The Reports of the Inspectors of Factories in the United 
Kingdom for 1856 contain detailed returns relating to factory 
statistics, such as the number of factories, the amount of 
horse-power employed, the quantity of machinery, and the 
number of persons set to work. Similar returns were ordered by 
the House of Commons in 1835, 1838 and 1850, the information 
being compiled from schedules filled up by the mill-owners. 
Ample materials are thus afforded for comparing different 
periods of the factory system, which, in its legal sense, comprises 
the manufactories only where steam or water-power is employed 
for the production of textile fabrics. 

The most characteristic feature of the social history of the 
United Kingdom during the last six years is, undoubtedly, to be 
found in the rapid extension of that system. 

The following are the numbers of factories at the dates of the 
last three returns”: 

1838. 1850. 1856. 

Cotton Factories ............. 1,819 1,932 2,210 
Woolen Factories ............ 1,322 1,497 1,505 
Worsted Factories ........... 416 501 525 
Flax Factories ...............045 392 393 417 
Silk Factories ................006 268 277 460 
Total ....e ee. 4,217 4,600 5,117 

The average increase of factories, therefore, which from 1838 to 
1850 had been at the rate of 32 per annum, was almost tripled 
from 1850 to 1856, when it reached the rate of 86 yearly. An 
analysis of the aggregate increase during either epoch is given in 
the following summary ?: 

Aggregate Increase from 1838 Aggregate Increase from 1850 
to 1850. Bee to 1856. pete 
Cent. Cent 
Cotton Factories ..............065 6 Cotton Factories ........:.:.8 14.2 
Woolen ..nin ieee: 13 Wo len isc ccigsitssetesctsenteseeeievi 0.5 
WOrsted .icciveacliccdevetseasoseunans 20 Worsted 3 io5.cue esas 4.7 
PHAR cites deetsucsvaniccstentioateess 6.1 
SUNK sdec ccccdvcdadedideceatenseeseostanver 66.0 

From this table, it will be seen that during the former period 
the increase was confined to the cotton, woolen and worsted 
manufacture, while in the latter period it also embraces the flax and 
silk factories. The proportions in which the various branches share in 
the aggregate increase differ also in the two periods. During 
1838-50, the principal increase took place in the worsted and 
woolen trade, the latter of which appears almost stationary from 
1850-56, and the former falling back to a four times lesser speed 
of expansion. On the other hand, cotton and silk top the 
movement during the latter period, the silk manufacture occupy- 
ing the first rank in the proportional increase, and the cotton 
manufacture when the absolute increase is considered. 

The localities of this expansion have varied considerably, there 
taking place a migration, as it were, from one part of the country 
to the other. Hand in hand with the general increase, there goes a 
local decrease, amounting in many counties and boroughs to a 
complete extinction of manufactories before existing. The general 
law ruling these changes of decay as well as of growth is the same 
law which pervades modern industry in all its directions-—the law 
of concentration. Thus Lancashire, and the parts of Yorkshire 
adjoining it—the principal seat of the cotton manufacture—have 
drawn the trade from other parts of the kingdom. The number of 
cotton factories in Lancashire and Yorkshire having increased 
from 1838-56 by adding 411 to the previous number, they have 
decreased by 52 in the counties of Lanark (Glasgow), Renfrew » 

(Paisley), and Antrim. So, too, the woolen trade is becoming 
concentrated in Yorkshire; while 200 woolen manufactories have 
been added there, we find a corresponding decrease of 82 in 
Cornwall, Devon, Gloucester, Monmouth, Somerset, Wilts, Wales 
and Clackmannan. The worsted manufacture is almost exclusively 
confined to Yorkshire, in which county there has been an increase 
of 107 factories. The flax-trade is now more vigorous in Ireland 
than in any other part of the United Kingdom; but the increase of 
59 flax factories in Antrim, Armagh, Down and Tyrone, is 
accompanied by a decrease in Yorkshire of 31, in Devonshire, 
Dorsetshire and Gloucestershire of 9, and in Fifeshire of 18. To 
the increase of 76 silk factories in Cheshire, Derbyshire, Notting- 
ham and Gloucestershire, there corresponds a decrease by 13 in 
Somersetshire. In some instances, the decay in one manufacturing 
branch is compensated by the growth of another, so that the 
industrial migrations would appear to be only a more definite 
working out of the principle of the division of employments on a 
large scale. Yet, on the whole, this is not the case—the progress of 
the system rather tending to establish a division between industrial 
and agricultural provinces. In England, for instance, the southern 
counties of Wilts, Dorset, Somerset, Gloucester, are being rapidly 
divested of their manufactures, while the northern counties of 
Lancashire, Yorkshire, Warwick, Nottingham, are strengthening 
their industrial monopoly. Of the aggregate increase of factories in 
the United Kingdom from 1838 to 1856, reaching the number of 
900, Lancashire alone claims 360, Yorkshire 344, Warwick 71 and 
Nottingham 46—the increase in the two last-named counties 
having been caused by the introduction of improved machinery in 
two special trades—the adaptation of power to the stocking-frame 
at Nottingham, and the weaving of ribbons by power at Coventry. 

From the increase in the number of factories must be 
distinguished the increase in the amount of horse-power em- 
ployed, the latter not only depending on the addition of new mills, 
but also on the erection of more powerful engines in the old ones, 
the substitution of the steam-engine for water-power, the addition 
of steam-power to the waterwheel, and other similar contrivances. 
The following table contains a comparison of the nominal power 
of the factories in 1838, 1850 and 1856°: 

Horse-power employed in the factories 
in the United Kingdom. 

1838. 
Steam. Water. Total. 
Cotton: caves ier eA intent 46,826 12,977 59,803 
Wooléni..5 sack ks et ieiioeses thn deseds 11,525 9,092 20,617 
WOPrste scsissresicdeesadeateas beets Ge tieesee des 5,863 1,313 7,176 
Pl axis fessinas ch whoukoeones hea vereeseheese 7,412 3,677 11,089 
SUK. otis dacccdccssdeesaesaterteigostactasedseeeemons 2,457 927 3,384 
"TOtal sdiccccelshiasveaveesszs 75,083 21,986 102,069 
1850. 
Steam. Water. Total. 
COMMON Mas coke eR RAH 71,005 11,550 82,555 
W OOlER o2sienisclasteetaina ais 13,455 8,689 22,144 
Worsted ...........cccccceccsusesereonscscensneoes 9,890 1,625 11,515 
PYAR oie Sis Eee sede Gu teak eis 10,905 3,387 14,292 
Silke cyte hee ase oü bbe 2,858 853 3,711 
"TOtal ch civiincneecakt 108,113 26,104 134,217 
1856. 
Steam. Water. Total. 
COMO ak 5 aoe reeds Rater ekotvaeds 88,001 9,131 97,132 
WOOlER aot ein eecklee neck endothe aloes 17,490 8,411 25,901 
WOrsted 2s BH AN AAR ea es 13,473 1,431 14,904 
PAX cases ecrsesteatist eee wadiccsnoenen aoa 14,387 3,935 18,322 
Silk a Seatudaneseatad dec ae deuweseenseeseecerocei gees 4,360 816 5,176 
Total cvaimaeatncies 137,711 23,724 161,435 

Great as the increase of the power apparent from the figures 
undoubtedly is—59,366 horse-power between 1838 and 1856—it 
falls, nevertheless, much below the actual additional force available 
and in motion for manufacturing purposes. The figures given in 
the return all relate to the nominal power only of the engines and 
wheels, and not to the power actually employed or capable of 
being employed. The modern steam-engine of 100 horse-power is 
‘capable of being driven at a much greater force than formerly, 
arising from improvements in its arrangements, the capacity and 
construction of the boilers, etc.; and thus its nominal power cannot 
be considered as other than an index from which its real 

capabilities may be calculated. Mr. Nasmyth, the civil engineer, 
after. an explanation of the nature of recent improvements in the 
steam-engine, by which the same engine can be made to perform 
more work with: a diminished consumption of fuel, sums up 
results as follows *: 

“From the same weight of steam-engine machinery, we are now obtaining at 
least 50 per cent. more work performed, on the average, and, in many cases, the 
identical steam-engines which, in the days of the restricted speed of 220 feet per 
minute, yielded 50 horse-power, are now yielding upward of 100.” 

By comparing the increase of horse-power with that of factories, 
the concentration of the woolen industry in some few hands 
becomes evident. Though in 1856 there were but eight more 
woolen factories than in 1850, yet the power employed in them 
had increased 3,757 horses during the same period. The same 
tendency to concentration is evidently working in the cotton, 
worsted and flax-spinning factories. The number of spindles in 
the United Kingdom amounting respectively: in 1850 and 1856 to 
25,638,716 and to 33,503,580, the average number of spindles in 
each factory was as follows”: 

1850. 1856. 
Cotton ........ccceee 14,000 17,000 
Worsted ............655 2,200 3,400 
Baws sssss cas av ecentavdin 2,700 3,700 

In the weaving factories, it is true, the tendency seems to be to 
an extension of the trade among many occupiers rather than to its 
concentration among a few, the total number of looms being 
369,205 in 1856, against 301,445 in 1850, while the average 
number employed by each manufacturer is less in 1856 than in 
1850. However, this apparent deviation from the general tendency 
of the British factory system is easily accounted for by the fact that 
in the weaving department the introduction of the factory system 
is of comparatively recent date, and has: not yet quite superseded 
the hand-loom system. In 1836, steam power was employed almost 
exclusively for cotton looms, or for fabrics mixed with cotton; but 
some years later there was a rapid increase in the number of 
power-looms for all fabrics, for fabrics of woolen, worsted, flax 
and silk, and this increase continues to the present time. The 
following statement shows the increase of power-looms since 

1836°: 

1836. 1850. 1856. 
COWON: siis5.255 th BAe dee 108,751 249,627 298,847 
W OGlER oeceeiccsvt cette eG 2,150 9,439 14,453 
WI OPSUC GE oeaek tat/cel cat tsa ureitena se venesdiiees 2,969 32,617 38,956 
CLI fesse ee ell ates ax andtuaivacutuarchoduct 1,714 6,092 9,260 
PAS 86 oe Gecea, Ses tulenlaee stun Sesiuts asst 209 3,670 7,689 
Total ....... 115,793 301,445 369,205 

The increase of cotton looms resulted from the extension of 
trade, not from the appliance of power to articles formerly woven 
by hand solely; but in the other fabrics power is now applied to 
the carpet loom, the ribbon loom, and the linen loom, where it 
had hitherto been little used. The application of power to wool 
combing, which has come extensively into operation since the 
introduction of the combing machine, especially of Lister’s, has 
also had the effect to throw a large number of men out of work. 

The extent of the increased power of production is clearly 
shown by comparing the export returns. In 1850, there being in 
activity 1,932 cotton factories, the average value of cotton goods 
and yarn exported in the three years ending January 5, 1850, was, 
in round numbers, £24,600,000. If the 2,210 cotton factories in 
activity in 1856 had produced goods or yarn in the same 
proportion only as the factories of 1850, the value of the exports 
would be £28,000,000. Yet the average value of these exports, in 
the three years ending December 31, 1855, amounted to about 
£31,000,000. The case with the woolen and worsted factories is 
similar. We see, then, that while the quantity of machinery kept in 
motion by each horse-power has considerably increased, the 
number of persons employed for each horse- -power has remained 
stationary, viz.: 4 persons, on an average. This is shown by the 
following table*: 

Totai number of persons employed. 

1838. 1850. 1856. 
GOUOM. aceiiasisriieleaseisbansissnesneces 259,104 330,924 379,213 
W. OONEBN 4 shctoxtiex tivloiastirheoctadiarn tame ctosts 54,808 74,443 79,091 
WOT SHE fustiin Ko cent Since, 31,628 79,737 87,794 
BAR akc est neds Oa ech castnn eae aaniehede Sl eavee Gas 43,557 68,434 80,262 
SENN ee Nas tas otstaracsictvda tae ie shcas ienbecigiensees 34,303 42,544 56,137 
Total ...... 423,400 596,082 682,497 

The aggregate working population of 682,497, appears small 
indeed, if it 1s considered that the number of handloom weavers 
and their families, in 1838, alone amounted to about 800,000 per- 
sons. The following table shows the centesimal proportion of the 
different classes of hands employed.* 

Children Males Females Males 
under 13. bet’n above 13. above 18. 
13 & 18. 
1838 5.9 16.1 55.2 22.8 
1850 6.1 11.5 55.9 26.5 
1856 6.6 10.6 57.0 25.8 

Between 1838 and 1850 the number of children employed had 
increased, but not in proportion to the general increase. The 
increase in the number of children between 1850 and 1856 is very 
considerable, amounting, as it does, to 10,761, of which 9,655 have 
been absorbed by the cotton trade. It may still be mentioned that 
the philanthropic law of 1844 permitted children to be employed 
in factories at 8 years of age, while prior to that it was illegal to 
employ them under 9 years of age.*”’ 

Written on April 10, 1857 Reproduced from the newspaper 

Tribune, No. 4999, April 28, 1857