Page images
PDF
EPUB

were almost entirely self-sufficing, because they produced and prepared their own food, clothing, shelter, and implements. "Each village had its mill, generally the property of the lord of the manor; almost every house had its oven and brewing cauldron. Women spun wool into coarse cloth; men tanned their own leather. Wealth existed only in its simplest forms, and natural divisions of employment were not made, because only the rudest implements of production were used. The rough tools required for the cultivation of the soil, and the rude household utensils needed for the comfort of daily life, were made at home."

Sec, 7.—Agricultural Implements. These were by no means of an improved type, although about this time several labour-saving tools and machines were invented. Eden, writing about 1797, states that the plough used in many parts of England differed but little in description from the old Roman plough, and that agricultural machinery of all others had received the least improvement. Wheat flailing was being superseded by the thresher; hand and horse-drills were used to sow and plant seeds. The sickle still held sway in the harvest fields, and feed and root cutting were done by hand machines. Wooden ploughs were still generally used, waggons were narrow-wheeled and small, and, on the whole, the implements were primitive and wretched,

Sec. 8.-Manufactures in 1760. The woollen trade, which was regarded as "the basis of our wealth," was the most important, and composed more than one-fourth of the entire export. The industry was not concentrated in any one part of the country, but was distributed among centres, large and small, throughout England. The cotton industry, which was as yet quite unimportant, ›

3

centred in Lancashire. The manufactured goods at Manchester and Bolton consisted largely of cotton stuffs. We are told that the number of spinners employed in and out of Manchester was immense, and that they reckoned 30,000 souls in that town, and 50,000 "manufacturers" employed out of it. A large portion of the cotton output, as to-day, went to America. However, the value of the cotton export amounted to only about one-twentieth of that of the woollen export. Next in importance to the woollen industry was the iron trade which, according to Hobson's estimate, employed, in all its branches, about 200,000 persons. The chief centre of production was in Sussex, where ten furnaces yielded an annual output of 1400 tons. Five miles from Newcastle-on-Tyne were iron works which ranked among the largest in Europe, and Rotherham was also famous for its iron foundries. At the middle of the eighteenth century, the industry was not as great as it had been at the close of the seventeenth century, owing to the fact that smelting by wood had led to such waste that the whole trade was discouraged by legislation. In 1695 the output was nearly 180,000 tons, but in 1740 it had fallen to 17,350 tons. To show the comparative insignificance of the iron industry, it is only necessary to point out that the total output in 1881 was 8,320,315 tons of iron and steel. Staffordshire was the home of the potteries which employed about 10,000 persons. Hardware and cutlery were manufactured chiefly at Sheffield and Birmingham, which had become, even by this time, large industrial centres. About 30,000 persons were employed in brass and copper industry in 1720; and silk, hosiery, linen, glass, and other minor industries were increasing in importance.

1

Sec. 9.-Mechanical Inventions before 1760. In the most important industry-woollen manufacture-very primitive machinery was used. Spinning and weaving were, of course, done by hand, though a few improvements had been made in textile machinery. In 1730, Wyatt had invented roller spinning; but it did not come into immediate use. In 1738, Kay of Bury made an important contrivance known as the fly-shuttle which enabled one man to do the work of two. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, calico printing had been so well developed that "all the mean people-the maid servants and indifferently poor persons "could clothe themselves in calico or printed linen. Water- 3 power was used by many of the larger mills, such as those at Sheffield and Newcastle-on-Tyne. labour-saving machinery propelled by water used in the iron shops is described by Young as follows:-"As to the machinery accelerating several operations in the manufacture, copper rollers for squeezing bars into hoop, and the scissors for cutting bars of iron, the turning cranes for moving anchors into and out of the fire, the beating hammer lifted by the cogs of a wheel-these are machines of manifest utility, simple in their construction, and all moved by water." The age of invention was yet to come, and, comparatively speaking, work had to be done almost without the aid of power-driven, mechanical devices.

Some

Sec. 10.-The Organisation of Industry. There were few factories and vast accumulations of capital in industry in England before the coming of machinery. Even those engaged in other than agricultural pursuits very often lived in cottages in the country, and held small strips of land for cultivation. The metal workers of

[ocr errors]

West Bromwich and the cutlers of Sheffield were not yet divorced from the soil, and the various industries throughout England were more or less combined with agriculture. Manufacturing was carried on for the most part under what is called the domestic system. Industry was not concentrated in the hands of great "captains," but was distributed among innumerable cottagers and small masters who had close relationship with their workers. It is easy, however, to underestimate the developments which had already been made in the direction of the factory system before the age of mechanical inventions. It is erroneous to suppose that the factory system is entirely the result of machine and steam-power industry, because there are other conditions which lead to specialisation and large industrial organisation. These conditions have been aptly classified by Hobson under three heads: (1) Physical Aptitudes of Soil. For instance, since wood was used by smelting, iron works very naturally were built near forests. Industries requiring water-power sprang up along the hill streams of the North, and so on. (2) Facility of Market. It was natural that around the large towns which afforded markets certain specialised industries should arise. (3) Nature of Commodity. Where transportation was slow and inadequate, there was naturally little specialisation in heavy or perishable goods.

Defoe, in his tour through Great Britain (1724-26), draws a graphic picture of industrial life near Halifax, Yorkshire, at that time. "The land was divided into small enclosures from two acres to six or seven acres each, seldom more, every three or four pieces having a house belonging to them; hardly a

house standing out of speaking distance from another. We could see at every house a tenter, and on almost every tenter a piece of cloth, or kersie, or shalloon. At every considerable house there was a manufactory. Every clothier keeps one horse, at least, to carry his manufactures to market, and everyone generally keeps a cow or two or more for his family. By this means the small pieces of enclosed land about each house are occupied, for they scarce sow corn enough to feed their poultry. The houses are full of lusty fellows, some at their dye-vat, some at their looms, others dressing the cloths; the women and children carding or spinning; all being employed, from the youngest to the eldest." However, by 1760 things had changed considerably, and while the domestic system was awaiting the final blow from the great inventions, the capitalistic system was beginning to take form.

Sec. 11.-Capitalism. Up to the eighteenth century, the land-owning class had been the dominating element in English political and social life; but from that time onward their power began to wane. Alongside of the landed aristocracy arose a powerful mercantile class whose wealth gave them influence and, finally, position in society. After the mercantile capitalists, who derived most of their wealth from foreign trade, came the capitalists who amassed great fortunes from home manufacturing industries. This latter class, which increased rapidly in numbers and wealth after the advent of the great inventions, had been gradually rising as masters of other workmen, until, in 1760, we hear of a few mills employing large numbers of labourers. The dependence of workmen on employers was in the process of development. The simplest form of

« PreviousContinue »