 Chapter 15. Section 7 of Capital, Vol. 1. Capital, a critical analysis of capitalist production, Vol. 1 by Karl Marx, translated from the third German edition by Samuel Moore and Edward Aveling, and edited by Frederick Engels. Part 4. Production of Relative Surplus Value. Chapter 15. Machinery and Modern Industry. Section 7. Repulsion and Attraction of Work People by the Factory System. Crisis in the Cotton Trade. All political economists of any standing admit that the introduction of new machinery has a baneful effect on the workmen in the old handicrafts and manufacturers with which this machinery at first competes. Almost all of them bemoan the slavery of the factory operative. And what is the great trump card that they play? That machinery, after the horrors of the period of introduction and development have subsided, instead of diminishing in the long run, increases the number of slaves of labor. Yes, political economy revels in the hideous theory, hideous to every philanthropist who believes in the eternal, nature-ordained necessity for capitalist production, that after a period of growth and transition, even its crowning success, the factory system based on machinery, grinds down more work people than on its first introduction it throws on the streets. Footnote. Gnil, on the contrary, considers the final result of the factory system to be an absolutely less number of operatives, at whose expense an increased number of genre net, live and develop their well-known perfectibility perfectible. Little as he understands the movement of production, at least he feels that machinery must needs be a very fatal institution, if its introduction converts busy workmen into poppers, and its development calls more slaves of labor into existence than it has suppressed. It is not possible to bring out the cretinism of his standpoint, except by his own words. The classes condemn to produce and to consume diminish, and the classes which direct labor, which relieve, console, and enlighten the whole population, multiply, and appropriate all the benefits which can result from the diminution of the cost of labor, from the abundance of products and the cheapness of consumer goods. In this way the human species rises to the highest creations of genius, penetrates the mysterious depths of religion, and establishes the salutary principle of morality, the laws for the production of liberty and power, of obedience and justice, of obligation and humanity. For this twaddle see des systèmes d'économie politique par Monsieur Charles Gannill, 2e Édition Paris, 1821, page 224, and see page 212, end note. It is true that in some cases, as we saw from instances of English worsted and silt factories, an extraordinary extension of the factory system may, at a certain stage of its development, be accompanied not only by a relative, but by an absolute decrease in the number of operatives employed. In the year 1860, when a special census of all the factories of the United Kingdom was taken by order of parliament, the factories in those parts of Lancashire, Cheshire, and Yorkshire, included in the district of Mr. Baker, the factory inspector, numbered 652. 570 of these contained 85,622 power looms, 6,819,146 spindles, exclusive of doubling spindles, employed 27,439 horsepower, steam, and 1,390 water, and 94,119 persons. In the year 1865, the same factories contained looms, 95,163, spindles, 7,025,031, had steam power of 28,925 horses, and a water power of 1,445 horses, and employed 88,913 persons. Between 1860 and 1865, therefore, the increase in looms was 11% in spindles 3% and in engine power 3%, while the number of persons employed decreased 5.5%. Footnote. Reports of the inspectors of factories, 31st October, 1865, page 58. At the same time, however, means of employment for an increased number of hands was ready in 110 new mills, with 11,625 looms, 628,576 spindles, and 2,695 total horsepower of steam and water. Endnote. Between 1852 and 1862, considerable extension of the English woolen manufacturer took place, while the number of hands employed in it remained almost stationary, showing how greatly the introduction of new machines had superseded the labor of preceding periods. Footnote. Reports, etc., for 31st October, 1862, page 79. At the end of 1871, Mr. A. Redgrave, the factory inspector, in a lecture given at Bradford in the New Mechanics Institution, said, What has struck me for some time past is the altered appearance of the woolen factories. Formerly they were filled with women and children, now machinery seems to do all the work. At my asking for an explanation of this from a manufacturer, he gave me the following. Under the old system I employed 63 persons. After the introduction of improved machinery I reduced my hands to 33. And lately in consequence of new and extensive alterations, I have been in a position to reduce those 33 to 13. Endnote. In certain cases the increase in the number of hands employed is only apparent. That is, it is not due to the extension of the factories already established, but to the gradual annexation of connected trades, for instance the increase in power looms and in the hands employed by them between 1838 and 1856, was in the cotton trade simply owing to the extension of this branch of industry, but in the other trades to the application of steam power to the carpet loom, to the ribbon loom, and to the linen loom, which previously had been worked by the power of men. Footnote. C. Reports, etc., 31st October 1856. Page 16. Endnote. Hence the increase of the hands in these latter trades was merely a symptom of a diminution in the total number employed. Finally we have considered this question entirely apart from the fact that everywhere, except in the metal industries, young persons under 18 and women and children form the preponderating element in this class of factory hands. Nevertheless, in spite of the mass of hands actually displaced and virtually replaced by machinery, we can understand how the factory operatives, through the building of more mills and the extension of old ones in a given industry, may become more numerous than the manufacturing workmen and handic craftsmen that have been displaced. Suppose, for example, that in the old mode of production a capital of 500 pounds is employed weekly, two-fifths being constant and three-fifths variable capital, i.e., 200 pounds being laid out in means of production, and three pounds, say one pound per man, in labor power. On the introduction of machinery, the composition of this capital becomes altered. We will suppose it to consist of four-fifths constant and one-fifth variable, which means that only 100 pounds is now laid out in labor power. Consequently, two-thirds of the workmen are discharged. If now the business extends and the total capital employed grows to 1500 pounds under unchanged conditions, the number of operatives employed will increase to 300, just as many as before the introduction of the machinery. If the capital further grows to 2000 pounds, 400 men will be employed, or one-third more than under the old system. Their numbers have, in point of fact, increased by 100, but relatively, i.e., in proportion to the total capital advanced, they have diminished by 800, for the 2000 pounds capital would, in the old state of things, have employed 1200 instead of 400 men. Hence, a relative decrease in the number of hands is consistent with an actual increase. We assumed above that while the total capital increases, its composition remains the same, because the conditions of production remain constant. But we have already seen that, with every advance in the use of machinery, the constant component of capital, that part which consists of machinery, raw material, and et cetera, increases, while the variable component, the part laid out in labor power, decreases. We also know that in no other system of production is improvement so continuous, and the composition of the capital employed so constantly changing is in the factory system. These changes are, however, continually interrupted by periods of rest, during which there is a mere quantitative extension of the factories on the existing technical basis. During such periods the operatives increase in number. Thus, in 1835, the total number of operatives in the cotton, woolen, worsted, flax, and silk factories of the United Kingdom was only 354,684, while in 1861 the number of the power loom weavers alone, of both sexes and of all ages from eight years upwards, amounted to 230,654. Certainly this growth appears less important when we consider that in 1838 the hand loom weavers with their families still numbered 800,000, not to mention those thrown out of work in Asia and on the continent of Europe. The sufferings of the hand loom weavers were the object of an inquiry by royal commission, but although their distress was acknowledged and lamented, the amelioration of their condition was left, and probably necessarily so, to the chances and changes of time, which it may now be hoped, twenty years later, have nearly obliterated these miseries, and not improbably by the present great extension of the power loom. In the few remarks I have still to make on this point, I shall refer to some actually existing relations, the existence of which our theoretical investigation has not yet disclosed. So long as, in a given branch of industry, the factory system extends itself at the expense of the old handicrafts or of manufacture, the result is as sure as the result of an encounter between an army furnished with bread-loaded goods, and the result is as sure as the result of an encounter between an army furnished with bread-loaders, and one armed with bows and arrows. This first period, during which machinery conquers its field of action, is of decisive importance, owing to the extraordinary profits that it helps to produce. These profits not only form a source of accelerated accumulation, but also attract into the favored sphere of production a large part of the additional social capital that is being constantly created, and is ever on the lookout for new investments. The special advantages of this first period of fast and furious activity are felt in every branch of production that machinery invades. So soon, however, as the factory system has gained a certain breadth of footing and a definite degree of maturity, and especially so soon as its technical basis, machinery, is itself produced by machinery, so soon as coal mining and iron mining, the metal industries and the means of transport have been revolutionized, so soon, in short, as the general conditions requisite for production by the modern industrial system have been established, this mode of production acquires an elasticity, a capacity for sudden extension by leaps and bounds that finds no hindrance, except in the supply of raw material and in the disposal of the produce. On the one hand, the immediate effect of machinery is to increase the supply of raw material in the same way. For example, as the cotton gin augmented the production of cotton. Footnote. Other ways in which machinery affects the production of raw material will be mentioned in the third book. Endnote. On the other hand, the cheapness of the articles produced by machinery and the improved means of transport and communication furnished the weapons for conquering foreign markets. By ruining handicraft production in other countries, machinery forcibly converts them into fields for the supply of its raw material. In this way, East India was compelled to produce cotton, wool, hemp, jute and indigo for Great Britain. Footnote. The export of cotton from India to Great Britain rose from 34,540,143 pounds in 1846 to 445,947,600 pounds in 1865. The export of wool from India to Great Britain rose from 4,570,581 pounds in 1846 to 20,679,111 pounds in 1865. Endnote. By constantly making a part of the hands supernumerary in modern industry, in all countries where it has taken root, gives a spur to emigration and to the colonization of foreign lands, which are thereby converted into settlements for growing the raw material of the modern country, just as Australia, for example, was converted into a colony for growing wool. Footnote. The export of wool from the Cape to Great Britain increased from 2,958,457 pounds in 1846 to 29,920,623 pounds in 1865. The export of wool from Australia to Great Britain increased from 21,789,346 pounds in 1846 to 109,734,261 pounds in 1865. Endnote. A new and international division of labor, a division suited to the requirements of the chief centers of modern industry, springs up and converts one part of the globe into a chiefly agricultural field of production for supplying the other part, which remains a chiefly industrial field. This revolution hangs together with radical changes in agriculture, which we need not hear further inquire into. Footnote. The economic development of the United States is itself a product of European, more specifically of English modern industry. In their present form, 1866, the states must still be considered a European colony, added in the fourth German edition, since they have developed into a country whose industry holds second place in the world without, on that account, entirely losing their colonial character, Friedrich Engels. The export of cotton from the United States to Great Britain increased from 401,949,393 pounds in 1846 to 1,115,890,608 pounds in 1860. The total export of corn, wheat, barley, oats, rye, wheat, rye, flour, buckwheat, maize, bear or big, peas and beans was 74,083,441 quarter-weights. End Note. On the motion of Mr. Gladstone, the House of Commons ordered on the 17th of February, 1867 a return of the total quantities of grain, corn, and flour of all sorts imported into and exported from the United Kingdom between the years 1831 and 1866. I give below a summary of the result. See the table on page 42.6. All imports of raw material increased dramatically. The enormous power inherent in the factory system of expanding by jumps and the dependence of that system on the markets of the world necessarily beget feverish production, followed by overfilling of the markets, whereupon contraction of the markets brings on crippling of production. The life of modern industry becomes a series of periods of moderate activity, prosperity, overproduction, crisis, and stagnation. The uncertainty and instability to which machinery subjects the employment and consequently the conditions of existence of the operatives become normal, owing to those periodic changes of the industrial cycle. Except in the periods of prosperity, there rages between the capitalists the most furious combat for the share of each in the markets. This share is directly proportional to the cheapness of the product. Besides the rivalry that this struggle begets in the application of improved machinery for replacing labor power and of new methods of production, there also comes a time in every industrial cycle when a forcible reduction of wages beneath the value of labor power is attempted for the purpose of cheapening commodities. Footnote. In an appeal made in July 1866 to the trade societies of England by the shoemakers of Leicester, who had been thrown on the streets by a lockout, it is stated, 20 years ago the Leicester shoe trade was revolutionized by the introduction of riveting in the place of stitching. At that time good wages could be earned. Great competition was shown between the different firms as to which could turn out the latest article. Shortly afterwards, however, a worse kind of competition sprang up, namely that of underselling one another in the market. The injurious consequences soon manifested themselves in reductions of wages, and so sweepingly quick was the fall in the price of labor that many firms now pay only one half of the original wages. And yet the wages sink lower and lower, profits appear with each alteration in the scale of wages to increase. Even bad times are utilized by the manufacturers for making exceptional profits by excessive warring of wages, i.e. by a direct robbery of the laborer's means of subsistence. One example, it has reference to the crisis on the coventry silk weaving. From information I've received from manufacturers as well as workmen, there seems to be no doubt that wages have been reduced to a greater extent than either the competition of the foreign producers or other circumstances have rendered necessary. The majority of weavers are now working at a reduction of 30 to 40% in their wages. A piece of ribbon, for making which the weaver got six shillings or seven shillings five years back, now only brings them three shillings, three pins, or three shillings, six pins. Other work is now priced at two shillings and two shillings, three pins, which was formally priced at four shillings and four shillings, three pins. The reduction in wage seems to have been carried to a greater extent than is necessary for increasing demand. Indeed, the reduction in the cost of weaving, in the case of many descriptions of ribbons, has not been accompanied by any corresponding reduction in the selling price of the manufactured article. Mr. F. D. Long's report, Children's Employment Commission, Fifth Reprint, 1866, page 114, end of note. A necessary condition, therefore, to the growth of the number of factory hands, is a proportionally much more rapid growth of the amount of capital invested in mills. This growth, however, is conditioned by the ebb and flow of the industrial cycle. It is, besides constantly interrupted by the technical progress that at one time virtually supplies the place of new workmen, and another actually displaces old ones. This qualitative change in the mechanical industry continually discharges hands from the factory, or shuts its doors against the fresh stream of recruits, while the purely quantitative extension of the factories absorbs not only the men thrown out of work, but also fresh contingents. The work people are thus continually both repelled and attracted, hustled from pillar to post, while at the same time constant changes take place in the sex, age, and skill of the lebis. The lot of the factory operatives will be best depicted by taking a rapid survey of the course of the English cotton industry. From 1770 to 1815 this trade was depressed or stagnant for five years only. During this period of 45 years the English manufacturers had a monopoly of machinery and of the markets of the world. From 1815 to 1821 depression and 1822 to 1823 prosperity, 1824 abolition of the laws against trades unions, great extension of the factories everywhere, 1825 crisis, 1826 great misery and riots among the factory operatives, 1827 slight improvement, 1828 great increase in power looms and in exports, 1829 exports especially to India surpass all former years, 1830 glutted markets, great distress, 1831 to 1833 continued depression, the monopoly of the trade with India and China withdrawn from the East India company, 1834 great increase of factories and machinery, shortness of hands, the new poor law furthers the migration of agricultural laborers into the factory districts, the country districts swept of children, white slave trade, 1835 great prosperity, contemporaneous starvation of the hand loom weavers, 1836 great prosperity, 1837 and 1838 depression and losses, 1839 revival, 1840 great depression, riots calling out of the military, 1841 and 1842 frightful suffering among the factory operatives, 1842 the manufacturers locked the hands out of the factories in order to enforce the repeal of the corn lots, the operatives stream in thousands into the towns of Lancashire and Yorkshire are driven back by the military and their leaders are brought to trial at Lancaster, 1843 great misery, 1844 revival, 1845 great prosperity, 1846 continued improvement at first then reaction, repeal of the corn laws, 1847 crisis, general reduction of wages by 10 and more percent in honor of the big loaf, 1848 continued depression, Manchester under military protection, 1849 revival, 1850 prosperity, 1851 falling prices, low wages, frequent strikes, 1852 improvement begins, strikes continue, the manufacturers threaten to import foreign hands, 1853 increasing exports, strike for eight months and great misery at Preston, 1854 prosperity, glutted markets, 1855 news of failure stream in from the United States, Canada and the eastern markets, 1856 great prosperity, 1857 crisis, 1858 improvement, 1859 great prosperity, increase in factories, 1860 zenith of the English cotton trade, the Indian, Australian and other markets so glutted with goods that even in 1863 that had not absorbed the whole lot, the French Treaty of Commerce enormous growth of factories and machinery, 1861 prosperity continues for a time, reaction the American Civil War cotton famine, 1862 to 1863 complete collapse the history of the cotton famine is too characteristic to dispense with dwelling upon it for a moment from the indications as to the conditions of the markets of the world in 1860 and 1861 we see that the cotton famine came in the nick of time for the manufacturers and was to some extent advantageous to them a fact that was acknowledged in the reports of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce proclaimed in Parliament by Palmerston and Darby and confirmed by events footnote reports of inspectors of factories 31st October 1862 page 30 end note no doubt among the two thousand eight hundred eighty seven cotton mills in the United Kingdom in 1861 there were many of small size according to the report of Mr. A. Redgrave out of the two thousand one hundred nine mills included in his district three ninety two or nineteen percent employed less than ten horsepower each three hundred forty five or sixteen percent employed ten horsepower and less than twenty horsepower while one thousand three hundred seventy two employed upwards of twenty horsepower first see page nineteen the majority of the small mills were weaving sheds built during the period of prosperity after 1858 for the most part by speculators of whom once applied the yarn another the machinery a third the buildings and were worked by men who had been overlookers or by other persons of small means these small manufacturers mostly went to the wall the same fate would have overtaken them in the commercial crisis that was staved off only by the cotton payment although they formed one third of the total number of manufacturers yet their small mills absorbed a much smaller part of the capital invested in the cotton trade as to the extent of the stoppage it appears from authentic estimates that in October eighteen sixty two sixty point three percent of the spindles and fifty eight percent of the looms were standing this refers to the cotton trade as a whole and of course requires considerable modifications for individual districts only very few mills worked full time sixty hours a week the remainder worked at intervals even in those few cases where full time was worked and at the customary rate of peace wage the weekly wages of the operatives necessarily strength owing to good cotton being replaced by bad sea island by egyptian in fine spinning mills American and egyptian by serat and pure cotton by mixings of waste and serat the shorter fiber of the serat cotton and its dirty condition the greater fragility of the thread and the substitution of all sorts of heavy ingredients for flour in sizing the warps all these lessened the speed of the machinery or the number of looms that could be super intend by one weaver increase the labor caused by defects in the machinery and reduce the peace wage by reducing the mass of the product turned off where serat cotton was used the loss to the operatives went on full time amounted to twenty thirty and more percent but besides this the majority of manufacturers reduced the rate of peace wage by five seven and a half and ten percent we can therefore conceive of the situation of those hands who were employed for only three three and a half or four days a week or for only six hours a day even in eighteen sixty three after a comparative improvement had set in the weekly wages of spinners and weavers were three shillings four pence three shillings ten pence and four shillings six pence and five shillings one pence footnote reported the inspector of factories thirty first october eighteen sixty three pages forty one through forty five and note even in this miserable state of things however the inventive spirit of the master never stood still but was exercised in making deductions from wages these were to some extent inflicted as a penalty for defects in the finished article that were really due to his bad cotton and his unsuitable machinery more over where the manufacturer owned the cottages of the work people he paid himself his rents by deducting the amount from these miserable wages mr. redgrave tells us of self-acting minders operatives who manage a pair of self-acting mules earning at the end of a fortnight's full work eight shillings eleven pence and that from this sum was deducted the rent of his house the manufacturer however returning half the rent is a gift the minders took away the sum of six shillings eleven pence in many places the self-acting minders ranged from five shillings to nine shillings per week and the weavers from two shillings to six shillings per week during the latter part of eighteen sixty-two footnote pages forty one through forty two end note even when working short time the rent was frequently deducted from the wages of the operatives same page fifty seven no wonder that in some parts of Lancashire kind of famine fever broke out but more characteristic than all this was the revolution that took place in the process of production at the expense of the work people experimentia in corpora really like those of an animus on frogs were formerly made although says Mr. Redgrave I have given the actual earnings of the operatives in several mills it does not follow that they earn the same amount week by week the operatives are subject to great fluctuations from the constant experimentalizing of the manufacturers the earnings of the operatives rise and fall with quality of the cotton mixings sometimes they have been within fifteen percent of former earnings and then in a week or two they have fallen off from fifty to sixty percent pages fifty through fifty one end note these experiments were not made solely at the expense of the workman's means of subsistence his five senses also had to pay the penalty the people who are employed in making up Sirot cotton complain very much they inform me on including the bails of cotton there is an intolerable smell which causes sickness in the mixing scrambling and carding rooms the dust and dirt which are disentangled irritate the air passages and give rise to cough and difficulty of breathing a disease of the skin no doubt from the irritation of the dirt contained in the Sirot cotton also prevails the fiber being so short a great amount of size both animal and vegetable is used bronchitis is more prevalent owing to the dust inflammatory sore throat is common from the same cause sickness and dyspepsia are produced by the frequent breaking of the weft when the weaver sucks the weft through the eye of the shuttle on the other hand the substitutes for flour were a fortune out of his purse to the manufacturers by increasing the weight of the yarn they caused fifteen pounds of raw material to weight twenty six pounds after it was woven pages sixty two sixty three in the report of factories for thirtieth april eighteen sixty four we read as follows the trade is availing itself of this resource at present to an extent which is even discredible I have heard a good authority of a cloth weighing eight pounds which was made of five and one quarter pounds cotton and two and three quarter pounds size and of another cloth weighing five and a quarter pounds of which two pounds was in cloths of other descriptions as much as fifty percent size is sometimes added so that a manufacturer may and does truly boast that he is getting rich by selling cloth for less money per pound than he paid for the mere yarn of which they are composed thirtyth april eighteen sixty four page twenty seven but the work people had to suffer not only from the experiments of the manufacturers inside the mills and of the municipalities outside not only from reduced wages in absence of work from want and from charity and from the eulogistic speeches of lords and commons unfortunate females who in consequence of the cotton famine were at its commencement thrown out of employment and have thereby become outcasts of society and now though trade has revived and work is plentiful continue members of that unfortunate class and are likely to continue so there are also in the borough more youthful prostitutes than I have known for the last twenty five years footnote from a letter of Mr. Harris chief constable bulletin in reports of inspectors of factories thirty first october eighteen sixty five pages sixty one through sixty two end note we find then in the first forty five years of the english cotton trade from seventeen seventy to eighteen fifteen only five years of crisis and stagnation this was the period of monopoly the second period from eighteen fifteen to eighteen sixty three counts during its forty eight years only twenty years of revival and prosperity against twenty eight of depression and stagnation between eighteen fifteen and eighteen thirty the competition with the continent of europe and with the united states sets in after eighteen thirty three the extension of the asianic markets is enforced by destruction of the human race the wholesale extinction of indian handloom weavers after the repeal of the corn laws from eighteen forty six to eighteen sixty three there are eight years of moderate activity and prosperity against nine years of depression and stagnation the condition of the adult male operatives even during the years of prosperity may be judged from the notes of joint footnote in an appeal dated eighteen sixty three of the factory operatives of Lancashire et cetera the purpose of forming a society for organized immigration we find the following that a large immigration of factory workers is now absolutely essential to raise them from their present prostrate condition few will deny but to show that a continuous stream of immigration is at all times demanded and without which it is impossible for them to maintain their position in ordinary times we beg to call attention to the subjoined facts in 1814 the official value of cotton goods exported was seventeen million six hundred sixty five thousand three hundred seventy eight pounds whilst the real marketable value was twenty million seventy thousand eight hundred twenty four pounds in 1858 the official value of cotton goods exported was one hundred eighty two million two hundred twenty one thousand six hundred eighty one pounds forty three million one thousand three hundred twenty two pounds being a tenfold quantity sold for little more than double the former price to produce results so disadvantageous to the country generally and to the factory workers in particular several causes have cooperated which had circumstances permitted we should have brought more prominently under your notice suffice it for the present to say that the most obvious one is the constant redundancy of labor without which a trade so ruinous in its effects never could have been carried on and which requires a constantly extending market to save it from annihilation our cotton mills may be brought to a stand by the periodical stagnations of trade which under present arrangements are as inevitable as death itself but the human mind is constantly at work and although we believe we are under the mark in stating that six millions of persons have left these shores during the last thirty-five years yet from the natural increase of population and the displacement of labor to cheap in production a large percentage of the male adults in the most prosperous times find it impossible to obtain work in factories on any conditions whatever reports of inspectors of factories thirty April eighteen sixty-three pages fifty one through fifty two we shall in a later chapter see how our friends the manufacturers have covered during the catastrophe in the cotton trade to prevent by every means including state interference the emigration of the operatives and note and part four chapter fifteen section seven chapter fifteen section eight of capital volume one this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Artha capital a critical analysis of capitalist production volume one by Karl Marx translated from the third German edition by Samuel Moore and Edward Aveling and edited by Frederick Engels part four production of relative surplus value chapter fifteen machinery and modern industry section eight production affected in manufacture handicrafts and domestic industry by modern industry a overthrow of cooperation based on handicraft and on the division of labor we have seen how machinery does away with cooperation based on handicrafts and with manufacture based on the division of handicraft labor an example the first sort is the mowing machine it replaces cooperation between mowers a striking example the second kind is the needle making machine according to Adam Smith ten men in his day made in cooperation over 40,000 needles a day on the other hand a single needle machine makes 145,000 in a working day of 11 hours one woman or one girl super intense for such machines and so produces 600,000 needles in a day and upwards of 3,000,000 in a week footnote 167 children's employment commission third report 1864 page 108 note 447 end of footnote 167 a single machine when it takes the place of cooperation or manufacture may itself serve as the basis of an industry of a handicraft character still such a return to handicrafts but a transition to the factory system which as a rule makes its appearance so soon as the human muscles are replaced for the purpose of driving the machines by a mechanical mode of power such as steam or water here and there but in any case only four time an industry may be carried on on a small scale by means of mechanical power this is affected by hiring steam power as is done in some of the Birmingham trades or by the use of small caloric engines as in some branches of weaving footnote 168 in the United States the restoration in this way of handicrafts based on machinery is frequent and therefore when the inevitable transition to the factory system shall take place the ensuing concentration will compared with Europe and even England stride on in seven league boots end of footnote 168 in the Coventry silk weaving industry the experiment of quote cottage industries unquote was tried in the center of a square surrounded by rows of cottages an engine house was built and the engine connected by shafts with the looms and the cottages in all cases the power was hired out at so much per loom the rent was payable weekly whether the looms worked or not each cottage held from two to six looms some belong to the weaver bought on credit somewhere hired the struggle between these cottage factories and the factory proper lasted over 12 years it ended with the complete ruin of the 300 cottage factories footnote 169 see report of inspectors of factories 31st of October 1865 page 64 in the footnote 169 wherever the nature of the process did not involve production on a large scale new industries that have sprung up in the last few decades such as envelope making steel pen making etc have as a general rule first passed through the handicraft stage and then the manufacturing stage as short phases of transition to the factory stage the transition is very difficult in those cases where the production of the article by manufacturer consists not of a series of graduate processes but of a great number of disconnected ones which formed a great hindrance to the establishment of steel pen factories nevertheless about 15 years ago a machine was invented that automatically performed six separate operations at once the first steel pens were supplied by the handicraft system in the year 1820 at 7 pounds for shillings to gross in 1830 they were supplied by manufacturer 8 shillings and today the factory system supplies them to the trade shillings to 6 pence the gross footnote 170 Mr. Gio erected in Birmingham the first steel pen factory in a large scale it produced so early as 1851 over 180 millions of pens yearly and consumed 120 tons of steel Birmingham has the monopoly of this industry in the United Kingdom and at present produces thousands of millions of steel pens according to the census of 1861 the number of persons employed was 1428 of whom 1268 females from 5 years of age upwards end of footnote 170 B. reaction of the factory system on manufacture and domestic industries along with the development of the factory system and of the revolution in agriculture that accompanies it production in all the other branches not only extends but alters its character the principle carried out in the factory system of analyzing the process of production into its constituent phases and of solving the problems thus proposed by the application of mechanics of chemistry and the whole range of natural sciences becomes the determining principle everywhere hence machinery squeezes itself into the manufacturing industries first for one detail process then for another thus the solid crystal of their organization based on the old division of labor becomes dissolved and makes way for constant changes independently of this a radical change takes place in the composition of the collective laborer a change of the persons working in combination in contrast with the manufacturing period the division of labor is then forth based wherever possible on the employment of women of children of all ages and of unskilled laborers in one word on cheap labor as it is characteristically called in England this is the case not only with all production on a large scale whether employing machinery or not but also with the so called domestic industry whether carried on in the houses of work people or in small workshops this modern so called domestic industry has nothing except the name in common with the old fashion domestic industry the existence of which presupposes independent urban handicrafts independent peasant farming and above all a dwelling house for the laborer and his family that old fashion industry has now been converted into an outside department of the factory the manufacturer or the warehouse besides the factory operatives the manufacturing workmen and the handicraftsmen whom concentrates in large masses at one spot and directly commands capital also sets in motion by means of invisible threads another army that of the workers in the domestic industries who dwell in the large towns and are also scattered over the face of the country an example the shirt factory of Monsieur's Tilly of London Berry which employs 1000 operatives in the factory itself and 9000 people spread up and down the country working in their own houses footnote 171 children's employment commission second report 1864 page 68 note 415 and the footnote 171 the exploitation of cheap and immature labor power is carried out in a more shameless manner in modern manufacture than in the factory proper this is because the technical foundation of the factory system namely the machines for muscular power and the light character of the labor is almost entirely absent in manufacture and at the same time women and over young children are subjected in the most unconscionable way to the influence of poisonous or injurious substances this exploitation is more shameless in the so-called domestic industry than in manufacturers and that because the power of resistance in the laborers decreases with their dissemination because a whole series of plundering parasites insinuate themselves between the employer and the workmen because the domestic industry has always to compete either with the factory system or with manufacturing the same branch of production because poverty roms the workmen of the conditions most essential to his labor of space light and ventilation because employment becomes more and more irregular and finally because in these last resorts of the masses made quote redundant unquote by modern industry and agriculture the competition for work attains its maximum economy in the means of production first systematically carried out in the factory system and there from the very beginning coincident with the most reckless squandering of labor power and robbery of the conditions normally requisite for labor this economy now shows its antagonistic and murderous side more and more in a given branch of industry the less the social productive power of labor and the technical basis for a combination of processes are developed in that branch see modern manufacturer I now proceed by a few examples to illustrate the principles laid down above as a matter of fact the reader is already familiar with numerous instances given in the chapter on the working day in the hardware manufacturers of Birmingham and the neighborhood there are employed mostly in very heavy work 30,000 children and young persons besides 10,000 women there they are to be seen in the unwholesome brass boundaries, button factories enameling, galvanizing and lacquering works footnote 172 and now forsooth children are employed at file cutting in Sheffield and the footnote 172 following to the excessive labor of their work people both adult and non-adult certain London houses where newspapers and books are printed in the settlement name of quote slaughterhouses unquote footnote 173 children's employment commission fifth report 1866 page 3 note 24 page 6 notes 55, 56 page 7 notes 59, 60 and the footnote 173 similar excesses are practiced in book binding where the victims are chiefly women, girls work in rope walks and night work in salt mines, candle manufacturers and chemical works young people are worked to death at turning the looms in silk weaving when it is not carried out by machinery footnote 174 local Citado pages 114, 115 notes 6 and 7 the commissioner justly remarks that though as a rural machines take the place of men here literally young persons replace machines and the footnote 174 one of the most shameful the most dirty and the worst paid kinds of labor and one on which women and young girls are by preference employed is the sorting of rags it is well known that Great Britain apart from its own immense store of rags is the emporium for the rag trade of the world they flow in from Japan for the most remote states of South America and from the Canary Islands but the chief sources of their supply are Germany, France, Russia, Italy Egypt, Turkey, Belgium and Holland they are used for a manure for making bed flocks for shoddy and they serve as a raw material of paper the rag soders are the medium for the spread of smallpox and other infectious diseases and they themselves are the first victims footnote 175 see the report on the rag trade the numerous details in the 12th 8th report London 1866 appendix pages 196-208 a classical example of overwork of hard and inappropriate labor and of its brutalizing effects on the workman from his childhood upwards is afforded not only by coal mining and miners generally but also by tile and brick making in which industry the recently invented machinery is in England used only here and there between May and September the work lasts from 5 in the morning till 8 in the evening and where the drying is done in the open air it often lasts from 4 in the morning till 9 in the evening work from 5 in the morning till 7 in the evening is considered quote reduced and quote moderate both boys and girls of 6 and even 4 years of age are employed they work for the same number of hours often longer than the adults the work is hard and the summer heat increases the exhaustion in a certain tile field at Moseley for example a young woman 24 years of age was in the habit of making 2,000 tiles a day with the assistance of two little girls who carried the clay up for her and stacked the tiles these girls carried daily 10 tons up the slippery sides of the clay pits from a depth of 30 feet and then for a distance of 210 feet quote it is impossible for a child to pass through the purgatory of a tile field without great moral degradation the low language which they are accustomed to hear from their tenderest years the filthy and decent and shameless habits admit switch unknowing and half wild they grow up make them an afterlife lawless, abandoned, desolute a frightful source of demoralization is the mode of living each molder who is always a skilled laborer and the chief of a group supplies his seven subordinates with board and lodging in his cottages the men, boys, and girls all sleep in the cottage which contains generally two exceptionally three rooms all on the ground floor and badly ventilated these people are so exhausted after the day's hard work that neither the rules of health nor decency are in the least observed many of these cottages are models of untightiness dirt and dust the greatest evil of the system that employs in girls at this sort of work in this, that as a rule it chains them fast from childhood for the whole of their afterlife to the most abandoned rabble they become rough, foul-mouthed boys before nature has taught them that they are women clothed in a few dirty rags the legs naked far above the knees hair and face besmeared with dirt they learn to treat all feelings of decency and of shame with contempt during meal times they lie at full length in the fields watch the boys bathing in a neighboring canal their heavy days work at length completed they put on better clothes and accompany the men to the public houses that excessive insipriety is prevalent from childhood upwards among the whole of this class is only natural the worst is that the brick makers despair of themselves he might as well said one of the better kind to a chaplain of Southall Field try to raise and improve the devil as a brickie footnote 176 children's employment commission fifth report 1866 pages 16-18 notes 86-97 in pages 103-133 notes 39-71 see also third report 1864 pages 48-56 and the footnote 176 as to the manner in which capital affects an economy in the requisites of labor in modern manufacture in which I include all workshops of larger size except factories proper official and most ample material bearing on it is to be found in the public health reports 4 1863 and 6 1864 the description of the workshops more especially those of the London printers and tailors surpasses the most loathsome fantasies of our romance writers the effect on the health of the work people is self-evident Dr. Simon chief medical officer of the privy council and the official editor of the public health reports says quote in my fourth report 1863 I showed how it is practically impossible for the work people to insist upon that which is their first sanitary right to wit the right that no matter what the work for which their employer brings them together the labor so far as it depends on him should be freed from all unavoidably unwholesome conditions I have pointed out that while the work people are practically incapable of doing themselves the sanitary justice they are unable to obtain any effective support from the paid administrators of the sanitary police the life of myriads of work men and work women is now uselessly tortured and shortened by the never ending physical suffering that their mere occupation begets unquote footnote 177 public health 6 report pages 29 31 end of footnote 177 in illustration of the way in which the work rooms influence the state of health Dr. Simon gives the following table of mortality number of persons of all ages employed in agriculture in England and Wales 958,265 death rate per 100,000 men between the stated ages age 25 to 35 743 age 35 to 45 805 age 45 to 55 1145 number of persons of all ages employed as London tailors 22,301 men 12,379 women death rate per 100,000 men between the stated ages age 25 to 35 958 age 35 to 45 1262 age 45 to 55 2093 number of persons of all ages employed as London printers 13803 death rate per 100,000 men between the stated ages age 25 to 35 894 age 35 to 45 1747 age 45 to 55 2367 footnote 178 local sitado page 30 Dr. Simon remarks that the mortality among the London tailors and printers between the ages of 25 and 35 is in fact much greater because the employers in London obtain from the country a great number of young people up to 30 years of age as quote apprentices and quote improvers who come for the purpose of being perfected in their trade these figure in the census says Londoners they swell out the number of heads on which the London death rate is calculated without adding proportionally to the number of deaths in that place the greater part of them in fact return to the country and especially in cases of severe illness end of footnote 178 D. Modern domestic industry I now come to the so called domestic industry in order to get an idea of the horrors of this sphere in which capital conducts its exploitation in the background of modern mechanical industry one must go to the apparently quite a delictorative nail making carried on in a few remote villages in England footnote 179 I allude here to hammered nails cut out and made by machinery see children's employment commission third report pages 1119 notes 125 through 130 page 52 note 11 page 114 note 487 page 137 note 64 and the footnote 179 in this place however it will be enough to give a few examples from those branches of the lace making and straw plating industries that are not yet carried on by the aid of machinery and that as yet do not compete with branches carried on in the factories or manufacturers of the 150,000 persons employed in England in the production of lace about 10,000 fall under the authority of the factory act 1861 almost the whole of the remaining 140,000 are women, young persons and children of both sexes being weakly represented the state of health of this cheap material for exploitation will be seen from the following table computed by Dr. Truman positioned to the Nottingham General Dispensory out of 686 female patients who were lace makers most of them between the ages of 17 and 24 the number of consumptive ones were 1852 145 1853 128 1554 1117 1855 1118 1856 115 1857 1113 1858 115 1859 119 1860 1861 The Employment Commission second report page 22 Note 166 End of footnote 180 This progress and the rate of consumption autosophize for the most optimist of progressist and for the biggest talk or of lies among the free trade bagman of Germany The Factory Act of 1861 regulates the actual making of lace so far it is done by machinery and this is the rule in England the branches that we are now women solely with regard to those of the work-people who work at home and not those who work in manufactures or warehouses fall into two divisions, to wit, one, finishing, two, mending. The former gives the finishing touches to the machine-made lice and includes numerous subdivisions. The lice finishing is done either in what are called, quote, mistress' houses, unquote, or by women in their own houses with or without the help of their children. The women who keep the, quote, mistress' houses, unquote, are themselves poor. The work-room is in a private house. The mistress' take orders from manufacturers or from warehouse men and employ as many women, girls, and young children as the size of the rooms and the fluctuating demand of the business will allow. The number of work-woman employed in these work-rooms varies from 20 to 40 in some and from 10 to 20 in others. The average age at which the children commence work is six years, but in many cases it is below five. The usual working hours are from eight in the morning till eight in the evening with one and a half hours for meals, which are taken at irregular intervals and often in the fall work-rooms. When business is brisk, the labor frequently lasts from eight or even six o'clock in the morning till 10, 11, or 12 o'clock at night. In English barracks, the regulation space allotted to each soldier was 500 to 600 cubic feet, and in the military hospital was 1200 cubic feet. But in those finishing styes there are about 67 to 100 cubic feet to each person. At the same time, the oxygen of the air is consumed by gas lights. In order to keep the lace clean, and although the floor is tiled or gagged, the children are often compelled, even in winter, to pull off their shoes. Quote, it is not at all uncommon in Nottingham to find 14 to 20 children huddled together in a small room of perhaps not more than 12 feet square and employed for 15 hours out of the 24 at work that of itself is exhausting from its wariness and monotony, and is besides carried on under every possible unwholesome condition. Even the very youngest children work with a strained attention and a rapidity that is astonishing, hardly ever giving their fingers rest or slowering their motion. If a question be asked of them, they never raise their eyes from their work from fear of losing a single moment, unquote. The quote, long stick, unquote, is used by the mistresses as a stimulant more and more as the working hours are prolonged. Quote, the children gradually tire and become as restless as birds towards the end of their long detention at an occupation that is monotonous, ice-turning, and exhausting from the uniformity in the posture of the body. Their work is like slavery, unquote. Footnote 181, Children's Employment Commission's second report, pages 19, 20, 21. End of footnote 181. When women and their children work at home, which nowadays means in a hired room, often in a garret, the state of things is, if possible, still worse. This sort of work is given out within a circle of 80 miles radius from Nottingham. On leaving their warehouses at 9 or 10 o'clock at night, the children are often given a bundle of lace to take home with them and finish. The Pharisee of a capitalist represented by one of his servants accompanies this action, of course, with the unctuous phrase, quote, that's for mother, unquote, yet he knows well enough that the poor children must sit up and help. Footnote 182, Lococetado, pages 21, 22. End of footnote 182. Pillow lace making is chiefly carried on in England in two agricultural districts. One, the Honiton Lace district extending from 20 to 30 miles along the south coast of Devonshire and including a few places in north Devon. The other comprising a great part of the counties of Buckingham Bedford and Northampton and also the adjoining portions of Oxfordshire and Huntingtonshire. The cottages of the agricultural laborers are the places where the workers usually carried on. Many manufacturers employ upwards of 3,000 of these lace makers who are chiefly children and young persons of the female sex exclusively. The state of things described as incidental to lace finishing is here repeated, save that instead of the, quote, mistress's houses, unquote, we find what are called, quote, lace schools, unquote, kept by poor women in their cottages. From their fifth year and often earlier until their twelfth or fifteenth year, the children work in these schools. During the first year, the very young ones work from four to eight hours and later on from six in the morning till eight and 10 o'clock at night, quote, the rooms are generally the ordinary living rooms of small cottages. The chimney stopped up to keep out drafts. The inmates kept worn by their own animal heat alone and this frequently in winter. In other cases, the so-called school rooms are like small store rooms without fireplaces. The overcrowding in these dens and the consequent vidiation of the air are often extreme. Added to this is the injurious effect of drains, privies, decomposing substances, and other felt usual in the pearlless of the smaller cottages, unquote. With regard to space, quote, in one lace school, 18 girls and a mistress, 35 cubic feet each person. In another, where the smell was unbearable, 18 persons and 24 and a half cubic feet per head in this industry are to be found employed children of two and two and a half years, unquote. Footnote 183, loco citado, pages 29, 30, end of footnote 183, quote. The smaller of these numbers says one of the commissioners, Mr. White, represents less space than half of what a child would occupy if packed in a box measuring three feet in each direction, unquote. Thus do children enjoy life till the age of 12 or 14. The wretched half-starved parents think of nothing but getting as much as possible out of their children. The latter, as soon as they are grown up, do not care of farthing and naturally so for their parents and lead them. Quote, it is no wonder that ignorance and vice abound in the population so brought up. Their morality is at the lowest ab, a great number of the women have illegitimate children, and that at such an immature age, even those most conversant with criminal statistics are astounded, unquote. Footnote 184, loco citado, pages 11, 12, end of footnote 184. And the native land of these model families is the patterned Christian country for Europe. So says at least Count Montemberg, certainly a competent authority in Christianity. Wages in the above industries, miserable as they are, the maximum wages of a child in the straw plate schools rising in rare cases to three shillings are reduced far below their normal amount by the prevalence of the truck system everywhere, but especially in the lace districts. Footnote 185, Children's Employment Commission, first report, 1863, page 185, end of footnote 185. Subsection E, passage of modern manufacture and domestic industry into modern mechanical industry, the hastening of this revolution by the application of the factory acts to these industries. The cheapening of labor power by sheer abuse of the labor of women and children, by sheer robbery of every normal condition requisite for working and living, and by the sheer brutality of overwork and night work meets at last with natural obstacles that cannot be overstepped. So also, when based on these methods, do the cheapening of commodities and capitalist exploitation in general. So soon as this point is at last reached, and it takes many years, the hour has struck for the introduction of machinery and for the dense forth rapid conversion of the scattered domestic industries and also for manufacturers into factory industries. An example on the most colossal scale of this movement is afforded by the production of wearing apparel. This industry, according to the classification of the Children's Employment Commission, comprises straw hat makers, ladies hat makers, cat makers, tailors, milleners and dress makers, shirt makers, corset makers, glove makers, shoemakers, besides many minor branches such as the making of neckties, collars, etc. In 1861, the number of females employed in these industries, in England and Wales, amounted to 586,299 of these, 150,242 at the least were under 20 and 16,650 under 15 years of age. The number of these work women in the United Kingdom in 1861 was 740,334. The number of males employed in England and Wales in hat making, shoe making, glove making and tailoring was 437,969. Of these, 14,964 under 15 years, 89,285 between 15 and 20 and 333,117 over 20 years. Many of the smaller branches are not included in these figures. But take the figures as they stand. We then have for England and Wales alone, according to the census of 1861, a total of 1,024,277 persons about as many as are absorbed by agriculture and cattle breeding. We begin to understand what becomes of the immense quantities of goods conjured up by the magic of machinery and of the enormous masses of work people that machinery sets free. The production of wiring apparel is carried on partly in manufactures in whose work rooms there is but a reproduction of that division of labor, the member disjuncta of which were found ready to hand. Partly by small master hand craftsmen these however do not as formerly work for individual consumers but for manufactures and warehouses and to such an extent that often whole towns and stretches of country carry on certain branches such as shoe making as a specialty. Finally on a very great scale by the so-called domestic workers who form an external department of the manufactures warehouses and even of the workshops of the smaller masters. Footnote 186, in England millinery and dress making are for the most part carried on on the premises of the employer partly by work women who live there partly by women who live off the premises and footnote 186. The raw material etc is supplied by mechanical industry the mass of cheap human material is composed of the individuals quote liberated unquote by mechanical industry and improved agriculture. The manufacturers of this class owed their origin chiefly to the capitalist need of having in hand an army ready equipped to meet any increase of demand. Footnote 187, Mr. White a commissioner visited a military clothing manufacturing that employed 1,000 to 1,200 persons almost all females and a shoe manufacturing with 1,300 persons of these nearly one half were children and young persons and footnote 187. These manufacturers nevertheless allow the scattered handicrafts and domestic industries to continue to exist as a broad foundation. The great production of surplus value in these branches of labor and the progressive cheating of their articles were and are chiefly due to the minimum wages paid no more than requisite for a miserable vegetation and to the extension of working time up to the maximum durable by the human organism. It was in fact by the cheapness of the human sweat and the human blood which were converted into commodities that the markets were constantly being extended and continued daily to be extended. More especially was this the case with England's colonial markets where besides English tastes and habits prevailed. At last the critical point was reached. The basis of the old method sheer brutality in the exploitation of the work people accompanied more or less by a systematic division of labor no longer suffice for the extending markets and for the still more rapidly extending competition of the capitalist. The owl had struck for the advent of machinery the decisively revolutionary machine the machine which attacks in an equal degree the whole of the numberless branches of the sphere of production dress making tailoring shoe making sewing hat making and many others is the sewing machine. Its immediate effect on the work people is like that of all machinery which since the rise of modern industry has seized upon new branches of trade children of two tender and age are sent to drift the wage of the machine hands rises compared with that of the house workers many of whom belong to the poorest of the poor that of the better situated handicraftsmen with whom the machine competes sinks the new machine hands are exclusively girls and young women with the help of mechanical force they destroy the monopoly that male labor had of the heavier work and they drive off in the lighter work numbers of old women and very young children the overpowering competition crosses the weakest of the manual laborers the fearful increase in death from starvation during the last 10 years in London runs parallel with the extension of machine sewing footnote 188 an instance the weekly report of deaths by the registered general dated 26th of February 1864 contains five cases of death from starvation on the same day the Times reports another case six symptoms of starvation in one week and footnote 188 the new work woman turned the machines by hand and foot or by hand alone sometimes sitting sometimes standing according to the weight size and special make of the machine and expend a great deal of labor power their occupation is unwholesome owing to the long hours although in most cases they are not so long as under the old system wherever the sewing machine locates itself in narrow and already overcrowded work rooms it adds to the unwholesome influences the effect says mr. Lord on entering low-ceiling work rooms in which 30 to 40 machine hands are working is unbearable the heat partly due to the gas stoves used for warming the irons is horrible even when moderate hours of work i.e. from eight in the morning till six in the evening prevail in such places yet three or four persons fall into a swoon regularly every day footnote 189 children's employment commission second report 1864 page 67 notes 406 through 409 page 84 notes 124 page 73 note 441 page 68 note 6 page 84 note 126 page 78 note 85 page 76 note 69 page 72 note 483 end footnote 189 the revolution in the industrial methods which is the necessary result of the revolution of the instruments of production is affected by a medley of transition forms these forms vary according to the extent to which the sewing machine has become prevalent in one branch of industry or the other to the time during which it has been an operation to the previous condition of the work people to the preponderance of manufacturer of handicrafts domestic industry to the rent of the work rooms etc footnote 190 quote the rental of premises required for work rooms seems the element which ultimately determines the point and consequently it is in the metropolis that the old system of giving work out to small employers and families has been longest retained and earliest returned to unquote local satado page 83 note 123 the concluding statement in this quotation refers exclusively to shoemaking end footnote 190 in dress making for instance where the labor for the most part was already organized chiefly by simple cooperation the sewing machine at first formed merely a new factor in that manufacturing industry in tailoring shirt making shoe making etc all the forms are intermingled here the factory system proper their middlemen received the raw material from the capitalist on chef and grew around their sewing machines and quote chambers unquote and quote garret's unquote from 10 to 50 or more work women finally as is always the case with machinery when not organized into a system and when it can also be used in dwarfish proportions handicraftsmen and domestic workers along with their families or with a little extra labor from without make use of their own sewing machines footnote 191 in glove making and other industries where the condition of the work people is hardly distinguishable from that of paupers this does not occur and footnote 191 the system actually prevalent in england is that the capitalist concentrates a large number of machines on his premises and then distributes the produce of those machines for further manipulation amongst the domestic workers footnote 192 loco citado page 83 note 122 and footnote 192 the variety of the transition forms however does not conceal the tendency to conversion into the factory system proper this tendency is nurtured by the very nature of the sewing machine the manifold uses of which push on the concentration under one roof and one management of previously separated branches of a trade it also favored by the circumstance that preparatory needlework and certain other operations are most conveniently done on the premises where the machine is at work as well as by the inevitable expropriation of hand sewers and of the domestic workers who work with their own machines this fate has already in part overtaken them the constantly increasing amount of capital invested in sewing machines gives the spur to the production of and gluts the market with machine made articles thereby giving the signal to the domestic workers for the sale of their machines footnote 193 in the wholesale boot and shoe trade of lycaster alone there were in 1864 800 sewing machines already in use and footnote 193 the overproduction of sewing machines themselves causes their producers in bad want of sale to let them out for so much a week thus crushing by their deadly competition the small owners of machines footnote 194 locustato page 84 note 124 and footnote 194 constant changes in the construction of the machines and their ever-increasing cheapness deprecate day by day the older makes and allow their being sold in great numbers at absurd prices to large capitalists who alone can thus employ them at a profit finally the substitution of the steam engine for man gives in this as in all similar revolutions the finishing blow at first the use of seam power meets with mere technical difficulties such as unsteadiness in the machines difficulty in controlling their speed rapid wear and tear of the lighter machines etc all which are soon overcome by experience footnote 195 instances the army clothing depot at pymlico london the shirt factory of till a and henderson in london dairy and the closed factory of mr. tate at limmerk which employs about 1200 hands and footnote 195 if on the one hand the concentration of many machines in large manufacturers leads to the use of steam power on the other hand the competition of steam with human muscle hastens on the concentration of work people and machines in large factories thus england is at present experiencing not only in the colossal industry of making wearing apparel but in most of the other trades mentioned above the conversion or manufacture of handicrafts and of domestic work into the factory system after each of those forms of production totally changed and disorganized under the influence of modern industry has long ago reproduced and even overdone all the horrors of the factory system without participating in any of the elements of social progress it contains footnote 196 quote tendency to factory system unquote local citado page 67 quote the whole employment is at this time in a state of transition and is undergoing the same change as that affected in the lace trade weaving etc unquote local citado note 405 quote a complete revolution unquote local citado page 66 note 318 at the date of the children's employment commission of 1840 stocking making was still done by manual labor since 1846 various sorts of machines have been introduced which are now driven by steam the total number of persons for both sexes and of all ages from three years upwards employed in stocking making in England was in 1862 about 129,000 of these only 4063 were according to the parliamentary return of the 11th of February 1862 working under the factory acts and footnote 196 this industrial revolution which takes place spontaneously is artificially helped on by the extension of the factory acts to all industries in which women young persons and children are employed the compulsory regulation of the working day is regards its length pauses beginning and end the system of relays of children the exclusion of all children under a certain age etc necessitates on the one hand more machinery and the substitution of steam as a mode of power in the place of muscles footnote 197 thus for example in the earthenware trade the serious Cochrane of the britain pottery Glasgow report quote to keep up our quantity we have gone extensively into machines brought by unskilled labor and every day convinces us that we can produce a greater quantity than by the old method unquote report of inspectors of factories 31st of October 1865 page 13 quote the effect of the factory acts is to force on the further introduction of machinery unquote local Satado pages 13 through 14 and footnote 197 footnote 198 thus after the extension of the factory acts to the potteries great increase of power jiggers in place of hand move jiggers and footnote 198 on the other hand in order to make up for the loss of time an expansion occurs of the means of production used in common of the furnaces buildings etc in one word greater concentration of the means of production and a correspondingly greater concourse of work people the chief objection repeatedly and passionately urged on behalf of each manufacturer threatened with the factory act is in fact this that in order to continue the business on the old scale a greater outlay of capital will be necessary but as regards labor in the so-called domestic industries and the intermediate forms between them and manufacture so soon as limits are put to the working day and to the employment of children those industries go to the wall unlimited exploitation of cheap labor power is the sole foundation of their power to compete one of the essential conditions for the existence of the factory system especially when the length of the working day is fixed is certainly in the result i.e. the production in a given time of a given quantity of commodities or of a given useful effect the statutory pauses in the working day moreover imply the assumption that periodic on sudden cessation of the work does no harm to the article undergoing the process of production the certainty in the result and this possibility of interrupting the work are of course easier to be attained in the purely mechanical industries than those in which chemical and physical processes play a part as for instance in the earthenware trade in bleaching dying baking and in most of the metal industries wherever there is a working day without restriction as to length wherever there is night work and unrestricted waste of human life the slightest obstacle presented by the nature of the work to a change for the better is soon looked upon as an everlasting barrier erected by nature no poison kills vermin with more certainty than the factory act removes such everlasting barriers no one made a greater outcry over quote impossibilities unquote than our friends the earthenware manufacturers in 1864 however they were brought under the act and within 16 months every quote impossibility unquote had vanished quote the improved method unquote called forth by the act quote of making slip by pressure instead of by evaporation the newly constructive stoves for drying the wear in its green state etc are each events of great importance in the pottery art and mark in advance which the preceding century could not rival it has even considerably reduced the temperature of the stoves themselves with a considerable saving of fuel and with the ready effect on the wear unquote footnote 199 report of inspectors of factories 31st of october 1865 pages 96 and 127 and footnote 199 in spite of every prophecy the cost price of earthenware did not rise but the quantity produced did and to such an extent that the export for the 12 months ending december 1865 exceeded in value by 138,628 pounds the average of the preceding three years in the manufacturer of matches it was thought to be an indispensable requirement that boys even while bolting their dinner should go on dipping the matches in melted phosphorus the poisonous vapor from which rose into their faces the factory act 1864 made the saving of time and necessity and so forced into existence of dipping machine the vapor from which could not come in contact with the workers footnote 200 the introduction of this another machinery into matchmaking caused in one department alone 230 young persons to be replaced by 32 boys and girls of 14 to 17 years of age this saving and labor was carried still further in 1865 by the employment of steam power and footnote 200 so at the present time in those branches of the lace manufacturer not yet subject to the factory act it is maintained that the meal times cannot be regular only to the different periods required by the various kinds of lace for drying which periods vary from three minutes up to an hour or more to this the children's employment commission's answer quote the circumstances of this case are precisely analogous to that of the paper steamers dealt with in our first report some of the principal manufacturers in the trade urged that in consequence of the nature of the materials used and their various processes they would be unable without serious loss to stop for meal times at any given moment but it was seen from the evidence that by due care and previous arrangement the apprehended difficulty would be got over and accordingly by clause six of session six of the factory acts extension act pastoring this session of parliament an interval of 18 months is given to them for the passing of the act before they are required to conform to the meal hours specified by the factory acts unquote footnote 201 children's employment commission 11th report 1864 page 9 note 50 end footnote 201 hardly had the act been passed when our friends the manufacturers found out quote the inconveniences we expected to arise from the introduction of the factory acts into our branch of manufacturer I'm happy to say have not arisen we do not find the production at all interfered with in short we produce more in the same time unquote footnote 202 report of inspectors of factories 31st of October 1865 page 22 end footnote 202 it is evident that the English legislature would certainly no one will venture to reproach with being overdosed with genius has been led by experience to the conclusion that a simple compulsory law is sufficient to enact the way all the so-called impediments opposed by the nature of the process to the restriction and regulation of the working day hence on the introduction of the factory act into a given industry a period varying from six to 18 months is fixed within which it is incumbent on the manufacturers to remove all technical impediments to the working of the act mirabos impossible nobody's jammy so bad the more is particularly applicable to modern technology but though the factory acts thus artificially ripened the material elements necessary for the conversion of the manufacturing system to the factory system yet at the same time only to the necessity they impose for greater outlay of capital they hasten on the decline of the small masters in the concentration of capital footnote 203 quote but it must be more than mine that those improvements though carried out fully in some establishments are by no means general and are not capable of being brought into use in many of the old manufacturers without an expenditure of capital beyond the means of many of the present occupiers unquote quote i cannot but rejoice unquote writes sub inspector may quote that notwithstanding the temporary disorganization which inevitably follows the introduction of such a measure as the factory act extension act and is indeed directly indicative of the evils which it was intended to remedy etc. unquote report of inspectors of factories 31st of october 1865 end footnote 203 besides the purely technical impediments that are removable by technical means the irregular habits of the work people themselves obstruct the regulation of the hours of labor this is especially the case where peace wage predominates and where loss of time in one part of the day or week can be made good by subsequent overtime or by night work a process which brutalizes the adult worker and ruins his wife and children footnote 204 with blast furnaces for instance quote work towards the end of the week being generally much increased in duration consequence of the habit of the men of idling on monday and occasionally during a part of the whole of tuesday also unquote children's employment commission third report page six quote the little masters generally have very irregular hours they lose two or three days and then work all night to make it up they always employ their own children if they have any unquote locustado page seven quote the one of regularity in coming to work encouraged by the possibility and practice of making up for this by working longer hours unquote locustado page 18 quote in birmingham an enormous amount of time is lost idling part of the time slaving the rest unquote locustado page nine end footnote 204 although this absence of regularity in the expenditure of labor power is a natural rude reaction against the tedium of monotonous drudgery it originates also to a much greater degree from anarchy in production anarchy that in turn presupposes unbridled exploitation of labor power by the capitalist besides the general periodic changes of the industrial cycle and the special fluctuations in the markets to which each industry is subject we may also reckon what is called quote the season unquote dependent either on the periodicity of favorable seasons of the year for navigation or on fashion and the sudden placing of large orders that have to be executed in the shortest possible time the habit of giving such orders becomes more frequent with the extension of railways and telegraphs quote the extension of the railway system throughout the country has tended very much to encourage giving short notice purchases now come up from Glasgow Manchester and Edinburgh once every fortnight or so to the wholesale city warehouses which we supply and give small orders requiring immediate execution instead of buying from stock as they used to do years ago we were always able to work in the slack times so as to meet demand of the next season but now no one can say beforehand what will be the demand then unquote footnote 205 children's employment commission fourth report page 32 quote the extension of the railway system is said to have contributed greatly to this custom of giving sudden orders and the consequent hurry neglect of meal times and late hours of the work people unquote lucasitado page 31 end footnote 205 in those factories and manufacturers that are not yet subject to the factory acts the most fearful overwork prevails periodically during what is called the season in consequence of sudden orders in the outside department of the factory of the manufacturer and of the warehouse the so-called domestic workers whose employment is at best irregular are entirely dependent for their raw material and their orders on the crease of the capitalist who in this industry is not hampered by any regard for depreciation of his buildings and machinery and risk nothing by a stoppage of work for the skin of the worker himself here then he sets himself systematically to work to form an industrial reserve force that shall be ready at a moment's notice during one part of the year he decimates this force by the most inhuman toil during the other part he lets it starve for want of work quote the employers avail themselves of the habitual irregularity of the homework when any extra work is wanted at a push so that the work goes on till 11 and 12 p.m. or 2 a.m. or as the usual phrase is quote at all hours unquote and that in localities where quote the stench is enough to knock you down you go through the door perhaps and open it but shutter to go further unquote unquote footnote 206 children's employment commission fourth report page 35 notes 235 237 and footnote 206 quote they are curious men unquote said one of the witnesses a shoemaker speaking of the masters quote they think it does a boy no harm to work too hard for half the year if he is nearly idle for the other half unquote footnote 207 children's employment commission fourth report page 127 node 56 and footnote 207 in the same way as technical impediments so too those quote usages which have grown with the growth of trade unquote were and still are proclaimed by interested capitalists as obstacles due to the nature of the work this was a favorite cry of the cotton lords at the time they were first threatened with the factory acts although their industry more than any other depends on navigation yet experience has given them the lie since then every pretended obstruction to business has been treated by the factory inspectors as a mere sham footnote 208 with respect to the loss of trade by non completion of shipping orders in time i remember that this was the pet argument of the factory masters in 1832 and 1833 nothing that can be advanced now in the subject could have the force that it had then before steam had halved all distances and established new regulations for transit it quite failed at that time approved when put to the test and again it will certainly fail should it have to be tried unquote reports of inspectors of factories 31st of october 1862 pages 54 55 and footnote 208 the thoroughly conscientious investigations of the children's employment commission proved that the effect of the regulation of the hours of work in some industries was to spread the massive labor previously employed more evenly over the whole year that this regulation was the first rational bridal on the murderous meaningless caprices of fashion the priests that consorts so badly with the system of modern industry that the development of ocean navigation and of the means of communication generally has swept away the technical basis on which season work was really supported and that all the other so-called unconquerable difficulties vanish before larger buildings additional machinery increase in the number of work people employed and the alterations caused by all these in the mode of conducting the wholesale trade footnote 208 a children's employment commission fourth report page 18 note 118 and footnote 208 a footnote 208 b john bellers remarked as far back as 1699 quote the uncertainty of fashions does increase necessitous poor it has two great mischiefs in it first the journeymen are miserable in winter for want of work the mercers and master weavers not daring to lay out their stocks to keep the journeymen employed before the spring comes and they know what the fashion will then be secondly in the spring the journeymen are not sufficient but the master weavers must draw in many apprentices that they may supply the trade of the kingdom in a quarter or half a year which robs the plow of hands drains the country of laborers and in a great part stocks the city with beggars and starve some in winter that are ashamed to beg unquote essays about the poor manufacturers etc page 9 and footnote 208 b footnote 209 children's employment commission fourth report page 171 note 34 and footnote 209 footnote 210 the evidence of some Bradford export houses is as follows quote under these circumstances it seems clear that no boys need to be worked longer than from 8 a.m. to 7 or 7 30 p.m. in making up it is merely a question of extra hands and extra outlight if some masters were not so greedy the boys would not work late an extra machine costs only 16 or 18 pounds much of such overtime as does occur is to be referred to an insufficiency of appliances and a want of space unquote children's employment commission fourth report page 171 notes 35 36 38 and footnote 210 footnote 211 local citado a london manufacturer who in other respects looks upon the compulsory regulation of the hours of labor as a protection for the work people against the manufacturers and for the manufacturers themselves against the wholesale trade states quote the pressure in our business is caused by the shippers who want for the sake of example to send the goods by sailing vessel so as to reach their destination at a given season and at the same time want to pocket the difference in freight between a sailing vessel and a steamship or who selected earlier of two steamships in order to be in the foreign market before their competitors and footnote 211 but for all that capital never becomes reconciled to such changes and this is admitted over and over again by its own representatives except quote under the pressure of a general act of parliament unquote for the compulsory regulation of the hours of labor footnote 212 quote this could be obviated unquote says a manufacturer quote at the expense of an enlargement of the works under the pressure of a general act of parliament unquote local citado page 10 note 38 and footnote 212 end of chapter 15 section 8 of capital volume 1