Karl Marx 
The State of British Manufacturing Industry 

The State of British 
Manufacturing Industry. 

Correspondence of The N.Y. Tribune. 
London, July 10, 1860. 

The reports of the Inspectors of Factories, which have just been issued, 
comprise three reports only; the district lately vacated by Mr. Leonard 
Horner having been annexed partly to Sir John Kincaid's district (Scotland), 
and partly to Mr. Redgrave's district, now comprising 3,075 factories and 
printworks; while Mr.Robert Baker's district (Ireland, and some parts of 
England), remains within its old boundaries. The following is a general 
abstract, showing the total number of accidents reported to the three In- 
spectors during the six months ended the 30th April, 1860: 

Accidents Arising from Machinery. 

Adults Young Children Total 
TSONS 

Nature of Injury. M. F. M. F. M. F. M. F. Total 
Causing death ....... 14 3 qe 2. 2 2 23. A 30 
Amputation of right 

56 3 1 1 9 7 16 
Amputation of left 

4 1 7 3 b= 2 4 16 
Amputation of part 

23 24 29 22 5 7 697 5 120 
Amputation of part 

[Adults] [Young [Children] [Total] 

persons] 
[M] F] [M] F] [MM] F] IMIIF] [Total] 

Amputation of any 
part of leg or foot ... 5 - 1 - B 6 - 6 
Fracture of limbs and 
bones of trunk... .... 30 1 43 1 ll 4 84 26 110 
Fracture of hand 
or foot. 0.000... 39 43 30 37 20 15 89 95 1% 
Injuries to head 
and face.......... 20 17 23 29 ll 4 54 40 94 
Lacerations, contusions 
and other injuries not 
enumerated above . .. 268 255 315 352 18 66 711 678 13% 

Total. .......... 424 377 479 465 197 105 1100 47 2,047 

Accidents not Arising from Machinery. 
Total eer na‘ 3 30 59 26 21 10 163 66 229 

The reports are unanimous in bearing witness to the extraordinary activity 
of trade during the half year. Such was the demand for work that in some 
branches of industry the supply of labor was insufficient. This difficulty was 
less prevalent in the woolen manufactures, where improved machinery 
allowed the manufacturers to dispense with manual labor, than in cotton and 
worsted factories, where much machinery has been standing for want of 
hands, particularly of the younger. Some vicious methods have been adopted 
in past times to meet this transitory deficiency of labor. In the infancy of 
the factory system, when manufacturers were in want of labor, it was ob- 
tained directly by application to the overseers of some distant parish, who 
forwarded a certain number of apprentices, children of tender age, who were 
bound to the manufacturers for a term of years. The children being once 
apprenticed, the Poor-Law officers congratulated their respective parishes 
on their deliverance from idle mouths, while the manufacturer proceeded 
to make the best of his bargain by keeping them at the most economical rate, 
and by screwing from them all the labor of which they were capable. Hence 
the first of the series of Factory acts passed in 1802, 42 Geo. III., Cap. 73, 
has for its title, "An act for the preservation of the health and morals of 
apprentices and others employed in cotton and other mills, and cotton and 
other factories," and was merely intended to mitigate the evils of the ap- 
prenticeship system. But as improvements were made in machinery, a dif- 
ferent kind of labor was wanted, when trade became brisk and the population 
of the neighborhood failed to supply the mills with their full complement of 
hands. These manufacturers sent to Ireland, and brought over Irish families; 

but Ireland has ceased to be the market from which a supply of labor can 
be procured on English demand, and manufacturers have now to look to the 
Southern and Western counties of England and Wales for families which can 
be tempted by the present rate of wages in the Northern Counties to com- 
mence a new career of industry. Agents have been sent throughout the 
country, to set forth the advantages offered to families by removing to the 
manufacturing districts, and they are empowered to make arrangements for 
the emigration to the North. Many f amilies are said to have been forwarded 
by these agents. Still, the importation into a manufacturing town of aman 
with his wife and family has this peculiar disadvantage, that while the 
younger members of the family, who can soon be taught, and whose services 
become valuable in a comparatively short period, are most in request, there 
is no ready demand for the labor of the man and his wife, unskilled in factory 
labor. This has induced some manufacturers to return, in some measure, to 
the old apprenticeship system, and to enter into engagements for specific 
periods, with boards of guardians, for the labor of destitute pauper children. 
In these cases, the manufacturer lodges, clothes and feeds the children, but 
pays them no regular wages. With the return of this system, complaints of 
its abuse seem also to have revived. However, this kind of labor, it should 
be remembered, would only be sought after when none other could be 
procured, for it is a high-priced labor. The ordinary wages of a boy of 13 
would be about 4 shillings per week; but to lodge, to clothe, to feed and to 
provide medical attendance and proper superintendence for 50 or 100 of 
these boys, and to set aside some remuneration for them, could not be 
accomplished for 4 shillings a head per week. 

A comparison of the rate of wages paid to factory operatives in 1839 and 
that paid in 1859 proves the highly interesting fact that the rate of wages has 
risen, at least nominally, in factories where the hours of work were restricted 
to 60 per week, while, with a few exceptions, a real reduction has been 
suffered in the printing, bleaching, and dyeing works in which the labor of 
children, young persons and women is unrestricted, and where they are at 
times employed fourteen and fifteen hours per day. The following statements 
have reference to the cotton trade in Manchester and its neighborhood: 

Weekly Wages. 

1839. 1859. 
69 60 
Occupations. 
Steam-engine tender. . .............. 24sh. 30sh. 
Warehouse boys... 2... 7 8 
18 22 
Carding department—Scutchers (young 
1 8 

[Occupations.] [1839] [1859.] 
Skippers (young men)... ........... 11 14 
Overlookers. . 2 25 28 
Card minders (boys from 14 to 18) .... 6 7 
Drawing-frame tenders (young women). 6 6d. 8 

Spinning department—Spinners on self- 

16 to 18 20 to 23 
Piecers (women and young men)... . . 8 10 
20 20 

Doubling department—Doublers (women) . 7 9 

Doffers (girls)... 4 5 
24 28 
Jobbers (young men). ............. 10 13 

In the reeling, gassing and power-loom departments, there has also been a 

slight increase of wages. The anticipations of those who warned the factory 
operatives that they would seriously suffer by the diminution of their hours 
of work, have thus been completely disappointed. Compare, on the other 
hand, the movement of wages in those branches where the hours of daily 
labor are legally unrestricted: 

Calico-Printing, Dyeing, Bleaching, Sixty Hours per Week. 

Weekly Wages. 
1839, 1859. 
Color-mixer,........0............ 35 32 
Machine-printer.................. 40 38 
Foreman....................... 40 40 
Block-eutter. . 22220000. 35 25 
Block-printer................... 40 28 
DYER wie meaa a ore Gans eg eee R 18 16 
Washer and laborer... .........2...... 16 and 15 16 and 15 
Fustian-Dyeing, Sixty-One Hours per Week. 

Dressers ran ana, 18 22 
Bleachers... ..................... 21 18 
Dye. a4 Deron ape nd garded Aa 4 ig 21 16 
Finishers: sani su eu Be rn 21 22 

By far the most interesting portion of the Reports of Mr. Alexander Redgrave 
and Sir John Kincaid relates to the development and extension of cooperative 
societies for the erection and working of mills in Lancashire, and also to some 
degree in Yorkshire. These cooperative societies, which have multiplied 
since the passing of the Limited Liability Act, are generally composed of 

operatives. Each society has a capital of £10,000 and upward, divided into 
shares of £5 and £10, with power to borrow in certain proportions to the 

capital subscribed, the money borrowed being made up of small loans by 
operatives and persons of the like class. In Bury, for instance, upward of 
£300,000 will be required to put the cooperative mills there built and building 
into working order. In cotton spinning mills the spinners and persons em- 
ployed are frequently shareholders in the same mill, working for wages and 
receiving interest upon their shares. In cotton-weaving sheds, the partners 
frequently hire and work looms. This is attractive to operatives, because no 
great capital is required to start them in their undertaking. They purchase 
the yarn ready for the loom, weave the cloth, and the factory operation is 

completed ; or else they receive the yarn from some manufacturer who trades 

with them, and return to him the woven fabric. But this cooperative system 
is not confined to the spinning and weaving of cotton. It has extended to the 
trade on avariety of articles of consumption, suchas flour, groceries, draper- 
ies, etc. 

The following report, drawn up by Mr. Patrick, one of Sir John Kincaid's 
sub-inspectors, contains some valuable information in regard to the progress 
of this new system of mill-ownership, which, I am afraid, will be put to a 
severe test by the next industrial crisis. 

"May 16,1860. 
There has been a cooperative company in existence at Rochdale, under the 
style of the 'New Bacup and Wardle Commercial Company,’ for about twelve 
years. They are incorporated under the Joint Stock Companies Act, and 
unlimited. They commenced operations at Clough House Mill, Wardle, near 
Rochdale, with power to raise a capital of £100,000, in shares of £12 10s., 
£20,000 of which was paid up. They then increased to £30,000, and about five 
years ago built a large factory, Far Holme Mill, near Stackstead, of 
100 horse-power steam, in addition to Clough House Mill; and the half year 
ending October last they paid a dividend at the rate of 44 per cent on the 
paid-up capital (Mr. Patrick reports on the 11th June, that the New Bacup 
and Wardle Commercial Company, 'Far Holme Mill, Bacup,' have just 
declared another dividend of 48 per cent on the paid-up capital), and they 
have now increased their capital to the sum of £60,000, and have largely 
increased their Far Holme Mill, near Stackstead, in this neighborhood, 
requiring two more engines of 40 horse-power each, which they are about 
to put down. The large majority of shareholders are operatives who work 
in the factory, but receive wages as workmen, and have no more to do with 
the management than to give their vote to the annual Election of the Com- 
mittee of Management. I have been through the Far Holme Mill this morning, 
and can report that, so far as the Factory Act is concerned, it is as well 
conducted as any in my division. I think, though I did not ask them the 
question, that they have borrowed money at 5 per cent interest. 

There has been another in existence in the neighborhood of Bacup about 
six years, trading under the firm of the 'Rossendale Industrial Association.’ 
They built a factory; but, I am told, were not thriving, in consequence of 
the want of sufficient funds. This, also, was onthe cooperative system. The 
firm has now been changed to 'The Rossendale Industrial Company,’ and 
are incorporated under the Limited Liabilities Act, with power to raise a 
capital of £200,000. £40,000 has been taken in shares of £10 each, and they 
have borrowed about £4,000. This £4,000 has been borrowed from small 
capitalists, in sums from £150 down to £10, without any mortgages being 
given. When this cooperative company first started, every shareholder was 
an operative. In addition to the Wear mill, that referred to as having been 
built by the Rossendale Industrial Association, they have now bought of 
Messrs. R. Mum Bros., Irwell Mills, in Bacup, and are working the two. 
The prosperity and success of the New Bacup and Wardle Commercial 
Company seem to have given rise to the new companies that are now formed 
in my immediate vicinity, and preparing large factories to carry on their 
business. One is the 'New-Church Cotton Spinning and Weaving Company,’ 
under the Limited Liabilities Act, with power to raise £100,000 in £10 shares, 
£40,000 of which is already paid, and the Company has borrowed £5,000 on 
mortgage at five per cent. This Company has already started, having taken 
an unoccupied factory of 40-horse power, Vale Mill, New-Church, and they 
are building the 'Victoria Works,’ which will require an engine of 100-horse 
power. They calculate upon employing 450 people when complete, which 
they think will be in February next. 

Another is 'The Ravenstall Cotton Manufacturing Company, ' also limited, 

with a nominal capital of £50,000, in £5 shares, with power to borrow to the 
extent of £10,000. About £20,000 is already paid up, and they are erecting 
at Hareholme a factory requiring an engine of 70-horse power. I am told that 
in both of these companies nine-tenths of the shareholders are of the opera- 
tive class. 

There is another cooperative company which has sprung up within the last 
six months. "The Old Clough Cotton Company,’ which purchased from 
Messrs. R. & J. Mum, two old mills, called Irwell Springs, and are onthe same 
principle as the others, but not having been able to go there to-day I am not 

able to give all particulars about it. The power, however, has been returned 
as 13-horse and the number of hands employed 76, and I believe all the 
shareholders to be of the operative class. 

There are several who take part of a factory, one or two rooms, as the case 
may be, and in some instances even part of aroom, but then these are masters 
of that part, although they work with and as their own workmen, hire and 
pay wages as any other manufacturer, without the workpeople employed 

having interest in the business. There were many more of these at Bacup 
than there are now. Some have givenit up, while others have succeeded and 
either built mills for themselves or rent large premises. There are more of 
this sort at Rochdale than any other place in my division." 

London, July 14, 1860. 

After the résumé given in my last letter of the Factory Reports of Sir John 
Kincaid and Mr. Redgrave, it still remains for me to take notice of the report 
of Mr. Robert Baker, Inspector of Factories for Ireland and part of Cheshire, 
Lancashire, Gloucestershire, Yorkshire, Staffordshire, Leicestershire, 
Herefordshire, Shropshire, Worcestershire, and Warwickshire. The total 
number of accidents in Mr. Baker's district amounted to 601, of which 9 per 
cent only occurred to children, while 33 per cent happened to persons above 
18 years of age. A closer analysis of these accidents will prove, firstly, that 
the ratio of accidents to population is greatest in those branches of industry 
where the machinery employed is not subject to legal control, and, secondly, 
that in the textile fabrics, where the same sort of machinery is employed, 
the bulk of accidents f alls upon the largest miils. In regard to the employment 
of 198,565 operatives, belonging to the district of Mr. Baker, the latter gives, 
for the last half year, the following statement: 

Persons employed. Accidents from machinery. 
In Cotton Mills, among 107,106 l to every 261 

In Woolen Mills. . . . . 14,982 1 to every 48 

In Hax-Mills. .. .. .. 33,918 1 toevery 389 

In Sik-Mils. 2... . 33,874 1 to every 2251 

In Worsted Mills 2,896 ltoevery 424 

In other Fabrics. . . . . 5,789 nil 

In all these textile fabrics, the machinery is protected—that is to say, provided 
with such contrivances for the security of the operatives that use it as are 
prescribed by the protective clauses of the Factory Act. If we now turn, for 
example, to Nottingham, where a large number of persons, and especially 
of children, are employed among machinery which is nor protected by the 
law, we shall find that there were entered on the books of the General 
Hospital, in 1859, 1,500; and on those of the Dispensary, 794 accidents; 
making a total of 2,294 among a population estimated to not exceed 62,583. 
This gives the number of accidents within the borough of Nottingham as 1 
to every 27, a proportion compared with which the accidents in the protected 

textile fabrics appears almost insignificant. Again, in Birmingham, which is 
full of employments of every kind, both with and without connection with 
power, where there are only two small textile factories, and where, generally, 
there is no compulsory protection to the machinery among which the young 
makers are engaged, the proportion of accidents to population was as 1 to 
34. The great advantages derived from the protective clauses of the Factory 
Act, and from the more general enforcement of these clauses, is also shown 
by a comparison of all the accidents reported to all the Inspectors for the 
half years ending the 31st of October, 1845, and the 30th of April, 1846, with 
the half years ending with October and April, 1858 and 1859. In the latter 
period, the gross diminution of accidents was equal to 29 per cent, although 
there had taken place an increase of workers of 20 per cent at the lowest 
estimate. 
Now, as to the distribution of accidents between larger and smaller mills, 
I think the following facts, stated by Mr. Baker, to be decisive: During the 
last half year, out of the 758 cotton factories of his district, employing 
107,000 persons, all the accidents which occurred happened in 167 factories, 
employing about 40,000 persons; so that in 591 factories, employing 
67,000 persons, there were no accidents at all. In like manner, out of 
387 smaller mills all the accidents happened in 28 mills; outof 153 flax mills 
all the accidents happened in 45 mills, and out of 774 silk factories all the 
accidents happened in 14 mills, so that in a large proportion of each branch 
of trade there were no accidents whatever by machinery, and in every branch 
the bulk of the accidents happened in the largest mills. The latter phenome- 
non Mr. Baker tries to account for by the two causes, that in the largest mills 
the transition state from old, unprotected, to new machinery is, com- 
paratively, most protracted and gradual; and, secondly, that in these larger 
concerns the rapidity with which the hands are collected together grows in 
the same ratio as the moral control exercised over such establishments 
diminishes. "These two causes," says Mr. Baker, "operate most distinctly 
in the production of accidents. In the former, the remains of the old machin- 
ery which has never been protected, and wherein gathering parts of wheels 
still remain, are even more destructive from that very circumstance, since, 
in the safety of the new, the danger of the remaining old is forgotten, while, 
in the latter, the perpetual scramble for every minute of time, where work 
is going on by an unvarying power, whichis indicated at, perhaps, athousand 
horses, necessarily leads to danger. In such mills, moments are the elements 
of prof it—the attention of everybody's every instant is demanded. It is here, 
where to borrow one of Liebig's sentiments, there may be seen a perpetual 
struggle between life and inorganic forces; where the mental energies must 
direct, and the animal energies must move and be kept equivalent to the 

revolutions of the spindles. They must not lag, notwithstanding the strain 
upon them either by excessive excitement or heat; nor be suspended for an 
instant by any counter attention to the various movements around, for in 
every lagging there is loss. Thus it is that fingers are laid upon wheels sup- 
posed to be secure, either from their position, or from the slowness of their 
motion when the attention is wrongly directed elsewhere. Thus, workmen, 
in hastening to produce a certain amount of pounds weight of yarn within 
a given time, forget to look under their machines for their little 'piecers.' Thus 
many accidents arrive from what is called self-carelessness." 

During the last half year, all the textile manufactures, that of silk excepted, 

were highly prosperous in Ireland as well as the English districts of 
Mr. Baker. The only check which seemed to keep the different branches of 
industry within bounds, was the increasing scarcity of raw material. In the 
cotton trade, the erection of new mills, the formation of new systems of 
extension, and the demand for hands had, at no former time, been exceeded. 

Nothing was more remarkable than the new movements in search of raw 
material. Thus, in imitation of the Cotton Supply Association of Lancashire, 
a Flax Supply Association had been founded at Belfast. While for the five 
years ending with 1853, the average importation of flax, with the flax crop 
of Ireland added, had amounted to 113,409 tuns per annum, it was, for the 

last five years, ending with 1858, only 101,672 tuns, showing a diminution 
of 12,000 tuns per annum, with an increased annual value of exports of 
£1,000,000. The price of wool, already above the average, during the period 
over which the last Factory Reports extend, has since then been continually 
rising. The rapid extension of the woolen manufactories, and the increased 
demand for mutton both in Great Britain and in the Colonies, may be con- 
sidered as the permanent causes of this rise in the wool prices. As an ac- 
cidental cause menacing to shorten the usual supply of wool, must be con- 
sidered the peculiar character of the season; many sheep having died during 
the Winter from bad or improper food, and many lambs having perished 
during the Spring from cold, want of food, and by a disease that proved fatal 
in a few hours. 

The only trade that was seriously checked during the last six months, 
consequent upon the conclusion of the Anglo-French Commercial Treaty, 
and the fears entertained concerning the effects of foreign competition, is 
the silk trade. The pressure thus exercised has been gradual, so that at the 
moment I write this letter more than 13,000 weavers are out of employment 
in Coventry alone, every loom being stopped. This crisis is the more to be 
regretted, since, as I remarked in a letter on the Factory Reports of 1859, 
there had been springing up at Coventry a number of cottage silk factories, 
in which the workmen employed their own families, with now and then a 

little hired laborer. These factories had, since the commencement of 1860, 
been considerably increased in number. They are, in fact, a recurrence to 
the former domestic manufacturers, only with the addition of steam-power, 
but wholly different to the new cooperative system of Lancashire and 
Yorkshire. With them the householder is the master, the weaver the renter 
of power, sometimes the employer of other labor, as well as that of his own 
family. He has either bought his two looms out and out, or upon credit, and 
is paying for them so much a week; or he has hired them, probably from his 
landlord, who is a builder and speculator. He, besides, hires the power 
wanted. There is said to be as much difference now between the work thus 
done upon the weaver's loom and that done upon the master's, as there is 
almost between the French ribbon and the English one. Still itis apprehend- 
ed, and Mr. Robert Baker, in his report, seems to share this apprehension, 
that this domestic labor, combined with the employment of mechanical 
power, will be unable to stand commercial shocks. It is probable that the 
English manufacturer, to cope with his French rival, will be compelled to 
recur to the employment of capital on a large scale, which must break up 
the cottage silk factories competing at his own door.