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Untitled Article
this tenth that gives general employment , comfort , and support to the whole . If anything should deprive the country of one-tenth of employment , the misery would be great , and extend over the surface . It would not be confined to the tenth thrown out of employment , but the wages of the other nine would be reduced .
Another very important consideration is the effect which might be produced on the home trade . Any reduction of hours in the work of children must be followed by a higher rate of wages , and an increased price to the manufactured article . Let any one compare the present times with those before machinery was used in our manufactures ; compare the price of a gown or a coat now with what it was thirty or forty years ago , and see the
facility with which poor persons can now get clothing . Let them compare the comforts , the cleanliness , and the information which the lower classes enjoy , and then say if great advances have not been made in society . These are not altogether owing to cheap manufactures ; but it must nevertheless be obvious that in proportion to the cheapness , they have been enabled to
purchase greater comforts . If any great advance take place in the price of clothing , the consumption of it must be greatly reduced , and consequently the weaver and finisher of these goods will be deprived of their employment , without any other being opened to them , as is invariably the case when a new machine facilitates the manufacture of any particular branch . A reduction * in the home trade would be much more injurious than in the foreign trade ,
Care must therefore be taken that the burden upon spinning is not so increased that it deprives the weaver of this demand for the fruits of his industry . In considering this subject it will be necessary not only to deliberate upon the number of hours children may be permitted to work , but the age at which they may be employed , for the younger the children the more severe will be the labour . All the evidence which has been given proves the
fact , that by the present law children are exposed to excessive labour ; and this must be evident to the most superficial observer . They are now restricted to thirteen hours , allowing about one hour for recreation and meals . There is scarcely an adult individual in the kingdom who endures more labour . Whether the hours be reduced to twelve , eleven , or ten , it will be for Parliament to decide . There is , however , another point deeply
connected with this subject , which ought to have the serious consideration of Parliament ; viz . the price of food . The corn laws advance the price here , and reduce the price abroad , thereby causing the manufactured goods to be dearer in England than they are abroad . If the corn laws be altered , so that British capital may be employed in the purchase of foreign corn when it is cheap , it will effectually advance the price of food to the foreign manufacturer , and give an advantage to the British weaver . The
Untitled Article
152 On the Factory System .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1833, page 152, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2610/page/8/
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