32

THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND

budget (24) of a man in a proportionally better position, becausehe possessed his own hand-loom, given in a Blue-Book, shows,for a family of 4 persons, only half a pound of meat weekly (onSundays); for the other days weaker nourishment. One is re-minded of the conditions, noted by Rechenberg and Schlieben, ofthe hand-weavers in the Lord High Constable’s district ofZittau (25). Indeed Rechenberg’s result may have acted in likemanner for the weaving population of the North of England—that in mail}' instances nothing at all would be left for theparents if the children had received -h much to eat as was neces-sary for the formation of a healthy race. A wavering step, ahollow-cheeked countenance, are given by observers at that timeas typical of the English workers in general (26). The averagehours of labour were 14 to 16. The children began to weavewhen 9 years old, and that after they had already beenwinders (27).

That under such circumstances the workers at that timewere not consumers of the industry, follows as a matter of course.What the Blue-Books contain in this respect reminds us vividlyof the accounts detailed by Ilerkner concerning German workers’budgets (28).

Thus says that weaver whose relatively favourable budget wetouched upon above: “ As regards clothing, I do as I can. Some-times I have some, sometimes very little. I borrowed coat andwaistcoat in order to appear before the Commission. I neverbought furniture in my life. My wife is even as badly situatedfor clothing as I. Cooking-utensils I have never bought since

I was born.Cotton sacking filled with straw served

as beds, and old tea-chests as chairs.” (29).

24. Committee on Handloom Weavers of 1834 (7,256). “ The weavers

subsist on the coarsest food : oatmeal, water porridge, onion porridge, potatoes.The parents may drink weak tea, and very little sugar in it, and eat dry bread.But even of the coarsest food they have no sufficiency. ” Compare further,loc. cit., 1834 (7,643-57); further, the evidence of Bichard Oastler, 1834

(3,736-54); similarly, Committee on Manufactures (11,747).

25. Compare “Zeitschrift des kgl. Sachs. Stat. Bureaus,” Jahrg. 31, andRechenberg: “ Die Ernahriing der Handweber in der AmtshauptmannschaftZittau ” (Leipzig, 1890).

26. Compare Hermann Schulze: “ Nationaliikonomische Bilder aus Eng-lands Volksleben ” (Jena. 1853), towards the end.

27. Committee on Manufactures (11,764); Committee on HandloomWeavers, 1834, the above-mentioned evidence of Oastler; compare similarly,Rechenberg, p. 37.

28. Herkner: ‘ ‘ Die sociale Reform als Gebot des wirtschaftlichen Fortschritts ”(Leipzig, 1890), p. 55.

29. Compare Committee on Manufactures (11,801, 11,863); Committee onHandloom Weavers of 1834 (4,972-80).