The daily wages are thus stated Men, 1.25 to 2 francs; 2.50 to 3 francs, = = (23 to 56 cents.) 12 to 37 cents. Children, 25 to 60 centimes, = 4 to 11 cents.* The wages for steady employment must be estimated much lower, and if we take the average earnings of men at 400 francs, of women at 300 francs, and of children at 100 francs, we shall not probably be under the truth. The manufacture of iron is stated to be in a barbarous condition. That such is the case is not extraordinary in a country so deficient as France in the means of transportation. Iron and coal exist in sufficient quantity, but they are not in immediate connexion. Deficiency in machinery causes mining to be expensive, and the want of canals and rail roads makes their transportation highly expensive. At Ronchamp, both men and women work in the mines, and wages are about 12 francs, ($2 25,) per week. Low as is this rate of wages, the cost of coal, at the mouth of the pit, was 25 sous, (a quarter of a dollar,) per hundred weight, or $5 50 per ton !§ The effect of the high price of fuel is that, in Normandy, persons engaged in various works of hand, such as lace-making by the pillow, absolutely sit up through the winter nights, in the barns of the farmers, where cattle are littered down, that they may be kept warm by the animal heat which is around them. They sleep in the day. The average capitals employed in various departments of manufacture, will be seen by the following statement which we obtain from the official tables published by the Prefect of the Department of the Seine. The only manufacturer of glass in Paris * Baines's History of the Cotton Manufacture, p. 524. + Chevalier, t. I. 354. "There are few, almost no forests in the vicinity of the forges, consequently the charcoal has to be transported from immense distances, sometimes fifty miles of land carriage; thus rendering the material produced, rather an article of luxury than a useful commodity."-Summer in the Pyrenees, by the Hon. J. E. Murray, Vol. I. p. 224. “The mules employed in transporting the ore from the mines to the forges, are furnished each with a pair of panniers, in which they can only convey a small quantity, and as it is none of the purest, it thus requires many mule loads to produce a small weight of iron."-Ibid. Vol. I. p. 71. Evidence of Edwin Rose. Preface to Factory Tables, by J. W. Cowell, Esq., p. 1197. "The mean price at the mines, throughout France, is stated at .975 francs per quintal, equal to about ten francs $1 87, per ton."—Aperçu Statistique de la France, p. 39. Results of Machinery, p. 51. = employs a capital of 375,000 francs, ($75,000.) The manufacturers of beer average 50,000 francs, = $10,000. Those of Francs. Dollars. 1,600 Muriatic acid, and 100 = Chlorate of potash, 500 Nitric acid, 11,000 = Sulphuric acid, 57,000 copper, &c., 80,000 16,000 2,200 Wrought lead, 112,000 = 22,000 11,400 These amounts are very small, and we shall have occasion to show that the proportion of the product required by their owners is exceedingly large, as is always the case when labour is of inferior quality. The generally diminutive character of the manufacturing establishments throughout France, is shown by the following statements derived from M. Dupin. At Ingouville and Havre are 17 chair factories, whose product amounts to 136,000 francs, = $27,000, being an average of $1640 each. In the department of the Eure are 1511 manufacturing establishments of various kinds, including cotton, wool, paper, iron, &c., producing commodities to the amount of 26,772,297 francs, $5,019,805, being an average of $3,285 to each establishment.† This sum includes the value of the raw materials used, constituting a very important portion of the amount here given as the product of the labour of the department.‡ Forces Productives, Vol. II. p. 22. = + Ibid. p. 61. "The cotton cloths manufactured in a year, in a single building at Lowell, are worth nearly $400,000. Those produced in the several buildings belonging to a single concern, are worth above a million and a half of dollars, almost one third the value of the manufactures of the Department of the Eure, with a population of 437,000. An extensive nail factory at Vassy, produces 1,500,000 kilogrammes, or about 800 tons per annum. In the United States, there is one establishment capable of producing about 8000 tons per annum. The boots and shoes manufactured in Massachusetts are nearly three times as valuable as the products of the department of the Eure. The total product of the factories and fisheries of Massachusetts is 91 millions of dollars."-Statistics of the Manufactures of Massachusetts. The population exceeds by only sixty per cent. that of the department. We shall now proceed to compare the quality of the labour of ENGLAND and the UNITED STATES, employed in the several branches of manufacture, commencing with that of cotton. The number of persons in the United States, employed therein, in the year 1832, was thus stated by the New York Convention. 4,691 children, 18,539 males, 38,927 females, 4,769 hand weavers, Total 66,926, earning weekly $197,800. Average of weekly wages, $ 3, or 12s. 6d. sterling. It thus appears, that of the persons employed in the production of cotton cloth, only 7 per cent. were of that class whose exertions were aided by machinery of an inferior order. On the first of January, 1837, there were in the town of Lowell alone, 4667 looms, being nearly equal to the whole number of hand-loom weavers in 1832, since which time it is not probable that there has been any increase. The whole number of power-looms in England, in 1820, was 14,150 in 1829, it had risen to 55,500, and is now supposed to be 85,000, which, with 15,000 in Scotland, would give a total of 100,000. During this time it is supposed that the number of hand-looms has rather increased, and is now estimated at 250,000. The condition of the weavers is thus described: "The hand-loom weavers,' says Dr. Kay, speaking of those living in Manchester, labour fourteen hours and upwards daily, and earn only from five to seven or eight shillings per week. They consist chiefly of Irish, and are affected by all the causes of moral and physical depression which we have enumerated. Ill-fed, ill-clothed, half-sheltered, and ignorant-weaving in close, damp cellars, or crowded, illventilated workshops-it only remains that they should become, as is too frequently the case, demoralized and reckless, to render perfect the portraiture of savage life.' The statement that the weavers work fourteen or sixteen hours per day, has been so often made, that it is now generally believed. The fact, however, is, that they work these long hours only two or three days in the week, and they generally, notwithstanding their poverty, spend one or two days in idleness; their week's labour seldom exceeds fifty-six or fifty-eight hours, whilst that of the spinners is sixty-nine hours. This irregularity on the part of the weavers is to be ascribed in some degree to the wearisome monotony of their labour, from which they seek refuge in company and amusement; and also to their degraded condition, which makes them reckless and improvident."* † * Baines, p. 485. The causes for their continuance in an employment so degrading, and the effect upon their character, are thus stated: Wages must depend upon production, and the following statement will at once satisfy the reader, that low as are those received by the weavers, they are fully equal to their deserts as producers. "These were the occasions and direct causes of the lamentable fall in weavers' wages; but their effects could not have been so serious if there had not been permanent causes, belonging to the nature of the employment itself. Of these, the first and grand cause, is the easy nature of the employment. The weaving of calicoes is one of the simplest of manual operations, understood in a few moments, and completely learnt in a few weeks. It requires so little strength or skill, that a child eight or ten years of age may practise it. A man brought up to any other employment may also very shortly learn to weave. From the facility of learning the trade, and from its being carried on under the weaver's own roof, he naturally teaches his children to weave as soon as they can tread the treadles, if he cannot obtain places for them in a factory. Thus they begin at a very early age to add to the earnings of the family, and the wife also toils in the same way to increase their scanty pittance. But it is obvious, that that which is only a child's labour, can be remunerated only by a child's wages. There are large departments of handloom weaving, which are almost entirely given up to women and children, and their wages go far to regulate all the rest. The men, where they are able, procure better kinds of work; and where they are not able, they must put up with the most paltry earnings. The second cause for the low wages of weavers is, that their employment is in some respects more agreeable, as laying them under less restraint than factory labour. Being carried on in their own cottages, their time is at their own command: they may begin and leave off work at their pleasure: they are not bound punctually to obey the summons of the factory bell: if they are so disposed, they can quit their loom for the public-house, or to lounge in the street, or to accept some other job, and then, when urged by necessity, they may make up for lost time by a great exertion. In short, they are more independent than factory operatives; they are their own masters; they receive their materials, and sometimes do not take back the web for several weeks; and-what is a lamentable, but far too common occurrence-they have the power, in case of urgent necessity or strong temptation, to embezzle a few cops of their employers' weft in order to buy bread or ale. All this makes the weaver's occupation more seductive to men of idle, irregular, and dissipated habits, than other occupations. It is a dear-bought, miserable liberty, but, like poaching or smuggling, it is more congenial to some tastes, than working under precise restrictions for twice the remuneration. The mention of this unquestionable fact by no means implies a charge against the weavers, that they are all of loose habits and morals; but it helps to account for many continuing at the loom, notwithstanding the wretchedness of their circumstances.”—Baines, p. 485. "The weekly wages of several classes of hand-loom cotton weavers, in each year, from 1810 to 1825, have been given in a table at p. 438; and their wages in 1832 are given in a table at p. 439. The former states the wages of the weavers of calicoes at the astonishing low rate of 48. 3d. in the year 1825; but these goods were chiefly woven by women and children. The latter table does not mention the prices paid for calicoes; but it shows that in 1832, the average wages for weaving common checks, common nankeens, and cambrics, all of which are woven principally by women and children, were from 6s. to 6s. 6d., 78., and 8s.; the wages for fancy checks, woven by men, were 78. to 78. 6d.; and for fancy nankeens and quiltings, from 98. to 128., 13s, and even 158. Mr. George Smith, of the firm of James Massey and Son, of "A very good hand weaver, 25 or 30 years of age, will weave two pieces of 9-8ths shirtings per week, each 24 yards long, containing 100 shoots of wefts in an inch; the reed of the cloth being a 44 Bolton count, and the warp and weft 40 hanks to the lb. "In 1833, a steam-loom weaver, from 15 to 20 years of age, assisted by a girl about 12 years of age, attending to four looms, can weave eighteen similar pieces in a week; some can weave twenty pieces.'"* In a description of the cotton goods made in Lancashire,† it is stated that the only goods that are the product of the power-loom exclusively, are stout printing calicoes. Stout calicoes for domestic purposes, as sheetings, coarse shirtings, &c., cotton shirtings, and small wares, are said to be chiefly the product of the power-loom. Cotton velvets, velveteens, &c., are made at both power and hand-looms; but all other articles, including common printing calicoes, are made at hand-looms. Here it will be seen that inferior machinery is still used for the manufacture of the commonest articles, and while such is the case-while human labour undertakes to compete with machinery -wages must necessarily be low. In the extract above given, it is shown that two thirds or three fourths of the weavers in Scotland are also employed in the production of plain goods. Manchester, gave evidence before the Committee of the House of Commons on Manufactures, Commerce, &c., in July, 1833, that the weavers of calicoes in the neighbourhood of Burnly and Colne earned little more than 48. per week net wages: these, however, were almost all children; of the whole number of hand-loom cotton weavers in the kingdom, which he estimated at 200,000, he supposed that 30,000 earned this low rate of wages; whilst the remaining 170,000 would only earn 6s. or 7s. a week in the neighbourhood of Manchester he thought the average would be 78. Mr. John Makin, a manufacturer of Bolton, stated before the Committee of the Commons on Hand-loom Weavers, in July, 1834, that a weaver of the kind of cambric most commonly produced there, namely, a six-quarter 60-reed cambric, 120 shoots of weft in an inch, could only weave one piece in a week, the gross wages for which were 5s. 6d.-subject to a deduction of about 18. 4d. Hugh Mackenzie, a hand-loom weaver of Glasgow, informed the same Committee, that the average net wages of the weavers of plain goods in that city and neighbourhood, would scarcely amount to 5s. per week. Mr. William Craig, a manufacturer of handkerchiefs and ginghams at Glasgow, stated the net wages of weavers in that department to be 4s. 6d. to 5s. a week; and Mr. Thomas Davidson, a manufacturer of fancy lappet goods in that city, stated the wages of the plain weavers to be from 5s. to 5s. 6d. net on the average, and that the plain weavers were two thirds or three fourths of all the hand-loom weavers in Scotland, whilst the remaining one third or one fourth earned on an average about 8s. a week. On the proceedings of the Committee on Hand-loom Weavers, it may be observed, that the selection of the witnesses, and the mode of examining them, show some disposition to make out a case; and the most unfavourable view of the weavers' condition is presented."-Baines, p. 486. * Ibid. p. 240. + Ibid. p. 418. |