat was the most important exchange article of foreign and 
 non-industrial nations for the English cotton and other industrial 
 productions. Wisdom also demands that one should let in the 
 chief exchange mediums of agricultural nations free of duty if 
 one would not lead too early to the introduction of an industrial 
 system (51). 
 
 That ti'ade interests predominated is shown already in Cobden's 
 first sentence in which he touches the question. The repeal of 
 the Corn-Laws was the means to return to the battle in the world's 
 market, under more favourable conditions to defeat the competi- 
 tion everywhere newly arisen. "To stem the import of com 
 into an industrial countrj'- is nothing less than to kill the living 
 nerves of its foreign trade" (52). Industry has to bear the 
 
 51. Committee on Manufactures 
 
 52. Compare Richard Cobden : " Political Writings "fLondon, 1867), vol. L , 
 143, 288. Gladstone, in a debate on the 23rd March. 1842, expressed pregnantly 
 the point of view under notice: "The import of 50,000 cattle leads to an 
 import trade to the value of half a million. It therefore leads to an export 
 trade of a similar amount, which makes increased industry and labour neces- 
 sary." Similarly also, Ure " Philosophy of Manufactures," p. 448. 
 
60 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 tremendous calls of the State debt caused by the war, and the 
 taxes for the defence of the country as well as tlie colonies. That 
 husbandry in the future will be more capable to bear these ever- 
 increasing public burdens was beyond eveiy possibility ; therefore 
 industry was to be strengthened in the common interest of the 
 country. 
 
 rThe further point of view, that free imports, and therewith 
 cheapening of foodstuffs, must lessen the production costs of the 
 industry, is less seldom mentioned, perhaps because many manu- 
 facturers were short-sighted enough to introduce this advantage 
 in the unpopulai* form of reduction of wages. But that it was 
 \tliought about is shown by the writings of Ure and Cobden (53). 
 
 Ure lingers repeatedly on the advantage which the Continent 
 possesses in the greater cheapness of foodstuffs. In January, 
 1836, the average price of wheat per tiuarter in Hamburg, 
 Amsterdam, Antweq>, and Stettin had been £1 Ss. Id., against 
 which in London it was £2 4s. 6d. A similar relation existed 
 between England and North America. But even Ure does not 
 arrive at a correct understanding regarding the influence of the 
 prices of foodstuffs in the production costs of the industry. His 
 gaze rests in the first instance on the possibility of reduction 
 in wages. If in England the amount of wages just reached 
 sufficient to guarantee the worker a scanty existence, this wage 
 could not be permanently reduced. But where for the wages 
 paid far more could be bought than was really necessary, there 
 was created the possibility of a reduction in wages. Thus were 
 the lower wages on the Continent explained by the cheapness 
 in the prices of food. 
 
 The manufacturers of Lancashire were certainly correct when 
 they considered that cheap food meant also cheap labour ; they 
 were, however, mistaken in confounding cheap labour with lower 
 wages. Cheap labour, like low wages, is only in that beginning 
 stage of centralised industrial development in which the worker 
 accomplishes no more than is necessary for satisfying the 
 scantiest needs of life. If the latter become cheap, there is 
 therewith, indeed, the possibility given of reducing wages, and 
 this is the only way to cheapen labour. It is otherwise where 
 the modem worker develops himself from that extensive factory- 
 proletarianism. The English manufacturers certainly knew already 
 
 53. Compare R Cobden : " Political Writings," L , p. 286. Ure : '* Cotton 
 Manufacture," I., Intro., pp. 18, 36, 47, 56. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 
 
 61 
 
 quite well, that their mule-spinner worked cheaper, although he 
 was perhaps the only worker in England who at that time, 
 jneasm'ed in foodstuffs, received a higher wage than the worker 
 on the Continent. For this modern worker cheapening of food 
 causes at the same time a rise of wages, the latter, however, being 
 added to the standai-d of living. The more nourishing food, 
 especially the going over to wheat and meat nourishment which 
 was the lot of the English worker after the repeal of the Corn- 
 Laws, has certainly caused more than anything else the produc- 
 tion of that high capacity for labour, the real " skilled labour,"' 
 which to-day fonns the strength of England in international 
 competition. Up to the repeal of tlie Corn Laws English wages, 
 at all events in money value, but not, which is the real factor, 
 in purchase value of foodstuffs, had been higher than those on 
 the Continent (54). 
 
 In conclusion, Ure draws attention to the fact that the anta- 
 gonistical feeling between employer and employed, which injured 
 the competitive capacity of England so much, was due in a great 
 degree to the Com Laws. Blue-Books, indeed, prove, by the 
 printed evidence of the workers, how much the Com Laws seemed 
 to them as "a law for the rich," which had for its purpose the 
 keeping down of the workers in their needy position — an irre- 
 movable source of liatred against the Government and society 
 (55). 
 
 The manufacturers were also not wrong in thinking that the 
 abolition of the duties would secure more peaceful relations 
 between capital and labour. Tliis did not happen, however, in 
 the manner which they pictured to themselves, for the Chartists 
 banished this hope at once by opposing the League. But by the 
 repeal of the Com Laws a stage of industrial development was 
 prepared which made those political-revolutionary classes repre- 
 sentatives of the past. Cottage-industrial and decaying hand- 
 workers, along with that earliest, hopeless factory proletariat 
 evolved by Centralised Industry, had been their foundation. While 
 the path of centralised industrial development was opened by 
 
 54. Thev amounted, according to Ure, on the average to about one-third 
 more than the Continental, just as the prices of food were just so much higher. 
 
 55. Compare Committee on Manufactures (10,614) : *' They think it 
 (repeal of duties) would cause a complete revolution in wages and profits ; it 
 would cause an unbounded extension of manufactures." Further, 10,618, 
 10,622, 10,627, li,08l 
 
62 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 the victory of Cobden, it also aided not only economical but also 
 social progress. The worker of Centralised Industry, as he was 
 now formed, grew out of the political-revolutionaiy movement, 
 which had been nothing more than a sign of extreme weakness. 
 In consequence of technical development, and by reason of 
 increased labour capacity, this worker rose in existing society 
 to a middle-class position. 
 
 The victory of the League was the expression that bourgeoisie 
 society, economically the highest in the State, had achieved this 
 position politically also. The previous transition stage is noted 
 thereby that the leader of landed-proprietorship. Sir Robert Peel, 
 was himself the offspring of one of the oldest manufacturing 
 families of Lancashire. On the other hand, it is not to be lost 
 sight of that the manner in which the victory took expression, 
 that of the autonomous duty repeals in place of the use of the 
 Ccrn Laws to bo given uji, to get compensations from other 
 nations, depended solely upon the commercial-poHtical constella- 
 tion of that time. It was hoped that the other nritions of Europe 
 Avoiild of themselves follow with low«.*ring of toriflfs. Then 
 appeared at that time those enormous markets of the East for the 
 cotton induistry, India and Cliina, which were ruled politically or 
 commercial-politically, and with which that point of view of 
 compensation did not come into question. 
 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 63 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Present Position of the English Cotton Industry Com- 
 pared WITH its Position in the ''Thirties" and with the 
 Present Position of the German Cotton Industry. (1) 
 
 In the half-century that has elapsed since the " thirties " 
 l:ngland has become "the workshop of the world." "WTiere 
 there is no English commerce there is no commerce at all " — is 
 the report of the American Secretary of State (2). A number 
 of centralised English industries have succeeded in obtaining 
 possession of the neutral markets of the world ; English exports 
 have quadrupled and quintupled themselves since the " forties." 
 The cotton industry progressed beyond all others, its exports 
 exceeding those of the iron trade by about three times (3). We 
 indicate at the outset the progress and the present position by 
 statistics : — 
 
 Spindles. Power-looms. Hand-looms. 
 
 1831 10,000,000 80,000 220,000 
 
 1856 28,000,000 298,847 some thousands 
 
 1885 45,000,000 560,955 some hundreds (4.) 
 
 About a third of the total exports of England falls to the lot of 
 the cotton industry, and a not much smaller proportion of the 
 English people live on the foodstuffs which are exchanged for 
 
 1. Where no sources are given in the following particulars they may be 
 taken as originating from studies on the spot, and are, from their very nature, 
 sufficiently authoritative, 
 
 2. "Commercial Relations of the United States," No. 12 (Oct. , 1881), p. 71 . 
 
 3. 1887 : Exports of cotton yarns and goods, £70,959,766 ; of iron and 
 steel, raw and finished, £24,992,314 ; total exports of home productions, 
 £221,414,186. 
 
 4. These figures approximatelv agree with those given bv Samuel Andrew, 
 in » Fifty Years' Cotton Trade." they are taken for 1856 and 1885 from official 
 statistics; for 1831 from Ellison: " Cotton Trade. " The number of spindles 
 were averaged, because Ellison, by reason of commercial directories, declares 
 the official figures far too small. He estimates the number of spindles in 1885 
 to be already 48 millions. Compare Ellison, p. 327-8, These statistics are 
 confirmed by Elijah Helm, " Economic Journal" II, 737; according to him 
 there were in 1891 in Great Britain 44,750,000 spinning spindles ; in addition, 
 according to the Statistical Abstract, nearly 4,000,000 doubling spindles, 
 besides the spindles not in operation, which, according to Ellison, are a few 
 millions. 
 
64 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 cotton goods. The English cotton industry, besides being the 
 oldest, is also in many ways to-day the centralised industry 
 wliich shows up most typically the peculiarities of the modem 
 method of production in an economical as well as social aspect. 
 
 But still it has only to be accepted as a link of a people's 
 economy depending upon centralised industry and world barter. 
 As the flourishing cotton industry, before everything else, founded 
 the trading dominion and capital power of England, so at present 
 does it receive the harvest of the highly-developed economical 
 life encircling it. We are thinking, firstly, in tliis connection, 
 of the trade organisations of Manchester and Liverpool, of the 
 development of English machine-making, etc. 
 
 The pressure of the world's market was the motive element 
 It compelled a continuous cheapening of cotton goods. Witli it 
 a permanent lowering of the production costs became the leading 
 motive of the whole development. This is shown by the following 
 figures : — 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Jan., 
 
 
 1779. 
 
 1830. 
 
 1860. 
 
 1882. 
 
 1892. 
 
 Frice per lb. of 40's yarn 
 
 16/- 
 
 "?t 
 
 Hi 
 
 lOi 
 
 7i 
 
 Price of cotton, 18 oz 
 
 2/- 
 
 ^ 
 
 H 
 
 H 
 
 Difference in price 14/- 6f 4| 3f 2} 
 
 And ?o with finer counts: a pound of No. lOO's, which in 1830 
 still cost 3s. 4jd., was in January, 1892, sold up to 16Jd. In 
 tlie years 1880-85, which were by no means bad ones for spinners, 
 the difference between cotton and yarn per pound amounted on 
 an average to only 3j^d., whilst in the "thirties" double 
 the amount (for instance, 1830, for 40's, 6jd.) was looked upon 
 as unprofitable (5). Similarly with weaving, even though the com- 
 parison between the price of yarn and that of cloth is more 
 difficult on account of the heavy and variable weighting of many 
 goods with foreign matter, and on numerous other grounds. In 
 any case one cannot be far wrong if the lowering of the costs of 
 production is taken as at least one-half. 
 
 The possibility of this cheapening lies herein, that under the 
 pressure of the world's market (competition) those tenets of a 
 centralised industry before mentioned have been meanwhile fully 
 developed. 
 
 5. Compare Ellison : «' Cotton Trade," pp. 61, 310. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 65 
 
 1. — Arranyement and Division of Labour in the Industry, 
 
 Marshall, in one portion of his last work, points to the connec- 
 tion ])etween national economy and natural science. Tlie latter has 
 borrowed from national economical writers the representation of 
 the struggle for existence; but to-day it pays back the debt by 
 enriching national economy with its teaching of organic 
 development. Marshall thinks, apparently, in this respect, about 
 the development-teaching of Herbert Spencer, which allows 
 lappy analogies to be applied to the social and economical side. 
 
 Every development consists, according to this view, in the 
 first instance in the formation of single centres for development by 
 the collection of matter; it is in the first degree a history of 
 increasing dimensions and accumulating positiveness, as compared 
 with the surroimding state: Integration. Bcfrides this, it is a 
 histoi'y of gro\ving inner vaiiation. The homogeneous sti'uctm-e 
 gives way to the improvement of pai-ts, which develop themselves 
 independently in an increasing degree and ever undertake more 
 varied functions. But in proportion as the parts become different 
 from one another their mutual dependence increases. Tlie one 
 cannot exist without the other; a change of the part alters the 
 whole ; a disturliance of the jiart disturbs the whole: Differentia- 
 tion. Tliis is applicable to physiological as well as social 
 occurrences. 
 
 Thus the development progresses from the minute living form of 
 the lowest class to the powerful phase of the higher animal 
 world ; from the protoplast, which is very little different from 
 its surroundings, to definite wholes, complete of themselves, and 
 sharply define^l from their surroundings. Whilst in the lower 
 stages of development the inner structure is homogeneous, an 
 increasingvariationof the parts is ever formed ; in place of similar- 
 shaped cellular formations appear complicated organisms. 
 Originally every part performs all functions ; thus the original 
 particle performs the functions of nourishment and perpetuation 
 at the same time. Later on there is developed for every function 
 a special organ. Therewith the mutual dependency of the parts 
 upon one another increases ; for instance, of the heart upon the 
 nerve system, and of the whole upon the parts. Those lower 
 stages of life can be separated at will ; they still live on. The 
 mutilation of one of the organs of the higher organism is detri- 
 mental to all the other organs, indeed can kill the whole organism 
 
 (6): 
 
 6. Compare, for this, Herbert Spencer : " First Principles " and " Principles 
 of Biology," part I. 
 
 F 
 
(56 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 Economical development is also principally a history of enlarg- 
 ing dimensions and increasing separation from the surround- 
 ings. Firstly, small works are spread over the whole country; 
 as against these stand the modem gigantic mills, which localise 
 themselves geographically. 
 
 Tliere is also here the same increaf>ing division of labour. 
 Whilst originally all trades are joined together in one works — 
 the self-providing farm, the ancient municipality of the past — 
 the farming interest separates itself from the textile industrj-, 
 this from the preparation of metals, etc. But therewith in- 
 creases the mutual dependency of the single works. The original 
 isolated establishment can be sei)arated without disadvantage 
 from its like ; the establishment founded on division of labour 
 and exchange, if torn from its connection with the whole, perishes 
 or falls back to the former basis of existence. 
 
 The same thing applies if we take only one trade into con- 
 sideration — say the textile industry. Originally its inner 
 structure is uniform ; ever\' one of the small establishments 
 produces the raw materials, manipulates them, and uses them. 
 Also where barter later appears, the small trader is producer 
 and merchant concurrently. As against this stands modern 
 industry, in which all these functions are separated — the production 
 and the consumption, the technical and the commercial element. 
 A special market is formed for the raw materials, a special one 
 for the articles produced, and both markets are separated from 
 the manufactory. All three links are joined by connecting ones. 
 Also in the manufacturing process there is progressive division of 
 labour: it is cheaper to produce 1,000 of A than 500 of A and 
 500 of B. But here, also, with progressive di^^sion of labour 
 there is an increasing dependency of the single establishments 
 upon one another. A disturbance of the raw-material market 
 exercises its damaging influence on the manufacturing and 
 selling : while sale stagnations are inimical to the two preceding 
 links. The industry becomes more and more a complete 
 organisation, made up by a number of isolated organisations 
 dispersed over the whole country, but remaining similar to one 
 another — a complete organism, which is formed out of different 
 kinds of units, geographically concentrated, depending upon one 
 another. 
 
 No industry is more fitting to confirm these principles of 
 Herbert Spencer than the English cotton industry. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 67 
 
 In this respect the concentration of the industry and therewith 
 the developing division of laboiu* is most striking. Lancashire, 
 or rather the southerly portion of the county, not 25 English 
 square miles in extent, becomes the sole seat of this world- 
 industry, which was originally by no means so arranged (7). 
 The once not unimportant Irish industry has ceased; Scotland, 
 which at one time entered into competition with Lancashire, has 
 been confined to some specialties. The population of England 
 has increased threefold since the beginning of the century, that 
 of Lancashire sixfold ; some of the single industrial towns — 
 Oldham, for instance — twenty-fold (8). 
 
 As Lancashire to-day is the seat of the industiy, Liverpool is 
 the world's market for cotton, Manchester that for yarns and 
 woven goods. 
 
 But, closely allied ^vith the local bringing together of the 
 industry, we have the concentration of the single mills. Accord- 
 ing to olHcial sources these were on the average in Eng- 
 land (8a) : — 
 
 In 1850, per mill 10,858 spindles. 
 
 ,, 1885, ,, 15,227 „ 
 
 „ 1856, ,, 155 power-looms. 
 
 „ 1885, , 213 
 
 But these figures do not nearly represent the real conditions. 
 Remote mills scarcely coming into consideration for the industry 
 are included, as well as such as still combine weaving and 
 spinning. If we only bring those mills into consideration which 
 solely spin or weave, there were already in 1878, per mill, 24,738 
 spindles and 305 power-looms (9). But much more do these 
 figures increase if we consider the real seats of the industry. 
 According to a personal communication from Mr. Sam. Andrew, 
 the Master-Spinners' Secretary at Oldham, the average number 
 of spindles in his district amounts to from 60,000 to 65,000 ; for 
 the " limited " concerns, so early as the middle of the " eighties,'' 
 to 65,342. There are in this district spinning mills up to 
 185,000 spindles. I am also indebted to a personal communica- 
 
 7. Compare Baines, pp. 19 and 238. 
 
 8. Compare "Co-operative Wholesale Annual" (1884), p. 106; do. (1887), 
 p. 332. 
 
 8a. These statistics are based upon figures which do not distinguish between 
 spinning and weaving mills, because the official census of 1850 was so arranged. 
 The number of spindles per spinning mill is, of course, greater, 
 
 9. Ellison : " Cotton Trade," p. 72. 
 
Q 
 
 G8 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 tion from Mr. Rawlinson, Secretary of the WeaA'ing Association 
 of Nortli Lancashire, for the following information. According 
 to liim the average number of power-looms per weaving-shed is 
 600; the highest nimiber in one building, 2,200 ; those belonging 
 to one firm, 4,500. The lowest number is 110 to 130, because 
 with such mills tlie employer requires only one overlooker, whom 
 he would have to pay if even less looms were at work. There is 
 an exception in Burnley — a weaving-shed with GO looms ; in this 
 instance, however, the employer was formerly an operative, and is 
 his own overlooker. 
 
 One circumstance is to be noted here which has helped forward 
 the concentration of the mills: the extension of the "limited ' 
 principle. It appears especially advantageous for spinning con- 
 cerns whose working is uniform and whose market is continuous. 
 
 At the present time limited concerns have the upper liand in 
 spinning. In Oldliamjiffire than 80 per c ent, of t he w^hole 
 spindles belong to limited companies.^ It li'generally acknow- 
 ledged that this developmentr^diich lias o ccurred si nce the 
 "seventies," has led to an extraordinary accumulation of capital. 
 Tlius the best authority on the English cotton industry, 
 Mr. S. Andrew, said before the Royal Commission on Depression 
 of Trade : — " The limited principle has brought many benefits to 
 the country. It came into existence with us at a time when tlie 
 lowering of production costs in the cotton industry was a question 
 of life or death. Private firms at the time did not quite keep pace 
 with the requirements of the time : limited concerns arose and 
 undertook the lead, which they have never yet lost since that 
 time." In another portion he mentions how the very great 
 accumulation of capital secured the acquisition of the most 
 im])roved technical arrangements by those companies (10). 
 The limited principle seems to be less suitable for weaving-mills, 
 because these demand adaptations to fashion and market varia- 
 tions, especially those weaving-mills making fancy goods for the 
 European markets. In the latter branch an employer following 
 
 10. Compare also Ellison : " Cotton Trade," p. 136 ; further, " Co-operative 
 Wholesale Annual " (1884), which, on page 174, contains a list of the limited 
 spinning-mills at work in Oldham at that time, along with the number of 
 spindles. A similar list is published periodically by the Oldham Sharebrokers' 
 Association, which, in addition to the number of spindles, gives also the market 
 value of the shares, the amount paid per share, nominal value and number of 
 shares, as well as the last dividend, etc. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 09 
 
 the iiiarket, and with a taste for art, is to be desired (11). Ou 
 the other hand the regularity of Oriental conditions grants to the 
 greater portion of the cotton-weaving mills of Lancashire the 
 advantage of a similar regular staple industry. If European 
 taste changes according to months and seasons, that of the 
 Hindoo changes only after hundreds, even thousands of years. 
 It is therefore correctly stated in Liincashire that the demand 
 from India year by year for certain cotton stuffs is as sure as that 
 the English nation requires every year a certain quantity of 
 wheat. 
 
 In the weaving branch the limited principle is, by reason cf 
 the causes mentioned, less extended, and is certainly confined to 
 the staple industry for the Eastern markets. Still, according to 
 Mr. Ilawlinson's communication, about 10 per cent, of the weav- 
 ing-mills of his district are also limited concerns. 
 
 Tlio value of this concentration of the industry is best under- 
 stood if one takes into account the division of labour made 
 possible by it. The latter, first developed in the " thirties " for 
 the raw-cotton market, has since then taken hold of the whole 
 cotton trade — the manipulation as well as the market for yarns 
 and woven goods. 
 
 We will follow the cotton on its way from the importer to the 
 export merchant. The cotton market in Liverpool, highly de- 
 veloped as early as the "thirties," has entered since then under 
 the influence of modern traffic facilities — i.e., the application of 
 steam power to transport. In the continual development that 
 has necessarily followed it has been an example in general for 
 the technicalities of the world's commerce (12). 
 
 The first of these occurrences was the opening of the railway 
 from Manchester to Liverpool. Up to this time the spinner 
 chiefly bought from the dealer in Manchester, either from his 
 warehouse or according to samples provided. From this time 
 Liverpool and Manchester became practically one city. The 
 spinner could go just as easily to the broker in Liverpool as to 
 the dealer in Manchester, and choose there and then on the spot 
 
 11. Herein consists, for instance, the strength of certain German industries. 
 Not only the director, but also his wife, are here often personally engaged in 
 designing patterns, often of remarkable beauty, as, for instance, in many 
 export goods of the Saxon Voigtland. 
 
 12. Compare, for instance, Fuchs: " The Organisation of Liverpool Cotton 
 Commerce" (" Schmoller's Annual," 14th year, part 1.), and the second portion 
 of Ellison's " Cotton Trade," which is devoted to the cotton market. 
 
70 THE COTTON TRADE IN -ENGLAND 
 
 what he wanted. At the same time the paying capabilities of the 
 spinners had increased sufficiently to dispense with the giving of 
 credit on the part of the dealer. Since that time, therefore, the 
 spinners began to buy direct from the brokers in Liverpool ; the 
 old dealer gradually disappeared altogether. 
 
 An event of far greater importance was the laying of the 
 transatlantic cable (1866) and the consequent improvement of a 
 network of telegraph wires encircling the whole world. Liverpool 
 had now approached nearer to the American Continent than it 
 had been before this time to the neighbouring city of Manchester. 
 Therewith disappeared the necessity of a special class of business 
 people, whose particular forte had been the knowledp:e of the 
 raw-material market. In a similar direction tended the opening 
 of the Suez Canal and the extension of Indian railwjiys. Tlic 
 brokers themselves partly became importers, the importers partly 
 sold without consideration of the brokers, and there followed a 
 blending of both classes. This development reached its climax, 
 after heated contentions between the Cotton Brokers' AsBociation 
 and the Liverpool Cotten Exchange (formed by the importers 
 in opposition), by the formation of the Liverpool Cotton 
 Association, consisting of both classes (1881). Therewith the old 
 difference was in reality banished, even though the older merchant 
 firms, backed up strongly by capital, frequently sold through 
 brokers, in opposition to those younger firms which werj r,t the 
 same time brokers and merchants. As modern technical skill 
 only puts aside the hand-worker understanding a particular 
 work, so it puts aside also the merchant controlling only one 
 closed market ; it unites the markets. 
 
 There are, therefore, only the inij^orter and the spinner, and, 
 between both, the buying broker left remaining as different 
 types. Tlic buying broker so far justifies his existence that he 
 is superioi' to the spinner — a non-commercial man, even to-day — 
 in his knowledge of the market. Tlie existence of the broker 
 makes it possible for the millowuer to concentrate his filtentioi» 
 on the progress within his factory, and to ti'ouble himself as 
 little as possible about commercial conditions. 
 
 But the relation between spimier and broker had so far 
 changed to the disadvantage of the spinner that the class which 
 up to now had kept the buying brokers within bounds had 
 disappeared. As long as the selling broker existed In the opposite 
 interest, the separation was strictly kei)t intaci, whoreby the 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 71 
 
 selling brukers solely represented the mlorests of tlio importer, 
 and the buying brokers those of the spinner, by tlie separate class 
 restraint which the business world regulates jnore than any 
 other. The latter had thus the sei'vices of a class of people 
 whose interests wei'e identical with his own, and who repre- 
 sented only the buyer's side. With the merging of the selling 
 brokers and importers into one class nothing hindered the buying 
 brokers any longer from selling the cotton on their own account, 
 or at the same time transacting business as selling brokers for 
 importers. Instead of buying as cheap as possible, their interest 
 was now veiy often in selling as dear'as possible. 
 
 Some means were therefore necessary to force back the broker 
 to the interests of the spinners. This was only possible by a 
 section of the spinners banding together, and by means of paid 
 export serv^ants regulating the transactions of the broker. 
 
 This was achieved by the formation of the Cotton Buying 
 Co., a limited company originally consisting of 20 to 30 limited 
 cotton-si»inning concerns (13). Its object is to buy cottoji in the 
 Liverpool market, for which the members have to pay the 
 ordinary broker's charges ; the balance above the expenditure is 
 divided at the end of the year in the shape of a dividend. This 
 company encountered at the beginning the most violent opposi- 
 tion of the brokers. It only succeeded in holding up its head 
 by a clever application of the antagonism — not yet vanished — 
 between the brokers and importers, by the new company com- 
 bining with the latter against the broker. The company has 
 since then made its way on the Liverpool market under the 
 direction of Samuel Andrew — whom we have several times 
 mentioned — secretary of the large Master Spinners' Association 
 of Oldham. If it only includes a minority of the total number of 
 spindles of Lancashire, it has certainly compelled the brokers to 
 attend to the interests of the spinners more than before — in the 
 same way that the Co-operative Societies forced down the extreme 
 profits of the retail shopkeepers. The possibility also of an 
 extension of the operations of the Buying Company to America 
 already influences similarly the importers. Corresponding to 
 the development delineated, the burdens laid on the price of 
 cotton by the Liverpool market have become less and less since 
 
 13. For this development, which Ellison and Fuchs did not describe, com- 
 pare the business reports of the said company (12, Clegg-street, Oldham), and 
 " Co-operative Wholesale Annual " (1883), p. 183. 
 
72 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 the " thirties." At that time cotton, even when the old merchant 
 had disappeared, was still made dearer by 3 J per cent. ; 2 J per 
 cent, went to the importer and J per cent, to each of the two 
 brokers. To-day Liverpool demands only 1 to H per cent, for 
 the importer and ^ per cent, for the buying broker (It)— not 
 too high a payment for the advantages which the Liverpool 
 market secm^s to English spinners. 
 
 If the market, when compared with the "thirties," shows a 
 simplification of the commercial routine, this is due to the 
 lessening of the risks by the influence of modern improvements 
 in communication, which brought the countries of the world 
 nea.i\3r together. But as well ;is the traffic there was a second 
 moment which lessened the dangers of business ; the progressing 
 improvement of commercial life itself, especially the introduction 
 of business in "futures." This weakened, as Ellison distinctly 
 ])oints out, the risk of imports so much, that a section of import 
 merchants existing solely for this purpose, and standing in con- 
 nection with the market only through the broker, became 
 unnecessary. 
 
 In the next place it is certain that the flourishing of business 
 in futures neutralised the too violent fluctuations since the 
 "sixties." Human intelligence is successful in an increasing 
 degree in foreseeing want and abundance, and by means of 
 speculative transactions compensating for their influences (15). 
 Therewith a formerly unknown equality of prices was .attained 
 for the most important raw materials of human use, especially, 
 next to wheat, for cotton. But independently of this, business 
 in futures helps the importer directly, as an assurance against 
 risk. If he buys cotton at a favourable price in the producing 
 land he can immediately sell in Liverpool the same qiiantity for 
 the date at whic^h the cotton, as far as can be seen, will really 
 arrive; by a further fall in cotton prices and loss on the real 
 business he can then recoup himself by the speculative protit on 
 futures; by the rising of prices he can balance the speculative 
 loss by the profit on the real goods. He is placed in the same 
 position as if prices since the transaction of business had not- 
 changed. 
 
 Thus, side by side with the development of communication, 
 the progressive development of commerce led to a simplifying 
 
 U. Compare Ellison, p. 2S0. 
 
 15. Compare Sonndorfer : " Technik des Welthandels," p. 14. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 7S 
 
 of that division of labour shown by the " thirties." On the other 
 hand, this development called new organisations of commerce 
 into being. Yirat, in this respect, comes the founding of the 
 "Cotton Clearing-house," in 1876, whereby the clearing system 
 was applied for the first time to trade in products; then the 
 formation of the "Settlement Association" in 1882, with the 
 object of making certain, by periodical balancing of the parties, 
 the final {payments of the dift'erences in " future " transactions ; 
 lastly the formation of the " Cotton Bank," for facilitating the 
 method of payment. Without going further into these institu- 
 tions, it is sufficient here to point to the fact that since the 
 "thirties" the structural features of the already (at that time) 
 many-linked cotton market have become to-day still more com- 
 plicated. The result of this development wa« a regulation of 
 extreme price variations and cheapening of the raw material for 
 the cotton industry. 
 
 This far-extending linking of the market has been followed by 
 a similar linking within the industry, whereof in the " thirties,' 
 even, scarcely a trace was to be seen. In the first place, weaving 
 and spinning have separated themselves. Only firms which date 
 from the older period couple both together ; new mills are devottyi 
 either to the one or the other trade, and are arranged under ilio 
 most favourable conditions for it. Herewith there comes at once 
 the advantage of not needing any longer managers who are expert 
 in both branches. Therewith weaving has also separated itself 
 locally from spinning : whilst the latter clings to circles nearer 
 Manchester, weaving describes a semicircle further north. Tlie 
 one seeks the declivities of the hills, with the level ground beyond, 
 the other the valleys cutting through the hilly country. But 
 division of labour has advanced further. Oldham is the chief 
 seat of the great staple industry which produces the medium 
 counts of yarn. ITiere alone revolve 11 millions of spindles. 
 The district of Oldham extends to Ashton, Middleton, and ihe 
 factory places situated to the south of Manchester. Bolton, 
 Chorley, and Preston, which border on the central point of com- 
 merce in the North, spin, on tlie other hand, fine counts, which, 
 owing to climatic advantages, form a monopoly for England. 
 Tlie chief mass of weaving-mills seek the towns situated to the 
 north of these, especially Blackburn and Burnley, in front of 
 them, and extending to Todmorden and Rochdale. Burnley 
 makes ordinary printings; Blackburn clothes India and China 
 
74 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 (so-called dliooties and T-clotlis) ; Prestou produces tiuer plaiu 
 calicoes for tli© home and Continental markets, llio factory 
 places lying nearer to Manchester, and the tirst customers for 
 spinning, have mostly their specialty in more complicated woven 
 goods. Thus Oldham has cotton velvets, Bolton figured goods, 
 Ashton and Glossop printing cloths cf the tiist quality, the district 
 of Colne, situated between these and the northern weaving dis- 
 trict, makes ordinary coloured goods. 
 
 On the other hand, in Manchester, the central point of the 
 industry, manufacturing is gradually disappearing. Tlie mills 
 there are mostly of an elder date, but are still of historical 
 interest as former cradles of the great industry. Manchester is 
 constantly becoming more and more simply the seat of the export 
 trade. Thirty years ago goods were packed in the northerly 
 weaving districts for export. xVt the present time this takes 
 place in Manchester — in many cases in the cellars underneatli 
 the high warehouses, which often go down several stories into 
 the earth, and in which, by means of steam engines and hydraulic 
 presses, the bales of yarn and woven goods are pressed into half 
 their bulk, and even less. The continually increasing value of 
 the land (16) drives the industry away from the city of com- 
 merce. But the environs of Manchester are also abandoned by 
 the industry. It is generally admitted as the reason that only 
 in places which are quite exclusively devoted to the industry are 
 working populations, highly trained and thoroughly to be de- 
 pended upon, to be found (17). 
 
 How important is the existence of these exclusively industrial 
 localities, which, situated in the neighbourhood of the centre of 
 commerce, combine the advantages of centralisation with those of 
 decentralisation, is confirmed by Marsden (18). "It can easily 
 be demonstrated that it would be more profitable to plant a mill 
 in a locality possessing skilled labour and in proximity to the 
 markets, paying full prices for buildings and machinery, than it 
 
 16. Compare " Auswanderung der Industrie nach dem flachen Lande " 
 (Jannasch: " Europaische Bauiuwollindiistrie.'' 11 and 12). There is. how- 
 ever, by no means a decentralisation in Lancashire, but rather an organisation 
 of the industry round its central point 
 
 17. Compare J. 0. Fielden: "Sketch of the British Cotton Industries" 
 (" Co-operatiTe Wholesale Annual," 1887). p. 330. 
 
 18. Marsden: •• Cotton Spinning" (Loudon, 1888), p. 60. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 75 
 
 would be to accept one of the same capacity as a free and 
 untrammelled gift, but located in a place not possessing these 
 advantages." 
 
 The division of labour which exists between the industrial 
 places extends to the single mills. One employer produces 
 at the present time few specialties. Tlie large spinning- 
 mills of Oldham and Bolton spin, for instance, not more than one 
 count, or at most but a few counts, and these from year to year. In 
 the sivme way many weaving-mills of North Lancashire produce 
 only one sort of current staple goods (19). 
 
 This far-reaching division of labour is only made possible by 
 the certainty of sale which is guaranteed by the organisation of 
 commerce in Manchester. This also has made the principles of 
 centralisation and division of labom* useful in a high degree. 
 ITie most important in this respect is, that the millowner does 
 not himself go to customers, but the wholesale merchant or 
 exporter acts between both. 
 
 We have above followed cotton up to its buying by the spinner 
 through the broker. A highly-developed railway and canal net- 
 work assists the traffic from the market of the raw material to the 
 centres of production. Whilst the older spinning-mills are almost 
 always situated on canals, and the cotton is raised from the boat 
 to the immediate neighbourhood of the mixing-room, the newer 
 spinning-mills are more and more dependent upon railway com- 
 munication, often being connected by railway sidings with the 
 main line. 
 
 The opening of the Ship Canal now being constructed will 
 mean a further facilitation of traffic. Alreiidy at this time one 
 sees those tremendous docks excavated in the neighbourhood of 
 Manchester which only now require connection with the sea in 
 order to receive here, in the middle of the seat of industiy, its 
 raw materials direct from the producing land. (19a.) A ten-years 
 agitation in speeches and writings — carried on by employers as 
 well as employed — preceded this colossal undertaking. It was 
 authorised on the 30th July, 1885, with aquisition rights, along 
 with which, as a condition, the authority of Parliament had fixed 
 
 10. Compare " Protokolle der Reichsenquete fiir die Baumwoll und Leiuen- 
 industrie." p. 380. Eighty thousand English spindles have spun, since the 
 commencement of the "sixties," the same two counts — ;>2's twist, 40'8 weft — 
 an example of many. 
 
 19a. Now in full operation. 
 
76 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 a maximum-rate tai'itt'. Accordiiig to this, tlic carriage fruiii 
 Liveiijooi to Oldham, up to now just as dear as from Bombay to 
 Liverpool, will be cheapened at least by one-third (20). 
 
 Since the spimier mostly buys the raw cotton for cash or on 
 short credit (21) it is to his interest to sell the yarn in the 
 shortest time. Tlierefore the time during which the cotton is 
 in the mill is always limited to a short span — even to only a few 
 days. In the same way, as little cotton as possible is to be kept 
 on stock. The English spiimer generally goes every eight days 
 to Liverpool (22) in order to buy there his weekly wants, just as 
 he once <jr twice in tlie week sells his yarn on the Exchange in 
 Manchester. Losses of inteiest therewith disapjjear, and the 
 essential working capital is lessened. Only under extraordinarily 
 favourable cotton prices does he buy on stock. Tliis develop- 
 ment of the conditions of payment has a further advantage for the 
 English si)inner ; since the exchange prices for yarn generally 
 follow cotton jjrices, he suffers so nmch less under the fluctua- 
 tions of the raw-material |)rices the nearer the buying of the raw- 
 material and the sale of the yai'u approach each other as regards 
 time. 
 
 A necessiU-y condition for tliis system of production is the 
 Exchange in Manchester, which determines the prices of yarn 
 for the world (23). Tlie s|)inner does not need to seek for his 
 customers, but he ciin sell his production daily at 'Change prices. 
 The spinners sell partly themselves and j)artly seek the aid of 
 agent!!. Cash payments on short credit predominate. The 
 weiiver or the exi)orter are buyers. Tlie agent receives, as the 
 medium for business, a simple commission, in which case he gives 
 the spinner the name <if the buyer, and the spinner takes all the 
 ri^k. The relation is similar if the agent has a fixed salary. It 
 is, however, more frequent to-day that the agent undertiikes " del 
 credere," in wliich case he bears, for an increased commission, all 
 
 20. Compare J. C. Fieldeu'S articles during the Days of the Agitation, 
 in the Mnnrhrstpr Examiner; further. "Co-operative Wholesale Annual" 
 (1889). p. 394. 
 
 21. " Protokolle" just mentioned, p. 90. The German buyer has, accord- 
 ing to these, to pay cash in ten days at Liverpool ; in Holland and Bremen in 
 three months. 
 
 22. This is confirmed as an advantage for the Englishman by the German 
 Examining Commission, p. 3G. 
 
 2X " Protokolle der deutschen Enquete," pp. 353, 399. (The yarn prices 
 in Germany follow those in England, plus expenses, jfreight, and duty. ) 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 77 
 
 the risk, and, as the spinner frequently does not get to knoAV the 
 i-nnie of the third party, in reality acts as buyer for himself. In 
 this case the a^ent pays the spinner, within 14 days, in cash, 
 llierefore there is also hea'e the formation of a special organisation 
 for r« special risk. 
 
 In the same way as yarns, plain p^oods, which form the great 
 staple industry of Lancashire, and are pro^luced by niMnufacturers 
 j^rincipally on their own account, are sold through brokers at 
 'Change jirices. "Del credere" commission and cash payment 
 (3 to 7 days after delivery) predominate also with these goo<ls. 
 Tliese brokers play a great role on the field of weaving, as they 
 in many cases, even before the payments are due, give payments 
 on accoinit after receipt of the goods, and also look after per- 
 manent employment for the weaver and inform him of changes 
 in the demand. 
 
 It is otherwise with fancy goods, which are not 'Change articles. 
 They are produced to the order of wholesale merchants. Similarly, 
 the ]^rinter mostly prints to order ; he only jirints his excess of 
 production to designs on his own account. 
 
 All manufactured articles of the cotton industry, yarns and 
 woven goods as well as printings, move at last into the hands of 
 the wholesale merchant. He is at the present time one of the 
 most important personages in the whole trade. He has developed 
 himself from that agent who in the "thirties" attended to the 
 consignments of the manufacturers. But he has become a buyer 
 for himself, and the risks have been transferred to him. This is 
 the case even when the foreign customer personally chooses his 
 goods at the manufacturer's warehouse, because, as customary, 
 the business is still settled with the export, merchant, who is a 
 guarantee to the manufacturer for prompt and certain payment. 
 Therewith the choosing of customers, the taking into account of 
 foreign fashions, of business conditions, and differences of ex- 
 change in the whole world, is taken from thei manufacturer's 
 shoulders. 
 
 Only a few firms, mostly such as have existed from olden times, 
 have continued to export on their own account and risk (24) and 
 this possibility keeps the business profits of the merchants within 
 reasonable bounds. If the average value of English yam exports 
 
 24. (Compare Royal Commission on Trade, Second Report, part I. (5,673). 
 
J 
 
 78 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 Rtands to-day at 4(1. higher tlian the average 'Change prices in 
 Manchester, this is not too high a charge for the risks to be 
 incurred, bundling, packing, etc. (25). But the wholesale mer- 
 chants in Manchester, also, do not sell by any means to the retail 
 merchant, but, apart from home wholesale houses, to foreign 
 export houses. The latter have very often English partners in 
 India, China^ and Africa, who further the distribution of English 
 industrial prmluctions with all their power (2G). 
 
 Tlie English cotton industry therefore at the present day also 
 couples extreme combination with exti-eme division of laboiu-, 
 technical as well as commercial. Compared with it-, the German 
 industry stands on a step of development which reminds us of 
 England in the "thirties." Certainly, Germany also shows a 
 certain geographical division of labour. German spinning and 
 weaving of j^lain calico liave their seat in the South, especially 
 in Alsace, Baden, and Sual)ia, Tliey need protective duties against 
 England, and supply only inland wants. Alongside exist the 
 North German finishing liranches and fancy-weaving sheds, 
 especially on the Rhine and in Saxony. But in the North as well 
 a« in the South the industry is dispersed over more extensive 
 districts, and is lacking in commercial centres. 
 
 Also in the size of the single mills Germany stands behind 
 England. According to the Commission for Cotton and Linen 
 Tndustr\', in 1878, the average number of spindles had increased 
 from 15,000 in 1859 to 21,000 in 1877 (27). Tlie average 
 number of looms given in 1877 for weaving-mills is 287 per mill. 
 These particulars refer, however, solely to those mills which gave 
 returns to the Commission, therefore mostly the larger ones — 
 economically coming into consideration — whilst those not drawn 
 into account would materially reduce this average. 
 
 Unfortunately there are in Germany no statistics taken of the 
 number of spindles and looms. We are therefor;, for ihe present 
 time dei)endent u]>on private sources ; as far PiS the infonnation 
 given by W. Rieger (Stuttgart, 1893) goes, concerning the 
 
 25. Compare Andrew : ' ' Fifty Years' Cotton Trade," p. 7. 
 
 26. "Commercial Relations of the United States," No. 12 (Oct., 1881), 
 p. 102. 
 
 27. Report " Stat. Ermittelungen," Heft II. , pp. 4 and 5. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 
 
 79 
 
 number of spindles nnd looms on cotton in Germany — ol* 877 
 firms only 748 have given peiliculars — ^th© following figures are 
 ai)plicable: — 
 
 
 Cotton Spindles. 
 
 Cotton Looms. 
 
 District. 
 
 
 Average 
 
 
 Average 
 
 
 Total. 
 
 perBpiniiine 
 Mill. 
 
 Total. 
 
 per Weaving 
 Mill. 
 
 Alsace and Lorraine 
 
 1,187,738 
 
 28,280 
 
 27,110 
 
 467 
 
 Baden 
 
 402,088 
 
 19,148 
 
 11,966 
 
 307 
 
 Wurttemturg and Hohenzollern 
 
 490,492 
 
 19,980 
 
 11,865 
 
 237 
 
 Saxony 
 
 741,246 
 
 16.450 
 
 19,403 
 
 185 
 
 Silesia 
 
 74,600 
 
 6,782 
 
 5,630 
 
 268 
 
 Rhine Province and Westphalia 
 
 1,052,048 
 
 13,663 
 
 24,987 
 
 209 
 
 Remainder of North Germany 
 
 265,032 
 
 26,503 
 
 7,619 
 
 169 
 
 Rhine Palatinate 
 
 98,570 
 
 19,714 
 
 1,628 
 
 203 
 
 Bavaria 
 
 1,075,735 
 
 44,822 
 
 19,745 
 
 420 
 
 Totals (27a) 
 
 5,396,549 
 
 20,756 
 
 129,983 
 
 264 
 
 The total number is rather too little (27b) the average number 
 rather too high, several firms, and prolmbly the smaller one>s 
 have furnished no particulai's (27e). 
 
 German Stat© statistics for 1882 show a, further extension of 
 small industrial concerns in th© textile branch, although here a 
 direct comparison with English figures is imposible. It is stated 
 that per spinning ©stiiblishment there are not more than 10 
 }iersons. This statement must only, however, be taken along 
 with the consideration that amongst these spinning mills cottage 
 industrial concerns which reel, as w^ell as establislimeaits engaged 
 in manufacturing wadding and candle-wicks, are included. 
 On the other hand, there are in England, according to Mr. Drage, 
 secretary of the Ijiabour Commission, at the present time no 
 special mills for reeling, as formerly 20 years ago. These 
 operations are performed either in the spinning mill before the 
 yarn is sold, or in the weaving mill after it is bought (27d). 
 
 27a. The 600,000 German spindles spinning Vigogne yarns, also cotton, are 
 not included. 
 
 27b. A great difficulty in giving a comparison with the English figures is the 
 circumstance — which wrecks nearly all international comparisons statistically — 
 that in England the single mills are counted, whereas in Germany, only the 
 firms. It is certain that many firms have several mills, and therefore the aver- 
 age number of spindles and looms per firm must be greater than per mill. 
 
 27c. I myself, as well as the author, from personal observation, have little 
 confidence in these figures. (Translator.) 
 
 27d. Concerning these statistical difficulties compare my contribution in 
 Schraoller's " Jahrbuch fur Gesetzgebung u.s.w.," 1893, pp. 1,224 to 1,226. 
 
80 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 111 a much greater degree than spinning does weaving hear a 
 cottage industrial character. But since first cr.tton, then woollen, 
 then half- woollen goods are prwluced on the sacie looms, special 
 figures conceining cotton weaving are scarcely possible in this 
 direction. 
 
 In the whole German textile industry there were in 1882 still 
 42 per cent, of the oj)eratives occupied in small mills (mills with 
 under 5 j)ersons), and 38 }ier cent, in large mills (over 50 persons). 
 
 The relation between cottage iinlustiy and factory work in the 
 three most important branches of the textile industry are given 
 in the following table: — 
 
 Employed, without further 
 
 ore n pat ion. 
 
 Preparation of spinning materials, spinning. . 103,7.')0 .. 28,391 
 
 Weaving 171,00.'. .. 178,060 
 
 Needlework, knitting, and lace .. .. 23,077 .. 08,248 
 
 Totals 2n7,')22 .. 274.G01) 
 
 Losch (28) renijuks, concerning these figures, that the total 
 pro<luction of the i)ersons mentione<l, if applieil to centralised 
 industries, would re(iuire a far less number of operatives, and 
 would make possible a far higher st^mdard of living for the indi- 
 vidual worker, and a far greater capability for competition on 
 the part of ricrman industry'. Indee<l, these figures include the 
 hunger-suffering of the German cottage weavers, the banishment 
 of which is only to be ho|)e<l for by the banishment of cottage 
 industry itself. 
 
 Tlie advantages which flow to English industry on account of 
 it/? greater concentration are manifold and real. England has at 
 once the advantage of the cotton market. Tliat Germany has 
 freed itself fiom liiverpool and buys direct from the j>ro<lucing 
 land is certainly a step forward ; for the foreign spinner had 
 always to pay more in Liverpool than the Englishman — acconling 
 
 28. H. Losch (Leipzig, 1892), pp. 171-2. The value of this book is that 
 it examines the backwardness of the technical conditions of our industry, and 
 points out the tremendous waste of human power by the principle of small 
 establishments, '' No law for the protection of the worker ultimately influences 
 the relation of the worker to technical skill," p. 20, The author most zealously 
 advises that centralised industry should be under the control of the State. 
 Does he not remember how Prussia, in fact, tried this during the last century, 
 and, according to Herzberg, Humboldt, and others, nearly came to grief 
 therewith ? Did the productions of State industries ever show themselves 
 capable of competing in the markets of the world ? 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 81 
 
 to the Enquete (Protok., p. 389), 3J per cent. more. But there- 
 with the German is now mot with all the disadvantages caused 
 by the lack of division of labour. Instead of buying every eight 
 days, he must buy months ahead. Besides the loss of interest, 
 he is entangled in the variations of the cotton market, and is 
 forced to speculation. Much too often is he the prey of bad 
 shipments, not according to sample (29). How unfavourable is 
 the position of the individual German spinner can be concluded 
 by the fact that the Cotton Buying Company, representing several 
 millions of spindles, at present does not yet venture to do what 
 the individual German spinner is forced to do — to buy direct in 
 the producing land — so great do the advantages of the Liverpool 
 market (where Eg^^ptian cotton is mostly cheaper than in Mar- 
 seilles) appear to be to the Company (30). 
 
 Some of these disadvantages have been avoided by the fornm- 
 tion of o> cotton mnrket at Bremen. Tlio same came into exist- 
 ence by reason of an agi*eement between the associations of 
 German spinning niill proprietors and Bremen importers in 1886. 
 
 Although ib was recognised that the Bremen cotton market 
 possessed splendid regulations for the business in futm-es, also 
 that classification ond arbitration could be depended upon and 
 were impartial, four lepresentfitives of the German cotton 
 spinners were placed upon the cotton market committee. 
 German spinners have therewith understood how to curtail the 
 dangers of conjuncture losses to the slightest degree. Tlie 
 development of this Bremen market is so much the more hopeful 
 when we consider that to-day almost 1 2 million spindles belong to 
 its natural ten*itory, viz., the German, Swiss, Austrian, Polish, 
 and (partly) Belgian mills. 
 
 The disadvantages of division are not slighter with respect to 
 the mill itself. Whilst in England the spinner and weaver in 
 many cases only produce one or two specialties, the German em- 
 ployer has himdreds of patterns. Therefore he is compelled to 
 frequently alter his machines and to accustom his workmen to 
 new work, which not only means less total production and more 
 
 29. Compare Report of the " Enquetekommission," p. 22; '< Protokolle," 
 pp. 3G, 286, and others. 
 
 :*0. Concerning the disadvantages of buying in the producing country, 
 *' Protokolle," p. 1558. Concerning the position of the Liverpool market to 
 the Continental markets, compare Jannasch, p. GO. 
 
 a 
 
82 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 working costs, but also greater wear and tear (31). Add to this 
 that in Germany the combining of spinning with weaving in the 
 same business — cleaiiy only because the difficulties of selling 
 occur in this case but once — pays the best, exactly as reported by 
 the English Commission in the " thirties " ; to-day, however, the 
 organisation of the market in England makes possible that tech- 
 nical separation between weaving and spinning which is preferable 
 (32). 
 
 Lastly, without concentration highly capable labour is im- 
 possible, because such demands as an essential the sole employ- 
 ment of a population for generations in the same industry. 
 Further, only in the seat of a concentrated industry is labour also 
 with certainty to be met with, whilst German manufacturers often 
 on this ground also must work on at a loss, in order that the 
 laboriously taught labour may not vanish from their grasp, of 
 which instances are supplied from Alsace and other places (33). 
 Especially must South German spinning-mills, mostly situated in 
 isolated places, always attract afresh workers from other branches. 
 Scarcely in working trim, they often leave the mill again in order 
 to go back to agricultural work, to hand-labour, to house serv^ice. 
 Tliis complaint is often repeated in the German Enquete; only 
 fe^v workers think about devoting their lives to factory labour. 
 In the possession of a permanent operative popidation exists the 
 great advantage of England, where such a frequent change of 
 occupation is unknown. The German manufacturers are also 
 agreed that it is not want of capacity which makes the German 
 operative less capable than the English, but much rather the lack 
 of tradition, f=ince he adheres to a decentralized industry. ' Such 
 circumstances decide," says one of the skilled witnesses examined, 
 after he had taken into account certain social-political advantages 
 for the dispersion, "that we can never have the trained workers 
 of England, where children and children's children devote them- 
 
 31. " Protokolle," p. 387, gives 15 per cent as the disadvantage which 
 results to the manufacturers of Alsace as a consequence of having to spin a 
 larger range of counts than formerly. 
 
 32. Compare "ProtokoUe," pp. 29, 409, 452. 
 
 33. For instance, ' ' Protokolle," pp. 360, 387. (A mill which just for the 
 moment wishes to spin fine counts cannot dispense with the therehy imnecessary 
 operatives, because if it goes back to coarse counts, which give employment to 
 more labour, it would not find the operatives at its call. ) Also Grassmann's 
 " Augsburger Industrie," p. 176, informs us of a frequent change of operatives, 
 specially pointing out the custom of the younger workers to change their situa- 
 tions in spring. The compulsory military service has also a disturbing influ- 
 ence in this direction. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 83 
 
 selves for their whole life to factory labour, and where the factory 
 owners, by means of the great training which is there developed 
 in such a form for the tending of machinery, can manage, for 
 instance, 1,000 spindles with 3 to 4 operatives, whilst we need for 
 this number from 6 to 10" (34). 
 
 Centralised industry possesses a further extremely important 
 advantage ; it alone develops machine-making specially and solely 
 for the cotton industiy and its technical progi'ess. This makes 
 possible an important cheapening of establishment as well as 
 working costs compared with mills which introduce their machinery 
 from afar and must keep special repairing shops with highly-paid 
 mechanics, often not fully occupied. In England the erection 
 and repairing is done by neighbouring machinists, who at the 
 same time guarantee the possession of the most highly-developed 
 skill. As in Alsace the concentration of the industry is more 
 extended than in Germany, it alone possesses also machine makers 
 devoted solely to cotton, which certainly are, however, by no means 
 capable of supplying all Germany. The latter remains dependent 
 in the first degree upon English machinery (35). 
 
 The advantages of dispersion are, in comparison, slight. Ex- 
 tremely doubtful is the advantage of lower wages, which represents 
 only too often bad, and therefore dear, labour. Tliis advantage 
 becomes so much weaker the more food becomes cheaper in the 
 centres of traffic than in remote countiy towns. More important 
 is the possession of water-power, on which the dispersion of the 
 German industry is chiefly founded. But also in Germany the 
 gi'adual going over to steam-power is developing itself (36). 
 
 But especially disadvantageous is the decentralisation in respect 
 to the sale. Here also the German manufacturer stands under the 
 same disadvantages with which the English had to struggle in the 
 "thirties." The German manufacture!- still seeks his customers 
 through travellers and agents, and in many instances through 
 retail sellers, whose financial standing is often questionable, whose 
 necessity for credit is always certain. Hence the complaints about 
 
 34. Compare Report of the '* Enquetekommission," pp. 31 and 49 ; " Proto- 
 kolle," pp. 19, 36, 74, 296. 
 
 35. Compare Jannasch : *'Die europdische Baumwollindustrie " (Berlin, 
 1882), pp. 24 and 25. 
 
 36. Compare Report of the Commission, p. 27 ; further, regarding the 
 necessity of going over to steam-power, Engel : " Cotton-Spinning in 
 Saxony*" (1851), p. 11. 
 
84 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 the l)ad conditions of payment in Gcirmany which crop up con- 
 tinually in the En(]uete. Tlie manufacturers had to wait tliree, 
 four, or six months, and even 12 months and longer for payment. 
 In reality there existed "termless terms" — a "complete anarchy 
 in the method of payment" (37). Sir Walter Raleigh once 
 similarly complained to the English that the economical greatness 
 of the Dutch was founded on the system of ca«h payments. 
 
 The disadvantages j)ictured are only to be avoided by progres- 
 sive division of labour. The manufacturer cannot be at the same 
 time commission agent, banker, merchant, and retail dealer (38) ; 
 he neefls sound customers capable of pa^nng. He fares best if the 
 sale is concentrated in one market, and 'Change jiricee simplify 
 the struggle between buyer and seller. Tlie search for customers, 
 foreign as well as home, and the bearing of all possible risks of 
 disposal are in any case difficult enough to necessitate the whole 
 strength of a man. The wholesale merchant alone is in a position 
 to pay the manufacturer in ca.sh or on sure, short terms. But 
 especially where export is in (]uestion is the dispersal of sales an 
 oxti'eme impediment Tlie manufacturer cannot follow the 
 fashions in Australia and South America ; the foreign buyer 
 cannot travel from mill to mill. 
 
 Tljere are undoubtedly at the present time in Germany arrange- 
 ments made for the improvement of this important connecting 
 link between manufacturers and consumers (39). In Alsace there 
 has existed from the French ]^eriod a commission agent (40) for 
 mediating the sales, a function performed in England, later on, 
 by the wholesale merchant. In North Germany exporters have 
 .icte<l in many cases as sellers on their ovm account, as, on the 
 other hand, large home houses have begim to attend in many cases 
 to distribution on the inland market. Tlius German industry 
 strives for that greatly advanced division of labour which in 
 England has developed itself only gradually, and not without diffi- 
 
 37. Report, pp. 100 and 101. '• Protokolle," pp. 51, 52, 75, 197, 20C,211, 
 225, 202, 314, 413, 450, 499, etc., etc. 
 
 38. " Protokolle," p. 434, Even the largest spinning-mills sell lots of 
 100-200 lb. , p. 469. Many weaving-raills supplied to measurements in ells 
 required. 
 
 39. " ProtokoUe," pp. 51, 206, 248, 360, 410, 477. 
 
 40. There existed in Alsace, before the war, a cloth market, on which the 
 chief articles had a 'Change-like value. Since then it has disappeared, and 
 the manufacturers of Alsace, in many cases, are just the ones who appear to 
 visit the retail sellers. Report, pp. 100 and 101. " Protokolle," pp. 314, 351. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 85 
 
 culties ill individual cases. Without successors, especially on the 
 field ol' coiiiniercial organisation, competition in open markets ia 
 apt to be impossible. 
 
 But the comparison with German conditions just shows how the 
 English development, w^hich we have followed, is nothing excep- 
 tional, but is rather the consequential improvement of the exist- 
 once of centraliseil industry itself under the pressure of the world's 
 market. A concentrated industry with division in labour is, in 
 the world's mart, plainly supreme over one decentralised and split 
 up. 
 
 As the first developing tendency of centralised industry, one 
 can set up the following : Striving after concentration and division 
 of labom- (Integration and Differentiality). 
 
 //. — Replacement of Raw Materials and Labour hy Capital. 
 
 A.— Spinning. 
 
 If we look at raw materials, lab(jur, and capital as the most 
 important producing elements, the progress of skill iu every in- 
 dustry develops itself first in that wherein the material element is 
 eclipsed by labour and capital, as already described by Josiah 
 Tucker (I). This shows itself in several directions. On the one 
 hand we learn to use inferior material, and then to produce the ob- 
 ject desired with a less quantity of given material. I'or both of these 
 assertions cotton spinning provides proofs. At the present time 
 there are spun, on an average, qualities inferior to those sj)unin the 
 " thirties," notably East Indian cotton, whilst formerly only the 
 Ijettcr American was used. Especially was this tendency in- 
 liuenced by the American Civil War, which also taught us how to 
 tre^it shorter staple with success (2). We have also, in addition, 
 made progi'ess in the more minute using-up of the material. Thus 
 in 1834 waste formed one^seventh of the raw material ; to-day it 
 only counts for one-tenth (3). Besides this, a great portion of the 
 waste is now successfully utilised by mixing with better cotton, or 
 
 1. " Four Tracts on Political and Commercial Subjects." 
 
 2. S. Andrew : " Fifty Years' Cotton Trade," p. G. 
 
 X This is, of course, only a surmise based upon the particulars of Ure and 
 Andrew ; as a matter of fact, the percentage vanes considerably according to 
 the class of cotton spun, the counts of yarn, etc. Germany appears to have 
 rather more waste. Compare Protokollc of the " Reichsenquete," p. 0. 
 
86 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 by spinning it into inferior yarns. It is also in many cases, for 
 this latter purpose, sent out of Lancashire. 
 
 But in another respect also did raw material lose its position. 
 More and more were articles taken up in which the cost of produc- 
 tion out^balanced the element of raw material by the amounts for 
 labour and capital. This de\'elopment was aided by the climatic 
 advantages to which we have drawn attention. Wliilst the de^ee 
 of moisture contained in the atmosphere comes less into account 
 with coarse counts, it is an important advantage with fine num- 
 bers. England has thereby gained a monopoly in fine spinning 
 (4), whilst home spinning in the lower grades was developed on 
 every side, partly with protective duties, as in Europe and 
 America^ [)artly without, by reason of certain natural advantages, 
 as in India and China. The quantities of raw cotton used per 
 spindle at the beginning of the " eighties " were (5) : — 
 
 The Indian spindle used yearly 
 
 , , American spindle used yearly . . 
 
 ,, European Continent spindle used yearly 
 
 ( Austrian spindle used . . 
 
 Of the latter ; Grerman ,, ,. • • 
 
 the 1 French . , v • • 
 
 I Swiss ,,,,.. 
 
 Tlie English spindle used yearly ;U'5 lb. (1885) and 34-2 (1891-2). 
 
 The difference in favour of England is of far greater extent than 
 is to be assumed from the foregoing figmes, because the English 
 spindle produces a greater quantity of yarn in a given time than 
 most of its competitors. Since, according to the above statistics, 
 it can be concluded that England spins yarns twice as fine as 
 Germany, so, for the reason given, the average English counts 
 must in reality be more than double those of the German (6). 
 Tlie average English counts may at the present time be taken as 
 rather above than below 40's, whilst the Indian^gumer--^ 
 
 (1885) 
 
 (1891-2) 
 
 HI lb. 
 
 .. 118 1b. 
 
 74-5 lb. 
 
 • • 79 „ 
 
 61-2 „ 
 
 
 88 1b. 
 
 .. 97 „ 
 
 67 „ 
 
 .. 86 „ 
 
 52 „ 
 
 .. 56-5 lb. 
 
 26 „ 
 
 .. 35 ., 
 
 4. ProtokoUe of the " Reichsenquete," p. 5. 
 
 5. According: to Ellison and Andrew p. 8. The fifi;ures for 1891-2 are 
 from Merttens' Paper read before the Manchester Statistical Society, April 
 18th, 1894. An interesting trait of international division of labour, is that 
 against a generally increased consumption of cotton on the Continent per 
 spindle, the spinning of fine counts in England increases. 
 
 6. According to the "Reichsenquete " for the Cotton and Linen Industry, 
 Germany could not compete with England in counts above 36's, whilst lower 
 English numbers did not come on the market in South Germany. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 87 
 
 Strongest competitor of the English — only successfully spins 
 counts up to 20's (7). 
 
 Less apparently does the same development arise in weaving. 
 For in this respect the buying power — as yet only slightly de- 
 veloped — of Oriental nations enters too much into account, and 
 necessitates the coai'se natm'e of the staple woven-goods of Lanca- 
 shire. Excellence in ai't, design, and dyeing have, on the other 
 hand, in fine goods for the European and American mai'kets too 
 gi-eat an influence to allow of England being able in this branch to 
 form a monopoly. For just in these directions lies, up to the 
 present, the advantage of Continental nations. 
 
 Technical progress further develops itself in the replacement of 
 laboui- by capital, by the increase of production with closely-allied 
 diminution of labour power. Both results are at once to be 
 verified by nmle^spinning, which in Lancashire has always up to 
 now played the chief part alongside the throstle. Whilst both "^n 
 kinds of spinning have in common the drawing-out of the yarn by 
 rollers, the peculiarity of the mule consists, as is well-known — as 
 in its forerunner, the jenny — in the spindles first twisting the i 
 thread and then winding it on. The spindles are on a can*iage, 1 
 which goes backwards and forwards from and to the portion of / 
 the machine which is fixed and contains the rollers. Dming the ^ 
 first movement the thread receives the twist, as well as a slight 
 stretching, during which the rollers that deliver the thread to the 
 spindles are revolving. During the back traverse the rollers are, 
 liowever, out of operation, so that no more yarn is produced, but I 
 that which is twisted is alone wound on. The inward traverse \ 
 of the carriage (as also the necessary regulation of the fallers) / 
 was originally accomplished by human power (hand-mule^ : with 
 the self-actor both of these are attained mechanically. 
 
 Since the " thirties " the capacity of the single s}3indle has Ijeeu 
 extracrdinarily raised, partly through improving, partly by speed- 
 ing, the machine. Even so early as the middle of the century the y 
 self-actor had attained the upper hand in England, whilst in / 
 Germany this revolution first appeared in the "seventies" (8). 
 In England at the present time the hand-mule is only used in 
 
 7. Compare " Bombay and Lancashire " (Manchester Chamber of (yomraerce, 
 1888). 
 
 8. Report of the " Enquetekommission " for the Cotton and Linen Industry, 
 p. 14. In 1877 about 76-90 per cent, of German spindles were self-actors. 
 
88 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 isolated cases for the very finest counts, the production of which 
 
 requires special skill on the part of the operative, arid^ which 
 
 / scarcely come into competition. Tlie hand-mules are even here 
 
 / \ 1 gradually dying out; in 1883 their nimiber in the whole of 
 
 C / /' Lancashire was estimated to be 80 pairs. 
 
 The quantity produced by the self-actoi* is detemiined by the 
 time in which the carriage travels backwards and forwards and 
 the length of the traverse which it midies. In this direction 
 progress since the time of Ure has been important. The following 
 may bo considered as ordinary conditions of si)eed : — 
 
 183G. 1890 (9;. 
 
 Length of traverse ..{^^^'isS's \\ ^"^"''-"^ \\ 58*''!!''' 
 Time for travelling back- S 40'8 . . 20 seconds . . 14 seconds 
 
 j ward and forward .. \ 120'$ ..00 „ ..21 ,, 
 
 Similarly, England possesses, in comparison with Germany, a 
 not unimportant superiority, although, especially with i^egard to 
 the conditions of speed of machinery, in Gei*many itself extra- 
 ordinary differences exist. Regarding the finer counts, which are 
 very little spun in Germany (in xVlsace), it is easier to })oint out 
 instances which show a picture of the conditions of production 
 generally : — 
 
 r 
 
 
 
 I.«nKth of Traverse. 
 
 In and out. 
 
 Bolton 
 
 60's twist 
 
 6G inches 
 
 17-7 seconds 
 
 Alsace . 
 
 GO'S „ 
 
 60 „ 
 
 22 „ 
 
 J 
 
 Ure draws attention to the following as a wonderful achieve- 
 ment, only j)ossible by a remarkable capability of the management 
 and quality of machinery, in a factory at Manchester. No. 170's 
 were spun with a speed of 60 seconds (in and out traverse) ; at 
 the present time I have found cases, and not exceptional, in which, 
 with the still finer counts of 200's, the backward and forward 
 traverse does not take up more than 38 seconds (10). Since the 
 beginning of the "seventies" alone, the speed of spinning 
 machinery has been augmented 15 per cent. (11). 
 
 The weekly production depends, though, not only on the speed 
 and size of the machine, but also on the real loss in comparison 
 
 0. Ure: " Cotton Manufacture," 11. , p. 400. The figures for 1890 are 
 based upon personal inquiries in Oldham and Bolton. 
 
 10. Karmarsch gives, on the other hand, the ordinary speed for 200's to 
 240's at 100 to 120 seconds— a speed at that time purely theoretical for 
 Germany, because these counts were not spun. Compare Karmarsch, 
 " Technologic," 11. (Hannover, 1867), p. 1,091. 
 
 11. Commission on Depression of Trade, Second Report, part I. (5,079). 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 89 
 
 with the theoretical production. Before everything else, the 
 number of breakages of the ends comes, in this respect, into 
 account. Upon the skill of the operative depends the time which 
 is taken up by the piecing of the broken threads, and the doffing 
 01 the full and putting on of the empty bobbins. But the quality 
 of the raw material, the perfection of the preparation and of the 
 spinning machine itself, especially the roller arrangement, come 
 also into consideration. In the German "EiKjuete" a millowner 
 says that whilst in England the spindles actually run during 95 
 per cent, of the whole working time, in Wurttemberg, on the other 
 hand, they only run during 90 per cent., although the spindles 
 were arranged to run 10 per cent, slower (12). Another, from 
 Alsace, also confirms this, stating that in England 92 to 95 per 
 cent, was produced, in Alsace only 80 per cent., of the theoretically 
 possible production. 
 
 Since the " thii-ties " the actual weekly proiluction in England, 
 which at that time already exceeded the figures given by Kar- 
 marsch for Germany in 18G7, was enormously increased: — 
 
 
 
 
 Weekly productiou per spindle, 
 
 
 
 Weekly 
 working' 
 
 
 in hanks. 
 
 
 
 ■^0*8 
 
 60*8 200'5 
 
 
 
 hours. 
 
 twist. 
 
 twist. weft. 
 
 1812 
 
 .. Euglaud(13) .. 
 
 . . 74 . . 
 
 1L> . 
 
 ,. 10-5 .. 4-5 
 
 1830 
 
 „ (13).. 
 
 .. G9-70 .. 
 
 lG-5 . 
 
 ,. 15 .. 5-4 
 
 181)0 
 
 ,, (U).. 
 
 .. 5t>^ .. 
 
 28-30 , 
 
 23-5 .. 17-18 
 
 1867 
 
 ( Germany (according 
 
 .'?} 7« •• 
 
 21 
 
 IS i^'«ir" 
 
 
 ' * ^ Kannarsch) 
 
 
 ( Gerinauy, 
 
 Ure tells us of an average i)roduction, as early as 1834, of 20 
 to 22.5 hanks of 4:0'8 twist per week; but though the differences 
 at that time between good and bad machinery were far greater 
 than at the present time, his statement refers only to the few 
 spiiining-mills at that period which had already introduced 
 Koberts' self-actors (15). In 186G, 32's Oldhaju twist had attained 
 a proiluction of 22 i hanks per spindle and week; in the middle 
 of the "eighties," 2^8 hanks (16). 
 
 The most remarkable fact in the above table is, that not only 
 is the capacity of the spindle increased, but that it has increased 
 in spite of substantially diminished working hours. 
 
 12. "Protokolle,''pp. 81, 2D0. 
 
 13. Compare Baines, p. 353. 
 
 14. From my own observation in Bolton and Oldham. 
 
 15. Ure : *< Cotton Manufacture," XL, pp. 201, 31)1). 
 Iti. Andrew : " Fifty Years' Cotton Trade," p. 4. 
 
90 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 A similar development is shown by those spimiing-mills in which 
 the twisting and winding-on of the thread — differently from the 
 mule — is continuously taking place, whether it be by a throstle or 
 by ring spindles. The twisting of the thread is achieved in this 
 case by the spindle and tiyer traveller i-espectivelf running in the 
 same direction, but \vith different speeds. 
 
 1834 
 
 No. .32*8 twist. 
 . . Throstle 
 
 Speed of 
 
 spindles 
 
 per minut«. 
 
 4,200 
 
 Working 
 hours 
 
 per w«?ek. 
 65-70 
 
 Weekly pro- 
 duction (17). 
 24 hanks 
 
 1891 
 
 . . Ring . . 
 
 9,000 
 
 56J 
 
 . 40-50 „ 
 
 This higher capacity of the throstle and ring spindle, which is so 
 very apparent, is balanced by the greater cost of buildings and 
 increase of jjower — therefore, in this respect also, a replacement 
 of labour by capital. Ring-spindles ai*e advantageous up to 40's. 
 Above these counts they can scarcely supersede the mule, at all 
 events not in the softer weft yarns (18). 
 
 Tlie machines used for preparation also show an increase in 
 their capacity similar to that of the actual spinning-machine. But 
 the progret's in both is developed not only by the greater produc- 
 tive power of the single machine, but at the same time by a 
 lessening of the number of operatives per machine. This was 
 made possible j)artly by technical progress, partly by raising the 
 labour capacity. An ojierative to-day attends to more than 
 twice, in fact nearly three times, as nmch machinery as his 
 father did. The number of machines in use has become five-fold 
 since that time — the number of operatives has not quite doubled 
 (19). Insteiid of 10,000,000 spindles and 80,000 looms in the 
 year 1831, England possesses today, for cotton alone, about 
 50,000,000 spindles and 600,000 looms. Tlie number of operar 
 tives has, on the other hand, only increased from 220,134 (first 
 official census in 1835) to 504,069 (1885). From 1856 to 1885 
 the number of sjnndles have increased 58.6 per cent., power-looms 
 87.5 per cent., and the number of operatives only 32.8 per cent. 
 
 Of especial importance is the decrease in the number of opera- 
 tives in the spinning of fine counts. This process was still in the 
 time of Ure in a high degi'ee an art which demanded great prac- 
 
 17. Ure: "Cotton Manufacture," 11., p. 131. The particulars for the 
 present time were received from the spinning-machine makers, Howard and 
 BuUough, and Brooks and Doxey. 
 
 18. Compare R. Marsden : " Cotton Spinning" (London, 1888), p. 312. 
 
 19. Andrew : " Fifty Years' Cotton Trade," pp. 2, 5. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 91 
 
 K 
 
 tice and much hand labour. In 1850 there were in Houldsworth's //f\\ ) 
 fine ppinning-mills 7*5 operatives per 1,000 spindles; as early^ \ ^ 
 as 1885, in the same mill, not more than 3 operatives. - 
 
 By the following figures is clearly shown the great advantage 
 which Lancashire enjoys by reason of this state of affairs, even in 
 conjparison with its own past days, as well as against its present 
 competitors. Pei* 1,000 spindles and accessoiy preparing 
 machinery there were at the commencement of the "eighties" 
 (20):- 
 
 lu Bombay 
 
 . . 25 operatives 
 
 In Germany (1861) 
 
 20 operatives 
 
 „ Italy .. 
 
 .. 13 „ 
 
 (1882) 
 
 8-9 „ 
 
 „ Alsace . . 
 
 .. 9-5 ,, 
 
 „ England (1837) 
 
 7 „ 
 
 ,, Mulhouse 
 
 .. 7-5 „ 
 
 „ „ (1887) 
 
 3 „ 
 
 According to the Enquete, there were in Germany itself the most 
 extreme variations. Whilst in Baden and Suabia only 6 opera- 
 tives were employed to 1,000 spindles, this nmnber increased in 
 Silesia to 14*75 operatives (21). 
 
 On the other hand, India shows us, since 1884, extraordinary 
 developments, about which details follow. There can be no doubt 
 that Germany also has reduced the number of operatives per 1,000 
 spindles since the Enquete. From a gi'eat quantity of materials 
 lying before me for 1891 and 1892 I cull the following, which, 
 however, refer solely to leading and technically distinguished 
 spinning-mills. The average for Germany is cei'tainly higher : — 
 
 Switzerland, per 1,000 spindles . . 
 Mulhouse , , 
 
 Baden and Wiirttemberg, per 1,000 spindlfs . . 
 Bavaria, per 1,000 spindles 
 Saxony Tnew and splendid spinning-mills). } 
 per 1 ,000 spindles . . . . . . i 
 
 Vosges (old spinning-mills) 
 Russia 
 
 The average counts of yarn spun by all the spinning-mills men- 
 tioned are between 20'8 and 30's. The table shows the most 
 favourable conditions for the south-west corner of Germany, where 
 
 20. Compare Manchester Chamber of Commerce ("Bombay and Lanca- 
 shire," p. 2). according to which 30,000 spindles in Bombay require 750 
 operatives; and Jeans: Statis. Soc. (Dec. 1884), p. 665. Similarly Merttens ; 
 Manchester Statistical Society, April 18th, 1894, p. 169. The report of the 
 German " Enquetekommission " for Cotton and Linen Industry, p. 8, gives 
 the figures for 1861. Further, compare Jannasch : " Die europiiische 
 Baumwollindu8trie"(l882), p. 53; Andrew: "Fifty Years' Cotton Trade," 
 p. 2. 
 
 21. <« ProtokoUe," pp. 3, 33, 397 ; further, pp. 19, 54, 73, 98, 289. Statist. 
 Ermittl, I. , 16. 
 
 6-2 
 
 operatives 
 
 5-8 
 
 
 6-2 
 
 
 6-8 
 
 
 7-2 
 
 
 8-9 
 
 
 6-6 
 
 

 92 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 spiiiniDg is tho oldest and the operative the iiiotit skilled, whilst 
 newer spinning-mills towards the east (Bavaria, Saxony, and 
 Silesia) recjuire an increasing number of operatives per 1,000 
 spindles. 
 
 In order to prove the saving in labour in detail, I put together 
 the labour power utilised in a new spinnrng-mlll at Oldham with 
 
 000 spindles (Oldham medium counts), for whicirT~^amino 
 dl the necessaiy processes for spinning in their order. The 
 spinning-mill chosen is a suitable average instance, which we can 
 very well compare with the one given by Ure in his time, one just 
 about as large — rather smaller if anything. 
 
 Tho first process to which cotton is subjected is "mixing." 
 There are for this, in the case in view, two grown-up men neces- 
 saiy, who manipulate 12,000 lb. of cotton daily. Tlie next pro- 
 cess is " opening," i.e., loosening the fibres, which have been 
 pressctl together in the packing. For tliis purpose a machine ia 
 applied which tears the cotton apart by means of revolving teeth, 
 whereby the heavy and coarse impmities fall out. In the 
 spinning-mill described there were not more than two women en- 
 gaged in opening. Tlien follows tho " scutching " process, in 
 order to separate the single fibres one from another and to remove 
 the finer impurities by means of a fan. The cotton leaves tliis 
 macliine in the form of a wide, comiected sheet (lap), in which 
 form it is brought to the "card." The cotton is generally sub- 
 jected twice to this latter process. Each time four — therefore, 
 together, eight — machines were at work for this purpose. They 
 were, together, tended by two grown-up men. 
 
 Next follows the important process of " carding," which, along 
 with tho further removing of impurities, serves the ob- 
 ject of laying the fibres parallel. Tliis is achieved by 
 two cylindrical surfaces working against one another, and which 
 surfaces are clothed with fine hook-shai)ed wire points. At the 
 mill in question there were 50 carding-engines, each of which 
 manipulated 800 lb. of cotton weekly. Tliese engines were 
 attended to by seven men — an average of one man for seven 
 engines. This number is, however, even under the average; fre- 
 (juently, in Oldham, eight or nine engines are tended by one 
 operative. Tlie cotton leaves the cards like a small loose band 
 (slivei-), which is collected in revolving cans. 
 
 Tho "drawing" of the cotton next follows. Hie slivers pro- 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 93 
 
 duced by the cards are drawn out under stretching rollers. At 
 the mill under examination there were 7 drawing frames, each 
 with 3 heads and 7 deliveries. Each of these frames was attended 
 to by a girl. 
 
 The cotton drawings produced are made by the next process 
 into "rovings," by which they are further drawn out and then 
 given a certain twist. Tlie manipulation before finally spinning 
 is subdivided into three operations (slubbing, intermediate, and 
 roving frame). In this particular spinning-mill 7 slubbing frames, 
 13 intermediate frames, and 30 roving frames were brought into 
 operation. The first 20 frames were tended by 10 young women 
 and 10 children. The children — so-called back-tenters — stand 
 behind the machine and have to fill it with bobbins, to clean it, 
 etc. The 30 roving frames are served by 15 young women, each 
 of whom minds 328 spindles. They have as helpers eight children. 
 In Oldham the number of spindles in the slubbing frames fre- 
 quently reaches up to 96, in the intermediate frames up to 150 ; -^kamS 
 accordingly a rover frequently looks after 360 spindles. I have, - yv 
 however, noticed even higher nmnbers ; for instance, roving framerf^ i^'?^ 
 up to 200 spindles. Tlie whole preparation work does not nee<l 
 more than two overlookers. . 
 
 Finally follows the fine spinning ("finishing" process). In the )U J 
 spinning;^mill described by me there are, for 30 pah-s of mules \/_^ 
 with 7Q,5QD_spindles, 30 spinners and 60 piecers, as well as]ane J"^ 
 oveiTookei^. Therefore, one spinner and two pFecers miiid 2^30 
 sj)Tn(Tles. Besides these there are a few young opei-atives engaged 
 in oarrvnng bobbins. The yarn spun is packed by six packers. 
 
 If the instance given can be taken as the average for the large 
 and new "limited" concerns of Oldham, a comparison with the 
 Rpinning-mill of about a. similar size described by lire shows the 
 enormous advance in technical skill, as well as in labour capacity. 
 There are : — 
 
 Apoording to Vrf ^22). Af thp present, time. 
 
 Men. Women. Child'-en. Men. Women. Cliihiren. 
 
 9 
 
 For preparation . . 2r. — 27 13 
 
 „ roving .... — 58 U — 32 18 
 
 ,, spinning (includ-) ^q. _ ^Qg 33 — 05 
 
 ing overlookers; r 
 
 Totals ^excepting! ^^^ r^g 444 45 34 83 
 
 packers) . . > 
 
 653 operatives. 163 operatives. 
 
 22. Ure gives also, in addition, 90 grown-up women as engaged in cleaning 
 and choosing cotton. But since this hand labour, according to him, was only 
 employed at that time for the production of a special quality, I have left them 
 out of account in the above comparison. 
 
 L 
 
04 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 I The great number of children and young workers in 1830, com- 
 pared with tlie present, is worthy of notice. At that time a gi-eat 
 portion of them were under ten years of age, and for the most 
 part were only there to sweep up cotton waste — those poor little 
 "scavengers" which Lord Shaftesbury lias handed down for the 
 pity of following generations. Those Factory Acts, therefore, 
 which made child-labour more difficult have in no way injured the 
 advance of the great industry ; it was^n no wise, as was frequently 
 argued by his opponents, dependent on an increase of child-labour. 
 
 After reading the works of Baines and Ure, let us visit such a 
 new fireproof (23) spinning-mill in Oldham, in order to view the 
 ^advances since their time. We find ourselves in one of the outer 
 exits of those polypus arms which extend the factory town into 
 the meadow-lands of Lancashire. As far as the eye reaches, on the 
 meadows there are dispersed five or six storeyed spinning-mills — 
 neat brick buildings, with overtowering chimneys. Certainly 
 there are 40 to 50 of such chimneys to be coimted in one view, 
 imtil they disappear on the horizon, for the towns dovetail one 
 into the other. Add a clouded sky and that damp atmosphere 
 the possession of which an American expert reckons to be, with 
 fine counts, an advantage of 7 per cent. We enter into the fac- 
 tory immediately from the street, without a special yard and 
 gateway, as is customary in Germany. 
 
 The foreigner looks about, as soon as he is inside, and asks 
 himself: ^Vlifi^:^are the operative s? Less human labour than 
 even given in theabovein stances may be required. For mixing, 
 as for opening, I have myself observe<l only one grow^-np piaJe 
 operative, and this in a spinning-mill at full work, with 68,000 
 spindles. There is a similar saving of labour at the carding 
 engines, which are connected by rails with the drawing room for 
 the easier removal of the revolving cans (24). Whilst the air in 
 the carding rooms was formerly filled with fibres of cotton flying 
 about, the introduction of self-cleaning cards for the saving of 
 
 23. At the present time only fireproof mills are bnilt, whereby ilie insur- 
 ance charges are lessened. —Marsden's "Cotton Spinning" (London, 1888), 
 p. 04. 
 
 24. " Double carding-machines " mean a great saving in labour power. 
 The spinners jire, however, by no means agreed that double cards are to be 
 preferred to the old system, by which the cotton is carded twice successively — 
 first by the so-called breaker, and then by the finisher. In the latter case the 
 roller or Wellraan card is chosen as the breaker, and the revolving flat as 
 finisher. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 95 
 
 material has alone already banished this nuisance. In the pre- 
 paration, also, the advances of skill have, since the time of Ure, 
 made more complete utilisation of material possible, as well as 
 replacement of labour by the machine to a large extent. The 
 regularity of the slivers, on which depends the quality as well as 
 the quantity of the yarn to be produced, is, for instance, here 
 accomplished by mechanical means. Not only does the drawing- 
 frame stop when a sliver breaks or the can from which it is taken 
 is empty, but the relative drawing is also increased or diminisheil 
 without human aid in proportion as the disappearing sliver turns 
 out too thick or too thin. 
 
 Large, light, and well-ventilated rooms open to our view when 
 we at length enter into the spinning departments. Tliey have 
 such a width that a spinning- frame with 1,250 spindles can stand 
 comfortably therein. Two such frames are tended by the mule- 
 spinner with his helpers, the two piecers. 
 
 At the finish we are led into the engine-house. The boiler is of 
 selected steel, standing a pressure of over 100 lb. to the square 
 inch, and capable of converting 8,000 lb. per hour of water into 
 steam. The piston travels 800 ft. per minute, compared with 
 240 ft. in the " thirties." 
 
 There is no sight within the whole modern industrial system 
 which is more worthy of wonder, or so rich in teaching for the 
 tendencies of our economical development. On the one hand the 
 giant steam engine : on the other, splendid machinery which pro- 
 duces the most delicate results. By well-designed arrangement 
 of shafting the gigantic power is transmitted, led, and suited to 
 the machinery. Scarcely anywhere does the human worker give a 
 lift, except in watching, correcting, and feeding with material. In 
 comparison with the era of hand-mules, the work has become 
 easier rather than harder. For this reason is the enormous 
 increase of production, compared with former times, to be looked 
 at as the work of the genius of the past, of the thousands of 
 thoughts, ideas, and experiments which are embodied in the 
 machines. 
 
 Let us compare the instance we have just spoken about with 
 an average one, which has been communicated to me by the 
 
96 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 "Industrial Society of Mulhouse" as representative of spinnings 
 there. Both instances refer to self-actors alone. 
 
 No. or spindles in the mills 
 operatives lor— 
 Mixing 
 
 Oldham. 
 
 70.000 
 
 2 men 
 
 Mulhouse. 
 32,000 
 
 2-3 men -j 
 
 Voages. 
 
 5«.0(1» 
 
 Opening 
 
 f 4 men antl \ 
 •••(. women ) 
 
 ... 7 men 
 
 ... 7 women 
 \ 43 women and) 
 J children / 
 f y.'. men an<l / 
 1 ^ boys 1 
 
 ... a ... 
 
 7"timenand women > 
 
 120 operatives 
 
 Carding 
 
 Drawing 
 
 yiubbing, intermediate, and 
 
 roving 
 
 Spinning 
 
 No. of overlookers 
 
 packet's, etc 
 
 155 men J 
 
 12-6 women 
 
 44"3 women and young \ 
 
 workers j 
 
 87'0 women and young \ 
 
 workers ... / 
 
 12 ■" .■■ .'■■ .'V 
 
 59 
 202 
 
 117 '.'. (25) 
 
 Totals 167 
 
 Oiwratives per l.UOO spindles 2*4 
 
 i«5-3 
 
 3-S 
 
 498 
 8-9 
 
 Tliese results show that in Ohlham fewer operatives are required 
 for 70,()U() spindles than in Mulhouse for 32,000. Yet by these 
 very figures Mulhouse shows, in this respect, the most favourable 
 conditions of all Gerniany. Much more unfavourable is the state 
 of affairs in the valleys of the Vosges, as the instance given proves. 
 It is true that the figures given for Oldham and Mulhouse do not 
 refer to the same average counts f)f yarn ; 01dhjuii-jufijliinn__js^ 
 from 3G's to 40's ; those which are given for Afulhouse refer to 
 No! 2T)'s French (metrical). But this circumstance does not come 
 into account in the extraordinarily high difference of the fore- 
 going instances. This is also shown by the following fairly repre- 
 sentative mill in Switzerland, compare<l with Oldham — l)oth 
 spinning the same average counts : — 
 
 40's twist. Oiaiinm. 
 No. of operatives per I, (XX) spindles . . 2-3 
 Thereof for preparation .. .. .. 0-31 
 
 ,, slubbing, roving, and inter-^ ^.^.^ 
 
 mediate . . . . ) 
 
 ,, spinning proper .. .. 1*37 
 
 Tlie comparison on page 91} between the instance from Ure and 
 the Oldham sj)inning of to-day shows, in pre])aration as well as in 
 spinning, the most important reiluction in labom* power. In the first 
 instance this results from the invention (in America) by Wellman 
 of the self-acting carding-engine. Whilst formerly the cards had 
 to be freed by hand from the cotton remaining behind — tlie 
 operatives were called strippers — this is now done by the machine 
 (26). Tlie card which is to-day becoming mwe and more pro- 
 
 25. This number refers at the same time to the operatives who are engaged 
 in the factory workshop, because such are indispensable in the Vosges. 
 Labourers and firers-up are not included. 
 
 2fi. Compare Mar sden : " Cotton Spinning," pp. 120-2. 
 
 Switzerland. 
 G-2 
 1-7 
 
 1-2 
 
 3-3 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 97 
 
 minent in Ijiincashire is a furtlier improvement of Wellman's 
 invention — the so-called " revolving flat card." 
 
 In spinning proper the saving in labom* compared vnth. the 
 instance given by Uro results from the replacement of the hand- 
 mule by the self-actor, as well as from the lengthening of the 
 spinning-frames and increase in the number of spindles. In the 
 time of Ure the latter varied from 400 to 600, whilst only occa- 
 sionally mules up to 1,000 spindles were met with. For each of 
 these machines there was a spinner with two or three helpers ; or, 
 if the spinner looked after two mules, with four to six helpers (27). 
 At the present time the spinner in Lancashire always minds two 
 machines (a pair of mules), and he has not more than two helpers 
 for the work. Here and there we find also, instead of one spinner 
 with two helpers, two adult spinners (so-called joining system). 
 Therewith the number of spindles per mule has so mucli increased 
 that the lowest number of spindles to-day is about that which Ure 
 admired as the highest accomplishment of skill. From my own 
 observation in 1891 at Oldham and Bolton, the average number 
 of spindles per mule is about 1,000; so that 2,000 spindles are 
 tended by one spinner and two helpers. The largest machines 
 which I have discovered have 2,700 to 2,800 spindles per pair of 
 mules. When finer yarns are spun with these highest numbers of 
 spindles the spinner has frequently three helpers ; thus, in Bolton, 
 on fine counts, with 2,208 spindles and upwards. In the spinning 
 of fine^counts at Bolton the number of spindles given above as the 
 maximum is not attained ; 2,520 spindles per pair of mules, as 
 far as I know, ia the highest number reached. With 1,200 
 spindles and under, which now only seldom occurs, one spinner 
 and one helper are employed. 
 
 England shows also in this direction an extraordinary increase 
 of labour capacity when compared with Germany. It is the more 
 remarkable because technical differences scarcely come into ac- 
 count. The self-actors in both countries are certainly on exactly 
 the same principles; indeed those in Germany have, in many 
 cases, been made in England. Whilst in England about 2,000 
 spindles per pair of self-actors is to be looked upon as the usual 
 number, abwit 1,300 to 1,600, with a great variation in some 
 cases, ai-e to be taken in Germany as the mean; 1,300 to 1,800 
 are given as the average in Mulhouse. In Germany this number 
 
 27. Compare Ure: " Philosophy of Manufactures," p. 312; also "Cotton 
 Manufacture," II. , 449. 
 
 H 
 
98 
 
 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 of spindles is generally tended by more operatives than the greater 
 number of spindles in the Englisli machines. In Mulhoiise 1,300 
 spindles require one spinner and four helpers (two piecers, two 
 fillers); in England, 2,000 spindles require only one spinner and 
 two helpers ; 2,000 spindles in one of the finest spinning concerns 
 of Saxony require one spinner and four helpers, whereas in the 
 smaller spinning-mills of Saxony there are even one spinner and 
 five helpers needed for a pair of self-actors with only 1,600 
 
 But quite especially is it to be mentioned here that the English 
 spinner does not need overlooking the same as the German. Tn~' 
 England 60,000 to 80,000 spindles— i.e., the whoT¥ spindles of a 
 mill — are entrusted to one overlooker (50s. to 60s. per week). In 
 Germany, in favourable cases, there is an overlooker to 15,000 
 ) ^ spindles ; also in this respect is the South-West more favourably 
 ■ placed than the East. In England there is one overlooker for 
 60,000 to 80,000 spindles ; in Alsace and South Germany there is 
 one for 10,000 to 20,000 spindles; in Saxony there is one over- 
 looker for 10,000 spindles: in a smaller si)inning-mill of the 
 Saxon highlands there is one for 3,000 to 4,000 spindles. 
 
 In consequence of the development delineated the production of 
 yarn per operative in England has greatly increased since the 
 " thirties," and the cost of labour per given quantity of yam has 
 considerably lessened. Let us compare, for example, the instance 
 given by Houldsworth, in 1834, before the "Committee on Manu- 
 factures," with figures which I have found in a spinning-mill in 
 Bolton in 1890. They are for 200*8 counts: — 
 
 1837.. 
 1891.. 
 
 -SE-^''"''^-^"" 
 
 3,800 hanks 
 34,500 „ 
 
 72 hours 
 
 5H „ 
 
 Cost of labour ' w«.irW 
 (spinners and help- ^ "r:^^«, 
 f^TsC\ npr 1 nnn eaminsrs of 
 ers) per 1,000 spinner. 
 
 per 
 hanks. 
 
 200 pence 
 23 „ 
 
 
 Buying- 
 
 power in 
 
 flour. 
 
 267 lb. 
 406 ,,(28) 
 
 28. The price of flour is that of August, 1891. The comparison is rather 
 in favour of the spinner in 1837, because the price of flour at that time 
 is according to the invoices of a large hospital, therefore wholesale, whereas 
 the prices i^kcn for 1891 are retail prices of a co-operative society. The 
 latter, in order to pay a dividend of 10 per cent, demands rather higher 
 prices than the shopkeeper. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 
 
 99 
 
 A similar result is shown by ordinary 40's twist : — 
 
 Cost of spinning per 1,000 hanks in 1812 . . . . 300 pence 
 
 ,, ., „ 1830 .. .. 180 ,, 
 
 1890 .. .. 12 „ (29) 
 ,, in Alsace per 1,000 hanks, accord-^ 
 
 ing to the Enquete in 1878 (43-58 c. per^ 43 „ 
 kilogramme),. .. .. .. ) 
 
 Whilst the foregoing particulars for the finest and the average 
 yarns show the reduction of the cost of labour in detail, the 
 following table — in which, based on the particulars of Ellison, all 
 counts are included — may give a general idea of the development 
 mentioned : — 
 
 Yearly yarn 
 production, 
 in 1,000 lb. 
 
 1819-21 I 106,500 
 
 1829-31 ; 216,500 
 
 1844-6 \ 523,300 
 
 1859-61 ! 910,000 
 
 1880-82 I 1,324,000 
 
 No. of 
 operatives 
 in spinning- 
 mills. 
 
 Yarn produc- 
 tion 
 
 per operative, 
 in lb. 
 
 111,000 I 968 
 
 140,000 j 1,546 
 190,000 i 2,754 
 
 248,000 
 240,000 
 
 3,671 
 5,520 
 
 Cost of 
 labour per 
 lb. of yarn. 
 
 d. 
 6-4 
 
 4-2 
 
 2-3 
 
 2-1 
 
 1-9 
 
 Average 
 annual earn- 
 ings 
 per operative. 
 
 £ s. d. ^ / X 
 26 13 ^^"^ 
 
 27 6 
 
 28 12 (. 
 32 10 
 
 44 4 
 
 /; 
 
 ik 
 
 Especially within the last 20 yea.rs has a lowering of piecework / ^^ 
 prices by 15 per cent, left its impression (30) in that the operatives ^^--^ 
 
 ^^ 
 
 to-day look after IS^per cent, more machinery, which runs from 
 12j;o 15 per cent, quicker. Weekly wages increased in the same 
 period by 8 to 10 per cent. , ^, 
 
 Undoubtedly a similar development is taking place also inr 
 Germany, which means a replacement of labour by capital, and a 
 raising of labour capacity. This is made clear already by the fact 
 that the considerable increases of wages at the commencement of 
 the " seventies " by no means brought a corresponding increase of 
 
 29. The figures for 1812 and 1832 are taken from the particulars of Ure 
 ("Philosophy of Manufactures," p. 341); those for 1890 from my own 
 experience in Oldham ; those for Alsace from the Enquete. Regarding the 
 
 cost of labour, compare " Die StatErmittelungen," p. 24 ; Protokolle, pp. 54, 
 387, etc. 
 
 30. Committee on Depression of Trade: See Report, part I., 5,077, 6,114, 
 5,164, 5,167. Even since 1877 the Oldham list has gone down 8 per cent., 
 whilst the weekly earnings of the spinners are 2/6 to 3/- higher than at that 
 time. 
 
100 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 the cost of labour in its train. For instance, according to the 
 Enquete, the wages in Alsace rose about 50 per cent, from 1860 
 to 1878; the amount of wages, however, falling annually j)er 
 spindle, was lowered from 4*75 to 4'65 marks, whilst the yearly 
 production per spindle had remained at lea^t equal. It is 
 certain that wage? have gone up trenundously in the German 
 textile industry. The associations of Alsatian and Bavarian textile 
 employers give the following paiticulars a.s regards the average 
 v/ages paid : — 
 
 1887 1888 1889 1890 
 
 Alsace .. 589 in. 590 m. 602 m. 606 m. 
 
 Bavaria .. oO.', ,, 503 ,, GOl ,. 618 ,, 
 
 The hours of labour ha^e alsr, been reduced ; whilst in 1868 the«e 
 were 78 hours per week in Augsburg, in Chemnitz even 84, ihey 
 have no^v been reduced by legislation to 65. A greater production 
 per operative, as well a,s per spindle, has also resulted 
 
 Graesmann, in his work on the Augsburg Cotton Industry, 
 p. 95, gives the following figures . — 
 
 Yearly Production and Quantity of Cotton used per Spindle. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Opentives 
 
 Hours 
 
 
 lb. Yam. 
 
 Counts. 
 
 lb. Cotton 
 
 1,000 Spindles 
 
 of 
 Labour 
 
 1865 
 
 37-86 
 
 305 
 
 42-9 
 
 15-6 
 
 82 
 
 1869 
 
 42-89 
 
 29-84 
 
 5975 
 
 11-7 
 
 78 
 
 1891 
 
 54 14 
 
 26-47 
 
 53-5 
 
 8-4 
 
 66 
 
 1866 
 
 25-3 
 
 34 
 
 31-35 
 
 9-12 
 
 78 
 
 1875 
 
 32 6 
 
 34 
 
 39-3 
 
 9*7 
 
 72 
 
 1885 
 
 33-6 
 
 34 
 
 41 
 
 8 
 
 77 
 
 1891 
 
 35-9 
 
 34 
 
 42-4 
 
 7-8 
 
 66 
 
 A cheapening of labour, ci.rrespon-ling to tliat in England, has, 
 however, not been generally ob.sei ved for Germany. Tliis is due 
 to the circumstance that since the "sixties," along with the increase 
 of wages, there has been a corresponding increase in tlie price of 
 food (30a) In later periods, however, in which, as is well known, 
 a beginning has taken place in the reduction of the duties in food, 
 cases have been noticed whioh quite correspond to the English as 
 regards German cotton spinning. 'Hiui Grass»nann relates, p. 
 173, "An establishment has alongside of the shortening of hours 
 made a considerable increase in the earnings, and.chieflyhere- 
 bv gained better and more capable operatives, the threatened 
 reduction in the production was warded off by the simplification 
 of working, whereby it was possible to reduce the working staff 
 
 30a. Compare Grassmann, pp. 163, 172. 
 
r 
 
 AND ON TME CONTINENT. lOl 
 
 by 25 per cent." Similar instances are given by the German 
 Enquete inl878 (31). But in spite of this iho cost of labour 
 in English spinning mills is still cheaper than in German. 
 
 In a similar direction there are also the following facts of a 
 later date. The ^vt:ekly earnings of the oj^eratives engaged in the 
 textile industry, as far as these have a. centralised industrial 
 character, have increased slowly but sm-ely, as proved by the 
 reports of the accident assurance associations. Even in 1892, 
 when the hours of labour wero reduced by legislation to 65 hours 
 per week, the weekly earnings of the operatives remained at the 
 same level, in fact rather increased, without the reduction in 
 piecework prices (31a). 
 
 This is proved, indeed, by the tables attached, which contain 
 cases for the present time. They make clear at once the ad- 
 vantage of the conditions of production in England, but at the 
 same time they prove also the fact, still to be more closely 
 examined later on, that there, where the cost of labour is the 
 lowest, the conditions of labour are the most favourable, the hours 
 of labour are the shortest, and the weekly earnings of the opera- 
 tives are the highest. 
 
 We examine briefly the instances given on page 103. Cases 1 
 and 2 contain comparisons of conditions of production between a 
 valley of the Vosges and Mulhouse. We see how the lower weekly 
 wages of the Vosges are counterbalanced by the greater number 
 and the less skill of the operatives, which latter brings in its train a 
 LTieater loss compared with the theoretical capacity. Therefore a 
 higher sum is paid for labour in spinning a kilo, of yarn in the 
 Vosges than in Mulhouse. 
 
 Case No. 3 treats of 20's twist, the coimts which are probably 
 mostly spun in Germany. A fair approximation is shown between 
 the relation of wages in Bavaria., Wurttemberg, and Saxony. 
 The relatively high cost of labour in the spinning-mills of Wurttem- 
 berg is explained by there being a larger number of operatives 
 employed (5 per 1,200 spindles). The difference in wages between 
 the spinning-mills of Saxony and Bavaria is, in comparison, very 
 
 ;U. Keport of the " Enquetekommission," p. 31 ; " Frotokolle," 175, 397 
 Tau instance of the lowering of piece prices accompanied by the earning of 
 the same weekly wages as before). Economically an interesting controversy, 
 whether the rise in wages during the " seventies " has. resulted in a correspond- 
 ing increase of labour capacity. Compare the introduction. 
 
 31a. Compare Grassmann : '' Augsburger Industrie," pp. 163,164. 
 
102 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 trifling, and is counterbalanced by the considerably higher cost of 
 overlooking in Saxony. If we compare herewith the instance in 
 Oldham, we find, in spite of shorter hom-s of labour (55 instead of 
 64), a littlo less weekly production than in Saxony, and a larger 
 than in Wurttemberg and Bavaria, In sjiite of the far higher 
 weekly earnings of the English spinner (4:5s. instead of 22s.) the 
 difference in the cost of labour is extremely slight (1*8 in Oldham, 
 against 1*7 in Saxony). But this insignificant advantage in 
 Saxony is reversed if we take into consideration the cost of over- 
 looking against it. Tliis is the more important, as in Oldham 
 the corresj)onding overlooking costs are generally not to be tid^en 
 into account, because the one overlooker there simply corresponds 
 to a technically-trained employee in German spinning-mills. 
 
 Case No. 4 shows the same things for 30's twist, in a com- 
 paiison between South Germany and Bolton. In the latter town 
 there are fewer operatives for a greater nimiber of spindles, in 
 spite of which we find a greater speed of the macliinery, and by 
 both means the far higher weekly wages of the operatives and the 
 far shorter hours of labour more than compensated for. Already, 
 apart from the overlooking, the cost of labour in Bolton per lb. is 
 lower than in the South German case. Exactly the same thing 
 i-esults for 36'8 twist in case No. 5. 
 
 Especially interesting is case No. 6, which compares two in- 
 stances of 40's twist in Oldham with one another. Tlie one refers 
 to old, the other to the latest macliinery. From these we see in 
 the clearest way that it is technical development which really 
 demands 'higher capabilities from the operatives, but also in 
 retm-n betters their position. Although spinners as well as 
 helpers stand better in the second instance than in the first, the 
 cost of spinning is considerably less. 
 
 Finally, just the same result obtains for the finer yams (cases 
 7 and 8), which in Germany are only spun in quite isolated in- 
 stances. Especially noticeable is the difference in the conditions 
 of speed between Bolton and the s])lendid spinning-mill in Alsace. 
 This difference is also to be ascribed to lower capacity of labour ; 
 greater speed would not be economical in Alsace, on account of 
 increase of loss in comparison with the theoretical capacity. 
 
 Let us condense the results shortly. In England the operative 
 minds nearly double as much machinery as in Germany: the 
 machines run quicker; the loss compared with the theoretical 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 
 
 103 
 
 » 
 o 
 
 H 
 
 < 
 
 I 
 
 CO 
 
 5 
 
 hH 
 
 CO 
 
 g 
 
 H 
 O 
 
 m 
 c» 
 
 < 
 
 % 
 
 Weekly 
 earnings 
 of 
 over- 
 looker. 
 
 Marks. 
 35 to 40 
 
 27 
 
 35 
 
 20 to 30 
 
 20 to 30 
 
 21-60 
 
 20 to 25 
 
 35 
 
 Mi,i, 
 
 II 
 
 a g 
 it 
 
 10,000 to 20,000 
 
 15,000 
 
 10,000 
 
 15,000 
 
 15,000 
 11,400 
 .5,000 
 10,000 
 
 12,000 to 15,000 
 8.000 
 
 lift 
 
 1 8«?3 gS ^S|!:gg^2^^- 
 
 14 21 
 16 2 
 Marks. 
 12-50 
 11 
 
 lo-as 
 
 11 
 
 Weekly 
 earnings 
 
 of 
 spinners. 
 
 
 ^5 
 
 36 
 
 Marks. 
 
 21 
 
 40 
 
 21-60 
 
 43 
 
 Spinning 
 prices. 
 
 
 •SJOIDB-JPS 
 
 JO JiBd Jdd 
 
 uonon{>uJd 
 
 43133 AV 
 
 1 ip?-=iiiliiiiiiil 
 
 1222 
 1650 
 
 .530 
 633-3 
 258 
 333-3 
 
 •sanoq 
 
 SUIVOAV 
 
 XinaaAV 
 
 SSS3 SS3S3:931SJ23S'J? 
 
 ss ss-ss 
 
 Seconds 
 
 for 
 traverse 
 backw'ds 
 
 and 
 forw'nls. 
 
 
 252 IjEjSS 
 
 No of Length of 
 operatives, travei-se. 
 
 
 §3 SiSSS 
 
 
 »4e4 04940303 
 
 si^.. 
 
 ;is 
 
 . -saoioB 
 i -jiasjo.uBd 
 aad saip.ds 
 1 JO -ON 
 
 1272 
 1280 
 1272 
 1280 
 
 1568 
 1200 
 2000 
 2208 
 1472 
 2064 
 1472 
 1200 
 1704 
 2000 
 2376 
 2688 
 
 1560 
 2400 
 
 1248 
 1632 
 
 Places. 
 
 Vosges 
 
 Mulhouse 
 
 Mulhouse 
 
 Bjivaria 
 Wuictemberg.. 
 
 Sjixony 
 
 Oldham 
 
 S'th trermany 
 
 Bolton 
 
 S'th Germany 
 Switzerland ... 
 
 Saxony... 
 Oldham.. 
 
 Oldham 
 
 Oldham 
 
 Alsace 
 
 Bolton 
 
 Alsace 
 
 Bolton 
 
 
 (1) 12's metric warp ... 
 
 (2) 28's metric'warp ".'.. 
 
 (.3)20's twist, English... 
 
 (4) 36''s twist, "English".'.". 
 (5)36's twist, "English."."." 
 
 1 ■ 1 1 ■ 
 
 t ' i 'i ' 
 
 73 73 ^ 
 
 s S 2^ 
 
104! THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 capacity is less. In tlie latter respect it is to be bariie in miud 
 that ill England doffing and filling with bobbins take place in a 
 shorter time, breakages of ends occur more seldom, and the piecing 
 of broken threads reipiires less time. From these it results that 
 the cost of labour per lb. of yarn — esi)ecially if the overlooking is 
 included — is in England decidedly less than in Germany. The 
 wages of the English spinner are^ as well, nearly twice as high as 
 in Germany, and the hours of labour a little over 9 hours (32), 
 compared with 11 to IH in Germany. 
 
 Weaving. 
 
 Similar to the progress of spinning was that of weaving. 
 Cotton manufacturers, before the Committee on Manufactures (1), 
 in 1834, advanced the theory that hand-weaving was increasing, 
 and must increase as long as British commerce expanded. 
 Especially had the manufacturers of Bolton — which at that time 
 was the centre of weaving — thus expressed themselves. 
 
 In spite of all prophecies to the contrary, hand-weaving, at least 
 in cotton, ha^s, as a matter of fact, dieil out in England. Not 
 without much difficulty — because in Manchester even the largest 
 merchants in cotton goods knew nothing more of them — I have 
 still found hand-weavers in Ijancashire. Let me here dedicate a 
 word to the last of the race. If the death-struggles of hand- 
 weaving often extend themselves in a sad jnanner throughout 
 decades, its death itself is a comparatively easy one. 
 
 A gi-eat portion of the operatives' outlying districts of 
 Bolton comprise, even to-day, those houses which at the beginning 
 of the century were built for hand-weavers — cellars for weaving, 
 lighted from both sides by an unbroken row of windows, over 
 which are dwelling-rooms accessible by 8te}>s fixed outside the 
 house, now small houses for single weavers, then larger ones with 
 space for about 20 to 30 looms, where cottage weaving had de- 
 veloped into division of labour establishments. Most of these 
 houses have at the }>resent time lost their original object, and 
 have become dwelling-houses for the operatives under the rule of 
 
 32. Spinning machinery in England generally runs 55 hours per week ; the 
 ctory Act g ' "" ' '' ' '^ ' "" '•— ^ " ^ -^--•—- ^t-- 
 
 chinery. Tl 
 , because, oui 
 
 1. (1,212> 
 
 Factory Act grants 56i, of which 1| hours are devoted to cleaning the 
 machinery. The clause for regulation of German trades shortens the hours to 
 Go, because, out of the 6() hours allowed, one is necessary for cleaning. 
 
AND OK THE CONTINENT. 105 
 
 tlio iuctoiy system (ceutralised iudustry). But in u detaelied 
 environ here aud there we still hear — of course isokited — the 
 sound of the hand-loom. 
 
 If we descend into one of these cellars, which, as mentioned, are 
 very well lighted and contain about four looms, we are greeted by 
 grey-haired men and women. They seem to belong to another 
 world, especially if the visitor has just wandered through one of 
 the gigantic fine-sjnnning mills of Bolton. Here, as everywhere 
 else, the dying liand-weaving clings to a specialty for existence — 
 counterpanes of peculiar patterns and with words woven in, mostly 
 Bible verses. The patterns are formed by the weaver raising the 
 weft, at the proper place, with a small hook to form a shed. 
 Similar patterns could only be i>roduced by the power-loom w^ith 
 complicated jacquard arrangenients, and in large quantities. But 
 here it is only a question of a limited supply for people who still 
 cling to tlie old fashions, perhaps mostly for customers who, in 
 point of age, do not stand iimch behind the producers. For their 
 requirements it would not pay to introduce costly machinery. 
 
 The weavers work with extremely coarse weft — about 90 yds. to 
 the Uj. — which is spun from cotton waste. This enables a quick 
 production, because there are no more than 12 picks per quarter- 
 inch. The warp is 12's twist. Similar counterpanes are also 
 woven with coloured cotton — in every instance old-fashioned 
 goods with a very limited circle of buyers. 
 
 \Vc gee, therefore, how the cottage industry has at last with- 
 drawn itself to a sphere specially suited for it, which also becomes 
 more and more contracted, but not more quickly than the 
 hand-weavers die off. Therefore the position of these, the last of 
 their race, is a better one than that of their j^arents in the 
 "twenties" and ''thirties." They have taken their share in the 
 general progress of the times ; a 4:1b. loaf, pointed out one of the 
 weavers, 40 years ago cost lOd., now only id. Tlio hours of 
 labour are still 12 to 14, but with longer stoppages for meals. 
 The rate of wages is also better than formerly. A weaver receives 
 Is. 7d. for one of the counterpanes described. Ho can weave 8 
 in a week, so that his earnings amount to 13s., of which, however, 
 28. to 38. goes as rent for the loom, etc. As soon as goods come 
 into question which Jiro not specialties, the earnings sink far below 
 — to 7s. per week and less. But the most astonishing fact in regard 
 to the condition of wages is that the hand-weavers in late years 
 
106 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 even succeeded in obtaining an advance. Since the old men 
 possess a monopoly of their hand-labour, the threat of a strike 
 was sufficient, as long as old maids still bought their goods. 
 
 An astonishing thing is this guild of the cottage weavers, which 
 once comprised the whole neighbourhood of Bolton, and had 
 thousands of membei-s. Even 30 years ago it had 1,800 mem- 
 bers ; to-day it has only 50. The youngest member, 50 years of 
 age, is secretary, with whom, apparently, at some time the guild 
 will die out. Most of them are far older, and to our questions 
 about the trade the answers often went back 50 years. If their 
 condition is tolerable, it depends upon the almost fanatically 
 spoken-out determination to be the last of their trade, and to 
 teach their handicraft to no younger person. Even winding is 
 not done here by children, but by the oldest of the old. The 
 gi-andchildren work in the factory, where they earn three times 
 as much — thus solving the hand-weaver problem. 
 
 If we comj^are the conditions of the hand-weavers in Germany 
 with those just delineated, they stand also on about the same 
 economical footing as those of England in the " thirties " — in the 
 midst of the death-struggles of the cottage industry, whose fatal 
 character is well known to the thinking observer. There are, 
 indeed, also voices not wanting like those of the manufacturers of 
 Bolton who thought the home liand-weaving could only cease 
 altogether with English commerce (2). For instance, an advertise- 
 ment lies before me, in which hand-weaving is declared to be as 
 capable, indeed in many articles superior, to power- weaving. It 
 ill fits in therewith, however, if at the same time the sympathy of 
 the public is appealed to, and an advertisement made of the 
 poverty of the weaver. 
 
 Opposed thereto E. Engel (3) deserves special recognition, for 
 in 1855 he already called attention to the fact that there was 
 only one remedy for the misery of the hand-workers — the replace- 
 ment of the hand industry by the factory system. So early as 
 that, Engel spoke with great foresight of a certain " conservative 
 calling of centralised industry." Even at this day this expression 
 will appear paradoxical to most people. Where, however, the 
 
 2. Compare Report of the •' Eaquetekoinmission," p. 70. 
 
 3. E. Engel: " Siichsisches Obererzgcbirge" (Dresden, 1855), especially 
 pp» 10, 14, 15. 
 
I 
 
 AND ON THE CONTINENT. 107 
 
 change to the factory system has been possible, hand-weaving in 
 Germany has also been put aside without extreme sufferings. 
 Where it still exists, conditions are the most favourable 
 where it confines itself to at least a specialty. But it wrestles 
 most severely mth death where it does not bend before the 
 factory system in the direction of a specialty, but lives on by 
 tampering with the quality, as in many cases in Silesia and 
 partly in Saxony (4). 
 
 Power-weaving, compared with hand-weaving, means a replace- 
 ment to a large extent of labom* by capital. A weaver on the 
 power-loom accomplishes about as much as 40 good hand-weavers 
 (5). But also in power-weaving itself, as in spinning, the quantity 
 produced per loom as well as per operative is continuously in- 
 creased. 
 
 First comes into account, since the "thirties," the considerably 
 increased speed of the loom, which at the present time in Lanca- 
 shire has in some cases reached 240 picks per minute (6). The 
 avei-age si)eed on plain goods is approximately as follows: — 
 
 la England, in 1830(7) 80 to 90 picks 
 
 to-day .. .. .. 195 „ 
 
 ,, Alsace ., (8) 140 „ 
 
 The advantage of England in this respect is given in detail by 
 the following table : — 
 
 Approximate Speed of Looms ox Plain Cotton Goods. 
 
 Picks per minute. 
 
 Width. 
 
 Knelaiid. 
 
 Switzerland. 
 
 Alsace. 
 
 80 to 85 cm. 
 
 240 
 
 190 to 200 
 
 150 to 160 
 
 110 .. 116 ., 
 
 200 
 
 160 ,, 170 
 
 130 „ 140 
 
 135 ., 140 ., 
 
 180 
 
 150 .. 160 
 
 120 „ 125 
 
 165 „ 170 „ 
 
 180 
 
 120 ., 130 
 
 110 ., 115 
 
 (») 
 
 Similarly, however, as in spinning, the number of the really 
 completed movements of the machine within a working day is far 
 less than the simple nmltiplication of the picks by the number of 
 minutes. The loom is not in operation during the whole of the 
 
 4. Report of the •• Enquetekommission," p. 77; " ProtokoUe," pp. 223, 
 306, 405, 411. 
 
 5. Andrew : •' Fifty Years' Cotton Trade," p. 7. 
 
 6. Compare Andrew, p. 2, 
 
 7. Ure : " Cotton Manufacture," II. , 810. 
 
 8. Jannasch : " Europiiische BaumwoUindustrie " (Berlin, 1882), p. 54. 
 
 9. These figures are from private infonuation. The particulars for England 
 are, however, confirmed by Brooks: "Cotton Manufacturing" (Blackburn, 
 1889), p. 79. 
 
108 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 working houi's, but time is lost ijy breakages of euds aud similar 
 disturbances. Thus in England, with a theoretical speed of 210 
 picks, not more than 200 picks are on tho average effective — i.e., 
 the loss amounts to 1G"6 ix;r cent. With lower speeds tho loss 
 sinks down to 8 per cent. In comparison, 20 to 30 })er cent, has 
 been given me as the average loss for Alsiice in plain goods; for 
 Switzerland even a little more. Karl Grad mentioned before the 
 " EiKiuetc-konniiission '' a uot exceptional case, in which on j)lain 
 goods, and with a sj»ei.'d of 160 picks per minute, tho loss amounteil 
 to 34 per cent. He founded this emphatically on the want of 
 highly-skilled labour (10). 
 
 From the facts mentioned wo find that English looms produce 
 considerably more than those on tho Continent in the same time. 
 Unfortunately a comparison in ligm-es, a»s in spiiming, cannot be 
 given, because I have not succeeded in getting details for exactly 
 tho same goods in England and Germany — by the way, an in- 
 teresting instance of international division of labour. If, however, 
 English looms run about 30 per cent. (|uicker than the German, 
 and show at least 10 per cent, less loss, it follows that in spite of 
 15 per cent, shorter hours of labour, the weekly production is 
 not less, but rather must be greater. 
 
 In spite of this increase of proiluction per loom, the number of 
 operatives, compared with the number of machines used, has, as in 
 spinning, continually decreased. If we take the particulars given 
 by Ure as a basis for reckoning, there were still in 1820 more 
 operatives than looms ; in 1878, on the other hand, there were more 
 than two looms per operative, both including all the people em- 
 ])loyod on the preparation machinery' : — 
 
 In 1820 there was one operative per 0*9 loom 
 .. 1850 „ .. ., 1-6 looms 
 
 .,1878 ., .. ,. 2-1 „ (11) 
 
 .. 1893 „ ., „ 4-6 ,, 
 
 lu comparison, in India, only 0-22 loom (12) 
 
 ,, .in Alsace, only 1*5 looms (13) 
 
 10. '• Protokolle der Enquete,'' p. 372. 
 
 11. Compare Birtwistle before the Labour Commission. 1891. 
 
 12. Compare "Bombay and Manchester*' (Manchester Chamber of Com- 
 merce, 188iS). p. 8. Report of the ♦• Reichseuquete." p. 109. Whereby, how- 
 over, it must not be forgotten that on the average Alsace produces finer goods 
 than England. 
 
 13. Brooks : " Cotton Manufacturing," p. 47. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 109 
 
 We liiid tlie same thing if we leave tlie preparing machinery ont 
 of the question and take only into account the number of looms 
 which the weaver minds. Whilst during the time of Ure the 
 weaver did not mind more than one lo<im, or at the most two 
 looms, the average number at the present time in Lancashire on 
 plain goods is four looms. Tliis number is confirmed to me by 
 Mr. Edward llawlinson, the secretary of the large Association of 
 Emi>loyers in North Lancashire. In his district one person minds 
 on the average 3'9 looms. 
 
 That we can accept four looms as the average number has been 
 confirmed to me, in a similar manner, by Mr. Birtwistle, secretary 
 of the Amalgamated Weavers. He writer : " The larger number 
 of our best weavers (in Blackburn and Accrington) mind four 
 looms per person, some with, some Avithout, help." It is, how- 
 ever, to be borne in mind that these statements are not only with 
 respect to plain, but also to simple fancy and bordered goods, 
 especially the so-called dhooties — the clothing of the Hindoos. 
 Six looms per weaver are in Burnley very frequent; in this case 
 the weaver has mostly a young assistant. 
 
 Compared with the foregoing, the nmnber of looms per weaver 
 in America has increased still more. A weavei* in Massachusetts 
 frequently minds 6 to 8 looms, as a letter of Mr. J. Howard, 
 secretary of the Cotton Operatives of Fall River, informs me (14), 
 and Mr. Edward Atkinson, of Boston, confirms. 
 
 In a weaving-shed at Lowell, Massachusetts, there were em- 
 ployed in the " eighties," according to a communication from the 
 manager — Mr. Dupre: — 
 
 11 women weavers with 5 looms I 43 women weavers with 7 looms 
 232 „ „ „ 6 „ I 20 „ ., .. 8 „ 
 
 In Germany a weaver scarcely anywhere minds more than two, in 
 Mulhouse and Switzerland, on plain goods, often three looms. 
 Also in Ai.gsburg this latter has, according to Grassmann, been 
 lately successful (15). The highest capacity there is that four 
 looms are given to two operatives — one adult and one young 
 
 14. Reprinted in the Cotton Factory Times of March 22nd. 1889. The 
 same is given in " Commercial Relations of the United States," No. 23 (Sept. , 
 1892), p. 43. 
 
 15. Compare Grassmann : " Die Entwicklung der Augshurger Industrie, 
 1894." On the other hand, the story on p. 49 was related to me a few years 
 ago. 
 
110 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 person. In Silesia (15a), on account of the lower standard of 
 weekly earnings, it has been found more economical to confine 
 a weaver to one loom. 
 
 In order to bring the degiee of labour-saving which has been 
 attained in England before the eyes of the reader, let us visit 
 one of the weaving-sheds in North Lancashire. It contains 602 
 looms for plain printing calicoes. The looms are arranged on a 
 flagged ground floor, with light from above. This is at the present 
 time the usual arrangement in England for weaving, because 
 thereby the vibration, and therewith the wear and tear of the 
 machinery, as well as the number of ends breaking, is the least 
 (16). The remaining rooms attached to this light and roomy 
 weaving- shed are small, and are built with the utmost regard to 
 economy. There are the following operatives : — 
 
 16 Females at winding machines, at . . . . 18/- per week, piece-work 
 
 2 Operatives for beaming, at .. .. .. 33/- ., ,, 
 
 1 „ for sizing (for the coarser and) ^, dav-work 
 
 white yarns), at . . (■*"/- •♦ aay-worJt 
 
 5 ., for dressing (for coloured and fineri .^, 
 
 yarns (17), at .. .. f *"- " ^' •» 
 
 5 Females for drawing-in warps, from . . 35/- to 16/- „ piece-work 
 180 Weavers and tenters, mostly females, includ-") go/g 
 
 ing six-loom weavers, at . . . . J ' " " 
 
 These pay the tenters .. .. .. .. 6/6 ,, day-work 
 
 Four-loom weavers, at . . . . . . . . 24/- ,, piece-work 
 
 6 Overlookers, at 38/- ,, „ 
 
 [These latter receive 1/4 for every pound which 
 the weavers under them earn.] 
 Then, in the warehouse : — 
 1 Cloth-looker, at 33/- „ day-work 
 
 3 Labourers, at 22 -. 18/-, 14/- 
 
 4 Youths, at 10/- 
 
 In addition : — 
 
 1 Clerk 38/- ,, ., 
 
 1 Labourer 18/- ,. ., 
 
 225 operatives, all told, or per operative, including all preparation. 2 -7 looms. 
 
 15a. "ProtokoUe der Enquete,"p. 410. Compare also p. 180. 
 
 16. Compare B. Shaw : ' ' The Cotton Manufacture of Lancashire " ; 
 " Commercial Kelations of the United States," No. 12 (Washington, 1881), 
 p. 129. In America this method of building is impossible, owing to heavy 
 snowfalls in winter — also another climatic advantage of England. Compare 
 the same, No. 23 (Sept, 1882), p. 42. 
 
 1 7. The difference between dressing and sizing is that in the first case the 
 warp is spread out thread by thread; in the second it is subjected to the 
 strengthening ingredients in the form of a small coil. Compare Karmarsch, 
 II. , S83. Ill the case before us, partly one system and partly the other was 
 used. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. Ill 
 
 In similar first-class weaving-mills of Baden and Switzerland 
 there are, in comparison, on plain goods only 2"1 to 2 looms per 
 weaver, whilst on the average this number is much less. 
 
 A weaver in the weaving-shed we have examined earns 5s. 6d. 
 per loom per week, whilst the average in Burnley probably amounts 
 to 5s. The weekly wage varies between 22s. and 27s. The six- 
 ioom weaver earns 33s. 6d., but pays from this to his young 
 heljter, who, by the way, is generally a member of the family, 6s. 
 6d. The width of the printings produced varies, as generally in 
 Burnley, between 32in. and 4:6in. The yarns used are so-called 
 mediums — that is, warp 28's to 45's twist, weft 30'sto60's. The 
 weekly production per loom is 250 yds. on the average, therefore 
 the cost of weaving is U'26d. per yard, whilst in Burnley it is 
 reckoned at 0*2 2d. In comparison, a weaver of similar plain 
 printings in Germany and Switzerland earns about 12s. weekly. 
 His labour is, in spite of this, by no means cheaper. 
 
 Quite another aspect is shown by one of those art weaving-sheds 
 in the neighbourhood of Manchester — for instance, Bolton. Here 
 no loom is weaving the same thing as another. There are 
 towels, t-able-cloths, counterpanes, so-called fancy goods, especially 
 for the home market. But in spite of the fact that the majority 
 of the looms have jacquard arrangements, even here one weaver 
 minds on the average two looms, whilst in all Continental weaving- 
 mills one weaver has only one such loom. Only a few of the 
 weavers in Bolton have tenters — among 250 weavers perhaps about 
 50. On the 500 looms at work, which represent a considerable 
 amount of capital (a loom costs £5 to £150), there are 300 
 weavers and tenters, in addition to 1 50 operatives on the prepara- 
 tion work, cutting of jacquard cards, and in the repairing shop, 
 which is necessitated here by the complicatefl machinerv\ The 
 average, therefore, per single operative, including all the accessory 
 preparation mentioned, is I'l looms — a remarkably favourable 
 result. 
 
 The woven goods which the dexterity in art of our German 
 hand- weaver 8 still produces are in many cases the same. The 
 English weavers earn on the average 25s. per week, and on the 
 real art-looms Ss. per day easily, and still the productions of 
 these highly-paid operatives have killed the old cottage weaving 
 of Bolton, in which their fathers and grandfathers once eked out 
 a not less miserable existence than the German hand-weavers. 
 
112 
 
 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 Wliat we have said shows how the technical projrress in weaving 
 also caused a permanent increase of production per operative, and 
 therewith a continuous lowerinj^ of piece-wages. Thereby, as in 
 spinning, the weekly earnings of the operatives have risen. This 
 can be proved by figures. The following instance is taken from 
 a large weaving-mill in Hyde, which since the introduction of the 
 power-loom has remained in the hands of the same family : — 
 
 Weekly 
 
 production per 
 
 operative. 
 
 Cost of labour. 
 
 Hours of 
 labour. 
 
 Weekly 
 
 eaniings'per 
 
 weaver 
 
 BuyinK-power 
 in flour. 
 
 1814... 
 
 1890.. 
 
 Yards. 
 
 130-7 
 221*2 
 540 
 
 Per Yanl. 
 l-3d. 
 
 0-6d. 
 
 13d. 
 
 Per week. 
 80 
 
 72 
 
 I 148. 
 
 I 128. 
 
 i'i .3-looin weaver. 
 \, , 17s..3d. 
 - I •i-loom weaver, 
 ( ! 22s.6il, 
 
 Lb. 
 56 
 
 65 
 
 } 131K1«) 
 I 208 
 
 The goods to which these figures refer are ordinary printing 
 calicoes (3H in, wide, 72'8 reed, 26's twist, 30's weft, 20 picks per 
 quarter-inch) (19). Figures comprising the whole of cotton 
 weaving, on the basis of Ellison's estimates, have like results : — 
 
 Bnf^Iish total 
 production in 
 cottr>n sroods. 
 
 Number 
 of opera- 
 tives. 
 
 Capacity per 
 operative. 
 
 Cost of labour 
 per lb. 
 
 Yearly 
 
 earnings per 
 
 operative. 
 
 1819-21 .. 
 
 1829-31 ... 
 
 1844-G .. 
 
 1859-Gl .. 
 
 1880-82 ... 
 
 [n 1.000 lb. 
 80,620 
 
 143,200 
 
 348,110 
 
 650,870 
 
 993,540 
 
 250,000 
 275,000 
 210,000 
 203,000 
 246,000 
 
 Lb. 
 322 
 
 521 
 
 1,658 
 
 3,206 
 
 4,039 
 
 Pence. 
 15-5 
 
 9-0 
 
 3-5 
 
 2-9 
 
 2-3 
 
 £ 8. d. 
 
 20 18 
 
 19 8 
 
 24 10 
 
 30 15 
 
 39 
 
 The apparent irregularities of the table (20) are explained by 
 the decline of hand-weaving being included in it. To this the 
 lowering of the yearly earnings between 1820 and 1830 must be 
 ascribed. 
 
 18. The prices of flour are the same as before (p. 98). In Hyde, south 
 of Manchester, the weavers, unlike those in the districts of the staple industry 
 in the North, only mind three to four looms. 
 
 19. The figures for 1810 and 1830 are reckoned from the particulars of 
 Baines ; those for 1890 emanate from private communications. 
 
 20. Compare KUison: " Cotton Trade," p, 69, 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 
 
 118 
 
 This development has been repeated in the States of Massa- 
 chusetts and Rhode Island. Tlie following particulars emanate 
 from the well-known writer, Edward Atkinson, who at the same 
 time is a practical man in the cotton industry (21). Here also 
 the same decrease is shown in piece-wages, the same increase of 
 production per operative, and the same raising of weekly earnings. 
 
 Even if the still remaining colonial character of America (higher 
 cost per spindle and loom per mill, stronger demand for labour, 
 dearer capital, etc.) should make the industry there appear not 
 suitable for extracting general economical principles, the American 
 instance is nevertheless, in res])ect to the replacement of labour by 
 capital, extremely instructive. Tlie particulars of x^tkinson refer 
 to two mills which since 1830 produced unchanged the same goods 
 (standard sheetings, width 36 in.. No. 14's yarn), and spun the 
 necessary yarns themselves. In the cost of labour the cost of 
 spinning as well as of weaving is included. The particulars are 
 taken from the business books of the firms in question. 
 
 
 Yearly protluction 
 
 per 
 
 operative. 
 
 Cost of labour | Annual earninKs 
 P^^y*^"^- i ope?ltive. 
 
 1830 . 
 
 1850 
 
 Yards. Cents. 
 4,321 1 -9 
 
 12,164 1-55 
 
 19,293 1 1-24 
 
 28.032 i 1-07 
 
 Dollars. 
 164 
 
 190 
 
 240 
 
 290 
 
 1870 
 
 1884 
 
 
 
 
 In the case of Germany, also, a similar development can un- 
 doubtedly be shown. Although the looms run more slowly, in 
 spite of this the losses (22) are larger and the production per loom 
 less than in England. This is a consequence of the want of highly- 
 skilleil and highly-capable labour. But this fact is easily ex- 
 plained by the still comparatively youthful age of power-weaving 
 in Germany. In the eastern portions of Germany, especially in 
 Silesia and Saxony, the power-loom has only been settled since 
 
 21. Edward Atkinson : " Address upon the Labour Question " (Boston, 
 1886), p. 11. The same: Popular Science Monthly (January, 1890), 
 pp. 316-7. The same : " Distribution of Products," 4th ed. (New York, 1890), 
 p. 118. Compare, further, .Jeans: Statist. Society (December, 1884), p. 617. 
 
 22. That is, the difference between the theoretical and real production. — 
 Translatoi\ 
 
114 
 
 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 the "sixties" — in 1861, for instance, the first powerloom mill 
 was got to work in Plauen (23). 
 
 Grassmann gives the following table regarding plain calico 
 weaving (23a): — 
 
 Yearly Production per 
 Power Loom in metres. 
 
 Weavers 
 per Loom. 
 
 Annual Production 
 per Weaver 
 in metres. 
 
 1861 
 1875 
 1891 
 
 8,588 (93 cm. wide) 
 8,966(130 „ „ ) 
 9,202(130 „ „ ) 
 
 0-5 
 
 0494 
 
 0-43 
 
 17,176 
 18,163 
 21,447 
 
 On account of the disparity in the goods produced, an exact 
 comparison of the cost of labour in weaving between Germany and 
 England is more difficult than in the case of spinning. I confine 
 myself to the following instance, which is based on the authority 
 of Schoenhof (24), and has been confirmed to me in Lancashire. 
 It refers to ordinary printing calicoes, 15i yds., 64 by 64 standard 
 sheeting : — 
 
 Switzerland and\ 
 Germany ... | 
 
 England 
 
 America 
 
 Weekly 
 
 production per 
 
 operative. 
 
 y* 
 
 LP**" I hours of 
 "*• I labour. 
 
 Yards. 
 466 
 
 706 
 1,200 
 
 Pence. 
 0-303 
 
 0-27:> 
 0-2 
 
 Weekly 
 
 earnings per 
 
 operative. 
 
 s. «l. 
 
 11 8 
 
 16 3 
 20 3 
 
 Tliat on the field of weaving, however, Germany bravely steps 
 forward is proved by numerous particulars of the *' Enquete." In 
 any case the cost of labour had only increased a little, in many 
 cases even lessened, although since the "fifties" the weekly 
 income of the operatives had permanently risen, in some instances 
 very considerably, in many cases 60 per cent. This was attained 
 by giving two looms to a weaver, increasing the speed of the 
 looms, and introducing piecework and labour-saving machinery 
 
 23. Bein: "Industrie des Voigtlandes," II., 341 ; also " Protokolle der 
 Enquete," p. 105. In Augsburg already in 1839. Compare Grassmann : 
 loc. cif. , pp. 22. 23. 
 
 23a. Grassmann : lor. cit. . p. 96. 
 
 24. J. Schoenhof : '•Influences Bearing on Production " (1888), a journey- 
 report, out of print 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 
 
 115 
 
 for the preparation. Whilst in some cases spinning-mill owners 
 complained that the labour capacity became worse as a conse- 
 quence of increasing wages at the beginning of the " seventies/' the 
 continuously increasing capacity of the operatives in power- 
 weaving was, even at that time, according to the evidence of 
 experts, beyond doubt (25). Similar cases since then have been 
 communicated to me, in which, by speeding the machinery, piece- 
 wages were reduced and resulted in an increase of the weekly 
 earnings. In spite of all this it is at the present time less the 
 technically-advanced centralised industry which has made German 
 weaving partly into an export industry than the accommodating 
 itself to changing daily demands, to taste in the patterns, 
 etc. Thus the merchants of Ijondon and the manufacturers of 
 Lancashire order, in many cases, German novelties and produce 
 them in large masses if they take (26). The lack of technically 
 perfected productive systems has in many instances resulted in 
 the fruits of the admirable technical and art skill and training 
 which GernAiny gives to her sons being plucked by other 
 nations. 
 
 WEAVING PRICES IN LANCASHIR: 
 I. — Plain Cotton Goods. — Blackburn. 
 
 Width of 
 goods. 
 
 Reed (27). 
 
 Picks per 
 
 Length 
 pieces. 
 
 Twist. 
 
 Weft. 
 
 Wages 
 piece. 
 
 Weeltly 
 production 
 per loom. 
 
 Inches. 
 39 
 
 62 
 
 .U-6 
 
 Yards. 
 37 
 
 30's 
 
 30'8 
 
 Pence. 
 8-92 
 
 Blis. 
 222 
 
 39 
 
 62 
 
 14 9 
 
 37 
 
 30's 
 
 30'8 
 
 9-47 
 
 215 
 
 39 
 
 62 
 
 16-5 
 
 37 
 
 30's 
 
 30's 
 
 10-08 
 
 215 
 
 40 
 
 50 
 
 14-6 
 
 37 
 
 30's 
 
 30's 
 
 8-72 
 
 222 
 
 25. Compare *'Protokolle zur Reichsenquete," pp. 105, 183, 188, 192, 247. 
 
 26. Compare the Second Report of the Commission on Depression of Trade, 
 part I., 4,945, 4,949, 4,977, 4,982, 5,815. 
 
 27. The method of counting reeds usual in Lancashire is the Stockport 
 method — the number of dents in two inches, i.e., since generally two warp 
 threads are drawn through one dent, the number of ends per inch. 
 
110 
 
 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 II. — FouR-SiiAFT Twills. — Radcliffe. 
 
 Width of 
 goods. 
 
 Reed. 
 
 Picks per 
 , iinch. 
 
 Length 
 
 of 
 pieces. 
 
 Twist. 
 
 Weft. 
 
 Wages 
 piece. 
 
 Weekly 
 
 production 
 
 per loom. 
 
 Inches. 
 34 
 
 00 
 
 12-2 
 
 Short ells. 
 80 
 
 32's 
 
 40"s 
 
 Pence. 
 15-05 
 
 Pieces. 
 
 34 
 
 00 
 
 1 13-25 
 
 80 
 
 32's 
 
 40"s 
 
 10-05 
 
 H 
 
 34 
 
 CO 
 
 14-45 
 
 80 
 
 ' 80 
 
 32s 
 
 40'i 
 
 18-48 
 
 3 
 
 34 
 
 00 
 
 1-55 
 
 i 
 
 32's 
 
 40's 
 
 10-84 
 
 n 
 
 III. — BuR>aiEY Printers. 
 
 Width 
 of goods. 
 
 Reed. 
 
 Picks per 
 1- incTi. 
 
 Length 
 pieces. 
 
 Twist. 
 
 Weft. 
 
 Wages 
 piece. 
 
 Weekly 
 production 
 per loom. 
 
 Inches. 
 34 
 
 OS 
 
 18-75 
 
 Yards. 
 135 
 
 Medium (28) 
 
 Pence. 
 40 03 
 
 Yanls. 
 200 
 
 20 
 
 07 
 
 18-03 
 
 110 
 
 r. 
 
 31-^2 
 
 215 
 
 20 
 
 53 
 
 12-47 
 
 125 
 
 ?» 
 
 21-07 
 
 352 
 
 311 
 
 50 
 
 14-25 ! 
 
 130 
 
 
 2442 
 
 310 
 
 Tlie above figures show extremely low prices per piece, which 
 give the weaver a weekly wage of 22s. to 24s. A comparison 
 with Germany in figures would be impossible in detail, but still 
 the foregoing particulars should not be withhehl from practical 
 
 men - 
 
 ///. — Labour, 
 
 A.— Further Proofs of the Statement advanced from Other 
 
 Countries. 
 We can condense our result up to this point in the sentence : 
 Technical progress, in connection with an increase of labour 
 capacity, accomplishes a permanent lowering of piece- wages, at the 
 same time raising the weekly earnings of the operatives and 
 gradually shortening the hours of labour. If we further sup- 
 
 orte^l this statement by comparing the present condition of the 
 English cotton industry with its condition in the "thirties" and 
 that of the contemporary German, the cotton industry in its 
 
 28. Medium = 28'8-45's twist, SO's-OO's weft. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 
 
 117 
 
 remaining phases also allords a pletiiora of ju'oofs. Wlierc tlie 
 staudard of living and the wages are the lowest, there the pro- 
 duction is the dearest. 
 
 The Russian cotton industry has its seat in two centres— one 
 in the centrally-situated provinces of Wladiniir and Moscow, and 
 the other in the North, near St. Petersburg and in ]^]stlila.nd. In 
 the latter district the standard of living of the operative is the 
 higher ; but his greater intelligence and cleverness amply counter- 
 balance the lower wages of the middle provinces, as the following 
 table shows (1) : — 
 
 Yeaklv pHoDrcrioN teu Operativk. 
 
 In spinning. In weaving. ^^^^^r" 
 
 1 1 Roubles. Koubles. 
 i Wladimir and Moscow. I 937 45G 
 
 St. Petersburg 1,928 1,102 | 
 
 Esthland 1,513 1,327 j 
 
 i 
 
 14 and over 
 12 
 
 The tremendous waste in labour-i)ower is the chain wliich, in 
 spite of English nuichinery and English managers, keeps l)ack the 
 industiy of Russia — conditions which link themselves to the days 
 of serfdom and heathenism, when the labourer cost just as little 
 as he accomplished. 
 
 An American Consular report speaks similarly respecting Italy : 
 Power-looms in Italy proiluce far less than elsewhere because the 
 female operatives are very slow in piecing ends, and thereby 
 lose almost 40 per cent, of the time worked. Certainly the wages 
 here are very low in comparison with the United States, but the 
 ]>roduction in the same time is lower in the same proportion. Tlie 
 Italian spinners pay their operatives 6 to 8 lire per week; but 
 they require 10, 15, and even 20 operatives per 1,000 spindles. 
 The same applies to weaving. An English weaver minds 3 to 4 
 looms, and has from every one (!) a larger production than the 
 Italian, who seldom min^s more than One loom (2). 
 
 1. Compare '• Commercial Kelafions of the United States," No. 12 (Oct., 
 1881); •• Beport on the Conditions of Labour in Russia " (Lond.. 181)2). 
 
 2. "Commercial Relations of the United States," No. 23 (Sept., 1882 
 p. 285. 
 
118 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 A similar antitliesis is found within the United States. Here 
 the South, which produces cotton, appears to be specially adapted 
 also for fui'ther manipulation; the technical aids and capital are 
 at hand as in the North ; and water-power is also not lacking in 
 the South. In spite of these facts the North is the seat of the 
 cotton industry, although it has to bear the carriage of the raw 
 materials. There, however, is the seat of an old race of operatives 
 of extraordinary productive capacity. Tlie South, which depended 
 up to a short time ago on slave labour, has nothing to set against 
 this race. It is true that the weekly wages in the South are far 
 lower, but the cost of labour is dearer. " I have," says Atkinson, 
 " made a very accurate calculation of tlie proportion of operatives 
 to the number of spindles, the number of looms, etc., and therein 
 conceded vei*y much for the variation of yarns, the capability of 
 the mills, etc., and still found that in the South there are two 
 .operatives for one in New England. This calculation was con- 
 firmed by observations on the spot" (3). 
 
 The most remarkable confirmation of our contention of reversed 
 proportional conditions between weekly wages of the operative 
 and piece-wages is given by the reports of Mr. James Thornley, 
 who travelled in the American cotton districts in the interests of 
 the " Textile Manufacturer," an English journal devoted to the 
 textile trade (they were printed in the journal mentioned). Their 
 general pm*port was, that the cost of producing plain calicoes was 
 higher in the United States than in England. On the other hand, 
 the cost of labour for the same production was less in America. 
 In comparison with these facts it is known that the weekly earn- 
 ings of the operatives in America and England are about as thre^ 
 to two (4).. But it is especially remarkable that the cost of labour 
 in America, particularly in weaving, stands very considerably 
 below that of England, but on the other hand that spinning is 
 cheaper in England. Although this is the case the English weaver 
 earns far less than the American; the spinner, who is still 
 superior to his American contemporary, is, however, the 
 highest-paid English operative. For the production of a pound of 
 ordinary printing calico, of a sort which the expert mentioned 
 deems specially suitable for comparison, the follo\ving figures are 
 
 3. Edward Atkinson: Popular Science Monthli/ (Jan.. 1890), p. 371. 
 Compare further : " Address of Edward A.tkinsoQ. given in Atlanta, (Georgia. 
 Oct, 1890," p. 5. 
 
 4. Compare, for this, Atkinson : •' Distribution of Products,'' p. 133. 
 
'Jew England. 
 
 Lancashire. 
 
 G-32d. 
 
 6-08d. 
 
 3-33d. 
 
 3-48d. 
 
 0-66d. 
 
 047d. 
 
 1-Gd. 
 
 2'03d. 
 
 33/- to 35/- 
 
 35/- to 40/- 
 
 25/- to 37/() (6) . . 
 
 20/- to 24/- 
 
 AND ON THE CONTINENT. 119 
 
 of .value. I, on my side, add the weekly earnings, and tender 
 my thanks to Mr. E. Atkinson for the friendly information con- 
 cerning the conditions of American wages (5) : — 
 
 Cost of Productio.v per Pound (excluding Raw Cotton). 
 
 Total cost of production 
 
 ,, labour 
 
 Cost of spinning 
 
 ., weaving 
 Weekly earnings of spinner 
 
 „ .. weaver 
 
 These particulars agi'ee with those of Schoenhof in his " Economy 
 of High Wages," according to which the costs of spinning in 
 England, and of weaving in America are the lower. 
 
 In Germany the standard of living of the working classes has 
 without doubt considerably advanced during the last decade; 
 wages have risen and the hours of labour become shorter, without 
 needing an increase in the rate of piece-prices (7). As an instance, 
 in a Bavarian mill for which particulars were repeatedly made, 
 the average wage, in spinning, in 1886 was 2 marks, in 1890 
 2*12 marks; inweaving, 1886, 2 marks; in 1890, 2-22 marks; 
 in addition to which a lowering of piece-prices was possible 
 in the weaving-she<l. In any case the piece-wages were in no in- 
 stance increased. The average yearly earnings per operative in 
 the Alsatian textile industry amounted, according to information 
 for which I have to thank the " Bernfsgenossenschaft," to: — 
 
 1887. 
 
 1888. 
 
 1889. 
 
 1890. 
 
 Marks. 
 
 Marks. 
 
 Marks. 
 
 Marks. 
 
 589-13 
 
 589-95 
 
 601-85 
 
 606-3 
 
 A gradual shortening of the hours of labour is without doubt 
 extending in Germany. In 1868, according to the Enquetc, the 
 hours of labour in Chemnitz were still 14. Yet the production 
 
 5. The particulars for Am«rica are. in order to give a wider scope, averaged 
 from the particulars for Fall Kiver. Lowell, and Khode Island, given separately 
 in the report Compare " Commercial Relations of the United States." No. 23 
 rSept.. 1882), pp. 43. 44. 
 
 6. The wages for a capable six-loom weaver in Massachusetts is given as 
 37s. 2d. The figures for England correspond to the above particulars. They 
 are, as well, confirmed by the evidence of the secretaries of the English 
 spinners and weavers before the Labour Commission at the sittings on 28th 
 June and 10th July, 1891. The English spinners often earn, as the above 
 figures show. 45s. and more per week. 
 
 7. Compare Report of the "Reichsenquete,"- pp. 30. 82; "Stat Supple- 
 ment," part IL, 76. 80; special "Protokolle " for Alsace, pp. 291, 296, 337, 
 376, etc. ; further, for Saxony, the same, p. 98. 
 
120 THE COTTON TkAt)E IN ENGLAND 
 
 has been iu must cases no less than formerly with longer liours. 
 Especially known, ali-eady quoted by Bra&sey, is the instance of 
 Dollfus, whose spinning-mill i)roduced in an 11 hours day just as 
 much as formerly in 1 2 hours. Tliis exinirience was repeateil in 
 other spinning-mills of Alsace (8). 
 
 Karl Grad, before the " Enquetekomniission,' laid great stress 
 on the difference Ijctwcen Mulhouse and the smaller factory dis- 
 tricts of the Vosges. The average wage in the Yosges in cotton- 
 spinning mills amounted to 1*77 fr. per day; in Mulhouse, on the 
 other hand, with shorter hours of labom*, to 2' 31 fr. But this 
 was balanced by the town operatives producing more. As August 
 Dollfus has prove<l, the production costs of the same articles are 
 less in Mulhouse than in the remainder of Alsace. Tliey amount 
 there to 0*37 fr. for a kilo«rranimo of yarn of average counts, 
 against 0'40 fr. in the Vosges (9). 
 
 Between Germany and England the comparison between Mul- 
 house and the valley of the Vosges is forcibly repeated (10). 
 
 The Swiss inspector of factories informs us of interesting ex- 
 periences regarding the hours of labour (11). In 1878 a normal 
 working day of 1 1 hours wa4> introducetl into Switzerland, follow- 
 ing that already introduced in 1872 into the Canton Grlarus. It 
 can already bo |)roved with certainty that the cotton industry of 
 Switzerland, one of |the chief industries of the country, has not 
 suffered in the least by these regulations. By calling into service a 
 corresponding s}>eeding of the machinery, the experience of in- 
 creasing the productive ca])acity of labour — which in many cases 
 
 8. Compare ProtokoUe of the " Reichsenquete," p. 375. Brassey: *♦ Work 
 and Wages," 2nd ed., pp. 121 and 143. 
 
 1). Compare "ProtokoUe der Reichsenquete," p. 376. 
 
 10. The same relation applies to knitting. A firm 1 am personally 
 acquainted with produces curtains in Nottingham. Silesia, and Austria. The 
 mills iu the latter places make ordinary goods for home consumption. Goods 
 for export can only be successfully produced in England. The same difference 
 exists in England. The lace trade has at the present day. in many cases, left 
 Nottingham in order to obtain the advantages of lower wages in the country 
 districts. But the finest articles, which require the most expensive machinery, 
 are exclusively made within the Nottingham " trade-ring," because only there 
 is sufficiently capable labour to be found. 
 
 11. Compare " Archiv fiir sociale Gesetzgebnng," vol. IV.. part I., p. 8S. 
 On page 89 particulars are given respecting the weekly wages of the operatives. 
 They are in England twice as high as in Switzerland, in spite of which labour 
 in the English cotton industry is cheaper. Detailed reasons for this arc to be 
 seen above. 
 
A.ND UN THE CONTINENT. 121 
 
 lias led to an iiiureased production — has been gone through. 
 These facts are based upon communications from Swiss milloAVuers 
 accompanied by detailed figures. Numerous manufacturers and 
 spinners expressly acknowledge the favourable influence of shorten- 
 ing the hours of labour. This opinion is certainly limited in one 
 direction. Mills with out-of-date machinery, which at the same 
 time em})loy the worse, poorer-paid cla«4s of labour, have 
 not been able to participate in this development, by which the 
 same production was crowded into a shorter tima Such mills 
 have without doubt been jtrejudiced by the shortening of the 
 hours of labour, inasmuch a« the (juantity of their production has 
 exjHjrienced in some cases a considerable falling-off. Poor 
 machinery and poor operatives became impossible. The loss witli 
 hand-looms was still more complete — it wiis in exact proportion 
 to the lessening of the time for labour. But these disadvantages 
 for the few show a decided progress for national economy on the 
 whole. 
 
 But cannot the flourishing state of Indian spinning be used as 
 an instance against the opinion expressed here? Does not this 
 strongest living competitor of England de[)end upon the lower 
 wages which are paid in India? Against this view the researches 
 of the Manchester (^haniber of Connnerce have shown that cheap 
 labour is by no means the advantage of India. According to the 
 view of the Chamber of Connnerce, it lies nmcli rather in the 
 constantly falling silver-prices. In India the buying power of 
 silver falls but slowly and incompletely in comparison with the 
 lowering silver prices in the international market, but in every 
 case the Indian spinner always i>roduces under a higher price con- 
 dition of silver than that which obtains at the time w^hen English 
 yarn is sold in India (12). 
 
 That cheaper lal)our does not create the strength of Indian 
 spinning is shown already by the fact that in India only the 
 coarsest yarns are i^roduced successfully ; therefore those in which 
 raw matei'ial outweighs capital as Avell as labour. Twist No. 4()\s 
 requires about double as much labour and spinning wages as No. 
 20's. If cheap labour was the advantage of the Indian si)inner he 
 would therefore rather spin 40's than 20's. Just the opposite is 
 
 12. Compare " Bombav and Lancashire" TManchester Chamber of Com- 
 merce. 1888). p. 111. Further, pp. 2. 4. 29, 33, 75. With 20's the cost of 
 labour is the same in Bombay and Oldham. 0-(>2d to 0-G4d. per pound of jam ; 
 bundling costs, on the other hand, 0-44d. in Oldham, against only 0-35d. in 
 Bombay, taking Is. 5d. as the value of the rupee. 
 
122 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 the case, as he cannot compete with tlie Englishman in counts 
 above 36's, although the latter fetches the raw material and must 
 tciko back the yarn. The difliculty for the Indian spinner increases 
 in proportion as labour preponderates in the costs of production — 
 a ccailirmation of the statement by Tucker already given. 
 
 On the other hand, the hours of labom* in England are 9, with 
 free Sundays and Saturday afternoons. In India the hours of 
 labour cannot be exactly determined ; in Bombay they appear to 
 be 12 to 13 hours (13), in the interior, more. x\.dded to this, a 
 cessation of labour on Sunday does not exist, but the mill only 
 stops every third Sunday for cleaning purposes. The religious 
 holidays of the operatives are observed by those who are 
 affected receiving leave, the mill working on with the large number 
 of reseive operatives. Wages fluctuate in India between 15 and 
 8 rupees monthly for adults, and 3 and 4 rupees for young opera- 
 tives. The spinner i)roper receives 15 rupees (H) — i.e., with the 
 value of the rupee taken at Is. 5d., 21s. 3d. per month, the 
 English mule-spinner 35s. to 40s. weekly. This ditference is ex- 
 plained by the fact that in India 3 J to 5 times as many operatives 
 are necessary as in England ; that the more unskilled hands lead 
 to a more considerable wear and tear of machinery (7i per cent, 
 against 5 pei* cent.) ; even that the single spindle itself in Bombay 
 })rwluces lens in 12 hours than in Oldham in 9 (with No. 20's in 
 Oldham oh hanks, in India 5J hanks daily). Schoenhof even 
 calculates that in Lowell 35,000 spindles spin daily just as many 
 lb. of 38's as are spun in Bombay of 20*8 (15). 
 
 In the face of these facts the English cotton industry does not 
 need to fear India in its finer productions. But Blue-Books 
 already contain facts which point out that peculiar progress of 
 labour in India which is produced everywhere by a vital cen- 
 tralised industry. In Bombay the wages in the spinning-mills 
 have increased in the 5 years from 1883 to 1888 by 30 to 40 per 
 cent., in spite of which it is asserted that the productive capacity 
 of the Indian operatives has increased so much that the cost of 
 
 13. East Indian Factories Report (1891). p. 23. Hours of labour in a 
 spinning-mill in Bombay, witbout reckoning stoppages, are 13 : also another 
 instance on page 24 : but on page 25 only 11 to 12 hours; p. 74, 13 hours. 
 The queries as to hours of labour frequently remain unanswered, because 
 '•witness has no definite ideas about time." Thus on page 23. 
 
 14. Page 45 of Report just. quoted. 
 
 15. Schimhof : •' Influences bearing upon Production " (1888), p. 8. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 128 
 
 labour to-day is rather lower than higher. The number of opera- 
 tives, up to this time 5 to G times as many as the English, is to- 
 day in the best spinning-mill of Bombay only 3J times as high 
 (IG) — i.e., does not stand far behind the German. Add to this 
 that the prices of food have not increased to the same extent as 
 the fall of exchange, but that they will rather remain for a long 
 time to come extremely cheap owing to the increasing opening 
 out of the interior by railways (17). This also acts like a rise in 
 wages, and increases the labour capacity. 
 
 We dare not for a moment tliink that in India it is a question of 
 the introduction of industrial labour into what has been up to now 
 a non-industrial country, as, say, into Russia. On the other hand, 
 India, as an industrial country, was up to the beginning of this 
 century superior to Western countries; it is the mother-country 
 of the textile industry, and up to the time of ArkwTight possessed 
 the monopoly of fine yarns. There is now no doubt that under 
 the attack of the factory system Indian industry launched out into 
 the course which everywhere leads, under similar conditions, tO' pro- 
 gress. To begin with, cottage industry devoted itself to specialties, 
 which, indeed, were dearer than European goods, but were still 
 preferred by the rich of the country as articles of luxury. On the 
 other hand, India plunged quickly and energetically into the 
 factory system, under the protection of the falling exchange. As 
 everywhere in Europe the hand-weaving districts have become 
 seats of the modern textile industry, India also appears destined 
 for the same future. 
 
 Mr. James Piatt and Mr. Henry Lee, two authorities on the 
 cotton industry, agree with each other by reason of many-sided 
 practical experiences in India, that in no country on the earth, 
 except in Lancashire, do the operatives possess such a natural leaning 
 to the textile industry as in India. "We have not to deal here 
 with a class of savages, but with a people that takes to everything 
 extremely quickly, and which, as experience shows, can be taught 
 w'ith extraordinary rapidity as new spinning-mills continually 
 require new hands" (18). If centralised industrial progress, there- 
 
 IG. Compare " Bombay and Lancashire." pp. 34, 191. 
 
 17. Tax-collectors in the interior prefer bad harvests to good ones, because 
 with good harvests the people have no money, wheat being unsaleable. 
 
 18. '* Bombay and Lancashire," p. 295. 
 
124 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 £ore, also briugs in its traiu the uplifting af tiiu labour serving it, 
 the latest Factory Act would certainly be an advantage lor India, 
 but scarcely for Lancashire. 
 
 As in the cotton industry, the argument advanced applies also 
 to other modern centralised industries, as far as their productions 
 are measm*abie and are comparable all over the world. In this 
 respect the iron trade comes before all others. From the German 
 Iron " Enquete," in 1878, we find that the cost of labour for a ton 
 of pig-iron amounted to less in Cleveland than in Germany, whilst 
 the English shift-wages were far higher than the German (19). 
 The same quantity of j)ig-iron produced in a day at the German 
 furnaces would cost, in Cleveland only 11 5' 77 marks, instead of 
 14:5'77 marks in Germany, for labour. The greater capacity of 
 the English and Belgian ironworkers is expressly acknowledged in 
 the Report of the Inquiring Conj mission (p. 3(3). The English 
 ironmaster, Lowthian Bell, confirms this relation. " None of these 
 figures," he says, speaking of the production of jiig-iron per man in 
 Germany, " reach by far the capacity of a worker at the furnaces 
 of Cleveland, and proves that well-nourished and highly-paid 
 labour is by no means always dearer than less well-nourished and 
 lower-paid labour. As a fact, I have scarcely found tliat the cost 
 of labour is anywhere lower than in Cleveland " (20). Similarly, 
 according to Schoenhof , the cost of labour per ton of i)ig-iron is less 
 in North America than in Germany ($1*20 against $1'66) (21), 
 whereas the American wages are known to be double as high and 
 ever higher than the German. 
 
 It is true the Iron ** Enquete " mentions expressly that in Ger- 
 many also the capacity of the worker has been increased, " in itself 
 as well as by changes in technical appliances." "It is clear from 
 the particulars brought to light that the number of workers en- 
 gaged in the iron industry proper has been reduced, and, indeed, 
 in a higher degree than could be expected, by the almost similar 
 
 19. Compare " ProtokoUe." p. 259, Question 8 : p. G98. Question 9 : p. 789, 
 Table 11. Kespecting these latter tables, they can be turned to accoant by 
 combining the average shift wages per worker paid by the " Bochumer 
 Vereiu " with those of the Clarence Works in Cleveland (columns 7 and 8). 
 and by the consideration that the production of a furnace at the Clarence Works 
 amounted to seven-ninths of what a furnace at Bochum produced per shift 
 
 20. Quoted by Sch<inhof : '' Industrial Situation " (New York. 1885), p. 77. 
 
 21. Quoted by Sch(inhof. pp. 77, 78. Compare also E. Atkinson: "Dis- 
 tribution of Products,'' p. 'doo. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 125 
 
 rernaininpr production in respect to quantity since 1871. It is 
 unanimously considered that a further lowering of wages for 
 lessening the cost of production is inadmissible if the labour-power 
 shall not be lessened and the bodily as well as spiritual welfare of 
 the workers endangered " (22). 
 
 If we now search for some foundation of the tenet advanced, the 
 proofs — in agi'cement with the present method of science — can 
 only be historical and psychological. With regard to the his- 
 toi-ical element wo refer the reader to Chapter I., and tc the 
 uplifting development of certain working classes from a socially 
 deeply submerged mill proletai-ianism which is there depicted. In 
 the psychological aspect the following appears tO' be noticeable. 
 
 We have to start from the fact that the enormous increase of 
 production which we observed depends in^the first degree upon the 
 machine. Labour has not become more burdensome in the same 
 proportion as the production has increased ; much rather is the 
 real bodily exertion less. The mule-spinner does not work 2,000 
 times as intensely as the active hand-spinner, nor the weaver on 
 the power-loom 40 times as hard as the untiring hand-weaver, and 
 still his production outweighs that of the latter in the proportion 
 given (23). "In the year 1840," said E. Atkinson, in a lecture 
 before the female cotton-weavers at Providence, "the work was 
 hard and continuous — 13 hours per day; to-day you can comb 
 and smooth your hair whilst the loom runs almost by itself ; the 
 hours of labour amount to 10" (24). Alongside of the operative 
 there now stands a powerful companion in labour — the labour- 
 genius of generations which is embodied in the machinery. 
 
 Formerly that operative had the greatest result who moved his 
 hands most continuously. With perfected mechanical arrange- 
 ments that operative produces the most who has to interfere the 
 least with his hands, and knows how to curtail these interferences 
 to the shortest space of time. For the machine changes in con- 
 tinuous process the raw material into the finished article. Tlie 
 interference of the operative means the eliminating of disturbing 
 elements, and an attendant less production. The chief thing to 
 
 22. Report of the '* Koramission," p. 36. 
 
 23. A refutation of the well-known teaching of so-called "more value.' 
 
 24. " Addresses upon the Labour Question " (Boston, 1880), pp. 11, 12. 
 
126 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 be watched is to limit the loss arising from this cause, to make 
 the work of the machine ever more automatic. 
 
 The machine has therefore replaced hand-labour. A condition 
 for this was the interle^^ving of the principle of division with the 
 world's market, which, with the object of cheapening the cost of 
 production, divided the old hand-work into a large number of 
 single functions. That division of labour, as already recommended 
 by Petty (25), as described by Adam Smith in the well-known 
 instance of pin-making, was the first step thereto, that^ as the single 
 functions became simpler they could be undertaken by the 
 machine. The machine thereby freed the worker from that far- 
 reaching division of labour which threatened to make man himself 
 into a mere tool. Division of labour has transferred itself from 
 the operative to the machine. The more automatic the machine 
 becomes, the more automatic becomes the labour of tending. 
 
 Skilled finger proficiency disappears therewith in an increasing 
 degree, which shows itself, amongst other results, in the advance 
 of the average wages, and, on the other hand, extremes counteract 
 themselves more and more. Even the difference between the 
 s&xes is lessened by the machine. During the time of Ure female 
 labour in the cotton industry accomplished still less and was paid 
 lower than that of the male, as at the present time in Germany 
 (26). In the industry of Lancashire this difference is now in many 
 cases neutralised. Especially in weaving do male and female 
 operatives earn the same piecework wages, just as those six and 
 eight loom weavers in Lowell are young women (27). 
 
 In spite of this, it would be a mistake if we imagined that labour 
 has become easier compared with former times. As far as a 
 comparison can be made, the opposite is the case. A hand-weaver 
 can work 13 hours per day ; to let a six-loom weaver work 13 hours 
 is a physical impossibility. The nature of the work has entirely 
 
 25. Sir William Petty: " Essays in Political Arithmetic " (Lond., 1699), 
 pp. 35, 179, 180. 
 
 26. "Protokolle iur deutschen Enquete," p. 372. 
 
 27. Compare Sidney Webb: Economic Journ.dy vol. L. No. 4. Also 
 herein the English cotton industry stands in advance of other trades, especially 
 such as are less controlled by modern machinery. In this industry the 
 equalisation of the difference between male and female labour is the farthest 
 ftdvanced, especially when we remember that in it mostly young unmarried 
 female operatives come into consideration, 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 127 
 
 changed. In place of muscular exertion there is now the minding 
 of the machine — ^i.e., mental strain. Those who have observed the 
 mule-spinner in Oldham, in the midst of the whirling of 2,500 
 spindles, or the female worker in Burnley environed by four or six 
 shuttles, working at the speed of 200 picks per minute, know what 
 a higher degree of mental application is here demanded. 
 
 Besides this, the machines, which are always becoming more 
 complicated, require a certain humouring, a treatment full of 
 understanding of those technical thoughts embodied in them, on 
 the part of the operative. Just as the English thorough-bred 
 horse will be led by reason and love, and rebels against the rough 
 treatment of an inexperienced stable lad, so that highly-developed 
 type of factory labour itself demands treatment full of knowledge 
 of its peculiarities, and gives the best results where a certain 
 sympathy fur its class striving is vouchsafed on the part 
 of the employer — by which, for instance, the Secretary of the 
 Master Spinners at Oldham (Mr. Andrew) won in a great degree 
 his esteem in operative circles. So also the ever more ingenious 
 machinerv does not stand unwilling and unreasonable treatment. 
 Even the wondrous achievements of human skill realise the best 
 result where the workers engaged upon them rise to the height of 
 intelligent labour. 
 
 A third reason comes into consideration. The machines are 
 always growing more costly ; the production per operative is in- 
 creased enormously. Therewith the responsibility of the indi- 
 vidual worker increases. Compare, for instance, that puddler, 
 upon whose skill solely depends the result of his furnace, with the 
 man who is answerable for the whole contents of a Siemens con- 
 verter. But in the branch we are dealing with, the same thing 
 also applies. How much greater, indeed, is the responsibility of 
 that operative who minds 2,500 spindles, compared with the old 
 hand-mule spinner whose machine had only a few hundred spindles, 
 and who with laborious toil accomplished, even per spindle, far 
 less than his successor. 
 
 Physical dexterity, clever understanding, and the bearing of 
 responsibility are, however, not to be expected from that poorly 
 nourished factory proletarianism which central isecj industry over- 
 threw on coming into being. These require a higher standard of 
 living of the operative, and the restriction of the hours of labour 
 
128 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 within suitable bounds. By what means are both attained 
 without causing there%nth an economical disadvant^age, nay, in 
 fact, helpinji; onward economical progress ? 
 
 We saw that the result of technical progress is a vast increase in 
 production. Therewith a con-esponding lowering of piece-wages 
 is made possible. But the piece-wages are not reduced in the 
 same proportion that the production^ncr^ses7^r~lTie^peranve 
 would remaiiTlir the same position. But the rednc tton in piece- 
 wages is somewhat less, so that the weekly earniTi<r>: increase. A 
 four-loom weaAei* receives j>er loom considerably itss than a one- 
 loom weaver ; but he receives per loom more than a quarter of the 
 earnings of the latter. He must receive more ; because otherwise 
 his standard of living could not be higher than tliat of the one- 
 loom weaver. With such a standard of living the four-loom 
 weaver himself would not be possible. 
 
 A similar state of affairs is seen regarding the hours of labour. 
 By the quicker speed, the lengthening of the machines, etc., a 
 larger production per day is achieved ; a larger production which, 
 on the one hand, allows a curtailment of the hours of laboiir, 
 without which, on the other hand, it would not be possible, since 
 the labour capacity of the operative is fettered to the fixed limit's 
 of organism. By producing in a shorter time just as much as, 
 or more than, was produced formerly in a longer time, an array 
 of fixed charges is cut down. " It is cheaper to exhaust labour- 
 power in than in 11 hours," said an intelligent employer to me. 
 
 .\fter having already written down the above observations, I 
 find to my joy a thorough similar gi'a.<*p of the question examined 
 in the latest work of Marshall : " Elements of Economics " (Tx>ndon, 
 1 802). Marshall also accepts the fact that by machinery a reverse 
 development results in regard to division of labour. " Machinery 
 weakens the boundaries between the single branchy of trade" 
 (55). Machinery' tends towards a complete automatic discharging 
 of the work to be done, to the condition which limits the energy of 
 men to the feeding ^vith raw material, taking away the^produced 
 articles, and minding the machine. " That portion of the labour 
 which repeats itself is done by the machine, which becomes more 
 
 : r ■ 
 
 28. From the above-mentioned work. p. 163. But when the action has 
 been reduced to routine it has nearly arrived at the stage at whteh it can bo 
 taken over by machinery. . . . This machinery constantly supplants that 
 purely manual skill, the attainment of which was, even up to A. Smith's time, 
 the chief advantage of division of labour. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 129 
 
 and more automatical until, at length, the human hand has nothing 
 to do except put in materials at certain periods of time and to 
 t^ke aAvay the results when they are ready " (p. 167). 
 
 But if thus the demands which the older system of division of 
 labour required from the hand-skill of men become less, the per- 
 fection of machinery requires other essentials from the operatives. 
 "The finer the accomplishment so£ the machine become, the greater ' 
 the understanding and the more the care which is demanded from 
 those who look after it. Let us think, for instance, of that beauti- 
 ful machine which on one side feeds itself with steel wire, and gives 
 forth, on the other, fine screws of remarkable finish. It displaced, 
 a. lai'ge number of workers who had reached a high stage of skilled 
 hand proficiency, but who led a sedentary life, straining their eyes 
 with the microscope, and who found at their work little room for 
 any ability except the mere regulation of their fingers. But the 
 machine is complicated and expensive, and the person who attendn 
 to it must have reasoning power and a lively sense of responsi- -^r 
 bility, which form a good share of character-discipline, and which, *^ 
 although more frequent than formerly, is still sufficiently scarce to 
 command a high payment." This instance may certainly show in 
 an unusual degree the influence of the machine on labour, but 
 the same is the case everywhere, in a less degree, wherever 
 machineiy replaces hand-labour. 
 
 It is certain that if industrial progress depends at the present 
 day on the machine, therewith is the necessity foi-med for a, gradual 
 raising of the standard of living of the working classes. We can 
 herewith justify the appai*ently paradoxical assertion that the 
 extent of the standard of living of the working classes is a measur- 
 ing scale of the industrial power of a nation, because it at the same , 
 time shows the degree of technical progress. But in the field of 
 social, as in general of organic occurrences, everything is action 
 and re-action. The possession of high standing and capable labour 
 is action, so on the other side an essential for the application and 
 development of technical inventions and therewith the foundation 
 for the building-up of the great industrial power position of a 
 nation. 
 
 Not the* countries which employ the lowest-paid hand-labour, but 
 those which use the best and most machinery, prove themselves at 
 the present day the strongest in the industrial contests of nations. 
 
 K 
 
130 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 It shall now be shown by English factory labour, especially that 
 of Ijancashire, in which directions it at once comes into account as 
 a result of centralised industrial progress, and, at the same time, 
 as a demander of its further development. 
 
 B. — The Factory Labour of Lancashire's Cotton Industry. 
 
 That Lancashire to-day possesses the most capable labour in the 
 cotton industry all expert observers agree. Thus J. C. Fielden, a 
 well-known member of the business world of Manchester, sees in 
 the superiority of the labour the chief strength of I>ancashire (1). 
 A similar view was expressed by the American Consul in Manchester 
 (Mr. B. Shaw), an acknowledged capable judge, in agreement with 
 German employers before the Enquete-Commission (2). "An 
 English operative," says Mr. Shaw, " is satisfied if he has abundant 
 work and abundant wages ; only a few think of changing to another 
 calling (3). ll.is fixity of labour is of great value to the industry, 
 because long experience creates a dexterity in always minding 
 the same machines, which guarantees the most complete regularity, 
 as well as superiority of the results." Samuel Andrew, the Secre- 
 tary of the large Employers' Association of Oldham, condenses the 
 advantages of English labour Into tHeTollo wing words : "We have 
 at this moment the most capable labour in the world. It is born 
 .and brought up well suited and disciplined to its work ; under its 
 wage-lists, with the present improved machinery we can depend 
 upon it fulfilling its duty with the accuracy of clockwork." 
 
 Upon"%hat do the advantages of North English factory labour 
 depend ? The following points of view can be shown to be 
 valuable : — (a) a high vitality, which finds its expression in greater 
 speed, dexterity, and strength ; (b) the presence of certain mental 
 qualifications which specially suit machine labour ; (c) the peculiar 
 arrangement of labour contracts ; (d) the consumption power of 
 the working classes. 
 
 (a) The physical superiority of the English factory operative 
 when compared with the Continental is recognised by German 
 
 1. Compare a series of articles on Foreien Competition in the Manchester 
 Examiner^ 1882, especially the articles of 28th November and 5th December. 
 
 2. "Protokolle," pp. 14, 81, 227. "Commercial Relations of the United 
 States," No 12 (Oct 1881), p. 129. 
 
 3. On the other hand in America, according to Sartorius von Wattershausen 
 (" Die nordamerikanischen Gewerkschaften," p. 108), the facility for changing 
 a calling still discloses a certain colonial character in the people. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 131 
 
 observers, just as the operatives of the great English industries 
 themselves boast of a physical superiority. Nowhere in England, 
 says the organ of the cotton operatives (the " Cotton Factory 
 Times "), are there so many strong and healthy children as in the 
 seats of the cotton industry. The quickness of the "doffers" 
 (young workers who look after taking off the full and putting on 
 the empty bobbins in the throstles-room) is in Lancashire pro- 
 verbial (4). Regarding the adult worker a German manufacturer 
 says : — " One must see them at a self-actor, with what quickness 
 they doff the full bobbins, or observe the dexterity of the female 
 flyer operatives. Everything is accomplished like a flash of 
 lightning" (5). 
 
 When machinery was first coming into use physicians and Blue- 
 Books made mention of specific mill diseases ; at the present time 
 the new spinning-mills of Oldham are model hygienic institutions. 
 Plithisis was in the "thirties" a frequent illness of the spinners. To- 
 day, as Dr. Niven, the Medical Officer of Health at Oldham, full of 
 sympathy for the operatives, informs me, it occurs more seldom 
 with spinners than any other class of people in Oldham. The 
 borough of Oldham contains two classes of skilled workpeople — 
 the cotton operatives and machine workers. Statistics show that 
 both classes are far less liable to consumption than the remaining 
 population (unskilled workmen, shopkeepers, etc.). The duration 
 of the sickness is more severe with the machine workers than with 
 the cotton operatives (6). 
 
 The progress which the English operative has made in health as 
 well as ca]ja< ity compared with his forefathers, depends chiefly 
 on an improved standard of living. The enormous progress in the 
 nourishment of the people which England has seen during this 
 century is a most important element favourable to the capacity 
 for competition of English industry as opposed to the competition 
 of Continental industry. 
 
 4. " Lancashire Characters and Incidents," by T. Newbigging (Manchester : 
 Brook and Chrystal, 1891). Compare the chapter about the " Lancashire 
 Factory Doffers. " 
 
 5. "Protokolle der deutschen Enquete," p. 81. 
 
 6. Compare " Report of Health, Borough of Oldham," 1890. <' From the 
 details given in connection with the experience of former years I conclude that 
 the influences which materially affect the health of the population, as far as 
 lung complaints come into consideration, are to be sought for without the factory 
 gates " (pp. 56-9). Compare, also, Atkinson: "Popular Science Monthly" 
 
 January, 1890), pp. 317-8 
 
182 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 The better food of the operatives enpfa^ed in Enjjland's j^eat 
 industry at the present day, compared with that of Enjjlish opera- 
 tives in the "thirties" and the Continental operatives of the 
 present, depends upon two circumstances ; one being the higher 
 w^ages in money, and the other the greater buying power of this 
 money. 
 
 We have seen above how the development of technical skill made 
 possible an enormously increased production per operative, and 
 therewith a permanent lowering of piece-wages. "We have at the 
 same time given an array of figures to prove that the weekly in- 
 come of the operatives has risen in the same proportion as piece- 
 wages fell, because the progressive technical development de- 
 manded more capable operatives. 
 
 The weekly income of the operative at the present time in 
 England is higher than in the " thirties," and also than at present 
 on the Continent. Since this high income depends upon lower 
 piece-work prices, it is nothing but a source of strength to English 
 indu.stry. 
 
 Regarding the general increase of the weekly earnings of the 
 operatives during the last half-century, R, GiflFen, the well-known 
 statistician, says : — " In all cases where in consequence of repeti- 
 tion labour it has been possible to set up a comparison, an extra- 
 ordinary- increase of wages of from 20 to 50 and 100 per cent., and 
 even more is shown. This statement rather underestimates the 
 real extent of the change " (7). 
 
 In the Appendix to the First Report of the Royal Commission 
 
 on Textile Depression, the Secretary of the Manchester Chamber of 
 
 Commerce gives similar statistics. According to these^ the income 
 
 of the operatives from 1850 to 1883 has increased for : — 
 
 Cotton spinning and weaving, medium coants, bv 74*72 per cent. 
 
 ., ,, fine ,. ' 35-16 „ 
 
 Bleaching and printing .. .. ,, .'SO-OO ., (8) 
 
 7. Compare R. Giffen: " Progress of the Working Classes" (London, 1884), 
 p. 6. 
 
 8. Compare p. 99 ; further, the Appendix to the Second Report, pp. .376-7. 
 These statistics are. as a fact, not unchallenged ; they are corrected by the 
 author himself in the Second Report, but without materially giving other 
 results. On the other hand, D. Chad wick ("The Expenditure of Wages." 
 paper read before the British Association. Manchester. 1887) declares that the 
 percentages given are too high. Since 1860 the earnings of cotton operatives 
 had, howevor, certainly increased by 10 per cent. (p. 8). R GiflFen, the leading 
 statistician in England, accepts the figures of G. Lord. Compare R. Giffen : 
 " Recent Changes in Prices and Incomes" (Royal Stat Society, 1888, p. 20). 
 
AND ON- TtiE CONTINENT. 133 
 
 The same thing is showu if we compare the weekly rate of wages 
 given by Baiues with those contained in the official statistics (9). 
 From these facts we have the pictm'e of a formidable rise in wages 
 which has taken place in Lancashire during the last centmy. The 
 ulHcial figures are, however, not quite free from criticism. General 
 statistics of wages which can be depended upon are unfortunately 
 not at hand, because no census of the wages conditions of all the 
 operatives employed is available in the cases given. 
 
 A comparison which referred to the wages paid to the same 
 classes of operatives in the same mill appeared to me, therefore, 
 to be the most free from criticism. I was fortunate in receiving 
 the following figures from the wage-books of one of the largest and 
 most renowned spinning firms in Lancashire. Since the firm 
 chiefly spins fine yarns, the wages are j)ai*tly higher than the 
 average wages of official statistics mentioned alongside. But whilst 
 the latter claim only an approximate accui^acy, the first are 
 authentic. 
 
 
 WEKKLY WAGK8. 
 
 
 Official avernge 
 
 
 
 
 
 figures. 
 
 
 is:ii. 
 
 1850. 
 
 18«3. 
 
 1886. 
 
 
 8. d. 
 
 8. d. 
 
 8: «1. 
 
 s. d. s. d. 
 
 Labourers 
 
 . 15 
 
 15 
 
 20 
 
 
 Mechanics.. 
 
 . 27 
 
 27 
 
 33 
 
 — 
 
 Carders : — 
 
 
 
 
 
 1st class 
 
 . 30 
 
 27 
 
 32 
 
 37 11 
 
 2nd class 
 
 . 15 
 
 13 G 
 
 21 
 
 28 10 
 
 3rd class 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 24 10 
 
 Drawing-frames (girls) . 
 
 . y 
 
 8 3 
 
 14 
 
 12 5 to 15 4 
 
 Preparation 
 
 . D 
 
 8 3 
 
 14 
 
 14 „ 14 3 
 
 Combing (women) 
 
 — 
 
 8 6 
 
 15 G 
 
 — 
 
 Jack tenters 
 
 — 
 
 8 
 
 16 G 
 
 — 
 
 Spinners . . 
 
 . 35 
 
 40 
 
 42 
 
 35 G 
 
 Helpers 
 
 . 14 
 
 13 
 
 16 
 
 14 2 
 
 A similar state of affairs results from the wages of a firm, just 
 as old and important, in the neighbourhood of Manchester, which 
 combines spinning and weaving. 
 
 
 WEEKLY 
 
 WAGES. 
 
 j 
 
 
 
 18.32. 
 
 im. ^4^ 
 
 
 
 8. d. 
 
 8. d. [J 
 
 Spinner — 1st class 
 
 , . 
 
 35 
 
 39 ^ 
 
 „ 2nd „ 
 
 
 28 2 
 
 36 
 
 ,, 3rd ,, 
 
 
 28 2 
 
 30 
 
 Dresser 
 
 
 30 G 
 
 36 
 
 Weaver 
 
 
 12 
 
 18 
 
 t). lieport of the Board of Trade : " Return of Rates of Wages in the 
 Triucipal Textile Trades," 188U. Baines, pp. 444-5. 
 
 L 
 
134 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 These are the wage conditions of two of the most respectable firms 
 in Lancashire, which were already quoted by Ure and Baines for 
 the first decades of the century as instances applicable to the 
 industry of the county. 
 
 If the raising of wages depends upon technical alterations, and, 
 therewith, growing demands on the working capacity of the opera- 
 tive, it was the development of centralised industry, of the factory 
 system, which also raised the income of the operative in another 
 direction. The chea-pening of food, moving parallel with the in- 
 crease of wages, is not an accidental occurrence, but is the result of 
 the economical development delineated. This appeared the most 
 effectively in the productions of centralised industry themselves ; 
 the striving after cheapening the coats of production and, there- 
 with, of the goods, forms certainly the motive for the technical 
 progress. For instance, in the cotton industry the prices since the 
 " thirties " have gone down by at least one-half. 
 
 Cotton yarn, per lb. 
 
 (10) 
 
 Cotton woven goods, per yard. 
 
 No. 408. 
 
 No. lOOs. 
 
 
 8. d. 
 
 8. d. 
 
 8. d. 
 
 1830 ... 1 2^ 
 
 ... 3 ^ 
 
 1839 5^ 
 
 1882 ... lOi 
 
 ... 1 10 
 
 1882 3 
 
 Such a development also took place with other productions of in- 
 dustry. 
 
 But the cheapening of food was also, as mentioned above, the 
 immediate result of industrial development. The com duties fell, 
 as soon as the export interest had become predominant, because 
 every burden on the chief imports represented a burden on export. 
 If the economical development on the one side made the English 
 operative the highest paid in Europe, it made England at the same 
 time one of the cheapest industrial countries. The price of wheat 
 in the decade before the repeal of the Corn Laws was 58s. 7d. per 
 quarter ; in the decade 1872 to 1882 only 48s. 9d. (11). 
 
 But just as important for the operative was the equalisation of 
 prices, since formerly famine prices alternated periodically with 
 extremely cheap prices. In 1836 the price was 368. ; 1838, 1839, 
 1840, and 1841, it was 78s. 4d., 81s. 6d., 728. lOd., 76s. Id. In 1812 
 we find even an average price of 1268. 6d.; in 1813 109s. 9d., and 
 
 10. Compare Ellison: " Cotton Trade," p. 61 ; Giff en : " Progress of the 
 Working Classes," p. 11. Merttens: Paper read before the Manchester Statistical 
 Society, April 18th, 1894, p. 129. 
 
 11. Compare Giffen, pp. 8, 9. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 
 
 135 
 
 1817 96s. lid. Such variations in prices represented a complete 
 uncertainty of existence for the operative. Regularity of living 
 conditions is the first essential for a regulated standard of living. 
 According to Chadmck's estimates, which refer to retail inter- 
 course, prices for food fell from the "thirties" in the following 
 proportion (12). 
 
 An operative's family, consisting of man, wife, and three 
 children from two to seven years of age, requires weekly for food : — 
 
 Prices for similar quantities in 
 
 I— Bread, etc.: — 
 Eight 4 lb. loaves . . ) 
 6 lb. of flour . . V 
 
 Half-peck of oatmeal) 
 
 II.— Meat : — 
 5 1b. beef .. ..) 
 
 2 lb. bacon . . . . J 
 
 III. — Accessories : — 
 40 lb. potatoes 
 7 qts. milk 
 Vegetables, etc 
 
 IV. — CoLOxiAL Products, 
 ETC, including: — 
 
 3 lb. sugar . . .,\ 
 ^ lb. coffee . . . . ( 
 i lb. tea . . . . I 
 1 lb. butter . . . . J 
 
 Totals . . 
 
 ;:l 
 
 18S7. 
 
 !. d. 
 
 3 Ui 
 
 4 6i 
 
 1S59. 
 8. d. 
 
 4 0^ 
 
 4 3 
 
 6 11 
 
 1849. 
 8. d. 
 
 4 5 
 
 4 3 
 
 1839. 
 8. d. 
 
 7 6 
 
 4 0^ 
 
 4 3 
 
 18 5^ 20 6^ 
 
 The following were the prices of the most important necessaries : — 
 
 
 Pence. 
 
 Flour, per lb. . . 
 
 . 141 
 
 Fresh meat, do. 
 
 6f 
 
 Bacon, do. 
 
 '. 2/2 
 
 Tea, do. 
 
 Sugar, do. 
 
 .. 2 
 
 Soap, do. 
 
 . 3 
 
 1859. 
 
 Pence 
 
 1 66 
 
 8 
 
 1/- 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 7 li 
 
 8 9^ 
 
 21 5^ 
 
 24 9 
 
 tant necessaries : 
 
 1849. 
 
 Pence. 
 
 1-83 
 
 7 
 
 [) 
 
 4/4 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 1839. 
 Pence 
 .. 2 
 
 ;: P 
 
 .. 6/. 
 .. 7 
 .. 5 
 
 At present, however, there is a reduction of from 5 to 10 per 
 cent, on these prices for articles which are supplied by co-opera^ 
 tive stores, which is the usual mode as regards the better-situated 
 operatives of centralised industries. House-rent has risen little. 
 
 12. D. Chadwick : " Expenditure of Wages," read at the British Association, 
 Manchester, 5th Sept., 1887. 
 
l3t) THE COtTOK TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 but in this respect the demands are also higher, the operatives 
 requiring better accommodation. 
 
 Taken generally, the operative only succeeded by co-operation in 
 benefiting by the lowering of prices. The majority of the cotton 
 oi>eratives of Lancashire are members of the co-operative stores. 
 What a small advance on wholesale prices the operative in buying 
 retail has to pay I determined in the summer of 1891 for the chief 
 seats of the English textile industry-. Since the co-operative 
 societies mostly pay back 10 per cent, dividend, their selling prices 
 to-day are not lower than those of the retail shopkeepers, whose 
 profits have been considerably cut down by the flourishing of co- 
 operative societies. Let us follow a pound of wheat on its way 
 froni the merchant in Liverpool to the operative's home. The 
 sole intermediaries are the co-operative corn mills and local 
 societies. Tlie prices of these latter societies are fairly equal 
 tliroughout the whole of the North of England. In order, how- 
 ovei-, not to err on the side of cheapness, I expressly choose a 
 society which is a considerable distance from the corn mill, so that 
 the cost of carriage is included in the price : — 
 
 Star Corn Mills, Oldham. Darwen 
 
 Co-op. Sociktv. 
 
 Consumers* 
 respective average 
 price per lb. flour. 
 Pence. 
 1-47 
 132 
 118 
 114 
 115 
 112 
 
 lis 
 
 Tlie prices of a pound of flour were very little higher in Bradford, 
 the seat of the woollen industry. Thus in 1889 and 1890 a pound of 
 flom- cost, on the average, 1*3 Id. Tlie lowness of these prices 
 comes so much the more into account since the operatives receive 
 7 J to 10 per cent, on the amount of their buyings from the co- 
 operative societies. But wheat flour is at present the most im- 
 portant food of the English operative. In the North of England 
 it is baked at home by the -wife. The price of bread, which is 
 seldom bought in Lancashire, amounts to Jd. per lb more than the 
 price of the flour. 
 
 1888 
 
 Wholesale average 
 
 price of the wheat 
 
 bought, per lb. 
 
 Pence. 
 
 1 0«J 
 
 Selling price 
 
 of flour at the ca 
 
 mill, per lb. 
 
 Pence. 
 
 142 
 
 1884 
 
 0-94 
 
 127 
 
 1886 
 
 0-86 
 
 113 
 
 1886 
 
 82 
 
 109 
 
 1887 
 
 0-87 
 
 110 
 
 1888 
 
 0-86 
 
 107 
 
 1889 
 
 083 
 
 108 
 
Beef, per lb. 
 Pence. 
 
 8| 
 
 Mutton, per lli 
 Pence. 
 
 8' :: 
 
 {>* 
 
 8^ 9i 
 
 7i D? 
 
 7 
 
 8^ 
 
 7^» 
 
 8* 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 8 
 
 11 
 
 8 
 
 lOi 
 
 AM^ ON THE CONTINENT. 137 
 
 Prices of meat in the shops of the Co-operative Society at 
 Darwen were the following, and are approximately tlie same in the 
 whole of Lancashire : — 
 
 1883 ... 
 
 1884 ... 
 
 1885 ... 
 
 1886 ... 
 
 1887 •... 
 
 1888 ... 
 
 1889 ... 
 
 1890 ... 
 
 1891 ... 
 
 Tliese figures are, however, average values, in wliich very ditierent 
 prices are included. For instance, in England, even in the co- 
 operative stores, extremely variable prices are paid, according to 
 the quality of the piece. Tlius, during the last few years, legs of 
 mutton and beefsteaks cost Is. per lb., against which the prices of 
 ordinary but good pieces of beef and mutton and pork were as 
 follows (all in the same Co-operative Stores at Darwen) : — 
 
 Beef. Mutton. Pork. 
 
 Pence. Pence. Pence. 
 
 1888 6i 71 7 
 
 1889 ... ... 7 8} 8 
 
 1890 ... ... of 8| 8 
 
 1891 of 8J 8 
 
 Pieces of lower quality were sold at 4d. On the average Id. per 
 lb. is paid back as dividend. 
 
 I also add, as well, the following retail prices, also co operative 
 society's average figures : — 
 
 
 Su^ar, per lb. 
 
 Butter, per lb. 
 
 
 Pence. 
 
 8. d. 
 
 1870 ... 
 
 G34 
 
 
 1889 ... 
 
 374 
 
 1 1 
 
 1890 ... 
 
 351 
 
 I 2 
 
 1891 ... 
 
 2-99 \ .... 
 
 1 3 
 
 What has been said shows an extraordinary cheapening of the 
 most important necessaries during the course of the century (13). 
 
 Just as favourably stands the English operative to-day compared 
 with his Continental brother. The following comparison refers to 
 the same week in February, 1892 ; it concerns the prices of food 
 in Chemnitz and in Hyd© (near Manchester, occupied exclusively in 
 
 13. Compare Porter : " Progress of the Nation," p. 543, and Giffen. 
 
138 
 
 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 textile industries), and is given in German weights and 
 
 measures 
 
 Flour (1 German lb.) 
 
 Bread ,, ,, 
 Beef (14),, 
 
 Beef ,, „ 
 
 Bacon ,, ,, 
 
 Sugar „ ,, 
 
 Potatoes „ ,, 
 
 Milk (1 litre) 
 
 Hyde. Chemnit?. 
 
 Pfennige. Pfeiinige. 
 
 .. 16 22 
 
 ... 18 (wheat) 15 (rye) 
 
 ... 75 to 80 80 
 
 66 to 70 (with adjuncts) 
 
 .. 63 to 73 80 to 90 
 
 .. 27 to 28 30 to 34 
 
 .. 52 52 
 
 .. 15 to 22 20 
 
 In Hyde a dividend of 14 per cent, is paid on the sales; in Chem- 
 nitz, in shops, 65 per cent., in co-operative store, 8'3 per cent. (26 
 pfennige per 3 marks). 
 
 The higher wages, in connection with the lower food prices, 
 make })ossible an extraordinarily good nourishment of the English 
 opei-ative. The English workman lives on meat and wheat-flour 
 bread, whilst potatoes mostly form the chief sustenance of the 
 German factorj^-worker. If the Einglish operative, as shown above, 
 minds two to three times as much machinery as the German, he 
 also- certainly eats two to three times as much — not in quantity, 
 but in nourishing value from a physiological point of view. 
 
 (b) In the second consideration there are certain mental qualifi- 
 cations which make the English operative specially capable for 
 working on the machine, the achieved results of a development 
 now almost a hundred years old. In Lancashire, not only were 
 the fathers, but even the grandfathers of the present race machine 
 spinners and weavers. 
 
 It is thereby shown how untrue the assertion was that machine 
 labour pressed down the mental level of the operative. The Eng- 
 lish cotton operative, as well as the North of England factory 
 worker in general, is to-day a son of the generation of technical 
 skill. Technical problems awaken his most lively interest. The 
 fact stands alone of its kind, that the organ of the cotton opera- 
 tives in Lancashire, the " Cotton Factory Times," always has a 
 
 14. In England the single piece of meat is sold, according to quaUty, at 
 various prices ; so-called adjuncts (bones, etc.) are not to be found. These 
 latter are generally sold separately. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT, 139 
 
 considerable amount of technical discussions. The contributions 
 of operatives ai'e said to be often, from a practical point of view, 
 so admirable that the paper has subscribers among English fore- 
 men and managers in spinning-mills in India, Japan, and Russia. 
 Interesting for the Continental observer in a similar direction is a 
 visit to some machinery exhibitions in the industrial districts. 
 The operatives here crowd around the exhibited objects and discuss 
 their advantages and failings. It is also a remarkable fact that 
 the trade society of the spinners lets the capability for its secre- 
 taryship of the Amalgamated Societies depend upon a purely 
 technical examination; the answering of questions in writing 
 under control is specified. The "Cotton Factory Times" also 
 urges the greatest possible use of the aid of technical training on 
 the part of the operatives (15). This advice is followed so much 
 the more frequently because the " limited" principle of the cotton 
 industry in England, as in India, grants to young people with 
 technical knowledge from the operative classes at the present time 
 manifold opportunities for bettering their position. 
 
 A mark of the technical inclination of the English operative is 
 the Mutual Technical School (16) at Oldham, founded solely by 
 operatives. In it there are lectures, in which the members 
 mutually teach one another about the particular branches in which 
 they are specially at home. Business managers and similar 
 practical people also give lectures here. The school has gradually 
 acquired the possession of all the various machines of the cotton 
 industry. It is exclusively under the control of the operatives. 
 
 What has been said shows how the opposition, even hatred, 
 against machinery which permeated the operative in the first 
 period of centralised industry, and is often acquiesced in by phil- 
 anthropic observers, has in Lancashire at the present day been 
 put on one side. If the operative still hopes as hitherto for social 
 progress, he knows that the means lie inthe extension of machinery. 
 
 But how essential a control full of understanding is for the 
 machine to be worked, and this latter's suitability to the nature 
 
 15. Compare also, for instance, Commission on Depression of Trade, Second 
 Report, part I., 5,055, 5,170, where the Secretary of the Spinners' Association 
 
 expresses himself in favour of every possible advance of technical instruction. 
 
 16. Denton-street, off Clegg-street, Oldham, 
 
110- THE, COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 of the raw material for a qualitative as well a^ quantitative good 
 result, evei'y practical man is awai'e (17). 
 
 This is not the place to speak in detail about the way in which 
 technical education is being energetically pressed forward at the 
 present time in England. In that it affects the working classes in 
 a high degree, it differs from the acknowledged splendid efforts in 
 the same direction in Germany. Tlie latter produces distinguished 
 trained teclmical men, not only for Germany — whose demand has 
 not kept pace with the supply — but also for competing countries, 
 especially England, whose labwatories, mills, and technlQal educa- 
 tional institutions are f^'lled with German exi.>erts. As oppose<l 
 Yv to this overpitjduction on the one liand, technical in&tnic- 
 tion in Germany has up to now drawn the operative very little 
 within its folds. But how important for the industrial prosperity 
 of a country is a technical training as extensive as j)Ossible is 
 acknowledged in general by the great English industrial employers. 
 Thus, one of the greatest of these, Sir William Armstrong, says : — 
 The ignorance of the great mass of persons engaged in industry as 
 regards natural science and technical knowledge is a bar to the 
 progress of the individual, as well as a loss for the nation. Almost 
 every branch of skilled labour could be developed if the persons 
 engaged in it were trained in the elements of natural science, 
 which come into account in the labour (18). As a fact, in England 
 
 17. Compare Marsden : "Cotton Spinning " (London, 1888\ p. 130. "It 
 requires the closest attention of the carder in order to prevent tne cotton being 
 delivered before it is sufficiently carded, by which bad work would result ; and, 
 on the other hand, to prevent it remaining in the card a moment longer than 
 necessary, as this diminishes the product. Cottons differ in the amount of 
 carding they require— some needing more, some less ; others, again, contain a 
 larger proportion of short fibre, and fill the cards sooner, rendering it necessary 
 to strip oftener. On changes being made in these respects the carder should 
 give the closest attention to his cards, in order that he may make any 
 alteration that may be needed in time," etc., etc. In a similar way the nature 
 of the raw material determines the changeable distance of the drawing rollers 
 in the mule, which the spinner has to regulate. The adaptation of the raw 
 material as a variable natural product to the regular working machine is more 
 and more the task of the operative engaged upon it. Compare also ' ' Prot. 
 der Reichsenquete," p. 9. "A clever operative makes less waste than a new 
 beginner. In this respect I believe that we have rather more waste in Germany 
 than in England." 
 
 18. Compare " Technical Education" (London, 1889, National Association 
 for the Promotion of Technical and Secondary Education), p. 30. This book 
 gives a glance at the valuable efforts and the extensive literature of this 
 society. In his essay, " Ueber das Wesen und die Verfassung der grossen 
 Unternehmung," Schmoller has drawn attention to the importance of the 
 possession of '' skilled labour," and compared it correctly with a state of 
 iustabilitv and frequent change of calling. Compare " Zur Social und Gewerbe- 
 politik " (1890), pp. 402, 404, 411. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 141 
 
 during Ihe last de<.'ade there lias entered into existence an extra- 
 ordinarily strong mo^'ement for technical instruction. Not only 
 does the State by its system of examination by the Science and 
 Art Department look after the extension of technical-scientific 
 knowledge to an extent that is probably noAvher© else attained in 
 Europe, but everywhere societies and voluntary undertakings 
 advance the same thing. Thus at the present time the Coi-jiora- 
 tions of the City of London devote a considerable portion of their 
 riches to the extension of technical knowledge (City and Guilds of 
 Jjondon Institute, People's Palace). But ©specially has the move- 
 ment its seat in Ihe industrial North, prominently in Lancashire, 
 Yorkshire, and Northumberland. In the book mentioned the 
 attendance at technical schools is denoted by maps; the central 
 points of the attendance agi'ee with those of industry in every 
 instance. 
 
 Everywhere to-^ay have the long-existing " M echan ics!^ Insti- 
 tutes ,'' formerly without technical objects, developed into technical 
 schools which are to a gi-eat extent attended by operatives. Opera- 
 tives are mostly represented on the managing committees; for 
 instance, the Trades Council of Manchester on the committee of 
 the large technical school there. In a similar direction tend the 
 objects of the Recr^tive^yeiiing_Schpol Association, founded in 
 Manchester, and extending to-day over the whole country. Its 
 object is to fill the training education of the trade operatives 
 taking place in the e\'ening with a technical scientific spirit'-^o 
 put in the place of mental w^ork the training of the eye and hand. 
 On the committee of this society the cotton operatives are repi'e- 
 sented by the Secretaiy of the Amalgamated Spinners ; the Trades 
 Council of Manchester has as well its representatives. Just from 
 their side does technical instruction find its most eager support. 
 
 With what importance these efforts are viewed can be seen from 
 the fact that Government has granted a very considerable suta 
 (£750,000) to be applied by the Connty Councils for the support 
 of technical instruction. ' 
 
 In connection with the movement for technical education stand 
 the endeavours which stimulate in elementary instruction the 
 training of hand and eye of the infant. Mr. William Mather, a 
 well-known industrial employer and member, of Parliament, has 
 succeefled in bringing in a law for the introduction of manual 
 
142 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 work into National Schools. Since then the Department of Science 
 and Art (Circular 44, Manual Instruction) has issued propositions 
 for this kind of instruction. 
 
 The movement for technical education is in general an accom- 
 panying result of centralised industrial development. It means 
 nothing else than that the English nation applies also, for the 
 education of the people, the consequences of a national economical 
 law, which depends upon the machine. The North English opera- 
 tive is born and educated for the machine. With Continental 
 hand-labour he could not compete ; on the other hand he is the 
 cheapest operative in the world wherever he tends the most im- 
 proved machinery. 
 
 (c) Social relations also grant England a certain start in the 
 competition of nations. Two conditions come into account. If 
 Ure had at one time to complain that nowhere in the world was 
 the relation between labour and employer worse than in England, 
 it is to-day more }X»aceful than in the principal competing industrial 
 countries. Whilst in Gem-any, certainly, the turning point of 
 tlioae differences has not yet been reached — we are thinking about 
 the operatives' press-organs only now making their appearance in 
 the valleys of decentralised industry — in England the personal 
 hatred of the connection has disappeared. Employee and employer 
 stand opposite to one another as business men, at least in the 
 great industry of the North of England. 
 
 But especially in the cotton industry has that principle of 
 antagonism between Capital and Labour disappeared. The opera- 
 tive knows that his chief interest is bound up with that of his 
 employer in keeping the markets for his industry. Only by their 
 loss could he lose his high standard of living. Therefore he does 
 not look with envy at the riches of his employer. Practically 
 enough he argues : " An employer who is doing well can pay good 
 wages" (19). The chief proof for the feeling of this common 
 interest is the position of the trade unions of Lancashire on the 
 eight-hours question. As a matter of principle the warmest 
 adherents of the eight-hours day believe they would injure them- 
 selves by its introduction at the present j\mct\u*e, because they are 
 afraid of driving a portion of the cotton industry away to foreign 
 
 19. Compare, for further particulars, my book '* On Social Peace," II., 
 p. 306. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 14)3 ^^ft4i£QRN 
 
 countries. Therefore they passed a resolution at the last Trade- 
 Unions Congress whereby the demanded introduction of the eight- 
 hours day could be declined by individual industries. The move- 
 ment for technical education for the opening of India and Africa 
 (20), the bimetallic movement (21), etc., are looked at to-day by 
 operatives and employers as political allies. 
 
 But in another respect do the social conditions come into account. 
 Centralised industry is liable to crises as a result of the world's 
 market. They cause loss to the employers alone as long as wages 
 do not exceed the bare^existence minimum ; on the other hand 
 they partly affect wages prejudicially as soon as, in consequence of 
 technically advanced conditions, in spite of lower piece-wages the 
 weekly earnings of the operatives are high. Tlie English operar ^ 
 tives accept reductions in wages in consequence of bad trade just 
 as frequently as they demand as a right to participate in the 
 increased profits of the industry by increased wages. 
 
 In the German "Enquete" many German employers point out 
 this elasticity of wages as a great advantage of England. They 
 complain that they have not the same possibility, because a lessen- 
 ing of wages is simply impossible in the interest of labour capacity 
 (22). But besides this, the principle of this adaptability of wages 
 to crises is also accepted by both parties to the large societies 
 comprising the whole industry, wliich are not yet developed in 
 Germany. For only thereby is a uuiform fixing of wages made 
 possible for the whole of an industry. 
 
 In Lancashire, as I have shown in my book " On Social Peace," 
 the normal wages are regulated by lists conjointly agreed upon ; 
 on the other hand, the actual wages vary from the normal wages 
 in various percentages according to the state of trade. Lotz 
 declai-es this, and rightly so, a suita^ble condition for centralised 
 industry (23). 
 
 20. Compare Second Report of the Commission on Depression of Trade, 
 part I., 5,103. Further, concerning the importance of Africa, whose con- 
 sumption is capable of tremendous expansion and rapidly increases, Ellison 
 " Cotton Trade," p. 155 
 
 21. Compare the Bimetallic Manifesto of the United Textile Operatives 
 (125,000 operatives), Nov. 30th, 1891. 
 
 22. Reportof the "Enquetekommission," p. 168. " Protokolle," pp. 86, 
 296, 299, 344, 375. 
 
 23. Compare Lotz: " Ideen zur deutschen Handelspolitik " (Leipzig, 
 892), pp. 135, 208, and 209 
 
144 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 Add to this, that in conse<]uence of the operatives' organisations 
 the enii)loyei' can more readily stop hands, because the trade 
 unions in ca>ses of scarcity of work mostly help their members, 
 whilst in Germany an efflux of labour has to be feared, or the 
 operative has to depend upon poor-relief. Whilst the English 
 employer possesses, through the trade unions, the advantage of 
 easily obtaining labour and just as easily dispensing with it, the 
 German employer still seeks to attach the workman by money 
 clubs, etc. This patriarchal social policy, also once customary in 
 England, has to-day made room for a purely contracting relation. 
 
 (d) Tlie operative comes into account in the industry, not only as 
 producer, but also as consumer. Whilst centralised industrial 
 development increases the quantity produced, it evolves, on the 
 other hand, an extensive population capable of buying. This is 
 th*? condition of its own existence. Without it the centralised 
 industrial development would only be an episode, and would come 
 to a standstill as soon as the as yet non-industrial nations had 
 ostablished their own industries. But thus every industrial nation 
 /extends permanently the home market to the lower classes, and 
 obtains selling markets in the same proportion that other nations 
 become industrial, and, therewith, capable of consumption; as, 
 for instance, the two industrial countries, England and Germany, 
 are to-day the most important markets for each other (24). 
 
 Before the modern economical development set in, only limited 
 portions ot the population were customers of the industry. The 
 countryman especially, in general scarcely drawn into the world's 
 market, made his owti clothing, as is still done in portions of the 
 European Continent (25), and even in certain districts of what were 
 formerlv the purelv agrarian Southern States of North America 
 (26). 
 
 The arising of the world's market brings forward with centralised 
 industry the new class of industrial operatives, who for the satisfy- 
 ing of their wants are forced to buy from the commencement. 
 This consuming power, at first slight, rises hand-in-hand with 
 technical progress and cheapening of food — both results of cen- 
 
 24. Compare Ellison : '• Cotton Trade," p. 152, and Lotz, p. 202. 
 
 25. If, for instance, Viebahn (III. , 952) still gives, together with 394,865 
 hand-looms in cottage industry, 387,969 as partially used, this refers to the 
 very frequent, even to-day not quite stopped, home production, in peasant 
 circles, of clothing at the end of the ''sixties." 
 
 26. Compare Atkinson : "Distribution of Products," p. 121. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 145 
 
 tralised industrial development. But more and more does the 
 interweaving of isolated industries seize upon the circles which up 
 to now kept aloof. The countryman also produces more to sell 
 than to use. 
 
 English centralised industry, still in the "thirties" depending 
 upon an under-nourished factory proletariat, stands to-day upon 
 the wide basis of an operative population with high capacity for 
 consumption. Still in the "thirties" were the wages in Lanca- 
 shire not sufficient to cover even the needs of ordinary food; 
 products of industry were not bought. To-day the raising of the 
 weekly earnings and the cheapening of foodstuffs grants a con- 
 siderable surplus above living necessities. This is the reason for 
 that astonishing use of industrial productions, especially the 
 results of the textile industry, as the operatives' budgets to follow 
 will show. But it is to be mentioned that the class of industrial 
 workers capable of consumption is by no means limited to Lanca- 
 shire. It extends as far as the English centralised industries reach. 
 Machine workers, shipbuilders, miners, and partly, also, workers 
 at iron furnaces, enjoy a somewhat still higher standard of living 
 than cotton operatives. 
 
 Also the farmer and agricultural labourer are to-day completely 
 drawn into the market ; the Scotch " Jack of all trades," of Eden, 
 has also disappeared from isolated districts. Far remote, only to 
 exchange the surplus of his farm, the countryman produces to-day, 
 solely for the wants of society, productions which he perhaps does 
 not need for himself. This so much the more because since the 
 repeal of the Corn Laws he threw himself upon specialties; for 
 instance, meat of good quality, pedigree-horses, garden products, 
 etc., for which the industrial development, on the other hand, 
 pushed forward customers capable of paying. The more legislar 
 tion, as it has already done in Ireland, favours small landed pro- 
 prietors, the more does a new home market for English centralised 
 industry extend (27). 
 
 27. Compare, concerning the influence of exchange between centralised 
 industry and spade culture, what Atkinson (" Distribution of Products," p. 77) 
 relates about the farmers once producing wheat in the State of New York. By 
 going over to spade work, for which the industrial centres were close customers, 
 they removed themselves successfully from the competition of the large central- 
 ised corn producers of the West. Wheat, unlike rye, requires the addition of 
 vegetable food. Wheat contains not only more nourishment, but is easier to 
 assimilate ; therefore vegetables are necessary in order to bring the digestive 
 organs into play. 
 
 L 
 
146 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 Especially important for the textile industry is the consuming 
 power of the masses. The development of the use of cotton goods 
 is given by the following figures : — 
 
 CONSDMPTION OP COTTON GOODS IN EnGLAXD. 
 
 Per head. 
 
 In £1.000. In 1.000 lb. 
 
 1820 ... 13,044 ... 35,620 ... 1-5 lb. ... Is. 
 
 ( 25,960 ) 
 
 1885 ^ (incluiing imports, J- 201,800 ... 5 3 1b. ... 1-558. 
 
 ( 28,217) ) 
 
 These figm-es show a considerable increase of the consumption, and 
 give at the same time an idea of the cheapening of cotton goods. 
 The estimating of the use of other textile stuffs is met by certain 
 difiiculties (for instance, the uncertainty of the quantity of raw 
 wool produced in England itself). We must therefore loc^ to the 
 operatives' budgets communicated below, by which an extra- 
 ordinary capacity of consumption is shown. We shall in these, in 
 the case of some families of the cotton operatives of Lancashire, 
 which by no means form exceptional cases, meet with yearly 
 outlays for clothing which reach the total earnings of an adult 
 operative of the German textile industry — indeed, even exceed 
 them. 
 
 (German industrial employers before the examining "Enquete- 
 kommission " are right in looking upon the smaller consumption of 
 the German operative as a disadvantage as compared with England. 
 Indeed numerous examinations of later years give the result that 
 in general only the outermost fringe of the industrial workers of 
 Germany buy new articles of clothing (28). The proofs of this 
 statement have been collected by Herkner. Especially important, 
 as well, are the published workers' budgets from the German Freie 
 Hochstift of Frankfurt a/M. Indeed these researches show, like 
 those whicji I undertook in Saxony, that not only in the case of 
 operatives of the German cottage industries, but also in those of an 
 important portion of centralised occupations, the wages must be 
 exclusively applied for food. 
 
 If the masses in Germany possessed the same consuming power 
 as in the United States or in England, Germany could dispose of 
 more than double the amount of its whole export in textile goods 
 
 28. "The Social Position of the Operatives in Mannheim" (Karlsmhe, 
 1891), pp. 245, 250. Herkner: *< Social Reform a Law of Economical Pro- 
 gress" (Leipzig, 1891), p. 55. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 147 
 
 in its own country (29). Germany stands also in this respect on 
 the step of the economical development which England had 
 attained in the "thirties." The replacement of labom* by 
 machinery is still comparatively slight, and therewith Germany 
 also still lacks that operative, just as capable for labour as for 
 consumption, which forms to-day the strength of England. In 
 consequence of this the farmer has also not yet the market for the 
 products of his garden and spade which make him himself a good 
 customer, capable of paying for the productions of centralised 
 industry. 
 
 IK — Comparison of the Costs of Production in England and 
 Germans/, 
 
 The rising markets of the world have evolved the modem method 
 of production on a large scale, and in the first instance in the 
 cotton industry. But other trades have rapidly followed in this 
 latter's footsteps, especially the iron industry, machine making, 
 and shipbuilding, so that at the present time English national 
 economy bears a centralised industrial character. This progress 
 was a consequence of certain historical conditions arising from 
 certain natm-al advantages of England. But the latter as per- 
 manent elements must give way to the continuous cheapening of 
 the costs of production. The industrial strength of England de- 
 pends no longer in the first instance on those natural advantages, 
 but rather on the fact that English national economy has farthest 
 advanced the technical, commercial, and social results of modern 
 centralised industry; and that therewith, both by employers and 
 employed, that psychological change has been most developed — 
 that psychological change which, we noted above, occurred with 
 the departure from the customary foundations of the old methods 
 of trade. The onward-driving wheel of the advancement was the 
 pressure or demands of the world's market. Seen from this point 
 of view, the fact will be easily understood that at the present 
 moment the costs of building and running mills, and of raw materials 
 and finished articles in the greatest staple industry, are the 
 cheapest in England. 
 
 29. Compare Schonhof: "Industrial Situation" (New York, 1885), pp. 
 54-6. 
 
148 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 We will follow this as regards the cotton industry. In spinning 
 as well as weaving the cost of a mill is cheaper in England than 
 anywhere else in the world. This depends on two facts. One is 
 that, in consequence of technical progress and commercial organisa- 
 tion, almost all the requisites for putting up and working a mill 
 are cheaper in England than in the remaining industrial countries. 
 Then remains the fact that the English capitalist, when building or 
 establishing a business, thinks mostly of turning to good account 
 a momentary favourable opportunity rather than of a permanent 
 investment. He therefore saves fixed capital, in order to have as 
 much untied money as possible at his disposal for carrying on the 
 business. The lifetime of a spinning-mill, for instance, is usually 
 assumed to be not longer than 20 years. 
 
 Tlien, besides this principle we have shown, it must be noted 
 that land in England for industrial purposes is in most instances 
 not bought outright, but only taken at a rental for a certain term 
 of years. Under such conditions all luxurious additions which are 
 not essential for the object of the undertaking are more or less 
 eschewed from the mind. Although we cannot assert, as well, 
 that land for industrial buildings is cheaper, England in this 
 respect has also certainly an advantage. German factories are 
 situated either in the midst of traffic communications, where the 
 ground is extraordinarily dear, or are dispersed in the country, 
 where the cheaper price of land is counterbalanced by hiprher costs 
 of maintenance. In this respect English industry has the ad- 
 vantage of its collectiveness and its division of labour. The 
 factories of Lancashire enjoy all the advantages of extreme cen- 
 tralisation ; but as they leave commercial centres and establish 
 themselves in smaller industrial places, and in the vicinity, they 
 enjoy almost agricultural prices of land. 
 
 A second consideration is the cost of building^s. Bricks and 
 stone are cheaper in England than on the Continent, a consequence 
 of the technically further advanced and larger proportions of the 
 brick industry which are made possible by the steady demand of 
 an exceedingly great industry (1). But still more important is the 
 difference in price of iron equipments, which in new mills play a 
 continually increasing part. Iron prices differ from those on the 
 Continent by about the amount of duty and carriage added to- 
 
 1. Compare " Protokolle," p. 80. In England 1,000 bncks cost 14s. to 
 158. ; in Stuttgart, 27s. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. l49 
 
 gether. Building labour in England, in spite of the higher weekly 
 wages of the workmen, is also cheaper than on the Continent. We 
 ai-e reminded in this respect of the particulars given by Lord 
 Brassey (2). According to his experience, English bricklayers and 
 navvies generally work cheaper than Continental or Indian work- 
 men, who receive far less wages. 
 
 The greater becomes the advantage of England the more we tmn 
 from natural materials, such as land, bricks, and ii-on, to those in 
 whose production labour and capital take an important position. 
 The advantage of England in this respect is tremendous. The 
 centralisation of the cotton industry in Lancashire has caused the 
 concentration of corresponding machine-making establishments, 
 with thousands of workpeople. Such works as Piatt's, of Oldham, 
 Dobson and Barlow's, of Bolton, and others, which furnish for the 
 most part machines for a special branch of trade, can only arise in 
 the centre of a large industry of the foremost rank. The making 
 of machinery also enjoys therewith all the advantages of division 
 of labour in producing on a large scale. The same progress which 
 we have observed in the cotton industry led also in the making of 
 machinery, in spite of a continual advancement of the weekly 
 wages of the workmen, to a progressive cheapening of the pro- 
 duction. What importance in this respect the displacement of 
 hand-work by machines has had is shown, for instance, by the 
 remark of Sir Joseph Whitworth, according to which the planing of 
 a square foot of cast iron in 1826 cost 12s. by hand, against which, 
 to day it costs by machinery only 1 s. 
 
 Machine works have also arisen in Germany wherever a textile 
 centre has been formed — thus, in Alsace. German machine- 
 making is, however, still beliind the specialisation attained in 
 England. Just as the German textile industry is wanting in con- 
 centration, so does the corresponding machine-making also lack 
 the advantages of that division of labour attendant upon concen- 
 trated industry. To make machinery for the cotton industry now 
 and then alongside with other machinery is unprofitable. At the 
 time of the German Enquete machinery for spinning was still 
 mostly, that for weaving almost generally, obtained from England, 
 although the charges for packing, duty, carriage, etc., amounted to 
 from 30 to 50 per cent. (3). Even into Alsace itself was English 
 
 2. Brassey: "Work and Wages" (London, 1872), pp. 68, 78, 198. 
 
 3. Compare " ProtokoUe," pp. 18, 403, etc. 
 
150 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 machinery imported. It also appears, according to statements 
 before the Enquete Commission, that the prices of machinery in 
 the recent decades had by no means gone down as in England. In 
 a similar direction tended the changing of the tariff in 1878, since 
 English prices plus duty and charges are looked upon, even to-day, 
 as the basis for the machinery required by the cotton industry in 
 Germany. 
 
 I am indebted to a celebrated expert for the following particulars 
 in this respect, whereby it may be noted that the difference in 
 freight to Leipzig and to South Germany is only slight : — 
 
 Price at 
 Oldham. 
 Marks. 
 Bale-opener — gross 7G, net 53 cwts. . . 1,275 
 Exhaust opener and lap machine, with 
 
 lattice apparatus and regulator — 
 
 gross 185, net 138 cwt. . . . . 0,420 
 
 Scutcher and lap machine, with regulator 
 
 —gross 81, net 04 cwt 2,099 
 
 Carding engine, with 100 flats, without 
 
 clothing — gross 08, net 50 cwt . . 1,752 
 Drawing-frame, with 3 heads of 7 de- 
 liveries — gross 123, net 107 cwt. . . 3,247 
 Slubbing-frame, 82 spindles — gross 100, 
 
 net 88 cwt 2,669 
 
 Intermediate frame, 128 spindles— gross 
 
 110, net 90 cwt 3,383 
 
 Roving-frame, 104 spindles — gross 100, 
 
 net 91 cwt 3,315 
 
 Ring-spinning frame, 400 spindles — 
 
 gross 120, net 100 cwt 3,519 
 
 Sell -actor, 880 spindles, IJ in. gauge — 
 
 gross 163, net 125 cwt 4,041 
 
 What has been Siiid is sufficient to show that English machine- 
 making bears in a high degree the same character as that which 
 we have proved as peculiar to the centralised industrial develop- 
 ment of the cotton industry ; the same organisation and division of 
 labour ; the same continuous advance in the cheapening of the 
 costs of production, brought about by the replacement of labour by 
 capital ; the same cheapening of the costs of labour, accompanied 
 at the same time by an increase in the weekly earnings of the 
 workers. English machine fitters, with whose productions in many 
 cases competition on the Continent seems impossible, stand, how- 
 ever, on the average above the highest class of cotton operatives — 
 the mule-spinners — and are really the aristocracy of England's 
 labour, as well as, in general, of that of Europe. Already at the 
 
 Price on quay 
 at Hull. 
 Marks. 
 1,500 
 
 Price at 
 Leipzig. 
 Marks. 
 1,766 
 
 7,180 
 
 7,845 
 
 3,140 
 
 3,434 
 
 2,120 
 
 2,365 
 
 3,820 
 
 4,293 
 
 3,140 
 
 3,500 
 
 3,980 
 
 4,375 
 
 3,900 
 
 4,281 
 
 4,140 
 
 4,574 
 
 5,400 
 
 5,950 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 151 
 
 beginning of the " seventies " they obtained a nine-hours day, and 
 at the present moment stand in the midst of the practical intro- 
 duction of the eight-hours day (3a). 
 
 With the greater development of machine-making England 
 possesses the leading technical position in the cotton industry; 
 for to-day it is almost always from machine works that the 
 technical advances emanate ; for instance, the introduction of the 
 self-actor by Roberts and the recent perfection of the ring-spindle 
 by Brooks. 
 
 But the cost of founding a business, for main power as well as 
 working machinery, becomes less with the extension of the whole 
 establishment, which means, by the greater average size of mills in 
 English spinning, a further advantage for England. 
 
 The cost per spindle is therefore lower in England than in 
 Germany. Tlie following figures for England were obtained by 
 me in making inquiries in the summer of 1891. 
 
 Oldham. Alsace. Germany, 
 
 ^ ^ -^ 
 
 According to the minutes of the 
 Enquete Commission. 
 
 No. 20's 248. . . 60s, \ Average cost 
 
 Oldham medium (32'8 to | ^^^ b.«„ per 
 
 40's) .. .. I -'"^- •• ^"^' r spindle, 
 
 No. 60^8 268. 6d. . . ? j 45s. to 55s. 
 
 In the 71 limited spinning concerns of Oldham, which were 
 founded in the middle and end of the " seventies," and had then 
 passed through a business crisis, in which therefore the depreciation 
 could only amount to very little, there stood in 1883 in the books 
 4,217,008 spindles, valued at £4,402,291. According to this the 
 cost per spindle would amount on the average to about 21s. — a 
 result which agrees with the above particulars. In exceptional 
 cases there are, however, in England spinning mills which are 
 built far cheaper — for 18s. or 19s. (4). Apart from these excep- 
 tions there is a slow but continuous cheapening of the establishment 
 costs perceivable in Lancashire, whilst according to the German 
 Enquete the same thing does not apply to Germany, or at all 
 events only in a far slighter degree. In France, since the war, the 
 price of the spindle has even risen about 18 per cent., and still 
 remains above that in Germany (5). 
 
 3a. Fifty-three hours per week is the present standard. — Translator. 
 
 4. Andrew : " Fifty Years' Cotton Trade," p 6. 
 
 6. Compare Jannasch: •' Europaische BaumwoUindustrie," pp. 28, 29. 
 
152 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 In the same maiiDer the cost of English ioonis is also less 
 than those of the Continent; though comparisons are here more 
 difficult than in spinning, because the width and the variation of 
 the goods lo be produced have a great influence on the cost of 
 the weaving as well as main-power machinery. Thus, for instance, 
 before the Enquete Commission the particulars regarding the cost 
 of a shed per loom varied between 666 marks (printers' calico) 
 and 1,500 marks (plain twill and fancy calico). In England the 
 establishment costs per power-loom go down to 350 marks and 
 less. In Burnley the average cost per power-loom for buildings 
 and engine amounts to £13 ; for the other machinery from £5 to 
 £6 ; together, therefore, £18 to £19. 
 
 Advantages similar to those in the establishment costsare pos- 
 sessed by England in the matter of the working costs of the cotton 
 industry. The same applies, according to the usual division, to 
 interest, cost of raw materials, wages, and the so-called general 
 expenses. To these the jirolits are to be added, N\hich must be 
 included in the selling prices quite as much as the amounts just 
 mentioned. Here also the same thing applies as above for the 
 establishment costs. Also the expenses of working have been 
 reduced, for the whole of the heads mentioned, in the course of the 
 century, not however to the same extent, but rather more in the 
 degree that, the moment Nature retreats from Labour and Capital, 
 in the same degree grows the superioi'ity of England above its 
 competitors. 
 
 In the first instance the so-called general expenses of working 
 come into consideration. England has also here an advantage as 
 far as it concerns products of centralised industry, which are 
 produced dearer on the Continent and are subject in many cases 
 to duties — oil, tallow, sizing ingredients, cards, bobbins, paper 
 tubes, shuttles, tying-up cord, etc. On the whole, however, the 
 advantage of England in this respect is comparatively the least ; 
 for instance, the cheaper price of coal is connected with a much 
 greater waste in burning materials (6). 
 
 With respect to the raw material there is also a permanent 
 cheapening to be observed — one reason being in consequence of 
 the increased planting of cotton and the growing competition of 
 the producing countries. But chiefly is it to be ascribed to the 
 
 6. Compare Jannasch, p. 86. 
 
AND^ON THE CONTINENT. . 153 
 
 constantly further perfecting of the cotton market at Liverpool. 
 According to a detailed estimate in the German Enquete (7), 
 middling Louisiana, in 1878, cost in the English mill 113'55 
 marks per 100 kilos.; in the x\lsatian mill 123*84: marks. This 
 difference will be apparently further increased in favour of England 
 by the completion of the Ship Canal to Manchester — a cheapening 
 of carriage which will be as advantageous to the import of food- 
 stuffs as to the export of manufactured articles, and should cause 
 the long-planned canalisation of the Upper Rliine to be postponed 
 no longer (8). 
 
 If German spinners in many cases at the present time buy in the 
 producing country, this certainly means an advantage in so far 
 that they free themselves from the extra expenses in Liverpool. 
 But by no means does this method replace a home cotton-market. 
 German spinners must buy on stock 4 to 5 months ahead. They 
 have therefore to determine their wants long before the time when 
 they know the future demand, and therewith run the risk of a fall 
 in the price of cctton. They can also draw upon Gerinany at 
 an exchange disadvantage. The English spinner buys, as we have 
 seen, from week to week, at the prices ruling in Liverpool, so far as 
 he does not seize favourable opportunities of covering (9). 
 
 And so with the weaver. The cheapening of the yarn manipu- 
 lated by him has made itself felt far more than the cheapening of 
 cotton, since the fall of prices is more pronounced in proportion as 
 the element Nature is overcome by Capital and Labour. 
 
 The progressive cheapening of the raw material has also to be 
 regarded as a general result of centralised industrial development, 
 in any case so far as it depends upon improved methods of pro- 
 duction and improved trading organisation. Indeed this develop- 
 ment can be blocked by the nature of the raw material, as a product 
 of nature limited in supply. But then technical progress produces 
 
 7. Compare " ProtokoUe," p. 358. 
 
 8. The importance of waterways is shown, for instance, hy the " Proto- 
 koUe," p. 19, regarding cost of carriage to Alsace : — 
 
 Cotton per Kilo. 
 
 In Summer, In Winter, 
 
 up the Rhine. per rail. 
 
 East Indian 4-02 pf 5*42 pf. 
 
 American 4-69 6-29 ,. 
 
 9. Compare, for Germany, " Report of the Enquetekommission," p. 85. 
 
> 
 
 154 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 mostly equivalents, as cotton itself has largely become an equiva- 
 lent for the dearer wool (10). 
 
 As we have already spoken of the continuous lowering of the 
 costs of labour within the centiuy, and of the advantages of 
 English producers in this direction as against the German, there 
 remain here only interest and profit still to be touched upon. As 
 long as the profits do not depend upon a monopoly, as was generally 
 the case in the first stage of centralised industry, already referred 
 to, they resolve themselves into two elements ; one in an insur- 
 ance premium, which is paid to the capitalist for venturing his 
 fortune in a more or less risky undertaking ; then the employer's 
 wage, which, again, is retained for two reasons ; one for the putting 
 to work at a favourable juncture, then for the technical and com- 
 mercial management of the existing business. It is now clear that, 
 first, the insurance i»reniiuni falls witli the falling rate of interest. 
 This will bo so much the more the case as the risk is partly thrust 
 upon wages, which, according to the stiito of trade, rise or fall. 
 
 But the real wage of the employer also falls, and certainly, in 
 proportion as technical and business training become general, its 
 special value therewith falls ; and, on the other hand, the growing 
 division of labour simplifies the dangers to be overcome. For both 
 reasons the degree of profit in England has gone down more than 
 on the Continent, and &ven capital and intelligence is applied to 
 the industry when both have been long frightened back on the 
 Continent. Centralised industry, called into being by individually 
 highly-gifted pioneers, after it has been founded, needs no longer 
 the genius of an Arkwright. The capacities which it now demands 
 are especially to be found frequently in the seats of a high-standing 
 working population. Hence the remarkably lower salaries of 
 directors of limited spinning-mills in Oldham. 
 
 And there is another consideration : the social standing of the 
 millowning class always forms an even more considerable portion 
 of its payment. Where bourgeoise society is the first in the State, 
 where industrial callings are highly valued in society, the beet 
 powers turn to them even without the enticement of exceptionally 
 high profits, which otherwise seek honour and position in official 
 situations, and partly place their capabilities at the disposal of 
 
 10. We think on the quantity of substitutes which are formed from coal, 
 without seeing a limit in the future, in the replacement of iron by aluminium, 
 the attempts to produce starch (food) from celluloid (wood). 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 155 
 
 the industry of other countries. In the German Enquete it was 
 correctly perceived that the social standing of trade callings in 
 England formed a strong point of the industry there (11). This is 
 a circumstance of economical importance, upon which for the 
 greatest part depends the strength of private initiative in all 
 branches of undertakings in England. 
 
 But still something else has to be taken into consideration. In 
 the first stage of centralised industrial development class 
 differences are unavoidable, which ai*e mostly filled with extreme 
 bitterness and hatred. These conditions will also influence in an 
 increasing degree the profits, because they cause many capable 
 powers, and perhaps not the worst, to avoid the industry, or with- 
 di'aw from it earlier than necessary. We certainly see how under 
 such conditions great employers often belong to the most hated 
 men of the nation. Where, on the other hand, social peace is 
 opened out by centralised industrial progress; where the most 
 enlightened operatives, of their own free will, return their em- 
 ployers to Parliament, for instance, as not seldom happens in the 
 North of England, the position of the employer acquires a meaning 
 which certainly comes into account as ideal property. For as 
 such the feeling is certainly to be reckoned, to stand at the head 
 of those who give back to the nation the inner peace. 
 
 lie who has been fortunate enoui^h to enter the house o£ a 
 David Dale, which hi filled with tokens of remembrances from 
 operative societies, arbitration boards, etc., in a field which was 
 formerly torn by the bitterest class struggles will value the point 
 of view just presented. 
 
 If thus profits, as far as a sort of wage is concerned, go down, 
 so also in the last respect the rate of interest. 
 
 The continual lowering of the rate of interest is also a result of 
 economical progress. Whilst formerly loans were chiefly taken for 
 consumption purposes, they are in the arena of the economical 
 system of to-day in the first degree devoted to productive objects. 
 Therewith the quantity of capital at hand, and the offer of such, is 
 continuously increased (12). But the lending capitalist, differently 
 
 11. "Protokolle of the Enquete," p. 351: "There is here, in Germany, 
 something which has great influence — it is the fact that trade and industrial, 
 pursuits are not honoured. Industry and trade are only taken up as a pursuit 
 frequently, when no other calling can be found. In England it is otherwise." 
 
 12. Manchester Chamber of Commerce, "Bombay and Lancashire, " p. 40. 
 
156 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 from the employer and operative, has not the possibility of a 
 coalition at hand, because every suitable application of his money 
 produces competition — i.e., creates new capital seeking channels 
 for investment. ITiis strengthened supply can certainly also be 
 balanced from time to time by strengthened demand. But, in 
 general, a retarding moment makes itself felt on the side of the 
 demand — the enormously increased producing power of capital by 
 technical progress. With a sovereign invested in machinery I can 
 to-day produce four to five times as much yarn of the same quality 
 as I could 50 years ago. The joint influence of this speeding with 
 this retarding movemenr pioduced for the Erglish industry an im- 
 portant lowering of the rate of interest during the course of the 
 centmy. 
 
 In a similar way England has herein to-day an advantage com- 
 pared with the Euroi)ean Continent. Ordinary loan capital stands 
 at the disposal of the English cotton industry for 3} to 4 per 
 cent. ; alongside exists, however, the possibility of receiving at 
 {iny time capital subject to notice at 2J to 3 per cent. — a system 
 which is used in many cases by spinning-mills in Oldham. On the 
 other hand, the German employer works with an average rate of 
 interest of 5 per cent. 
 
 An industrial establishment does not represent a permanent 
 capacity, but rather one which is consumed. Most certainly, as 
 above shown, the tendency of development is from a change of 
 fixed capital to a floating one. Therewith, along with the in- 
 terest, the creation of a depreciation rate becomes a necessity. 
 According to the rules laid down by Piatt, machinery for manipu- 
 lating cotton should be depreciated by 7^ per cent, buildings and 
 steam engines by 2J per cent. This amounts to about as much 
 as a total depreciation of 5 per cent. Therefore one can take 20 
 years as the life of a cotton factory. The introduction of a 
 definite depreciation grants to English spinners and manufacturers 
 great advantages over the Continental ones (13). According to 
 Andrew and Ellison, the English spindle stands on the average in 
 the books at 18s. 6d. per spindle, and the loom at £20. 
 
 13. Thus according to Andrew : ** Fifty Years' Cotton Trade," p. 8. Com- 
 pare *' Respecting the Depreciation of the Spindles in the Rhine Provinces," 
 Jannasch, p. 44 : " The far greater progressed depreciation mostly helped the 
 Alsatians to withstand the revolution in the industry, which was connected 
 with their heing taken over by the German State." 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 157 
 
 But it is (^asier to introduce a definite depreciation in England 
 than on the Continent ; for one reason on account of the costs of 
 establishing, and then on account of the greater producing power 
 of the maohineiy. The greater dexterity of the operative comes 
 also into account — unskilled hands ruin the machinery, which is 
 the rwison, for instance, why the wear and tear in India is far 
 higher — as well as the regularity of the production. Whilst the 
 German textile employer must continually change the machinery 
 to correspond with the great variation of the goods to be produced, 
 the Englishman spins from year to year the same counts, weaves 
 the same goods, and thus escapes from the considerable wear and 
 tear caused by the alteration of the machines. 
 
 The following relation of the costs of production approximately 
 result for undepreciated mills : — 
 
 Cost of Production per Pound. 
 
 
 2U'8. 
 
 32'8 twist. 
 
 40' 8 weft. 
 
 eo's twist. 
 
 Wages 
 
 iVi- 
 
 Id. 
 
 l^d. 
 
 lld. 
 
 Working expenses (strap- 
 
 
 
 
 
 ping, oil tubes, card- 
 
 
 
 
 
 clothing, etc., 7^ per 
 
 
 
 
 
 cent, deduction) 
 
 l^Vd. 
 
 Ud. 
 
 IH 
 
 lld. 
 
 Depreciation 
 
 ^d. 
 
 id. 
 
 ifjjd. 
 
 Id. 
 
 Cost of production 
 
 2M 
 
 2|d. 
 
 2id. 
 
 4d. 
 
 Everything above is inter- 
 
 
 
 
 
 est and profit, in the 
 
 
 
 
 
 proportion of 
 
 ii.=5% 
 
 id. =5^ 
 
 id.=B% 
 
 U—5% 
 
 This relation gives tlie following reckoning : — 
 
 Cost per spindle = a (£1 for 32's twist = 240d. ). 
 Yearly production per spindle = b (50 lb. for 32's twist). 
 
 The amount necessary for 5 per cent, in the cost of production of 1 lb. yarn = 
 
 -^ — — = id. for 32's twist. 
 
 On the basis of these figures a glance at the current prices on 
 the Exchange at Manchester gives the average profits of the 
 spinner. The amounts given certainly cover the costs com- 
 fortably ; the technically-developed mills produce at a cheaper 
 rate. Thus 32'8 twist has been sold with a difference in price of 
 the yarn from the cotton of 2d., and still without loss. 
 
158 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 For proof I give as an instance the quarterly production relations 
 
 of a spinning-mill at Oldham with 75,000 spindles. 
 
 Quarterly Production, 582,115 lb. 32'8 twist axd oO's weft 
 
 Totel cost of Per lb. 
 production. yarn, 
 
 1. Wages 2,767 18 4 l-14<i. 
 
 2. Working expenses, total 1,273 12 2 0-49d. 
 
 Including : — 
 Directors' salaries and travelling ex- 
 penses . . . . . . . . £B0 5 2 
 
 Coal 323 15 
 
 Oil and tallow 70 19 11 
 
 Taxes .. .. • .. 74 15 5 
 
 Roller covering (leather and materials) 47 10 
 
 Cord, strapping, etc 91 1 6 
 
 Repairs 214 4 10 
 
 Insurance 78 13 9 
 
 Ground rent 44 14 5 
 
 Employers' Association, etc. . . 18 16 8 
 
 3. Cotton waste as far as not used (sold for X219 lOs.) 1,151 0-57d 
 
 4. Depreciation 750 0-08d. 
 
 Totals je5,942 10 6 2-28d. 
 
 This instance shows how technical skill has already stepped beyond 
 those typical cases; the low depreciation is due to the circumstance 
 that the establishment is no longer in ihe books at full value. 
 
 Similar are the relations in weaving, although here no typical 
 cases can be given. The relations of production in a weaving-shed 
 at Burnley, with 600 looms, in the summer of 1891 were the 
 following: Ordinary Burnley goods — i.e., printers' calicoes, were 
 produced in a width of 30 in. to 34 in. (28's to 45's twist, 30's to 
 go's weft, 14 to 18 picks per quarter-inch, 56's to 58's reed) : — 
 
 Half-yearlt Productign, 3,900,000 yds. 
 
 ToUl cost of Per 1,000 
 
 production. yds. 
 
 £ 8. d. s. d. 
 
 Wages 5,487 2 27 7^ 
 
 Working expenses 1,410 7 7 3 
 
 Including : — 
 Directors' salaries, auditors' 
 
 fees, travelling expenses,etc. £31 
 Rent for room and power (2^ 
 per cent for buildings, and 
 7^ per cent, for power) . . 624 3 4 
 
 Cartage 301 15 3| 
 
 Iron and repairs .. .. 127 3 9 
 
 Taxes (mostly paid by the 
 
 landlord of the building) . . 10 9 
 Gas and water . . . . 38 9 5 
 
 Healds, heald yarn, and reeds 85 7 7 
 
 Shuttles 19 6 5 
 
 Strapping 116 1 5 
 
 Depreciation (7^ per cent on the value of the 
 
 working machinery) 216 16 1 7J 
 
 Totals Je7,114 5 36 6 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. . 159 • 
 
 According to which the cost of production per yard (excluding 
 yam) was equal to 0'438d. 
 
 In this statement, as in the instance given above for spinning, 
 according to custom in England, depreciation but not interest has 
 been added to the costs of production. But in weaving the pro- 
 duction may, under favom-able conditions, be still cheaper. For 
 instance, the yearly rent for room and power per loom frequently 
 amounts to not more than from 32s. to 36s. (14), whilst they are 
 put down higher in the above instance. 
 
 Unfortunately the particulars of the cost of production in the 
 German Enquete(15) are unsuitable for comparison, on account 
 of their great diversity and the uncertainty whether one has to 
 deal with depreciated mills or not, or even whether the employer's 
 wages are reckoned in the costs of production or not. In any 
 case they give, in harmony with Jannasch (pp. Ill and 
 112), a slighter advantage on lower numbers, and a more 
 considerable advantage on finer counts in favour of England. Not 
 only the higher working expenses, but also the higher costs of 
 establishing, form a disadvantage for Germany. If, with the cost 
 of the spindle at £1, Jd. profit per lb. of yarn means alone 5 per 
 cent, profit, with the double costs of establishment it means only 
 2 J per cent. 
 
 Generally in the branch of cotton industry an intei-national 
 division of labour makes itself felt in the following manner. In 
 spinning it may be taken that lower counts are spun in Germany 
 not much dearer than in En<,dand, so that for these a protective 
 tariff is not necessary for all tiine. Already, with the lower duties 
 before 1879, in which year Germany introduced a. system of 
 agrarian as well as industrial protective tariffs, the German 
 spinners of lower counts had driven English yams more and more 
 from the home market. 
 
 In 1877 the import of yarns amounted to only 17 per cent, of 
 those used, as against 47 per cent, in 1858. Since the protective 
 duty at that time was slight, the Germans could (16) even then 
 not have produced coarse counts much more unfavourably than 
 
 14. Commission on Depression of Trade, Second Report, part I., 6,766. 
 
 15. Report, pp. 36, 37. " ProtokoUe," pp. 19, 26, 31, 98, 176. 
 
 16. For low ordinary yarns No.'s 4 to 12 the duty was 158 per cent, of the 
 cost of production ; for all finer yarns, according to the system of weight, 
 duties correspondingly less. 
 
IGO THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 the English (17). On the other hand, up to 1879 the system of 
 weight duties was applicable in Germany, according to which a 
 duty of 12 marks per 100 kilos, yam was levied, without taking 
 into consideration the fineness of the yarn. From 1879 a system 
 of degree duties came into fcrce, which although far lower than 
 the protective duties of the highly protectionist States of France, 
 America, and Russia, still considerably raised the duties on the 
 finer and finest cotton yams. By the new tariff in 1885 the 
 cotton spinners succeeded in getting further additions to these 
 duties. In spite of these facts, Lotz must be said to be correct 
 when he says that the experiment of Germany to spin its own fine 
 yams has to be viewed as a failure (18). In spite of the altera- 
 tion in the German duties of 2879, the average of the counts spun 
 in Germany has been lowered, as shown by the increased require- 
 ments per spindle already touched upon. From the Chamber of 
 Commerce district of Plauen, v.liich, in consequen'^e r^f hand and 
 power knitting, is chiefly dtjiendent upon the use of fine yarns in 
 doubled form, the following, in this respect., ]ias been communi- 
 cated to inc. According to these paiticula/s the most important 
 doubling mills in Ihe di.<5trict used, in 18'JJ, in cotton yams o^er 
 60's counts: — 
 
 17 per cent of German spinnings. 
 75 ,, Swiss „ 
 
 75-5 ,, English ,, 
 
 In addition, it is declared that, for special reasons, comparatively 
 more German- spun yarn has been used than in other doubling 
 mills. 
 
 The reasons for the superiority of England in this branch are 
 two. One is to be found in that tenet of Tucker, that the country 
 most economically developed, where the weekly earnings of the 
 operatives are higher, produces just those articles in the production 
 of which more labour and capital than raw materials come into 
 account. Tliis shows itself, for instance, also in a totally different 
 production, but which, similarly to fine yarns, embodies very much 
 labour and capital. As in the spinning of fine yams, so is England 
 superior to the Continent in shipbuilding. But ^vith fine yarns a 
 
 17. " Stat. Erm.," I.,p. 5. But the English were driven out of South 
 Germany in up to 40's counts and higher ; out of North Germany in up to 
 30's. Ij the 20 years from 1858 to 1877 the percentageof yams used 
 which were imported had fallen from 47-7 to 17-3 per cent. 
 
 18. Ck)mpare Lotz: " Ideen der dentschen Handelspolitik," Leipzig, 1892, 
 p. 175 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 161 
 
 further circumstance comes imder notice, which, perhaps, per- 
 manently grants an international division of labour in this field in 
 favour of England — the climatic advantages, upon which we have 
 repeatedly dwelt before. 
 
 Since Germany posisessed many industries which manipulated 
 fine yarns the German Government decided from the 1st February, 
 1892, on the ground of tlie Commercial Treaty with Switzerland, 
 but which also stood England in good stead by reaion of tha most- 
 favoured-nation clause, to materially reduce the duties on yams 
 above 60's counts. The German Government thus took the stand- 
 point of giving an advantage to pressing interests of certain 
 German export industries over the spinning interests of fin© 
 counts unable to make a heme in Germany. But the duty re- 
 duction pointed out is also in another direction of symptomatic 
 importance. German cotton tpinners were always the main 
 centre of Protectionism, and their defeat was nothing else than a 
 sign of the conriiniously increasing importance of the opposed 
 German export industries, which are interested in Free Trade. 
 
 Whilst the real strength of tlie German expert industry lie® in 
 other branches, Germany possesses also one in the branch of 
 cotton spinning, a specialty, with which it controls the world's 
 market, and is interested in export. I mean the Saxon vigogne 
 spinning, especially in Crimmitschau, Werdau, as well as Glauchau, 
 Zwickau, and Plauen. Vigogne is a yam spun on the woollen 
 system from cotton (19). The spinning machinery for vigogne differs 
 from that in ordinary cotton spinning in that the drawing rollers 
 which Arkwright applied to the jennv of Hargrcaves are missing. 
 Be&ides this, the preparation is different, and similar to thai used 
 for woollen spinning, because the laying of the fibres parallel, 
 upon which cotton spinning depends, must in this case be avoided. 
 There are solely c])ener, 3 cards, but no slubbing or intermediate 
 frames. A further difference is that the cotton, before being spun 
 is greased, and mostly manipulated already dyed. Vigogne 
 spinning exists since 1847 in Crimmitschau »n that it v.'as mixed 
 Avith wocl and spun according to the system for woollen ; at the 
 present time, in 95 per cent, of the vigogne spun i)i the district 
 mentioned there is no longer a single fibre of wool. Vigogne 
 spinning itjquires a larger number of operatives pei* 1,000 
 spindles — 10 to 11 — than cotton spinning. ITie development of 
 
 19. Compare the experienced communications of K. Martin, " Der wirth- 
 "chaftliche Aufschwungf der Baumwollspinnerei in Sachsen." Schmollers 
 Zahrbuch, Band xvii. , Heft 3, p. 19 ff. 
 
162 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 the machinery for it has not cccurr.id in the same degree, and 
 the mills are materially smaller. There are mills vith up to 800 
 8}iindles. On the average the vigogne spinning mills of 
 Crimmitschau have 7,015 spindles, of A\^ardau 4,774; English 
 woollen spinning njills have on tlie average no more than 2,237 
 (1890). The vigogne spinning mills in tJie districts mentioned 
 comprise about 600,000 spindles. Their production is used in 
 the knitting mills of Chemnitz and Berlin and the weaving mills 
 of the Rhine Province and Lansitz. In addition, a fair quantity 
 of vigogne yam is exported to England, and used by the 
 knitters of Leicester and the weavers of Bradford, Tl«e eyport 
 in 1892 to England was 50,904 owt The Gennan export would, 
 according to Martin, amount to six times as much if the vigogne 
 spinners of Saxony were ii.)t the largest proprietors of foreign 
 vigogne spinning mills — for instance in Russia, Austi'ia, Sweden, 
 and France. Real vigogne kj 'inning, which greases the cotton, h 
 not included by German statisticians under cotton spinning. In 
 addition, outside of the district mentioned, there are not a few of 
 so-called " two cylinder yarns " produced, i.e., yarns spun without 
 rollers, on the woollen system, even if not greased. Since this 
 class of spinning is not separated from ordinary cotton spinning, 
 the total extent of this industry can scarcely be correctly gauged. 
 
 The same thing applies to v.caving as to spini'ing. There, 
 where plain productions are made, and before anything else it 
 depends upon the cuitailniont of the »'osts of production by means 
 of centralised industry, England is pre-eminent. On the other 
 hand, everywhere where it depends upon designs, colouring, and 
 finishing, the Germans are capable of competing in the world's 
 market, indeed in many cases are strongly interested in export. 
 Whereas the German spinners are Protectionists, the German 
 weavers have long been Free Traders. Not in a position to 
 compete in prices of ordinary articles for the million with Eng- 
 land, they understand, however, how to find customers by adaptar 
 tions of taste, colour, and design, which in some ca^es may attain 
 even an artistical completion. In spite of the systen\ of pro- 
 tective tariffs, which at the present juncture obtains in Germany, 
 in spite of the wheat duties, the export of German cotton goods 
 (including yarns) has more than doubled from 1883 to 1893, from 
 £3,600,000 has increased to £7,662,000; whilst, as is well 
 known, American exports in the same period declined. 
 
 But especially does the strength of the German industry show 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 163 
 
 itself there, where the textile industries amalgamate with the 
 chemical — thus in printing, dyeing, bleaching, and finishing — in 
 that many productions of foreign teixtile industries are brought 
 duty free into Germany, to leave the country finished. 
 
 In short, Germany has at present dearer labour and dearer 
 capital than England ; but it undei'stands how to wedge itself 
 into the world's market, where not so much the advantages of 
 centralised industry nor the skilled machine-labour come into 
 account, but rather where the superior technical, scientific, and 
 art traininj' of its middle classes is decisive. 
 
164 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Influence of Centralised Industrial Development on the 
 Division of the Nation's Income. 
 
 /. — Generally, 
 
 In what degree «re single classes cf society sharers in the fruits 
 of that enormous increase of production which centralised in- 
 dustrial nietliods influence? 
 
 A view here looms before us which, at least in Germany, is 
 widely spread, one of the few contemplations in which the opera- 
 tives and the wealthy classes are to-day opposed — Centralised 
 industry makes proletarians of society, and disperses the middle 
 classes. The poor become poorer, and the rich richer. The 
 tension on both sides is always increasing ; a violent contact of the 
 opposite poles will be at last unavoidabla 
 
 The bouigeoisie, for this reason, look upon economical progress, 
 therefore, in many cases with an anxious eye. Anxiety about the 
 social consequences sets them even themselves against their own 
 interests. The attainment of an economically great position for 
 Germany — and without this to-day its great political and militciry 
 power is certainly not permanently tenable — appears to them 
 doubtful on social grounds, because it demands centralised industry 
 and further movement towards machinery. Indeed, the tall 
 chimney appears to such anxious souls as a warning finger — a 
 " Mene Tekel " of the coming day of revolution. 
 
 The operatives, on the other hand, greet the economical pro- 
 gress, because it brings them nearer to the moment when the 
 expropriators, ever less in number, will be at length tiiemselves 
 expropriated. Every factory chimney is to them a true sign of the 
 future day of reckoning. 
 
 To us it is neither of the two. To us it is a sign, not only of 
 economical but also of social progreas, with which the latest 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 165 
 
 trophies in that victorious procession of humanity — extending 
 back to olden times — mean subjugation of the elements of natural 
 power and the freeing of labour. 
 
 The opposing opinion is here, as everywhere, to be refuted in the 
 manner that one recognises it aa relatively justified as the result of 
 a certain stage »f development. Before Centralised Industry 
 grasped trade, the division of a nation's earnings was regulated 
 by custom or by law. As, according to Tacitus, the agricultural 
 lots were divided " secundum dignationem," thus similarly in the 
 whole Middle-Age society were the lots of life. The selling prices 
 of trade productions, and therefore the profits, were fixed by 
 Guilds. Wages and hours oi labom* were likewise regulated by 
 the Guilds or authorities, or at least fixed by custom. The rent to 
 be paid to the ground landlord for the utilisation of land was also 
 authoritatively fixed. Interest on capital as yet hardly existed, 
 because large outlays of capital for industrial concerns were not 
 necessary; it was originally forbidden by law. In comparison 
 with to-day, the slight total production of labour was divided 
 partly between worker and employer, granting to both a bare 
 existence but no more, and the balance fell to the landed droprietor, 
 who also socially asserted his precedence. Otherwise than pre- 
 pared by commerce with the interweaving of isolated industries 
 aiiion;^ one another flourished centralised industry. This de- 
 pended from the commencement on competition, and demanded 
 the removal of the old arrangements of law and custom. 
 
 What is, in this stage, when Centralised Industry enters, its 
 influence on the division of national inccnne] llegarding wages 
 we have the so-called minimum standard of life, because the opera'- 
 tive physiologically still 1 o longs to the old time. Only by 
 advancing conditions can Avtiges rise a little above it, since the 
 increase of marriages and births serves for the continuation of that 
 reserve army which at once streems to it and presses down wages 
 to the old level. With deolining conditions wages can themselves 
 go below the minimum standard of living, in which case the deficit 
 is replace<l in many cases by poor-relief, taxes, robberies, etc. 
 Since, on the other hand, the flourishing industry requires capital, 
 but such is still little at command, the rate of interest, as com- 
 pared with later times, stands remarkably high. » 
 
 The difference between the price on the one side and interest on 
 capital on the other is received by the employer. He has, in fact» 
 
160 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 as th© predominating teaching generally accepts, labour as well as 
 capital in his service for a fixed remuneration. At such a stage 
 the profits are high, not on account of lower costs of production — 
 these are rather very high compared with later on — but on account 
 of the high prices. The industrj^ still finds itself in a position of 
 monopoly as compared with the home decentralised industry as 
 well as the foreign, just as one produces similar conditions later 
 on by protective tariffs in order to call industries into being. For 
 this reason great fortunes flow quickly together into the hands of 
 the few ; everywhere was the genius of the individual pathfinders 
 on the field of centralised industry (Arkwright, Peel). 
 
 On that first step of industrial development is that rolling to- 
 gether of wealth in the hands of the few already justified by the 
 reason that, with the meagre possessions among the masses, the 
 necessary capital for the first centralised industries was not other- 
 wise to be brought together. There was still lacking the physio- 
 logical essentials of enterprise in the form of societies. But those 
 high profits have still a further justification. Political power and 
 honour are still linked with the hands of landed proprietorship, 
 which looks down upon the men with a trade calling as " homines 
 novi." A public walk in life still grants a higher position than 
 even the most successful industrial career. It was still doubtful 
 in England about the turn of the century whether the representa- 
 tives of centralised industry were to be granted the appellation of 
 '' gentlemen." Therefore it needed the stimulus of high profits to 
 win capable heads for industrial callings, whilst they later on 
 streamed to them for the sake of the honour and influence alone 
 which this position assm^es. 
 
 But also for a special reason this collecting of possessions has 
 firstly in the citizen classes its justification. The social progress 
 of a nation presupposes a class which, by its riches, is in the 
 position to apply itself to public affairs without being dependent 
 on the State'. On the presence of this class among the country 
 gentry the greatness of the English Parliamentary constitution 
 had once depended. After the foundations of economical life had 
 become industrial, a similar class of citizens with means had to 
 prepare itself for imdertaking political as well as social duties. I 
 have pictured in another place how the existence of such inde- 
 pendent elements has later on pushed forward the social develop- 
 ment of England, after it had become in extensive circles the 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 167 
 
 public opinion that property — as far as it did not serve productive 
 objects — was justified only so far and in the degree as the bearer 
 served the upward movement of those lacking means. 
 
 But, in opposition to the former division of national income by 
 custom or law, the new development led firstly, without doubt, to 
 a sharpening of the difference in property possession. Ricardo 
 had such conditions before his eyes when compiling his " Law of 
 AVages";K. Marx became acquainted with such in the English 
 Blue-Books of the " thirties " and " forties," which he studied. 
 The operative, powerless and hopeless, in such times joins that 
 temporary labour party which places itself without the 
 State, and therefore dispenses with all influence in the 
 State. It is hoped to overpower the State, in order 
 to arrange it in its own interest. As if this happened by 
 a wave of the hand, whilst still the influence in the State depends 
 solely upon the division of economical power between the classes 
 
 "■of society. But even this movement is not hopeless. In that it 
 influences the ruling classes, and firstly, in many cases, the 
 agrarian powers, to legislate for the operatives' protection, it drives 
 
 "-forward the technical-economical development. 
 
 I^t us summarise the peculiarities of that first stage of cen- 
 tralised industry. Economically viewed, they are: — High costs 
 of production on the ground of dearer labour (because many hands 
 are required) ; and dear capital, high prices, and high profits, by 
 reason of a position of monopoly. Socially viewed, they are : — 
 A minimum standard of life on one side, and concentration of 
 riches on the other — class contentions. This stage of the 
 development accompanies the social-political views noted down 
 at the beginning of this chapter. 
 
 International competition compels further progress. Continuous 
 cheapening of the costs of production is the leading motive of the 
 development, as was followed more closely above in the case of the 
 English cotton industry. But this coercion for limiting the costs 
 of prodxiction regulates the whole centralised industrial develop- 
 ment. Without an uninterrupted lessening of its costs of produc- 
 tion no industry can hold up its head in the world's market. 
 
 We now ask, "What are the influences of this development on the 
 division of national income 1 
 
168 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 The cheapening of the production of a defined article refers to, 
 as we saw, establishing as well as w(H"king costs. Included in the 
 latter, again, are all single charges — raw materials, labour, working 
 expenses, interest, profit, etc. Since, however, establishing costs 
 and working costs resolve themselves into cost of labour, interest 
 on capital, and employers' profit of other trades, there remain, in 
 fact, excluding raw materials, only three of the elements named, 
 which are liable to a continuous lowering. 
 
 We can here pass by raw materials after what we have said above 
 respecting them. Also in their prices Uiere are solely contained 
 cost of labour, interest on capital, and employer's profit, as far as 
 a priority or ground rent does not exist upon it, the reason for 
 which at present is not to be examined. Apart from the latter, 
 therefore, the whole result of the labour of a nation's, as of every 
 individual's production, is divided between labour and capital, in 
 that the so-called employer's profit, as mentioned above, is of two 
 kinds, and is to l^e reckoned partly to the one and partly to the 
 other category. In that we shall refer to it later on, we prove 
 firstly, for the centralised industrial development, that within a 
 given product — for instancei, one pound of yam, one yard of cloth, 
 or one ton of iron — the amount falling to labour as well as to 
 capital permanently decreases ; the cost of labour becnuee this is 
 continuously replaced by capital ; the cost of capital because by 
 technical progress the same capital efver becomes more productive, 
 by the progress of national economy ever becomes cheaper. The 
 operative, the poorer consumer, has the advantage ; for him this 
 cheapening of economical commodities has at once the eiffect of a 
 rise in wages. 
 
 But we must further ask, the amounts falling upon labour 
 and capital decrease in the same ratio? Or does the centralised 
 industrial development alter the ratio so that within a defined 
 product the amounts coming on both items certainly absolutely 
 decrease, but the one compared with the other relatively increases. 
 The answer to this question gives at once the following considera- 
 tion : — A similar capital produces, by reason of technical progress, 
 more at the present time than 50 years ago ; in spite of this, if the 
 interest and prc^t expected by capital has remained the same, or 
 even gone down, the surplus must therefore have gone to labour. 
 
 A view into the reasons of this relation is afforded by that 
 replacement of labour by capital in the cotton industry treated on 
 above. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 169 
 
 A capital of 20s. produces an article A; in order that 15 per 
 cent, interest and profit may be realised 3s. must be given from 
 the selling price to capital. In 30 years the same capital produces 
 6A; in order to pay 15 per cent, on the production costs of lA, 
 only 6d. has to be appropriated to capital. But in conse- 
 quence of tlie increased producing power and quantity the rate of 
 int«'est, and therewith the premium for risk, contained in the 
 profit has fallen. Seven-and-a-half per cent, is sufficient to make 
 capital seek investment in the industry. There is, therefore, in 
 the production costs of A only 3d. necessary for interest and profit. 
 
 A workman produces daily an article B for a wage of 3s., but in 
 30 years' time 6 B per day. In order to allow him to earn exactly 
 the same weekly wage, only 6d. need now be paid for the produc- 
 tion of B. If the workman 30 years ago was a skilled hand- 
 worker, whose skill the machine has made superfluous, a higher 
 weekly wage is not necessary ; under ceitain circumstances a lower 
 is even possible. On the other hand, if the occupation 30 years 
 ago depended already on machinery, and the greater production 
 has been attained by improvement and speeding of the machines, 
 there would be more and more valuable capital applied, the labour 
 replaced by more complicated results of technical skill and natural 
 science, and thus the responsibility of the workman tending the 
 machinery would become greater. A better workman is needed 
 for it> to whom a weekly wage of 24s., instead of 18s., must be 
 paid. In consequence of this, the piece^wages for B could only 
 decline to 8d. 
 
 As, with the reduction of the share falling to capital, advancing 
 conditions have come into play, which by the progress of human 
 genius permanently grant increased dominion over nature, and 
 therewith the augmenting production-power of capital, thus with 
 the reduction in the cost of labour, retarding circumstances, the 
 nature of mankind as an organism, by which higher capacity in a 
 definite direction is only possible if the whole condition of the 
 organism is raised. The relation of both, therefore, is reversed, 
 in the coiu'se of development, in favour of labour. This means 
 nothing else than that the production costs of a certain article have 
 certainly gone down, whereas, on the other hand, with the lower 
 producing costs relatively more has fallen to labour and less to 
 capital. The following is an instance. It refers to the same mill, 
 combining spinning with weaving, whose capital in 1883 repre- 
 
170 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 sented the same value as in 1840. In this case the price of an ell 
 of calico of exactly the same quality declined from 1840 to 1883 
 by 22 per cent., the cost of labour per yard by 41 per cent., the 
 amount falling to interest and profit by 63 per cent., and during 
 the same period the weekly earnings of the operative had risen by 
 64 per cent. (1). 
 
 What applies to a single article may also apply to the whole 
 national production, as far as it depends upon the principle of 
 centralised industry. I^abour receives a relatively. higher share. 
 But the centralised industrial system represents such a greater 
 production that, similarly as in the production costs of a single 
 article, the amounts for labour as well as for capital absolutely 
 decrease. Thus with regard to the greatly increased total produc- 
 tion, both amounts absolutely increase. On labour as well as on 
 capital falls an absolutely greater amount. 
 
 An exception only occurs in so far that extraordinary dexterity 
 becomes replaced by the machine. As the demands on labour 
 become more regular, wages also approach more nearly to a similar 
 level (2). Thus medium wages, according to experience, tend to 
 rise more than the highest, and the latter partially to fall. For 
 instance, the wages of the mule-spinner, at one time, for the finest 
 yams amounted to double those for ordinary yams; to-day the 
 wage conditions of both have approached one another. 
 
 To those special capacities which were formerly higher paid 
 than later, because they have become partly less necessary, partly 
 more frequent, belong before everything else the portion of the 
 profit which is termed real employer's wage. We have already 
 laid clear the reasons for this. 
 
 Extremely influential in this respect operates the "limited" 
 system, which at the present time comprises one-tenth of all busi- 
 ness concerns in the United Kingdom. With the largely increased 
 operations of single undertakings, only few large possessors of 
 capital would be in a position to come forward as industrial em- 
 ployers. With them the limited principle puts all those technical 
 and commercial talents into competition which, without consider- 
 
 1. Compare Atkinson: "Distribution of Profits," pp. 119 and 120; 
 further, " Report on the Statistics of Labour" (Massachusetts, 1890), p. 261. 
 
 2. Compare " Protokolle der deutschen Reichsenquete," pp. 291, 376, 337, etc. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 171 
 
 able capital, were still in the position to acquire the necessary 
 business qualifications. This circle constantly increases with the 
 growing prosperity of the middle and the elevation of the working 
 classes. It is scarcely possible any longer, owing to the advanced 
 centralised industrial development, for the individual worker to 
 rise up to be an employer on his own account alone, whilst at one 
 time the greatest and most celebrated pioneers of centralised in- 
 dustry emanated directly from the working class. He can, on the 
 other hand, with the necessary talent become a servant of large 
 companies, which, along with talent, require character and 
 honesty ; while that first generation of industrial employers, along 
 with their talent, were in many cases indebted for their success to 
 cunning and meanness. Marshall says, with respect to this point*: 
 " Perhaps at the present time not so many operatives rise to the 
 position of employers ; but more get on to-day far enough to put 
 their children in a position to reach the highest offices. Tlie rise 
 to prosperity is divided over two generations, but the completeness 
 of this movement upwards is to-day perhaps greater than ever. 
 This is better for society. The foreman who still has to obey as 
 well as to order, and sees his children rise up, is in a certain 
 direction more to be envied than the small employer. The 
 children become well educated and make at some time, probably, a 
 better use of their riches " (3). 
 
 With this growing competition for industrial leadership in this 
 second period comes the pressure from below, which — as Brentano 
 in his "Arbeitergilden" first pointed out — is exercised by the opera- 
 tive class elevating itself. Both, at this stage of development, 
 force down the profits to a minimum, under which they cannot 
 sink without detriment to the industry. In the first stage o^ 
 centralised industrial development the employer received the 
 balance after loan capital and operative had been paid ; but now 
 labour receives the balance after the payment of interest and 
 management. With an insight into this relation, the leader of the 
 English spinners said to me : One must guarantee the employer, 
 as far as possible, a certain margin of profit, which cannot -without 
 loss to the operative be lessened in favour of wages. A high- 
 standing operative class must think about attracting intelligence 
 into industry, and keeping it — if possible, more intelligence than 
 
 3. *' Elements of Economics," p. 195. 
 
172 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 the competing industries of foreign countries possess. The opera- 
 tive must pay for finding the most capable employers (4). 
 
 As profits thus approach a minimum boundary, wages become 
 more and more dependent on prices, and consequently on the 
 position of the world's market. Whilst in the former stages of 
 development legislative measures could accelerate the alteration- 
 mentioned in favour of labour, profit now tends, like interest, to 
 become a permanent power, but wages to rise only by increase of 
 the total production. Li^slative measures cannot provide this 
 increase. Since the state of trade partly re-acts upon wages, in 
 the same way the premium on risk, which is contained in the 
 profit, falls (5). 
 
 From what has been said we can deduce the following proposi- 
 tions : — 
 
 (a) Within a defined product the amounts falling to capital 
 as well as labour absolutely decrease with the development of 
 centralised industry — cheapening of production in favour of 
 the consumer. 
 
 (b) The amount within a defined product falling to capital 
 not only decreases absolutely, but also relatively in proportion 
 to that upon labour. 
 
 (c) The amount within a defined product falling to labour 
 certainly decreases, but relatively, on the other hand, increases. 
 
 (d) The increase of national total production in itself makes 
 possible greater amounts absolutely for labour and capital. Oh 
 the other hand, the share fcnr eapita.1 falls relatively, that for 
 labour increases relatively. 
 
 Labour ever receives a greater share of national total produc- 
 tion. It receives more and more of the balance which remains 
 after paying the amounts falling to interest and profit. 
 
 The social consequence »f the eeonomical development here 
 depicted is a levelling-up of extremes of property . So far from 
 the rich becoming richer and the poor poorer, just the reverse is 
 
 4. Ck)mpare a similar view of the well-known £. Atkinson: " DistriBntinn 
 of Profits." p. 70. " Wages are the remainder after profits are paid," pp. ITS 
 and 179. 
 
 5 Schmoller " Ueber die Entwicklnng des Grossbekiebs und die sociale 
 Xla«!enbildung. " " Share capital, the capital of sleeping partners, also expects 
 really nothing more than pavment of interest. This capital retreats more and 
 more from the ruling position." " Preass. Jahrb. , voL 69, part 4." 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 173 
 
 the case, which, as to England, has been statistically proved (6). 
 At the time when the industrial employers socially and politically 
 conquer the highest positions, new middle classes begin to rise 
 behind them, which at first gain economically in importance, then 
 politically. That, indeed, in this later stage of develo-pment the 
 centralised industrial operative has to be counted with the middle 
 classes is proved simi)ly enough by Atkinson from the fact that 
 important callings, which hitherto were generally connected with 
 the middle classes, have gone in income far below the level of the 
 centralised industrial working class of New England. This is 
 esi)ecially true of large portions of the teaching and religious 
 classes. 
 
 That Germany still by no means stands economically in the 
 same advanced position is shown by the movement of the people's 
 income. It can be taken, according to Herkner, that the poor at 
 present do not become poorer ; on the other hand, the rich become 
 richer, and the middle classes in many cases decrease. 
 
 //. — Proofs from Lancashire. 
 
 "Prosperous Lancashire!" Under this title the "Spectator" 
 published the following article, which the organ of the operatives, 
 the " Cotton Factory Times," of 23rd. Oct., 1891, reproduced : — 
 
 " According to the testimony of a late United States Consul at 
 Manchester, the district of which that city is the centre enjoys a 
 greater measure of prosperity than any similar community in his 
 own country, therefore in the world, for in no part of the Continent 
 are the working classes so well off as in Lancashire ; nowhere are 
 wages sc high, hours of toil so short, and the cost of living so 
 moderate. None who knew the district in the * forties ' and 'fifties* 
 cawi revisit it without being struck by the signs of improvement 
 a.nd progress which he sees around him. It is not merely that the 
 population has doubled, and tall chimneys multiplied beyond com- 
 putation : these are signs of increasing wealth, and wealth may 
 act^umulate while men decay ; the veriest pessimist must acknow- 
 
 C R. Giffen: " Increase of Moderate Incomes " (Roval Stat. Society, 16th 
 Dec. , 1887). Compare my boob. '« On Social Peace," vol. II., p. 491 . Atkin- 
 8W1 accepts a similar relation for America, which is, indeed, known as the 
 country whpr<» fortunes roll together into a few hands. (" Distribution of 
 Profits," p. 356.) 
 
174 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 ledge that the people are better off, their dwellings more comfort- 
 able, their labom- less arduous, and their lives altogether pleasanter 
 than those of their fathers and grandfathers. True, the houses 
 are still grimy and smoky, and unsanitary back-to-back cottages 
 too numerous ; but these are being gradually superseded by better- 
 constructed dwellings, and there is hardly a considerable borough 
 without its parks and recreation grounds. Poverty and pauperism, 
 the outcome of drink, idleness, accident, and disease, exist in the 
 most i)rosperous comnmnities ; but in Lancashire none who are 
 able and willing to work need to want. Wages were never so high, 
 labour never more in demand. A good weaver, and weavers are 
 mostly young women, can earn 248. a week. A skilled workman, 
 with two or three children working in the mills, is better off than 
 many a country parson. There are families whose aggregate 
 earnings amount to £400 a year. Day labourers are in demand 
 at 6d. an hour. Nor are high wages limited to the strictly manu- 
 facturing district-s. In the Fylde country, the garden of Liancar 
 shire, farming hands, generally young men, command from 98. to 
 11 s. a week the year round, with board, lodging, and washing, and 
 farms let without difficulty at £3 an acre. It is satisfactory to 
 find that prosperity has promoted thrift. Every village, almost 
 every hamlet, has its co-operative store, managed by working men, 
 who provide the capital, and neither give nor take credit. The 
 agent of a large assurance company, whose district is partly in- 
 dustrial, partly rural, informed me that it is difficult to find a man 
 whose life is uninsured, and benefit societies number their mem- 
 bers by the million. 
 
 " All this implies considerable activity. Lancashire people were 
 never slow-witted, and now, thanks to the extension of educational 
 facilities and the multiplication of newspapers, they are become 
 exceptionally intelligent. Fifty years ago, a manufacturer, from 
 whom I had the story, opened a reading room for his hands, and 
 supplied it with suitable literature ; but so few of them could read 
 that the others insisted on one of the better-instructed reading 
 aloud to them, and as this led to confusion and bickering the room 
 had to be closed. At that time there was not a single daily paper 
 in the county, and the few local four-page papers sold for as many 
 pence. One can now get a better paper for two fiirthings. A few 
 days ago I was staying at a country house in the neighbourhood of 
 two contiguous manufacturing villages, containing together some 
 twelve hundred inhabitants. In these two villages are three news- 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 175 
 
 agents, who amongst them sell every day a hundred and fifty 
 halfpenny evening papers, of which latter, however, working people 
 buy but few. I may note as an interesting fact that of the four 
 evening papers vended by the agents in question three run stories ; 
 and the proprietor of one of them assured me that without fiction 
 his paper would find few readers. Equally in demand with fiction 
 are accounts of football matches, the Lancashire pastime par 
 excellence. I learnt from a policeman who had been stationed at 
 Coppul (a mining -district near Chorley) tliat it has all but put an 
 end to ' up-and-down fighting ' — a method of adjusting quarrels a 
 good deal more deadly than French duelling. Instead of punching 
 each other's heads and kicking each other's shins, the young bloods 
 of the neighbom-hood find a vent for their energies in kicking the 
 footballs and fighting for goals." 
 
 I try in the following to show clearly the standard of living of 
 the operatives of Lancashire statistically : — 
 
 According to the principles of Boehmert, explained in the journal 
 of the Saxon Statistical Office, an examination was undertaken by 
 me, in the summer of 1891, on the standard of living of the 
 artisans of the North of England. The Board of Ti-ad© had some 
 years previously made a similar attempt. They had, however, 
 only attained few satisfactory results; first, on account of the 
 partly unsuitable queries asked, then on account of the aversion 
 of the operatives to lay bare the details of their private life to 
 official questionings (1). I was, however, in conse(]uence of an 
 interview with R. GifTen, the celebrated statistician to the Board of 
 Trade, enabled to make use of the experiences of that first examina- 
 tion, while I had, as a private person, more likelihood of getting 
 at the particulars wanted, and of removing ditliculties, by a 
 personal exchange of thoughts. 
 
 Thus equipped, I repaired to the North of England. But there 
 it immediately became clear to me that only through the organisa- 
 tions of the operatives were the details for my purpose to be 
 attained. This was no disadvantage for the examination, since co- 
 operative societies and trade unions comprise by far the greater 
 portion of the skilled workers in that district. Old acquaintance- 
 ships made my way smooth. Most of the workers' budgets given 
 by me were confirmed by the co-operative societies' organs, which 
 were so much the more suitable for doing this, since the operative 
 
 1. " Returns of Expenditure by Working Men" (London, 1889). 
 
176 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 in Lancashire gets all his necessaries for existence from the society. 
 I am specially indebted to Mr. J. C. Gray, the general secretary of 
 the Co-operative Union in Manchester. 
 
 I single out pre-eminently the representative of that great in- 
 dustry of I^ancashire — the mule-spinner. The two spinners whom 
 I choose are in the average position of that operative class — an 
 average from which exceptions are the fewer since in the chief 
 spinning districts all spinning-mills pay exactly the same wages, 
 on the basis of the wage list agreed upon with the operatives. 
 
 The man is 42 years old, his wife 41 ; they have seven children 
 — three boys of 9, 16, and 18 years of age; and four girls, aged 
 respectively 3, 6, 12, and 14. The family lives in a house in one of 
 the environs of Oldham. The house, in which, comparatively 
 speaking, there is a saving, consists of two rooms downstairs (5 by 
 4J yds. and 4 by 4 J yds.), a kitchen joined to the house behind, a 
 small cellar, and two bedrooms a storey high. The rent amounts to 
 4s. per week. To my question as to what formed the principal 
 food of the family the man gave the answer applicable for the 
 operative of the North of England — wheaten bread and meat. 
 Meat, mostly beef, is eaten daily at least ^once, potatoes, coffee^, 
 vegetables, etc., performing only the part of aiRcessories. 
 
 The man and four of the children work in the met^rv ; the man 
 as mule^spinner, the two eldest boys as piecers, and theEwir^ldest 
 girls in the preparation rooms. Tlic hours of labour amount to 
 56J per week for both father and children. The weekly earnings 
 of the man reach 40s. ; but since there are only 49 to 50 weeks in 
 the year to be reckoned as working ones, the yearly income is put 
 at £98. The yearly earnings of the children amount to £92 19s. 
 3d. Since the wife and the younger children earn nothing, the 
 income of the family from wages accordingly amounts to £190 
 19s. 3d. The wages of father and children flow together, as is 
 generally customary in the North of England, into the family 
 exchequer — a circumstance which ensures so much the more the 
 high standard of living of this working population, since man-iages 
 do not take place much too early. In addition to the income men- 
 tioned there comes one from savings and co-operative societies' 
 dividends, amounting to £15 yearly. The total income, therefore, 
 amounts to £206. 
 
 The man is a member of the Oldham Co-operative Society and of 
 the trade union of mule-spinners, which extends over the whole of 
 Lancashire. In the co-operative shops everything is bought — ^nat 
 
 I 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 177 
 
 only food, but also clothing, etc. One shilling per week is paid to 
 the trade union. But since this union grants relief only in case of 
 want of work (13s. per week, or in case of a strike 15s. weekly), 
 the man and wife are also insured in a friendly society against 
 sickness, for which they pay 5d. weekly, and receive in case of 
 sickness 8&. per week. The children who are working are also 
 similarly insured. The man takes a trip eYerj year with some of 
 his children — in August, during the so-called " Oldham wakes," at 
 which time the mills close for a week. He goes mostly to- one of 
 the neighbouring watering-places on the coast, and this absorbs a 
 portion of the savings. The total expenses amount to about 
 £185 ; therefore about £21 is saved per year. 
 
 As a second representative of the spinnei-s I choose one from 
 Hyde, a place near Manchester well known from its connection 
 with the history of Chartism. Tlie man is employed in one of the 
 largest spinning-mills, belonging to the Ashtons. His age is 47 
 years, that of his wife 42. He has married rather late, and has 
 only two children — girls of 1 5 and 1 7. The family rents a house 
 consisting of four rooms and a kitchen — two living rooms on the 
 ground floor, two bedrooms a story high. The measurements of 
 the front room are 4 J by 4 J yds., of the back room 4 J by 4 yds. 
 In this case relatively more value is laid out on the dwelling than 
 in the one mentioned before. The rent is 4s. 6d. per week. In 
 this case, also, wheaten bread and meat are given as the chief 
 nourishment. Meat, and indeed beef, is eaten once a day. 
 
 The man earns 30s. ; the daughters, one a weaver, the other in 
 a hat works, each lOs. per week. Here also only 50 working weeks 
 are reckoned, and 14 days are expressly mentioned for holidays 
 and relaxation. Thus the yearly income, with £6 8s. in dividends 
 from the co-operative society, amounts to £131 8s. 
 
 The man is a trade-unionist, which costs him Is. weekly; for 
 insurance purposes Is. weekly is paid to friendly societies. The 
 insurances are as in the foregoing case. The man is, as well, a 
 member of a social club, and subscribes to the trade paper, " The 
 Cotton Factory Times," a non-political paper, and also — as he 
 belongs to a political party — to a Liberal paper. As long as the 
 children did not work the family were partly dependent upon the 
 savings which both partners had made before their marriage. The 
 wife has, since her first confinement, ceased working. Since the 
 girls went to work the yearly savings have been considerable, the 
 object being to secure the parents in old age, and tO' allow of some- 
 
 N 
 
178 
 
 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 thing for the children when marrying. The man is a zealous 
 member of the Unitarian body, a sect that was introduced into 
 Hyde by the Ash tons, and to which not a few^ of their operatives 
 belong. Since the yearly expenses only amount to £107, there 
 are savings of £24 to be noted. 
 
 The budgets of both families come out in detail as follows. 
 Their interest consists in showing how centralised industry, where 
 it is oldest and most developed, produces far from proletarians. 
 Much rather does there appear to be now middle-classes arising, 
 both as regards standard of living and capability of thrift. 
 
 n. WEEKLY EXPENDITURE FOR HOME USE. 
 
 
 A, 
 
 n 
 
 
 
 f-h. oz. 
 
 8. 
 
 d. 
 
 Lb. oz. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 Wheat bread (bread is baked at home) 
 
 72 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 17 
 
 2 
 
 Oatmeal 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 ... 
 
 ... 
 
 Rice 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 ... 
 
 ,. 
 
 Potatoes 
 
 30 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 15 
 
 9 
 
 Tea 
 
 1 4 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 8 
 
 10 
 
 Siigrar 
 
 14 
 
 2 
 
 11 
 
 5 
 
 1 0^ 
 
 Milk 
 
 3^ qts. 
 
 Lh. nz. 
 
 
 
 10^ 
 
 5 qts. 
 
 1 3 
 
 Coffee 
 
 
 
 
 
 3^ 
 
 ... 
 
 ... 
 
 Kgg« 
 
 Six 
 
 Lb. oz. 
 
 
 
 G 
 
 Twelve 
 
 Lb. oz. 
 
 1 
 
 Butter 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 2 8 
 
 3 n 
 
 Cheese 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 Meat: Beef 
 
 6 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 Mutton 
 
 1 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 Pork 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 .. 
 
 ... 
 
 Bacon and ham 
 
 1 8 
 
 
 
 9 
 
 1 
 
 10 
 
 Vegetables (cabbage, onions, turnips, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 beans, etc.) 
 
 ... 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 i| 
 
 Salt 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 Oi 
 
 1 
 
 Oi 
 
 Pickles 
 
 ... 
 
 . 
 
 
 8 
 
 3 
 
 Jam 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 "3^ 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 A. Herb beer (this drink is non- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 alcoholic, since both families em- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 brace teetotal principles) 
 
 16 qts. 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 4 qts. 
 
 2 
 
 B. Ordinary beer 
 
 Lb. oz. 
 
 • 
 
 •• 
 
 Lb. oz. 
 
 ... 
 
 Soap (washing materials) 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 4 
 
 Light (petroleum ,ga8, and candles).. 
 
 ... 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 6 
 
 Tobacco ... 
 
 u 
 
 
 
 H 
 
 0*"2 
 
 8 
 
 Coals (yearly average) 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 Other expenses 
 
 ... 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 ... 
 
 Weekly expenditure for house ... 
 
 £1 
 
 18 
 
 Ti 
 
 £1 
 
 2 lOi 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 
 
 179 
 
 h. OTHER WEEKLY EXPENDITURE. 
 
 Rent 
 
 Trade union 
 Friendly society 
 Further insurance 
 
 Social club 
 
 Newspapers 
 
 Insurance for paying doctor in 
 
 sickness 
 
 School money 
 
 Walks, trips, enjoyments (in 
 
 come under the heading of 
 
 expenses) 
 Various 
 
 case ol 
 
 case A 
 yearly 
 
 Total Weekly Expenditure ... 
 
 A. 
 
 * 8. CI. 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 
 1 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 2 8 3i 
 
 
 
 
 d. 
 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 4 
 
 1 14 
 
 YEARLY EXPENDITURE. 
 
 
 A. 
 
 B. 
 
 
 £ 8. d. 
 
 £ 8. 
 
 d. 
 
 Weekly expenses x 52 
 
 125 11 
 
 88 8 
 
 
 
 Clothing 
 
 30 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 Shoes and boots, etc 
 
 5 
 
 2 10 
 
 
 
 Larger repairs 
 
 4 
 
 14 
 
 
 
 Thread, etc., for wife for mending ... 
 
 9 
 
 13 
 
 6 
 
 Furniture, utensils 
 
 3 
 
 1 5 
 
 
 
 Doctor 
 
 Paid weekly. 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 Taxes 
 
 1 4 
 
 ... 
 
 
 Other expenses (especially for tlie 
 
 
 
 
 trip during the Wakes) 
 
 15 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 Total expenses 
 
 £184 4 
 
 1J107 
 
 6 
 
 Total income 
 
 206 
 
 131 8 
 
 
 
 Savings ... 
 
 £21 IG 
 
 £23 12 
 
 
 
 Next to the spinner, the weaver is the chief representative of the 
 Lancashire cotton industry. His standard of living is below that 
 of the spinner. Men and women are here employed in the same 
 manner, but seldom married women. The girls marry compara- 
 
180 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 tively late, and mostly only when they have saved something, 
 which makes it possible for them to give up factory labour after 
 the birth of their first child. This is the explanation of the long 
 holding together of adult family members in a common dwelling. 
 If the children grow up and earn money, the time for saving begins 
 anew. 
 
 We now give the budget of a weaver at Bacup. The man is 58 
 years old, the wife 54. They have seven children, who live to- 
 gether in on© household; five male, two female — ages, 18 to 31. 
 The father and all the children are cotton weavers, the mother 
 does not work. The total income of the family amounts to £227 
 yearly, of which the father earns £45 and the children £168, while 
 £14 is the amount of dividends received from the co-operative 
 society. 
 
 Wheaten bread is looked upon as the chief nourishment, in addi- 
 tion to which meat is eaten once daily. Tlie expenses for the 
 dwelling-house are comparatively low — 3s. 6d. per week. For this 
 amount the family has a house consisting of four rooms, one of 
 which is used as a kitchen and for living purposes. Tlie father is 
 not a trade-unionist, but the sons pay 1 s. 2d. weekly to the weavers' 
 society. For educational purposes 6d. per week is paid ; to this 
 must be added 25s. yearly for Sunday schools and religious objects. 
 Very considerable are the savings in this case ; they amount yearly 
 to about £50. They are invested in the Post Office Savings Bank, 
 in building societies, and in the co-operative society, partly in the 
 names of tJie parents, partly in those of the children. These 
 savings have the object of assuring to the parents a comfortable 
 old age, of supplying the children with something when married, 
 and also of making it possible for the family to have an outing 
 during the holidays, for which the expenses vary. 
 
 A further case refers to a weaver's family at Darwen. Man and 
 wife, 39 and 33 years old, are both cotton weavers. The wife also 
 goes to work for nine months of the year, because she has only 
 three children, whose ages are 7, 9, and 11. In the year which is 
 taken into account, from the summer of 1890 to 1891, the man has 
 only worked 48 weeks. He lost two weeks by sickness, and has 
 had 10 days' holidays. The total income amounted to £101 7s., of 
 which the man earned £52 16s., the wife £43 Is., £4 10s. being 
 the dividend from the co-operative society, and £1 was sick money 
 from the friendly society. The expenses amounted to £94 15 s. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 181 
 
 6d., SO that £6 10s. remained as savings. The living conditions of 
 the family are eminently good ; for a rent of 4:S. 6d. the family has 
 4 rooms, two being used as bedrooms. The size of the front room 
 is 14 by 13 ft, of the back room 13 by 9 J ft., the height being 8 
 ft. In front of the house is a little garden. Wheaten bread and 
 meat are looked upon as the principal food, beef and mutton in 
 equal quantities forming the meat. The man is a trade-unionist, 
 and pays 4d. per week to the weavers' branch society, for which he 
 receives in case of want of work 9 s. per week, and, in addition, 
 death money amounting to £6. The same amount is paid to the 
 friendly society, which grants 10s. per week sick money, and £10 
 in case of death. 
 
 As my last representative of the cotton industry I bring forward 
 a fustian-cutter of Hebden Bridge. The husband is 52, the wife 
 49 years old; there are six children from 14 to 23 years of age — 
 two sons and four daughters. The mother does the work in the 
 house ; the children are engaged in the fustian trade. The husband 
 earns 24s. weekly. He has not worked for six or seven weeks of 
 the past year; he has had thereof 20 days' holidays, and lost 19 for 
 other reasons. The children, who had similarly about 14 days' 
 holidays, earned together in the year £172 4s. To this has to be 
 added £12 6s. as dividends from the co-operative society, and £5 
 interest from other investments. The total income is £244 4s., 
 the total expenditure about £175, and the savings nearly £70. 
 Of these savings, however, only a small proportion was invested, 
 the larger proportion being applied for holiday trips and similar 
 exceptional objects. The co-operative society's dividend was not 
 drawn, but was allowed to remain invested. 
 
 The family lives in its own house of five rooms, one of which 
 serves exclusively for living. The dimensions of the rooms are 
 as follows: Front room 15 ft. 3 in. by 12 ft. 3 in., back room 15 
 ft. 3 in. by 9 ft. 3in., height 8 ft. The kitchen is attached to the 
 house behind. The chief food is wheaten bread, and meat is par- 
 taken of five times per week. Under the heading of expenditure 
 there is none for trade unions, because the husband and children 
 are employed in a co-operative undertaking. On the other hand, 
 he pays 4d. per week for insurance against sickness, for which sum 
 8s. per week in case of illness and £8 in case of death is paid. 
 Very important are the sums applied for clothing^£40 per year. 
 The remainder is shown by the budget given : — 
 
182 
 
 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 WEEKLY EXPENDITURE. 
 
 Wheat flour 
 Oatmeal 
 Rice . . 
 Potatoes 
 Tea .. 
 Sugar .. 
 
 Weaver at Bacup. 
 
 Lb. 02. 
 
 30 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 16 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 Milk 
 
 Coffee ! 8 
 
 Eggs 
 
 Butter 
 
 Dripping, lard 
 
 Cheese . . 
 
 Meat : Beef . . 
 
 Mutton . . . . I 
 
 Pork ! 
 
 Bacon and Ham 
 
 Fish 
 
 Veget'ble (salad, cabb'ge, etc.) 
 
 Salt 
 
 Mixed pickles 
 
 Jam 
 
 Beer 
 
 Spirits 
 
 Temperance liquors . . 
 
 Soap 
 
 Lighting 
 
 Candles 
 
 Tobacco 
 
 Fuel . . . . . . 
 
 Blacking, wash'ng liquor, etc. 
 
 Rent (add to C value of house} 
 
 Trade union 
 
 Friendly society 
 
 Other insurance (children) . . 
 
 Social and political clubs 
 
 Newspapers , 
 
 School money (case A, even 
 ing classes, etc. ) . . 
 
 Trips and enjoyments 
 
 Total weekly expenditiire . . 
 Yearly expenditure 
 
 8. d. 
 3 6 
 10 
 
 Lb. oz. 
 
 20 
 
 1 
 
 2 7^ 
 
 9 
 
 1 6 
 8 4 
 
 2 
 
 H 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 2 
 
 
 6 
 
 % 
 
 Weaver at Darwen, 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 1 3 
 7 
 4 
 
 3 6 
 
 1 2 
 10 
 
 o"6 
 2^ 
 
 6 
 
 2 6 
 
 jE2 14 5 
 
 ^141 9 8 
 
 6 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 2 
 
 s. d. 
 
 2 7 
 
 li 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 10^ 
 
 1 3 
 
 1 104 
 2i 
 
 2 
 
 3 3 
 5 
 
 8 
 
 1 6 
 1 8 
 
 Lb. oz. 
 48 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 0^ 
 
 8 
 
 0*3 
 10^ 
 6 
 
 o"n 
 
 2 3 
 
 Fustian Cutter at 
 Hebden Bridge. 
 
 2 
 10 
 
 £1 10 7^ 
 
 £79 12 6 
 
 1 
 
 4"o 
 
 1*0 
 7 
 
 2 
 2 
 
 Je2 7 2 
 ^122 12 8 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 
 
 183 
 
 YEARLY EXPENDITURE. 
 
 
 A. 
 Weaver at Bacup. 
 
 B, 
 Weaver at Darwen. 
 
 c. 
 
 Fustian Cutter at 
 Hebden Bridge. 
 
 Brought forward 
 
 Clothing 
 
 Boots, shoes, and clogs 
 
 Repairs 
 
 Thread and sewing materials 
 Kitchen utensils, furniture . . 
 Books (in case B from the 
 library of the Co-op Society) 
 Doctor, chemist 
 Taxes 
 
 Other expenditure (for A, ex- 
 penses for Sunday schools 
 and religious purposes; for 
 B, washing) 
 
 £U1 9 8 
 16 10 
 
 3 12 
 1 10 
 
 4 2 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 1 5 
 
 £79 12 6 
 6 
 2 
 
 5 
 3 
 
 15 
 6 
 
 jei22 12 8 
 40 
 3 10 
 2 
 12 
 2 
 
 18 
 
 1 5 
 1 18 6 
 
 Total yearly expenditure . . 
 
 Savings (for A and C, in- 
 cluding the expenditure for 
 yearly holidays) 
 
 £172 10 10 
 £55 
 
 £94 15 6 
 £6 
 
 £174 16 2 
 £69 8 
 
 As a proof of the fact that the cotton operatives of Lancashire 
 are by no means in an exceptional position, but rather that their 
 position is merely that of the operatives of English centralised 
 industry generally, the following instances are also quoted : — 
 
 The first instance refers to a representative of the miners in 
 Northumberland. The husband is 44, the wife 40 years old, and 
 they live in the neighbourhood of Delaval. There are eight 
 children of the marriage, aged respectively from 2 to 21 years — 
 four boys and four girls. The father and the two eldest sons go to 
 work — all three in the mine. The father earns 36s. per week, the 
 sons 25s. and 14s. The hours of labour amount to 40 per week, 
 and, on the average, 6 hours' overtime. Every fortnight a day's 
 holiday is taken, so that in reality only 11 days are devoted to 
 work. The yearly income of the father amounts — reckoning 50 
 weeks yearly — to £90, that of the two sons to £97. To these 
 sums a yearly dividend of £19 48. from the co-operative society 
 has to be added, and from other investments £28 6s. This gives a 
 total yearly income of £234. 
 
184 
 
 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 WEEKLY EXPENDITURE. 
 
 A, 
 
 Miner in North- 
 umberland. 
 
 Bread (case B bought ready, as usual 
 
 in Loudon) 
 Flour (case A baked by wife)... 
 
 Oatmeal 
 
 Rice 
 
 Potatoes 
 
 Tea 
 
 Sugar 
 
 Milk 
 
 CoflFee 
 
 Cocoa 
 
 EggB 
 
 Butter 
 
 Lard, etc. ..j 
 
 Cheese 
 
 Meat: Beef ' 
 
 Mutton , 
 
 Pork 
 
 Ham and bacon i 
 
 Vegetables (turnips, cabbage, onions, 
 etc.) 
 
 Salt 
 
 Mixed pickles 
 
 Jam 
 
 Beer (A, teetotaller) ... ... ...; 
 
 Spirits I 
 
 Temperance cordials 
 
 Soap and washing materials ... 
 
 Lighting 
 
 Candles ... 
 
 Tobacco (B, non-smoker) 
 
 Fuel (case A, free) 
 
 Other expenses 
 
 Rent (case A, free, value 5/6 per week) 
 
 Lb. oz. 
 
 Total weekly expenditure 
 Yearly expenditure ... 
 
 3 8 
 
 3 
 
 s. d. 
 
 Machine Fitter in 
 London. 
 
 66 7 9 
 
 1 lOi 
 
 Lb. oz. 
 
 48 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 8 
 
 24 
 
 12 
 
 6 
 
 10 
 3 lU 
 9 2 
 
 2 4 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 2 6 8| 
 
 121 9 11 
 
 12 
 
 6 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 Si 
 
 8 
 
 1 19 10 
 
 103 11 4 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 
 
 185 
 
 YEARLY EXPENDITURE. 
 
 Brought forward 
 Trade union 
 
 Friendly Society (case A, Foresters)... 
 Life insurance ... 
 Social and political clubs 
 Doctor (case A pays 3d. per week, 
 
 B needed none) 
 
 Further insurance 
 
 Trips and enjoyments 
 
 Other expenses (pocket money for 
 
 children) 
 
 Clothing 
 
 Boots and shoes 
 
 Repairs ... 
 
 Thread, etc 
 
 Furniture and utensils... 
 Newspapers and journals 
 Books 
 
 Yearly expenditure 
 
 Approximate annual savings 
 
 Miner in North- 
 
 Machine] 
 
 htter 
 
 in 
 
 umberland. 
 
 
 London. 
 
 
 i-121 
 
 9 
 
 11 
 
 £103 
 
 11 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 19 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 18 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 14 
 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 
 ... 
 
 
 
 
 13 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 14 
 
 4 
 
 
 ... 
 
 
 3 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 18 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 16 
 
 
 
 37 
 
 4 
 
 8 
 
 10 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 17 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 15 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 3 
 
 17 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 
 ... 
 
 
 £194 14 
 
 7 
 
 jei39 
 
 11 
 
 
 
 MO 
 
 
 
 
 
 i-6 
 
 
 
 
 
 The other side of the balance-sheet is debited with £229 6s. 
 Tliere is no rent included in this expenditure, because the miners 
 of Northumberland have nothing of any moment to pay for the 
 rent of their houses, which belong to the colliery proprietors. 
 These houses are the ordinary dwellings of the North English 
 workman. They comprise 2 to 4 living rooms, in the foregoing 
 case four, in two storeys, each 28 J by 18 ft. The coal-hewers also 
 receive coals for nothing, delivered for about 6d. per fortnight for 
 carting expenses. 
 
 The man is a trade-unionist and co-operator, also a member of a 
 friendly society ; and so with the two sons. The trade union pays, 
 in case of stoppage or other intermission of work, 10s. per week for 
 support; the friendly society, for sick support, 10s., and, in addi- 
 tion, £8 funeral money in case of the death of a member, and £2 
 on the death of a child. 
 
 Remarkably high are the expenses for newspapers, books, etc., 
 inasmuch as the miners of Northumberland are noted for active 
 intellipjent interest. By this fact, as well as by the high relation 
 in which the single items for clothing, etc., stand to the expenses 
 for food, the budget detailed above appears completely like that of 
 one of the middle classes. The chief nourishment here is also 
 wheaten bread and meat. The wife as well as the daughters, the 
 eldest of whom is 16 years of age, do not go to work. 
 
186 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 Side by side with this is given the budget of a machine fitter at 
 London. The husband is 43 years old, and the wife the same age. 
 They have six children — ^two boys and four girls — from 6 to 17 
 years old. The husband earns 41s. per week; the children, of 
 whom the eldest son is becoming a machine fitter and the daughter 
 works in a cotton factory, earn together 18s. The man estimates 
 his annual income at £105, to which sum £45 is added by the 
 children; the total income is therefore £150. Tliere are 50 work- 
 ing weeks taken into account, because two weeks have to be 
 reckoned for sickness and holidays (9 days yearly). The man 
 declares he has never lost any time on account of labour disputes 
 or want of work. He is a member of the Amalgamated Engineers, 
 to which society he contributes la per week, and for which he is 
 entitled to sick pay, and support in case of want of work and in 
 old age. In addition, he spends Is. lOd. per week for further 
 insurance objects, partly with the friendly society called the Hearts 
 of Oak, for the object of sick insurance. The house, which com- 
 prises five rooms, is comparatively dear, as in general dwelling- 
 houses in London are dearer thao those of the North English 
 operatives. Three rooms are applied to sleeping purposes, and 
 two for living in (two rooms 14 by 12 ft., three rooms 10 by 9 ft). 
 In this case, also, meat and wheaten bread form the chief nourish- 
 ment. Tlie budget sliows meagre savings, in connection with 
 which, however, the considerable applications for insurance pur- 
 poses have to be taken into account. 
 
 The figures given reveal the enormous advance of the English 
 operatives when compared with the " thirties " (see page 88). On 
 the other hand, numerous German operatives' budgets that have 
 been published bring us to the conclusion that the standard of 
 living of German operatives at the present time about balances 
 that of the English in the ''thirties" — a further proof for the 
 dependence of the position of operatives on the condition of 
 economical development. In the same degree that Germany has 
 advanced less towards centralised industry, and that hand labour 
 still preponderates over machine labour, is the standard of living 
 of the German operative less than that of the workers of the 
 present English centralised industry. 
 
 In most of the German workers* published budgets the income 
 scarcely covers the expenditure; very frequently a deficit occurs 
 which is balanced Vjy benevolence and poor relief, in many cases 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 187 
 
 by prostitution — even by misery and want. Excellent service in 
 the cause of detei mining the conditions of life of German opera- 
 tives has to be ascribed to the inquiries — published by order of 
 the Ministry of the Grand Duchy of Baden — of Woerishojffer, for 
 the celebrated and well-known Committee on Baden Factory In- 
 spection. Even for the skilled workpeople of well estal)iished 
 centralised industries (for instance, of the chemical industry) it 
 appears, according to these, that the most favourable result is the 
 ever scanty attainment of the physiological minimum of living. 
 In spite of which, these communications contain — in connection 
 with the information concerning other German working classes, 
 especially concerning the known conditions of the German cottage 
 industrial workers — proof that sound centralised industries always 
 make possible a relatively higher status of living of the 
 operatives. "While for the mass of the workers in German cen- 
 tralised industries the nourishment — mostly potatoes and rye 
 bread — may at least scantily supply the physiological demands, 
 that of the cottage workers shows, in comparison, an apparent 
 want of nourishment (see page 88 )• I quote, as an instance from 
 one of the textile centres of North Germany, the following opera^ 
 tive's budget, which seems to me, after comparison with another, 
 to stand rather above than below the average. The family con- 
 sists of the husband (49 years old), wife (53 years old), and four 
 children (5 to 17 years old). The husband and the two 
 eldest children are employed in a power weaving-mill. The man 
 earns 15s. ; the two children together contribute 7s. per week for 
 food and lodgings to the parents : — 
 
 WEEKLY EXPENDITUKE FOR FOOD AND HOUSE, etc. 
 
 Rye bread, second quality 
 
 Potatoes . . 
 
 White bread (small rolls, 25 grammes) 
 
 Wheaten flour (2nd quality) . . 
 
 Meat (Sundays only) 
 
 Dripping . . 
 
 Vegetables (peas, linseed, rice, etc.) . 
 
 Coffee 
 
 Butter 
 
 Skimmed milk . . 
 
 Rent 
 
 Sick money and old-age insurance 
 School money 
 
 
 M. pf. 
 
 42 1b. 
 
 5 60 
 
 30 litres 
 
 1 80 
 
 2 1b. 
 
 2 
 
 2 „ 
 
 40 
 
 
 45 
 
 3 40 
 
 
 
 20 
 
 2ilb. 
 
 3 40 
 
 6 litres 
 
 60 
 
 
 3 20 
 
 
 65 
 
 .. 
 
 15 
 
 •• 
 
 . 21 85 
 
 Total 
 
 It results from what is given above, in comparison with the 
 
188 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 English operatives' budgets, that the chief food of the English 
 operative — meat and wheat — is with the German a Juxury. 
 Especially is this applicable from the item of f lb, meat weekly for 
 a family of fom* adults (of whom three work) and two children. A 
 comparison in figures between German and English operatives' 
 budgets is impossible in detail, by reason that one certainly knows 
 that wheat is more nourishing than rye. A positive relation of 
 value between both cannot, however, be given, on account of too 
 great variations according to the harvests, conditions of the land, 
 etc. But something further is certainly to be taken as general — 
 the income reaches, in favourable cases, no further than for nourish- 
 ment. There remains for other purposes, as a rule, little or 
 nothing over. 
 
 In addition, German industry lacks consumers of mass articles. 
 Skilled workers, even in the most favourable cases, and if the 
 children or \nfe work as well, scarcely ever spend above £15 
 yearly for clothing and other industrial productions, whilst in the 
 English budgets given above this expenditure runs to £50 and 
 over. A Leipzig book-printer's- family — therefore belonging to 
 one of the highest classes of operatives — with only two children, 
 has only £9 14s. yearly left over for clothing and shoes. "In 
 order to save boots, the children run about barefooted in the 
 warmer season of the year." The household utensils of the 
 German worker's family are scarcely ever bought new, but, like 
 the clothing also in numerous cases, from the broker, or received 
 through charity. Numerous proofs of this statement are given 
 by the Frankfort workers' budgets (2), which by no means refer 
 to a specially low working class — a disadvantage not to be under- 
 rated for German industry, which, as numerous statements before 
 the " Enquetekommission " show, feels keenly a rise in food prices, 
 reductions in wages, or curtailment of employment in other im- 
 portant branches of trade, especially in mining and iron working. 
 
 2. " Schriften des Freien deutschen Hocbstifts" (Frankfurt a. M., 1890). 
 A worker's family with four children and j957 income spent only £5 for 
 clothing, washing, household goods, and repairs. The head of the family says 
 'he buys perhaps occasionally a pair of working trousers or some such 
 indispensable article of clothing, but for fifteen years has not bought himself a 
 complete new suit." The furniture is mostly second-hand when forming the 
 household. Even the sofa is missing in most cases. There is never a room 
 used exclusively for living purposes ; living and sleeping are generally com- 
 bined in the same room. Frequently one room serves the whole family for 
 living and sleeping, and in manv cases the same is partially sub-let. Ck>mpare 
 pp. 37, 44, 70, 85, 94 ; further, Herkner, pp. 49-64. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 189 
 
 If one visits the English operative in his home, its appearance 
 convinces one that there is here more than the bare standard of 
 living, that certain demands for comfort are fulfilled, which has 
 a most favourable influence on the family life. Let us go, for 
 instance, to the spinner in Hyde, whose budget was given above. 
 In front of the house there is a small garden. It was, at the time 
 that the particulars for the budget were got (August, 1891), 
 filled with blooming plants. The house door leads into the 
 living room, the size of which has already been given. In the 
 middle of the side wall there is a large fireplace, with a clear, 
 flaring coal fire. On it is a kettle, in which water for the tea, 
 indispensable at every meal, is boiled. At the side of the fireplace 
 we find an oven for cooking meat and baking bread. In the 
 middle of the room stands a large square table, the meal-table of 
 the family. Against the second wall a long sofa, against the third 
 a large mahogany set of drawers, upon which were some stuffed 
 birds and some books. Against the fourth wall of the room stands 
 a piano, for buying which the operative with pleasure applies his 
 savings, chiefly in I^ancashire, the population of which has a special 
 inclination and capacity for music. I have seen one in many 
 operatives' dwellings, even in weavers' houses at Bacup, who did 
 not pay more than 3s. 9d. for rent (3). 
 
 Even if the value of the instrument as well as the musical 
 productions on it are meagre — it was related to me that the two 
 daughters had deemed 10 lessons each sufficient for learning the 
 art — in any case, the life of the operative of Lancashire gains a 
 cheerfulness by the practising of music, which is doubly to be 
 wished by the sad commonplaceness of the industrial localities of 
 the North of England. The floor of the room is covered with oil- 
 cloth. Nowhere is there missing an arm-chair for the head of the 
 family. Five further chairs complete the furnishing. 
 
 Behind the living room there is a kitchen. The same, however, 
 does not serve for cooking, since this is generally done in the 
 li\nng-room, but for preparing the dishes, and chiefly for washing. 
 We notice particularly the large built-up washing boiler, arranged 
 for heating with a coal flre. At the window there is a slopstone 
 
 3. The lack of pianos in similar workers' dwellings in Germany was pointed 
 ont by me in a paper partially reprinted in " The Textile Mercury " and the 
 " Manchester Chamber of Commerce Monthly Record " on March 28th, 
 1891. "Even though Germany is noted for its makes of pianos, I never 
 remember having seen one in the house of a daily-bread toiler," — Translator, 
 
190 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 with water-tup. As a chief article of furniture there is not often 
 missing a wringing machine, which serves for wringing-out the damp 
 clothes, and which I have seldom missed in any of the houses of 
 the cotton operatives visited by me. Behind the kitchen there is 
 a small yard, with a shed for coals. A small staircase leads from 
 the kitchen to the upper storey, whose two rooms are used for 
 sleeping purposes, and are furnished with beds, drawers, etc. 
 
 This is the customary type of the operatives' houses, of which 
 not a few present more extensive furnishing. Generally, the first 
 thing in this respect is a sewing-machine. The similarity of the 
 architecture is as astonishing as the furnishing. The worst type 
 of operatives' houses, which at the present time is gradually 
 diminishing, differs from that described in that the yard and the 
 kitchen disappear from behind, and the houses are built back to 
 back, and the living-room downstairs takes up the whole area 
 in front. The buildings which exist above the average have the 
 kitchen connected to the house in the yard, so that below there 
 are two rooms, one opening to the front, the other to the back, 
 which mostly means three rooms above. They also often 
 possess a special entrance hall. 
 
 These types of buildings occur in the factory towns near Man- 
 chester, as well as in the seats of weaving in North Lancashire. 
 The above-described building and furnishing cannot by any 
 means, after the numerous instances I have seen, be regarded as 
 a case standing above the average. 
 
 Quite especially as notable proof for the high standard of living 
 of the cotton operatives of Lancashire is the amount of capital 
 widely distributed in their circles, which results from the balances 
 of the numerous operatives' budgets. In this respect there 
 apfiears to be a sort of decentralisation of society by an increas- 
 ing regular division of wealth — a consequence, as we have already 
 seen, of the centralised industrial development. As opposed to 
 this, the view of Karl Marx is certainly wrong, that the working 
 classes, in consequence of centralised industrial development 
 economically pressed down, still rise up to political power, until 
 they at last, holding political power in their hands, cause the 
 economical reversal which would change them from non-possessors 
 to mutual possessors of existing capital. Economical decentralisa- 
 tion — that is, a proportional division of wealth — ^has, much 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT 191 
 
 rather, always historically preceded a proportional division of 
 political power. Countries with unequal division of possessions 
 were always oligarchal — thus countries of lauded estates, o£ 
 commerce, and of flourishing centralised industries. First, in 
 proportion as the machinery system, developing itself, raises the 
 working classes economically, do they gain real influence, of which 
 the present Labour party lacks the first stage of the development, 
 because it is based upon economical weakness. 
 
 Now in what way, we ask, are the widely extended savings of 
 the cotton operatives of Lancashire invested 1 Into account come 
 insurance societies of every kind, especially the large and rich 
 friendly societies ; further. Government as well as private savings 
 banks, building societies, industrial undertakings, etc. (4). Here 
 we only bring to notice two kinds of investments ; the co-opera^- 
 tive societies and " limited " concerns. Regarding the co-opera- 
 tive societies I refer to what is said in the first volume of my book 
 " On Social Peace," as well as that' excellent work by Miss Potter. 
 
 As an insbince, we only point out here the tremendous business 
 transacted by the Oldham Co-operative Society. This society 
 consisted, in December, 1890, of 11,000 members, belonging 
 exclusively to the working classes, and had in the year 1889 net 
 receipts of £341,195. It possesses a large number of shops for 
 groceries, clothing, bread, and butcher's meat, for boots and shoes, 
 furniture, drapery, etc. It has, further, a branch for building 
 houses, and had up to the time mentioned built 623 operatives' 
 houses for about £100,000, which, for the most part, had already 
 become the private property of individual operatives. In addi- 
 tion, there is a savings bank attached to the society, with deposits 
 amounting to £18,000. The society has invested a part of its 
 property in limited spinning-mills, partly in shares and partly in 
 loans. It paid £50,000 in dividends to its members in 1889 — 
 that is, nearly £5 per member, in addition to £5,000 interest to 
 loan owners. 
 
 Besides this, the society spent considerable sums on education 
 and recreation. The Educational Committee had arranged, in the 
 year mentioned, a large number of lectures on various subjects, 
 partly in connection with the University Extension Scheme, partly 
 with those institutions which apply themselves, as pointed out 
 
 4. Compare Report of the Commission on Depression of Trade, Second 
 Report, part 1. , p. 136. 
 
192 
 
 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 above, to the fostering of technical knowledge. Instruction 
 classes were held in cotton industry, shorthand, botany, physio- 
 logy, hygiene, book-keeping, and dressmaking The society 
 possessed a library of 13,075 volumes, besides several reading- 
 rooms supplied with numerous newspapers and journals. It also 
 arranged tea meetings, balls, entertainments, etc. 
 
 Respecting house-building by the societies, I received the follow- 
 ing communication from the Bacup Society's committee : — " The 
 average price for which we sell houses to our members amounts to 
 £210. The society gets the houses built on contract by local 
 builders, and sells them by auction, when ready, to its members. 
 These either pay the whole price at once, or must pay interest for 
 the amount left owing, and, in addition, £1 10s. every quarter, 
 until the whole amount is paid off. If they wish to pay more 
 speedily, it is, of course, accepted. The living rooms are 5 ells 
 wide and 4 ells long, the kitchens 2 to 3 ells ; behind the house 
 there is a yard 1 2 ells square. A storey high are 2 to 3 bedrooms. 
 A lobby runs the whole length of the house (from back to front.)" 
 
 In another co-operative society the houses were paid for within 
 19 years, under the following scheme, on the basis of 3 per cent. 
 Of the £190 borrowed : — 
 
 
 There falls of £16 12«. paid :- 
 
 Leaving 
 as balance. 
 
 To interest, 
 
 To capital 
 payment. 
 
 
 
 
 £ 8. d. 
 
 £ 8. M. 
 
 £ n. d. 
 
 At the end of 1 : 
 
 S^ear 
 
 9 10 
 
 6 2 
 
 183 18 
 
 
 2 
 
 (rears ... 
 
 9 3 lOJ 
 
 6 8 U 
 
 177 9 lOJ 
 
 
 3* 
 
 ... 
 
 8 17 6 
 
 6 14 6 
 
 170 15 4J 
 
 
 4 
 
 ... 
 
 8 10 9i 
 
 7 1 2J 
 
 163 14 2 
 
 
 5 
 
 ... 
 
 8 3 8i 
 
 7 8 3^ 
 
 156 5 10 
 
 
 6 
 
 ... 
 
 7 16 3^ 
 
 7 15 8i 
 
 148 10 2 
 
 
 7 
 
 ... 
 
 7 8 6 
 
 8 3 6 
 
 140 6 8 
 
 
 8 
 
 ... 
 
 7 4 
 
 8 11 8- 
 
 131 15 
 
 
 9 
 
 ... 
 
 6 11 9 
 
 9 3 
 
 122 14 9 
 
 
 10 
 
 ... 
 
 6 2 8f 
 
 9 9 3i 
 
 113 5 51 
 
 
 11 
 
 ... 
 
 5 13 3i 
 
 9 18 8J 
 
 106 6 9 
 
 
 12 
 
 ... 
 
 5 3 4 
 
 10 8 8 
 
 92 18 1 
 
 
 13 
 
 ... 
 
 4 12 lOf 
 
 10 19 U 
 
 81 18 11? 
 
 
 14 
 
 ... 
 
 4 1 lOf 
 
 11 10 u 
 
 70 8 lOi 
 58 7 3| 
 
 
 15 
 
 ... 
 
 3 10 5i 
 
 12 1 6i 
 
 
 16 
 
 ,, 
 
 2 18 4:^ 
 
 12 13 7f 
 
 45 13 8 
 
 
 17 
 
 ... 
 
 2 5 8i 
 
 13 6 31 
 
 32 7 4f 
 
 
 18 
 
 ... 
 
 1 12 4^ 
 
 13 19 7^ 
 
 18 7 8f 
 
 
 19 
 
 » 
 
 18 4i 
 
 14 13 7* 
 
 3 14 11 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 
 
 ..Or 
 
 interest. Interest and capital payment amounted to £15 128. 
 annually. 
 
 From what has been said it results that a happy solution of the 
 so-called operatives' house question is to be found in the last 
 degree in a gi-eater participation of the working classes in national 
 possession of capital. 
 
 Of special interest is the development of the " limited " principle 
 in spinning at Oldham, and certainly not only from economical, 
 but also from social points of view. It has already been touched 
 upon how the "limited" system helped onward the development of 
 spinning, and made possible concentration of capital, and there- 
 with a considerable lowering of the costs of production. 
 
 It is a remarkable fact that those large limited spinning-mills at 
 Oldham, furnished with the most improved machinery, which to-day 
 can generally be looked upon as the leading ones, are also socially 
 interesting pictures, and in fact emanated from a movement of the 
 working classes. 
 
 Their origin is ascribable to the co-operative movement, which 
 has always had its chief seat in Lancashire. The banks of the 
 little river Roach, which washes Todmorden and Rochdale, are cer- 
 tainly those of a second Tiber, going out from which the co-opera- 
 tive idea, according to the thought of its supporters, should conquer 
 the whole world (5). As a fact, however, the efforts of the co- 
 operative societies at production have mostly failed, and have 
 proved themselves only possible under the first condition of having 
 morally exceptionally high-standing members. On the other hand, 
 the co-operative stores, to which belong the extensive masses of 
 the cotton and machine operatives of Lancashire, had an increas- 
 ing success. They educated the operative for the practical manage- 
 ment of business. Besides which they collected, as savings, the 
 dividends, which in many cases were not drawn by the members, 
 forming considerable capital which required investment. Both 
 conditions must come together in order to make possible the suc- 
 cessful formation of "limited" undertakings by the working 
 classes. A further circumstance favoured this development ; num- 
 erous Oldham employers had arisen from the ranks of the opera- 
 tivpp. as well as that larpe class of overlookers, technical men, and 
 managers, which stands between employers and operatives. In all 
 
 >. Compare my book " On Social Peace," I., p. 311. 
 
194 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 countries of the world OldhcOin operatives, as managers and over- 
 lookers, have formed spinning-mills and managed them, especially 
 in India and Russia. 
 
 , As a rule they return to their native town with their savings. 
 They are people who, in general, are the cleverest in the cotton 
 industry, and who still retain a close feeling of kinship with the 
 working class from which they emanated. At political and social 
 meetings the position of the cotton trade has for a long time 
 formed the most interesting theme. Thus a considerable degree 
 of commercial knowledge extended itself into the widest circles, 
 helped forward by the reading-rooms, conversation-rooms, lectures, 
 and educational evenings of the co-operative societies, technical 
 educotional institutions, etc. The highest-paid class of operative 
 in Oldham, nlso. which is emja^^ed in machine v.'orks, depen^^s in a 
 similar manner on the condition of the cotton industry, and joins 
 in the interest for the position and technicalities of the tradft. 
 
 Thus it happened that with the support of the co-operative 
 stores, as early as 1860 a limited spinning-mill was established, 
 which counted numerous oj^eratives, and people who stood socially 
 little above the operatives, amongst its founders. This spinning- 
 mill, the Sun Mill, to-day one of tlie largest and best establish- 
 ments in Oldham, has a brilliant record behind it. In the first 
 ten years it was able already to declare dividends of from 10 to 30 
 per cent. Soon after it a great numl^r of similar undertakings 
 came into life. All these formations emanated from people who 
 could make a claim to special knowledge, and were still by no 
 means separated socially, as it were, from the operative by a gulf. 
 Fitted throughout with the best machinery, these mills were most 
 keenly supervised by their shareholders. Thus they have in the 
 period of trade depression of the " seventies " held up their heads 
 in an acknowle<ljred better degree than numerous private firms 
 (6). Not a single one of these " limiteds " came at that time to 
 grief. 
 
 Of course there is also capital from larger capitalists invested in 
 these limited spinning-mills, in spite of which most of them have 
 kept their character as undertakings of the working classes. An 
 infallible proof of this is, that at the general meetines the votes are 
 counted, not according to the number of shares held, but according 
 
 G. Thomas Ellison: " Cotton Trade," p. 133. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 195 
 
 to the nir.nber of sliareliolders (7), and in this way with ninety per 
 cent, of all companies in Oldham. A minimum nmnber of shares 
 to qualify as directors is not specified, but every shareholder is 
 equally eligible. '' Almost the whole population of wage-workers 
 and small trades-people in the town 'of Oldham are connected 
 with spinning " is stated in the annual volume of the Co-operative 
 Society at Manchester. Tlie same thing is confirmed to me by 
 letter by Mr. Samuel Andrew, the Secretary of the great Em- 
 ployers' Association. 
 
 Operatives who will not undertake the risk of possessing shares 
 hand over their savings to the undertakings in the form of loans ; 
 loans are accepted down to the lowest sums. The shares them- 
 selves, also, do not exceed the nominal value of £5. Amongst 
 those who invest their money in spinning-mills are also trade 
 unions, and I know from the mouth of the gentleman himself that 
 one of the most noted trade-miion leaders of Lancashire filled at 
 the same time, for a certain perioil, a post of trust with one of tlie 
 laigest limited spinning concerns of Oldham. 
 
 Tlie competition for directors' positions, the publicity of the 
 whole book-keeping, as well as the pride of the shareholders in 
 the possession of the best machinery, has the ultimate result that 
 all such undertakings, without exception, have had cemmercial 
 success. Mr. Samuel Andrew, the highest authority on the 
 cotton industry, lias, before the " Commission on Depression of 
 Trade," extolled the ability of these directors emanating from the 
 working class, and ascribed to these undertakings the salvation of 
 tlie cotton industry. Also in the time of inflation at the com- 
 mencement of the " seventies " the commercial foundation of the 
 cornpanies has been completely free from reproach. The best 
 proof for this is the permanence of the undertakings; further, 
 also, that to-day individual employers in many cases would rather 
 invest their capital in these companies. 
 
 The wide scope of the English "limited" laws, which leave a 
 large portion of the companies' articles of association to the 
 parties (for instance, the value of the payments on the (rhares, 
 the value of the shares, voting power in general meetings, etc.) has 
 favoured this j^peedy development, economically and socially. 
 Far less successful than in spinning are the attempts of similar 
 
 7. Compare " Co-operative Wholesale Annual," 1884. 
 
19G THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 limite<l undertakings in the weaving branch. Tliere are, liowever, 
 in this respect, instances enough, for example, the " Self Help " 
 weaving mill, at Burnley. The Edward Rawlinson previously 
 mentioned said before the " Commission on Depression of 
 Trade" that there were six limited weaving concerns in Burnley, 
 with altogether G61 shareholders, of which 213 were workers for 
 wages. 
 
 What are the social effects of the development portrayed ? The 
 participation of the large masses in the industrial j>rofits tends 
 more than anything else to the softening of that class conflict 
 which was calle<l into existence by the flourishing centralised in- 
 dustry. Even if within the factory the strictest discipline is kept 
 the personal relations of all shareholders are put into operation on 
 the field of equal rights. Are not the directors of these companies 
 mostly drawn from the working class? More important still is a 
 second point. It appears here clear and distinct before the eyes 
 of the operative that he depends in the utmost degree upon the 
 condition of his industry ; that everything that concerns it con- 
 cerns himself. This view is easily attained where a large 
 circle of wage-receivers not only depend upon wages, but at the 
 same time upon industrial profits. They follow eagerly the 
 market reports, which are published ever}* week in the " Cotton 
 Factory Times." The limited principle makes it possible for them 
 to be afi w^ell informed about the condition of the industry as 
 private err.ployers. Tliis relation has a double effect. If the 
 adaptation of wages to profit variations of itself already results 
 from the dependence of the great industry on the state of trade, as 
 above stated, so must this adaptation be achieved most rigidly in 
 Liancashire, where the operatives clearly overlook the commercial 
 position of the industry, the possibility of increased wages, and 
 the inevitablenesR of reduced wages. But the operatives learn, on 
 their side, to understand also the justice of the so-called manage 
 ment wage. Tlioy gain the experience that it is essential for an 
 industry as fur as possible to possess the most capable managers, 
 and that outlays with this object are well rewarded. 
 
 Those shadow sides, which otherwise the form of limited under- 
 takings have attached to them, appear here for the most part 
 overcome. It is the custom to point out, as the chief disadvant- 
 age, that the shareholders generally only appear to be employers, 
 that the general meeting shows an appearance of managing, and 
 
AWD ON THE CONTINENT. 107 
 
 the board do mostly as tli©y like with the shareholdei's who are 
 inexperienced in business. Thus, it is said, the members of the 
 board exercise, in fact, the power of employers, without bearing 
 the personal responsibility of the employer. This disadvantage 
 is, however, not unavoidable. It is impossible, where the share- 
 holders, living on the spot, have the working of the business before 
 their eyes, and are even at home in the trade of the limited under- 
 taking, yea, even have people under them who, within the in- 
 dustry, are generally reckoned amongst the cleverest, as, for 
 instance, those veterans of cotton spinning who have earned their 
 spui's in India, Japan, Russia, etc. In such a case the general 
 meeting is a monarch jealous of his rights, who keeps his servants 
 under strict control. 
 
 It is speciiUly deserving of mention that these so-called co-opera- 
 tive limited concerns of Oldham, of which there are about 70, are 
 by no means producing societies. They grant even in no wise a 
 profit bonus to the operatives, wherein certainly lies one of the 
 reasons of success. Participation in profits does not pay in cotton 
 spinning, because the system of piece^wages gives to every one 
 sufficient incentive for labour, which would not be increased by 
 sharing in the profits. Besides, the wages are so high that they 
 cannot be increasetl without reducing the managing salaries and 
 risk premiums of the shareholders in an uneconomical manner. 
 The only way to improve wages is by economy in labour through 
 technical progress. Those limited companies have indeed, on the 
 .)ne hand by extraordinary cutting of production costs and press- 
 ing down of yarn prices, brought down the profits to the lowest 
 I)ossiblo degree ; on the other hand they have been typical ex- 
 amples of technical progress. 
 
 But in order to judge the condition of the working class, a 
 simple description is not enough — one must seek a glance into 
 their feelings and thoughts. I therefore ask the reader to spend 
 a day with mo in Lancashire, which for me will for all time belong 
 to the most interesting reminiscences (8). 
 
 i 
 
 H. How strange this appears to many Germans is shown by the following: 
 extract from a paper given by me and printed in the " Menchester Chamber of 
 Commerce Monthly Record " (March 28th, 1891):—" Here in England, as all 
 readers know, the workers, or at least the majority of them. I am glad to say, 
 get to Blackpool, Southport, the Isle of Man, or some other watering place, once 
 or twice a year. The German workman knows nothing like this. I remember 
 a manufacturer asking me to send him some small articles in a couple of days. 
 It was a holiday time, and I told him it was impossible, because our works 
 
198 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 For a great many years it has beeu customary to have a week's 
 mill holiday in most of the industrial places of Lancashire. This 
 takes place in the months of July to September (the so-called 
 v/akes). A large portion of the cotton operatives, as well as 
 machine workers, use a portion of the savings they have made for 
 trips and journeys for their health. Everywhere there exist 
 special savings clubs, in which, for the object we are treating of, 
 payments are made during the whole year (so-called " going-off 
 clubs.') In Oldham alone for the last few years there was at the 
 commencement of the holidays, £65,000 drawn annually from 
 these clubs for trips, of which about .£4:5,000 fell to the cotton 
 operatives and £20,000 to the machine workers at Piatt's and 
 other machine works, as confirmed to me by Mr. Andrew. 
 
 The operatives then disperse to the neighbouring hilly country 
 of Derbyshire and the districts of the English coasts; many of 
 them go to London in order to visit the sights there worth seeing, 
 and somo oven extend their travels to the Continent (9). But 
 more%po]>ular than anything else is the seaside. Especially 
 crowdeil in those days by tn})pers is the Isle of Man and that 
 seaside resort, Blackpool, situated in I^mcashire. 
 
 Along with a clergyman of my acquaintance, who wished to 
 visit his parishioners on one of these holiday days in Blackpool, I 
 went to the seaside place mentioned. Arriving there by one of 
 the excursion trains, we strode through the over-filled little town, 
 consisting of lodging-houses, and betook ourselves to the beach. 
 As far as the eye could follow, on the siinds surged thousands of 
 j)eoi)le, well nourisheil and well dresseil ; the men mostly of that 
 strong, rather plump build, as mostly appears to us in English- 
 men ; the girls and women, in growth, stature, and colour of com- 
 plexion, in many instances genuine Britons, along with a few 
 Celtic types. "Ninety per cent, of these people," my companion 
 informed me, "are mill-hands," i.e., operatives of the cotton in- 
 
 were closed for four days. ' Have you no work to do, that you are closed ? 
 What will your workmen do the whole time ?' ' We are ohlie^ed to close for 
 anuual holidays,' was mv reply, 'and our workmen will in most cases go to 
 some watering place or other for three or four days.' The incredulous smile 
 with which this was received left no doubt whatever on my mind that I was 
 risking my reputation for telling the truth. Not on this occasion alr<ne has 
 this phase of the English workman's life been received with suspicion. The 
 average German employer cannot grasp the fact that a workman has the right 
 to a respite from manual toil as well as he a respite from brain work." — 
 Translator. 
 
 9. Compare " Co-operative Wholesale Annual," 1884, p. 200. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 199 
 
 dustry, "the remainder mostly macliiue workers." His practised 
 eye soon recognised iu the crowds the representatives of the chief 
 branches of trade in Lancashire. "That slender, caiing-for-him- 
 self man, who with liis better-half cam© on the trip, is a mule- 
 spinner who can earn £2 tuid more weekly. That stronger-look- 
 ing man next to him is probably a representative of the machine 
 making everywhere planted alongside of the cotton industry, and 
 then certainly a member of tlie well-known Amalgamated Society. 
 That full-grown girl, who evidently places gi-eat value on herself 
 and her outward appearance, may be one of those four-loom 
 weavers so numerous in our town, with weekly wages of 24s. or 
 more, and fair savings. The youngei* people, more cheaply and 
 gaily attired, come out of the carding and preparation rooms. 
 Tliere may also be, among the younger ones, ring-spinners repre- 
 sented, whom our friend Mullin is now organising." " If you will 
 notice," continued my companion, "the outward appearance will 
 already t^ach you that the women here marry later than among 
 the miserable proletarians of our capital. It was formerly other- 
 wise. As long as they could not economically worsen their posi- 
 tion by marriage, the female cotton operatives also married early, 
 and frexjU'ently had children before marriage. To-day they think 
 mostly, instead of this, of entering into mai-riage with certain 
 savings, which enable them to give up factory labour after the 
 birth of their first child. Thus it happens that families here 
 remain longer together than is the case in other places in operative 
 circles. Fifty per cent, of these people, but certainly a large per- 
 centage, may, however, have taken the temperance pledge — a 
 movement which is also specially supported by the younger trades 
 societies." 
 
 While we thus wandered chattering on the beach, the life of the 
 people's holiday developed itself about us. Besides fortune- 
 tellers and niggei* minstrels, and, on the jner-heads, dancing 
 cou{«les, there were hobby-horses, which, also a sign of the times 
 and place, were driven by steam engines. My companion assured 
 me that the increasing whistling of the engines ministered to the 
 pleasure of the crowd, who also in their holidays would not miss 
 the voice of tlie once-so-hated King Steam. Alongside of all 
 these we saw preachers surrounded by crowds of listeners, next to 
 which children played unconcernedly in the sand. While the in- 
 coming tide washed away the gardens built by them, with their 
 borders, it led my companion into a tirade against private pro- 
 perty in land. 
 
200 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 In the meantime the hour for dinner had struck, and we ac- 
 cepted the invitation which had been extended to us by an 
 acquaintance and parishioner of my friend. We betook omselves 
 to one of the lodging-houses, which was occui)ied by a company of 
 about 50 persons, all cotton oi)eratives from the town where my 
 companion lived. At the head of the table sat a sturdy, fresh- 
 looking old man — a patriarch amongst his fellows. Next to him 
 sat his worthy better-half, to whose care a large proi)ortion of the 
 young folks present was entrusted. The meal placed before us 
 consisted of tea, ham and eggs, and mutton with i)otatoes and 
 green peas. In addition there was a favourite tem})erance drink, 
 whilst teetotalism was not expected from the German. 
 
 Placed, as a guest, next to the old man, I tried at once to bring 
 him to old times, upon wluch he commenced most readily. His 
 parents, he related, had been hand-weavers in the North of Lanca- 
 shire; he had grown up amidst the most bitter poverty. He 
 could scarcely speak and walk before he had to turn the winding- 
 wheel. Then, at 8 years of age, he had entered a spinning-mill, 
 and first went into the carding-room, in which at that time a great 
 number of children were employed. loiter on he was promoted 
 to be a piecer ; since, however, fortune had not been sufficiently 
 favourable to him to let him become a spinner — on account of 
 the large number of piecers necessary at that time, 4 to 6 per 
 spinner, only few succeeded in attaining this position — he changed 
 to powerloom weaving. 
 
 In the "twenties," in which his youth had fallen, not only had 
 his family, but the whole population of his native place, led a life 
 full of privation. Tlie customary nourishment was oat-cakes and 
 potatoes. On the other hand meat was unknown, and he had only 
 Feen the first ])iece of wheaten bread when he had wandered from 
 the North of Lancashire to an environ of Manchester. The old 
 men, when they had become incapable for work, had generally 
 gone into the workhouse, for they had no savings to support them. 
 But the youths of his time had been red-hot Chartists, he himself 
 one of the most eager. He remembered very well the great 
 popular man, Fergus O'Connor. He also remembered well how 
 the police had dispersed their meetings and had put many of the 
 participators into prison. Even blood had now and again flowed, 
 ^^ince armed encounters had not been seldom. But especially did 
 there remain, even at this time, in the recollection of the opera- 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 201 
 
 lives that bath of blood on " Peterloo " Field, where the yeomanry 
 of Cheshire had charged the cotton operatives of Manchester, 
 
 To my question — What, then, had been the meaning of 
 Chartism? — the aged man answered: A Labom- party in Parlia- 
 ment, State rule by the general vote, in order to evolve from the 
 law against the poor a law for the poor. With Chartism, and 
 after tliis had stepped above its height as a political movement, 
 there came a time of laiger and distressing strikes. He remem- 
 bered especially the Christmas month of 1812, and the great strike 
 at Treston in 1853, wliich had lasted 4:0 weeks, and for which, 
 from Blackburn alone, £700 per Aveek had been contributed. The 
 strikes had brought in their train formidable distress and great 
 bitterness. There were at that time no trade unions, and those 
 strikes had been more eruptions of the heart than the result of 
 thought. 
 
 Since then a tremendous reversal had taken place. The young 
 people we saw joined together around us for the joyful holiday — 
 those girls, of wliich every one spent £S and more during the 
 holidays, those youths, who let out in football and other sports 
 the surplus of their muscular energy — shook their heads in un- 
 belief if he told them that never a thought of holiday and sport 
 had entered into the imagination of their grandparents. The 
 change to a ten-hours and nine-hours day's labour instead of 
 thirteen hours ; subsistence wages, co-operative societies, trade 
 unions, and political freedom, in place of the suppression of the 
 labour movements, marked the progress. '' But if you wish to see 
 the true sign of this change," continued the grey-haired veteran, 
 with beaming eye, " it lies before you on the table, the strength 
 cf I/ancashire," as he raised with triumphant bearing a piece of 
 wheaten bread. Cobden was a sacred being to the old man. " We 
 fought the battle, and we have won." With these words he 
 closed his story. 
 
 Very interesting was the opposition which he received on the 
 part of the clergyman in his admiration of Cobden, as well as in 
 his defence of trade unions. Tliis gentleman, like many of his 
 class, described himself as a Socialist, and attacked the trade 
 unions as conservative institutions. They retarded progress and 
 obscured that ideal which mankind, and especially the Christian, 
 lias to strive for — to help forward the kingdom of righteousness on 
 earth ; to build up on earth a representation of the heavenly Sion ; 
 
202 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 to work to the end that the will of God shall be done, uot ouly iu 
 heaven, but also on earth. But of tliese ideals there can be no 
 question, he argued, as long as a large mass of bodily as well as 
 spiritually miserable proletarians lilied tlie depths of society, 
 esi'ecially in the large towns. By want and social isolation it was 
 excluded from all emotions of the human spirit, and was forced by 
 poverty and uncertainty of existence to crime and prostitution. 
 Tlie elevation of this class wa«, in his opinion, only possible by a 
 gradual limitation of i)rivat^ enterprise, and extension of public 
 undertakings under the control of the workei's. Therewith alone 
 would the disturbing difference between rich and poor be 
 eliminated. 
 
 It wa*j interesting to observe how this expression of political 
 feeling found numerous supporters amongst the women. Especially 
 did ari intelligent young female wejiver defend the position of the 
 clergyman. It was bare selfishness, she said, if the classes of the 
 operatives of centralised industry would bo satisfied with what 
 had been attained, without considering other downtrodden work- 
 ing classes. 
 
 The men opposed the somewhat obscure Socialism of the 
 parson, especially the younger men, and a nmle-spinner, who was 
 Ijresent with two daughters — the one whose household budget we 
 have already given. In any case one was in the path, he thought, 
 of practical and permanent progress, which really only allowed 
 itself to be gradually extended to an ever-widening circle of the 
 people. But since their own fathers at one time had emerged out 
 of the unvarying crowd of helpless proletarians, it was to be 
 hoped that new circles would continually loosen themselves from 
 its bonds and rise up. The way thereto was a double one — first 
 by union, and then by legislation. He did not oppose the latter 
 by any means. Much rather was it exactly the cotton operatives 
 of Lancashire who had understood how to put this weapon into 
 o|»eration for themselves — certainly the most of all operatives in 
 the world. But for this tliey were indebted to the wise do-ut-des 
 policy of leaders, who ever each time only put forward immediate 
 demands, and had often made themselves indispensable to the 
 ruling powers. 
 
 Therewith the position of the operatives in society in the last 
 ilecades had improved extraordinarily. Numerous traae-union 
 leaders filled at the present time the honourable position of Jus- 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 203 
 
 tices of tlie ]*eace in their native places. A representative of the 
 cotton operatives of Lancashire had been sent by the Government 
 to tlie Berlin Conference for the protection of workers, where he 
 and another English member Jiad really been the only operatives. 
 The Home Secretary had lately visited the offices of the Amal- 
 gamated Weavers at Accrington on iiisjourney through Lancashire, 
 and had there been introduced to the representatives of the 
 society. On the Board of Trade the excellent Burnett, a former 
 macliine-htter, took a high and in every respect esteemed position. 
 In the present existing Royal Commission for Examining the 
 Conditions of the Working Classes, operatives sat next to em- 
 plovers and aristocrat®, with equalrights, and were treated by them 
 as espials. All the'se things showed liow jinich the of>er:itive, who 
 formerly stood without the State, knew to-day how to attain an 
 esteemed position within it. 
 
 lie doubted, however, whether the operatives would use tlieir 
 inlluence for helping forward on a large scale the changing of 
 private undertakings into public ones, lie would not give his 
 opinion about other branches of trade, because he held this ques- 
 tion as one to be decided in each individual instance and accord- 
 ing to practical considerations. In numerous cases, especially in 
 London, the Socialists who demanded State undertakings might 
 be right in regard to the municipalisation of water companies, 
 tramways, gas-works, and docks ; regarding transport arrange 
 ments it was questionable. All this he only knew from hearsay 
 But legarding the cotton industry, a\ Inch he knew, he said : 
 " Hands cvff." A State institution was here ini))ossible, because 
 officials would defend the* world's market worse than private 
 employers. A mere fraction of a penny often decided at the 
 present time the battle of nations. In advanced economical and 
 social relations private undertakings guaranteed the cheapest form 
 of payment of the manager, who, at the same time, ensured the 
 most skilled management. If Socialists pointed to the " limited " 
 princii)le as a proof of the possibility of their ideas, they thought 
 hereby of that imsound form where the shareholders themselves, 
 standing quite aloof, w'ere often — only too often — wrongly 
 led. In Oldham the shareholders were skilled employers. 
 
 If, however, the (h'fference of em])loyer and worker could not 
 be given up, extreme differences between rich and ])oor counter- 
 balanced one another. By the fact that great capitalists fre- 
 
204 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 quently withdrew their capital from one undertaking and divided 
 it airongst many, it was proved that the function of great riches 
 was slighter to-day than 50 years ago. In Oldham those limited 
 concerns which were managed by directors from the operatives' 
 class displaced the older private undertakings. 
 
 Afi opposed to these temperate utterances the clergyman de- 
 fended that social idealism which demanded the elevation of the 
 poorest of the poor. This scene made clear to me that peculiar 
 stage of the English labour movement, according to which the 
 Uadical wing to a great extent shows the touch of a religious 
 enthusiasm. As Ben Tillett, the leader of the dockers, said to me, 
 he had to give a speech daily, but on Sundays he preached twice, 
 and as Sidney Webb ascribes the last successful election to the 
 County Council in the first degree to the Dissenters and their 
 preachers, so also here the parson took the side of that helpless 
 and deeply submerged mass of humanity, above which the taught 
 and organised workers of Centralised Industry stand higher than 
 the families comprising the House of Lords stand above him. 
 
 A few weeks later my studies led me into a circle of operatives 
 «»f one of the most important textile centres of Germany. I met 
 here the same friendly reception, the same willingness to support 
 scientific researches, also a similar social idealism. But it differed 
 at once from that drawn above in that it did not stand in connec 
 tion with the traditions of ideal goodness of humanity ; the opera - 
 tives themselves as well, not the priests and women, were here 
 the bearers of that idealism. On the other hand, there was a lack 
 of manly criticism of the problems on the side of reasoning and 
 understanding. Why should we tread the laborious path by 
 which the English operative has bettered his position, since as- 
 suredly in a fe.v years the great revolution must take place which 
 will of itself bring everything wished for ? 
 
 As I related this my comparison between German and English 
 operatives to an industrial employer, he declared : German 
 operatives are preferable for me, since their wishes and strivings 
 are pluced in a cuckoo's home of clouds, which, when they think it 
 to be near, again disappears in the distance. I could only reply 
 to this that this weakness of German operatives also comes into 
 expression in their work, and the carnivorous Englishman is, in 
 the utmost degree, still the cheaper worker. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 205 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 In conclusion, there are two misunderstandings to be avoided. 
 By no means is it to bo accepted, in the first place, that the present 
 econon)ical and social conditions of the staple irdustry of Lanca- 
 shire are in general those of English industry. Much rather, in 
 the field of English textile industry, are the various stages of the 
 develojiment of centralised industry to be seen at the present time 
 side by side. Accordingly we meet liere also social conditions 
 which possess much similarity with those of Lonca shire in the 
 * thirties" and of the present German. 
 
 If we go, say, for instance, frum Manchester to Bradford, the 
 centre of the worsted industry, we enter into another economical 
 as well as social world. Even the raw-material market is here 
 less developed than that for cotton. While the spinner in Lanca- 
 shire buys from week to week, the wool is sold at half-yearly 
 auctions in Liverpool. Tlierewith there is a special class of wool- 
 buyers necessary in Bradford, who attend to the mixing and 
 combing of the wool on commission. Both occupations have; 
 throughout, the character of a season business. They are done 
 during one part of the year in day and night shifts, whereby the 
 wages are low, and the conditions of labour are opposed to health. 
 For instance, the wool-combers (one to every two combing 
 machines), who labour, in the night shift, 60 hours per week at 
 120 deg. F., have no more than £1 per w^eek, and lose 20 weeks in 
 the year for want of work. 
 
 In economical development the worsted spinning and weaving 
 of Bradford stands behind, compared with Lancashire; 10,000 
 spindles are given me as the average number for the worsted- 
 spinning mills of Yorkshire, and 60 to 100 looms for the average 
 weaving-mills in Bradford. Where there are exceptionally large 
 mills they do not depend upon the "limited" principle, which is 
 in general little developed, but on the monopoly of some specialty 
 or other. Hereto belong, for instance, the weaving-mill s in Saltaire. 
 
206 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 In the same way the conditions of labour in the worst«d- 
 sj)inning mills of Yorkshire and the " stuff goods " weaving-mills 
 of Bradford are far below those in Lancashire. The female opera- 
 tives in the spinning-mills do not earn above 10s. per week, and 
 the weavers in Bradford between 7s. and 16s. The operatives' 
 houses which I visited in Bradford, as well as in other places of 
 Yorkshire, are far behind those in Lancashire. Especially fre- 
 quent are the so-called back-to-back houses, which have no back 
 yard, and often enough have only two rooms, one above the other 
 — the older type of English operatives* houses, which in Lanca- 
 shire are dying out more and more. But, remarkably enough, 
 these houses are not only relatively, but frequently ab.solutely, 
 dearer than in Lancashire, since the operative here did not under- 
 stand, by means of co-operative Imilding societies, to press down 
 rents in general (1). 
 
 The operatives are less organised, and remarkably enough Brad- 
 ford is tiie only place wliere, for the coming Parliamentary elec- 
 tions, special I^abour candidates are in the field, whilst otherwise, 
 as is well known, the operatives in England attend to their in- 
 terests within the political parties. The relation between em- 
 ployed and employers is extremely strained, and reminds one of 
 the conditions of those German mill districts in which the labour 
 movement has severed the relations of olden times. But especially 
 hated is the relation, in those gigantic concerns above mentioned, 
 which outwardly kept up the old patriarchal dominion. 
 
 A ])eculiar light flashes upon the state of affairs if we consider 
 that it does not here by any mejins depend upon a staple industry 
 fostered by export, which, like that of Lancashire, dominates in its 
 branch the world's market. 
 
 As is known, there exists between the Derman and English 
 worsted industries certainly a far-reaching division of labour, 
 which prevents them in many respects from being close and imme- 
 diate competitors. We shall not, however, be far ^^Tong, looking 
 at everything all round, if we view the German and English in- 
 dustries in this branch as equally important in economical de- 
 velopment. Tlierewith there are similar social conditions between 
 
 1. Thus the operatives' dwellings in Manningrham, near Bradford, are not 
 only far worse, but in fact dearer, than those in Oldham — 4s. 6d. to 5s. 6d. per 
 week, against .Ss. 6d. to 4s. 6d. A better-class dwelling-house, which in 
 Oldham or Hyde would cost Gs. per week, cannot be got in Bradford under 8s. 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 207 
 
 both: therewith the difference letween Bradford and Lancashire, 
 although both are only separated by an hour's railway journey. 
 
 But still further proofs of the dependence of the social on 
 economical conditions are shown by the industry of Yorkshire. 
 In different districts of this county woollen weaving still exists as 
 a cottage industry, as in Oldham, Skelmanthorpe, Clayton West, 
 Scisset, and Darby Dale. The position of the hand-weavers still 
 employed here reminded me in many respects about what has 
 been said regarding the hand-weaving of Lancashire in the 
 " thirties." While at the present time in Lancashire we only dis- 
 cover with difficulty the last examples of this once numerous 
 class, they still form in Yorkshire the main population of the 
 small weaving villages mentioned ; and although, indeed, children 
 can scarcely be taught it any longer, the complete dying-out of 
 hand-weaving may still extend to another generation. . The num- 
 ber of hand-weavers in the woollen industry may, however, even 
 to-day, not reach to above a few hundreds. 
 
 The woollen si)inning and weaving, economically and socially 
 little advanced, which has its seat in and about I^eeds, is also, as 
 well, dispersed in small undertakings. The average size of these 
 spinning-mills is only from 2,000 to 3,000 spindles ; of the 
 weaving-mills, only 40 to 50 looms. In most cases the mills 
 prepare the yam, or a portion of it, for their own use. The 
 largest spinning-mill in Batley has, for instance, no more than 
 7,680 spindles. Differently from worsted yarns, woollen yarns 
 are spun with a machine similar to the self-actor in the cotton 
 industry. I noticed, in visiting several of these woollen-spinning 
 mills, what a large number of operatives were re<]uircd in com- 
 parison with Lancashire. A pair of mules here has no more than 
 600 to 800 spindles, but there are, however, 3 to 4 operative's for 
 minding them ; added to which comes the spinner as well, who 
 looks after two pairs of mules — i.e., 1,200 to 1,600 spindles. In 
 the same ratio the wages are lower than in Lancashire, and the 
 labour conditions, although, on account of the small mills, not so 
 extreme as in Bradford, are just as little desirable. In the same 
 manner, the woollen weaving is by no means involved in the 
 world's market, and solely satisfies a limited and entirely home 
 demand. 
 
 On the other hand, there is within the whole English woollen 
 and worsted industry only one branch which, in the same way as 
 
208 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 the staple iudustry of Lancashire, maintains the front rank in the 
 world's market — the weaving of those line worsteds for men's 
 clothing in and about Huddersfield. And, as a peculiar confirma- 
 tion of our proposition, Huddersfield not only pays the best wages 
 within the whole woollen and worsted industry of England, but its 
 social conditions are the most advanced, and show, as wfeU, much 
 similarity with I^ancashire, which, the further one goes into York- 
 shire, the more does it disappear. 
 
 Tlie weaver in Huddersfield earns double as much as the weaver 
 in Bradford (20s. to 2 is.). If he does not also mind more looms 
 than the weaver in Bradford — mostly one, exceptionally two — the 
 machinery to be tended by him is certainly far more complicated 
 and costly. A loom in Huddersfield represents three times as 
 much capital as a loom in Bradford; therefore here is also the 
 more f^j^vourable position of the operatives to be attributed to a 
 
 ' further developed replacement of labour by capital. But, on the 
 other hand, Huddersfield is not only a famous centre of the co- 
 operative movement^ which early extended thereto from out of 
 Lancashire, but also the seat and outlet of a trade-union organisa- 
 tion for the whole woollen and worsted industry, while the 
 societies of the operatives in Bradford and I^eeds still bear that 
 semi-jiolitical and Radical character wliich always denotes the 
 labour organisations in the first stage of centralised industrial 
 
 I development. 
 
 But, in order to see the most striking confirmation of our pro- 
 position above given, let us go to Macclesfield, that ancient little 
 town in Cheshire, which is the seat of the English silk industry. 
 
 The technicalities of the English silk industry are the same as 
 long ago. Tlie jjrinciple of the industry is here in its widest 
 extent still of a cottage-industrial character. The position of the 
 hand-weavers is an extremely low one, and reminded me even of 
 the bad cottage-industrial conditions in Germany. Tlie ordinary 
 weaver earns about 10s. per week. From this, however, a great 
 portion is deducted for rent, loom, winding, etc. In any case, I 
 confirmed a great many, and these not exceptional cases, in which 
 not more than 5s. net per week was earned. Still worse is the 
 extraordinary irregularity of work. Some of these silk- weavers 
 assured me that they searched unsuccessfully for work several 
 months, even half the year. The household budgets of these 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 209 
 
 people, of which I made up several, reminded me of those of the 
 Zittau hand-weavers mentioned by Rechenberg (2). 
 
 Interesting observations were made in tliis direction by a hand- 
 weaver from Macclesfield, formerly president of the trade society 
 of the hand-weavers — since dissolved — on a journey to the Con- 
 tinent in company with the President of the Macclesfield Chamber 
 of Commerce (3). His report shows that the position of the hand- 
 weavers in Macclesfield is worse than that of their like at Crefeld. 
 " It is not to be denied," says the report, " that the hand-weavers 
 of Crefeld are far better clothed than the weavers at Macclesfield " 
 (page 24). "We came to the conclusion," continues the report, 
 "that the average wages of the weavers at Crefeld were higher, 
 and the standard of their social comfort was better, than in 
 Macclesfield ; that extreme poverty, in which a greater portion of 
 our cottage weavers are involved, does not exist in Crefeld" (p. 
 26). On the other hand, the report says in regard to Maccles- 
 field : " If lower wages are a means against the dying-out of an 
 industry, Macclesfield ought to-day to be one of the most flourish- 
 ing communities in the world " (page 38). " No silk weavers on 
 the whole of the Continent have such long hours of labour as our 
 weavers" (page 47). 
 
 In spite of all this it is not to be denied that the industry of 
 Macclesfield is being strangled by a continuous decline ; that it is 
 beaten, especially by Crefeld, in the English market itself (4). 
 This is due to various reasons. For one, the better accommo- 
 dating of Crefeld to the taste of the market, especially of the 
 London market, thanks to the better technical instruction, the 
 superiority in designs and colours, etc. The consequences of 
 these are that the weavers in Crefeld have far more regular em- 
 ployment, that they also receive longer warps than in Macclesfield 
 (150 ells against 20 to 40 ells). The German industry possesses 
 here, therefore, according to this report, in a peculiar degree that 
 advantage, as far as this is possible in the branch of a hand and 
 luxury industry, which otherwise in general (for instance, also 
 
 2. Compare pp. 42 and 43. 
 
 3. " A Macclesfield Handloom Silk Weaver at Lyons, Zurich, and Crefeld," 
 1886. The publication of the report of the journey was refused by the 
 Chamber of Commerce at Macclesfield. For a glance at the report I am 
 indebted to the gentleman who travelled with him. 
 
 4. Thus the report of the Travelling Commission closed with the words • — 
 << Give back to injured Macclesfield her trade, long lost to Crefeld." 
 
210 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 in calico-printing) is in favour of England — the character of a 
 staple industry. 
 
 But something else comes here into consideration, continues the 
 report. The weavers at Crefeld are far more industrious and 
 Y^ capable than those needy fellow-creatures who, in the streets of 
 Macclesfield, often seek employment for weeks and months unsuc- 
 cessfully. " One fact specially drew our attention : the Crefeld 
 weavers do not bear that anxious and desponding expression of 
 features of people who are to-day miserable, and are yet afraid of 
 the next day. Just the op[»osite, they present an intellectual 
 elasticity which, unfortunately, is not general among the weavers 
 of Macclesfield " (p. 24). Respecting drinking, this is on the 
 Rhine a form of sociability, in Macclesfield a vice. The weaver 
 of Crefeld is different from his fellows in Macclesfield, thoughtful 
 about saving time at his work — as a rule in other branches just 
 the advantage of the Englishman compared with German opera- 
 tives. But the greater capacity of the German silk-weavers comes 
 all the more into coneideration ;;ince he works on more valuable 
 and better looms. 
 
 / Therefore, to a certain extent, the advantage of high-standing 
 ' labour shows itself in more perfected working tools ; also on the 
 field of cottage-industry. But in silk weaving, at present, the 
 change to centralised industry has set itself into motion, and 
 changes the cottage industrial conditions we have delineated by 
 going over to the power-loom. Also on this new field the standard 
 of living of the operatives in Germany appears by no means to be 
 lower than in England, as is otherwise generally the case. As at 
 the time of the great strike in the silk-plush weaving-mills of 
 Lister, at Manningham, in 1891, the demand for lowering wages 
 was founded by the directors on the fact that the wages would 
 even still be far higher than in Germany, one of the chief repre- 
 sentatives of the Crefeld industry in this branch addressed a letter 
 to the " Bradford Observer," in which he proved that the corre- 
 sponding weekly earnings of the operatives in Crefeld were not 
 lower, but rather higher than in England (5). 
 
 6. The letter was as follows : — 
 
 " Sir, — In reference to the report of the annual meeting of Lister and 
 Co., Limited, you gave in your paper of the 4th inst., it will perhaps he 
 welcome to receive some rectification with regard to Crefeld weaving 
 wages. 
 
 <»The Chairman (Mr. S. C. Lister) said that in offering 14fl. wages 
 
AWD ON THE CONTINENT. 211 
 
 However this may be, in any case the transition to the power- 
 loom, which has also begun in Macclesfield, contains within it a 
 step forward for the weaving population. The weekly earnings 
 in the power weaving-mills of Macclesfield amount to more than 
 double, even triple, the earnings of the hand-weavers. An ell of 
 plain goods, 22 in. wide, costs therewith for weaving, on the hand- 
 loom, Is. 4d. ; on the power-loom, 8d. On the other hand, a 
 hand-loom rejjresents a value of £8 to £10; a power-loom — i.e., 
 only the working macliine, exclusive of building and driving- 
 power — £30 to £35. Tlierefore also here appears replacement of 
 labour by capital, and therewith a raising of the standard of living 
 of the operative. 
 
 This tendency of centralised industry shows itself also in that 
 the aristocracy of labour in Macclesfield, apart from the power- 
 weaving only just rising up, has its seat in the silk-spinning mills, 
 centralised industrial concerns which, far superior, look down upon 
 the surrounding weavers' cots (6). 
 
 If we glance back at what has been said, we can extract from it 
 the following confirmation of our views developed above : — 
 
 1. The weekly earnings and the standard of living of the 
 operative in the English cotton industry is about double as high 
 
 and 15 per cent — which was equal to IGs. 3d. per week— the directors 
 of the company were offering just double what the Crefeld manufacturers 
 were paying to their velvet weavers. In stating this Mr. Lister shows 
 himself to be very badly informed. The weavers in our factory can 
 easily earn 20s. to 21s. a week, and those who are rather skilful earn 26s. 
 to 28s. a week (56 to 60 hours' work), some even more. All large 
 Crefeld manufacturers pay about the same wages. — I am, etc., 
 
 " Crefeld, 16th Feb. , 1891. " M. de Greiff." 
 
 6. Also in another branch, akin to the textile industry, which seemed up to 
 now in a hopeless condition, the appearing centralisation has improved at last 
 the conditions of working. The misery of the female workers in made-up 
 clothing and dressmaking is well known. Centralised industry in the last ten 
 years has seized this branch of industry, and presses hard the cottage industry 
 in articles of general consumption. In Leeds, the centre of this industry, there 
 are to-day about 20 clothing establishments. If we visit the largest we find a tre- 
 mendous building, reminding us of the largest spinning-mills of Lancashire. One 
 thousand three hundred and fifty girls and 300 men are at work ; up to forty 
 folds of cloth are cut through at one operation by the machine ; 10,000 to 13,000 
 suits are made per week. All labour is accomplished by the most improved 
 machinery, of which, for instance, the button-hole machine makes a button- 
 hole and hems it with thick stitches in 25 to 30 seconds. The operatives who 
 mind these machines are not only occupied under better working conditions as 
 to ventilation, etc. , but are also paid far higher wages than the tailoresses 
 working without mechanical power. 
 
1- 
 
 212 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 as in the woollen and worsted industry ; in the latter about double 
 as high as in silk-weaving at Macclesfield. Corresponding to this, 
 the cotton industry is the oldest and one of the most developed 
 centralised industries of the world. The English woollen and 
 worsted industry is economically not so far advanced ; it stands, 
 as it were, in certain respects on that first step of centralised- 
 industrial development we have so often spoken of. Correspond- 
 ing to this is the degree of social development; in it to-day pre- 
 pouderates class struggle and class hatred, as opposed to the 
 highly-developed conditions of labour in Lancashire, where the 
 period of class struggles falls back into the "thirties" and "forties." 
 Finally, the silk industry shows, along with the worst position of 
 the operatives, also technical conditions remaining extraordinarily 
 backward. 
 
 2. The position of the operatives of the German cotton industry 
 is far lower than that of their contemporaries in Lancashire. 
 In the woollen industry the English stand only a little above 
 the German ; decidedly higher only in the district of Hudders- 
 field. In the silk industry the German operatives enjoy 
 rather a better standard of living than the English. On the 
 other hand, the English cotton industry in neutral markets is 
 far ahead of the German. In woollen and worsted both 
 stand about equal ; only the Huddersfield industry is superior 
 in foreign competition. On the other hand the German silk 
 industry is driving back the English in its own country. 
 
 3. England, as the more economically advanced country, has 
 its strength on that field of the textile industry in which labour 
 and capital mean almost everything, and the raw material is of 
 far less value in the articles produced. Tlie younger but upward- 
 striving industrial country has thrown itself first, with the greatest 
 success, on textile productions in which material as compared with 
 labour and capital come largely into consideration, both of which 
 latter production elements are cheaper in England than in Ger- 
 n)any. Therewith England produces more goods for the million, 
 Germany goods for the use of the wealthy classes. The first de- 
 mand centralised undertakings in the highest degree, the latter, 
 on account of the vagaries of fashion, taste, etc., are identified 
 easiest with smaller undertakings. 
 
 The highest standard of living of the working classes, therefore, 
 shows highly developed exporting centralised industries, the reason 
 for which, as above ascertained, lies in the continuous replacement 
 
AND ON THE CONTINENT. 213 
 
 of rf church, the prominent features of which are apparent far out 
 of labour by capital. But from this follows the refutation of an 
 objection which has perhaps been met with above by many readers. 
 For instance, readers perhaps ask, Do not some of the operatives 
 have their means of livelihood withdrawn by the continuous re- 
 placement of labour by capital? If one operative attends to as 
 many machines as formerly three operatives, the one may well 
 receive a higher wage, but what becomes of the other two? We 
 saw, opposed to this, how that development was just only 
 possible on the ground of economical elevation of the industry 
 concerned. The English silk industry cannot, in consequence, go 
 over to the power-loom, because its market is not stable; the 
 elevation of the cotton industry, on the other hand, in spite of all 
 technical progress, allowed an increase in the number of opera- 
 tives. There were in 1835, 220,134 operatives, against 504,069 
 in 1885, engaged in it. 
 
 I should like to avoid a further misunderstanding — that is, 
 that I neglect, tioncerning the economical development, the im- 
 jiortance of social Uioments. When I pictured those social move- 
 ments by means of which the English operative has attained his 
 present height, especially the change of public opinion accompany- 
 ing this development, I found already the necessity of proving the 
 eccrcmical correctness of this development. If one up to then 
 could not object that the high standard of living of the English 
 operative was built upon certain foundations ; that it would be- 
 come untenable with the rise of competing industries in countries 
 of socalled cheaper labour ; that it must become forced back by 
 the pressure of the world's market, I tried, on the contrary, in 
 what has gone before to prove, on the field of the oldest centralised 
 industry of the world, how it was just the pressure of the world's! 
 market to which centralised industry and machine-making were 
 indebted for their origin, and how the continual development of r~^ 
 both necessitated an elevation of the classes serving them. If the , 
 economical correctness of social progress is maintained, this is not 
 to be understood as if the social progress is always or only fre- 
 quently caused from a known understanding of its economical 
 advantages. In this respect those earlier social movements had, 
 alongside, at least a strong influence. 
 
 Allow me to make use of a scene to throw some light on tins 
 relation. The height which certain classes of skilled English 
 industrial workers have reached is similar to the towering steeple 
 
214 THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND 
 
 in the moving sea, showing the discouraged captain the way to the 
 harbour through storm and waves. That steeple rests upon 
 columns, oF which no slight portion has been erected by 
 the benevolence of the citizens. But these columns would not 
 bear the steeple, and the benevolence of the citizens would avail 
 nothing, if the building, instead of being on sure rocks, was 
 erected on shifting sands. Similarly, all social movements are 
 fruitless without a powerful economical foundation of strong and 
 technically progressive centralised industries. 
 
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