On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures by Charles Babbage (novels to read in english .TXT) 📖

fifth

Parliamentary Report respecting Artizans and Machinery. One of

the partners in an extensive cotton factory, disgusted by the

unprincipled conduct of the workmen, removed to the state of New

Y ork, where he re-established his machinery, and thus afforded,

to rivals already formidable to our trade, at once a pattern of

our best machinery, and an example of the most economical methods

of employing it.

 

369. When the nature of the work is such that it is not

possible to remove it, as happens with regard to mines, the

proprietors are more exposed to injury from combinations amongst

the workmen: but as the owners are generally possessed of a

larger capital, they generally succeed, if the reduction of wages

which they propose is really founded on the necessity of the

case.

 

An extensive combination lately existed amongst the colliers

in the north of England, which unfortunately led, in several

instances, to acts of violence. The proprietors of the coalmines

were consequently obliged to procure the aid of miners from other

parts of England who were willing to work at the wages they could

afford to give; and the aid of the civil, and in some cases of

the military, power, was requisite for their protection. This

course was persisted in during several months, and the question

being, which party could support itself longest on the diminished

gains, as it might have readily been foreseen, the proprietors

ultimately succeeded.

 

370. One of the remedies employed by the masters against the

occurrence of combinations, is to make engagements with their men

for long periods and to arrange them in such a manner, that these

contracts shall not all terminate together. This has been done in

some cases at Sheffield, and in other places. It is attended with

the inconvenience to the masters that, during periods when the

demand for their produce is reduced, they are still obliged to

employ the same number of workmen. This circumstance, however,

frequently obliges the proprietors to direct their attention to

improvements in their works: and in one such instance, within the

author’s knowledge, a large reservoir was deepened, thus

affording a more constant supply to the water-wheel, whilst, at

the same time, the mud from the bottom gave permanent fertility

to a piece of land previously almost barren. In this case, not

merely was the supply of produce checked, when a glut existed.

but the labour was, in fact, applied more profitably than it

would have been in the usual course.

 

371. A mode of paying the wages of workmen in articles which

they consume, has been introduced into some of our manufacturing

districts, which has been called the truck system. As in many

instances this has nearly the effect of a combination of the

masters against the men, it is a fit subject for discussion in

the present chapter: but it should be carefully distinguished

from another system of a very different tendency, which will be

first described.

 

372. The principal necessaries for the support of a workman

and his family are few in number, and are usually purchased by

him in small quantities weekly. Upon such quantities, sold by the

retail dealer, a large profit is generally made; and if the

article is one whose quality, like that of tea, is not readily

estimated, then a great additional gain is made by the retail

dealer selling an inferior article.

 

Where the number of workmen living on the same spot is large,

it may be thought desirable that they should unite together and

have an agent, to purchase by wholesale those articles which are

most in demand, as tea, suger, bacon, etc., and to retail them at

prices, which will just repay the wholesale cost, together with

the expense of the agent who conducts their sale. If this be

managed wholly by a committee of workmen, aided perhaps by advice

from the master, and if the agent is paid in such a manner as to

have himself an interest in procuring good and reasonable

articles, it may be a benefit to the workmen: and if the plan

succeed in reducing the cost of articles of necessity to the men,

it is clearly the interest of the master to encourage it. The

master may indeed be enabled to afford them facilities in making

their wholesale purchases; but he ought never to have the least

interest in, or any connection with, the profit made by the

articles sold. The men, on the other hand, who subscribe to set

up the shop, ought not, in the slightest degree, to be compelled

to make their purchases there: the goodness and cheapness of the

article ought to be their sole inducements.

 

It may perhaps be objected, that this plan is only employing

a portion of the capital belonging to the workmen in a retail

trade; and that, without it, competition amongst small

shopkeepers will reduce the articles to nearly the same price.

This objection would be valid if the objects of consumption

required no verification; but combining what has been already

stated on that subject(1*) with the present argument, the plan

seems liable to no serious objections.

 

373. The truck system is entirely different in its effects.

The master manufacturer keeps a retail shop for articles required

by his men, and either pays their wages in goods, or compels them

by express agreement, or less directly, by unfair means, to

expend the whole or a certain part of their wages at his shop. If

the manufacturer kept this shop merely for the purpose of

securing good articles, at fair prices, to his workmen, and if he

offered no inducement to them to purchase at his shop, except the

superior cheapness of his articles, it would certainly be

advantageous to the men. But, unfortunately, this is not always

the case; and the temptation to the master, in times of

depression, to reduce in effect the wages which he pays (by

increasing the price of articles at his shop), without altering

the nominal rate of payment, is frequently too great to be

withstood. If the object be solely to procure for his workmen

better articles, it will be more effectually accomplished by the

master confining himself to supplying a small capital, at a

moderate rate of interest; leaving the details to be conducted by

a committee of workmen, in conjunction with his own agent, and

the books of the shop to be audited periodically by the men

themselves.

 

374. Wherever the workmen are paid in goods, or are compelled

to purchase at the master’s shop, much injustice is done to them,

and great misery results from it. Whatever may have been the

intentions of the master in such cases, the real effect is, to

deceive the workman as to the amount he receives in exchange for

his labour. Now, the principles on which the happiness of that

class of society depends, are difficult enough to be understood,

even by those who are blessed with far better opportunities of

investigating them: and the importance of their being well

acquainted with those principles which relate to themselves, is

of more vital consequence to workmen, than to many other classes.

It is therefore highly desirable to assist them in comprehending

the position in which they are placed, by rendering all the

relations in which they stand to each other, and to their

employers, as simple as possible. Workmen should be paid entirely

in money; their work should be measured by some unbiassed, some

unerring piece of mechanism; the time during which they are

employed should be defined, and punctually adhered to. The

payments they make to their benefit societies should be fixed on

such just principles, as not to require extraordinary

contributions. In short, the object of all who wish to promote

their happiness should be, to give them, in the simplest form,

the means of knowing beforehand, the sum they are likely to

acquire by their labour, and the money they will be obliged to

expend for their support: thus putting before them, in the

clearest light, the certain result of persevering industry.

 

375. The cruelty which is inflicted on the workman by the

payment of his wages in goods, is often very severe. The little

purchases necessary for the comfort of his wife and children,

perhaps the medicines he occasionally requires for them in

illness, must all be made through the medium of barter; and he is

obliged to waste his time in arranging an exchange, in which the

goods which he has been compelled to accept for his labour are

invariably taken at a lower price than that at which his master

charged them to him. The father of a family perhaps, writhing

under the agonies of the toothache, is obliged to make his hasty

bargain with the village surgeon, before he will remove the cause

of his pain; or the disconsolate mother is compelled to sacrifice

her depreciated goods in exchange for the last receptacle of her

departed offspring. The subjoined evidence from the Report of the

Committee of the House of Commons on Framework Knitters’

Petitions, shows that these are not exaggerated statements.

 

It has been so common in our town to pay goods instead of

money, that a number of my neighbours have been obliged to pay

articles for articles, to pay sugar for drugs out of the

druggist’s shop; and others have been obliged to pay sugar for

drapery goods, and such things, and exchange in that way numbers

of times. I was credibly informed, that one person paid half a

pound of tenpenny sugar and a penny to have a tooth drawn; and

there is a credible neighbour of mine told me, that he had heard

that the sexton had been paid for digging a grave with sugar and

tea: and before I came off, knowing I had to give evidence upon

these things, I asked this friend to enquire ofthe sexton,

whether this was a fact: the sexton hesitated for a little time,

on account of bringing into discredit the person who paid these

goods: however, he said at last, ‘I have received these articles

repeatedly—I know these things have been paid to a great extent

in this way.’

 

NOTES:

 

1. See Chapter XV, p. 87