| Averages |
|
Harvest | 10/8 |
|
Pay per week |
| Hay | 9/5 | ||||
| Winter | 6/5 |
I do not think there is much reason to find fault with any of these average prices as exorbitant or higher than a flourishing agriculture can well afford to pay, nor are any of them so low as to oppress the labouring poor; there not being above one or two places where any allowance is made for piece work, whereas much is everywhere done; and it is universally known that they earn more in that manner than the weekly pay of the country.
Servants’ wages are higher than I conceived. £10 8s. 6d. for upper farming men is out of proportion to the average pay of labourers.
The rates of labour admit of prodigious variations.... I apprehend that Chance has been the mother of three fourths. Famine before the exportation of corn was encouraged, and extreme high prices locally heightened the prices of labour, as the richer inhabitants were more or less willing to assist the poor. The rates so raised in some places continued after the occasion, in others were reduced.
In some places I was informed of the value of servants’ board, washing and lodging; average £9.
PRICES OF LABOUR IN THE MANUFACTURING TOWNS (SUMMARIZED)
| Men: | from | 15/- or 11/- (colliers) to 7/6 or 7/1 (textile) |
|
per week |
| Women: | „ | 6/6 (potteries) or 5/4 (textile) to 3/3 (textile) |
|
„ „ |
| Children: | „ | 5/- or 4/- (textile) to 1/8 or 1/- |
|
„ „ |
| Average of poor rates: 1/1. | ||||
Poor rates are never nicely proportioned to the prices of provisions and the necessities of the poor, but depend on the temper of individuals, the caprice of parish officers and justices of the peace. They are as often raised by clamour as by real necessity.
INCOME OF THE SOIL OF ENGLAND
Reckoned 32 million acres, half arable, half grass
(A. Young, Northern Tour, Letter XLII, p. 493)
| The Landlord’s rent was found to be | £16,000,000 |
| „ Tenants’ profit | £18,237,691 |
| „ Clergy | £5,500,000 |
| „ Industrious poor (being the amount of labour) | £14,596,937 |
| „ Non-industrious (being the amount of rates) | £866,666 |
| „ Interest of money | £4,400,000 |
| Total of these several incomes arising from the soil | £59,601,294 |
ROADS
(A. Young, Northern Tour, Letter XLIII, p. 573)
[A few examples]
CHILDREN IN FACTORIES
(John Fielden, The Curse of the Factory System)
Sir R. Peel’s evidence before a committee of the House of Commons, 1816:—
“Having other pursuits, it was not often in my power to visit the factories, but whenever such visits were made I was struck with the uniform appearance of bad health, and, in many cases, stunted growth of the children. The hours of labour were regulated by the interests of the overseer, whose remuneration was regulated by the quantity of work done” (p. 9).
Evidence of John Moss, overseer of Blackbarrow Mill, near Preston (summarized):—
The children in the mill were almost all apprentices from London parishes. They were worked from five in the morning to eight at night all the year round, with only one hour for the two meals; in making up lost time they frequently worked from five in the morning till ten at night, and invariably they worked from six on the Sunday morning till twelve, in cleaning the machinery for the week!
| “Did the children sit or stand at work?” | “Stand.” |
| “The whole of their time?” | “Yes.” |
| “Were there any seats in the Mill?” | “None.” |
| “Were they usually much fatigued at night?” | “Yes, some of them were very much fatigued.” |
| “Where did they sleep?” | “They slept in the apprentice house.” |
| “Did you inspect their beds?” | “Yes, every night.” |
| “For what purpose?” | “Because there were always some of them missing; some sometimes might be run away. Others sometimes I have found asleep in the mill.” |
| “Upon the mill-floor?” | “Yes.” |
| “Did the children frequently lie down upon the mill floor at night when their work was over and fall asleep before their supper?” | “I have found them frequently upon the mill floor after the time they should have been in bed” (p. 10). |
Mr. Horner’s statements in the House of Commons, 6th June, 1815.
“These children were often sent one, two, or three hundred miles from their place of birth, separated for life from all relations. It had been known that with a bankrupt’s effect a gang ... of these children had been put up to sale and were advertised publicly as a part of the property ... a number of these boys, apprenticed by a parish in London to one manufacturer, had been transferred to another, and had been found by some benevolent persons in a state of absolute famine.... Not many years ago an agreement had been made between a London parish and a Lancashire manufacturer ... that with every twenty sound children, one idiot should be taken!” (p. 11).
Report of Commissioners, 1833, from Scotland, p. 41. Evidence of a Spinner.
“I find it difficult to keep my piecers awake the last hours of a winter evening; have seen them fall asleep and go on performing their work with their hands while they were asleep, after the billey had stopped. When their work was over, I have stopped and looked at them for two minutes, going through the motions of piecening when they were fast asleep, when there was no work to do, and they were doing nothing; children at night are so fatigued that they are asleep often as soon as they sit down, so that it is impossible to wake them to sense enough to wash themselves, or even to eat a bit of supper, being so stupid in sleep” (p. 19).
Half-overseer’s evidence.
Does not like the long hours; he is very tired and hoarse at night and that some of the young female workers in his, the spinning flat, have so swelled legs, one in particular, from standing so long, about 17 years old, that she can hardly walk; that various of them have their feet bent in and their legs crooked from the same cause (p. 21).