AND ON THE CONTINENT.

61

quite well, that tlieir mule-spinner worked cheaper, although hewas perhaps the only worker in England who at that time,measured in foodstuffs, received a higher wage than the workeron the Continent. For this modern worker cheapening of foodcauses at the same time a rise of wages, the latter, however, beingadded to the standard of living. The more nourishing food,especially the going over to wheat and meat nourishment whichwas the lot of the English worker after the repeal of the Corn-Laws, has certainly caused more than anything else the produc-tion of that high capacity for labour, the real “ skilled labour, 1 ’which to-day forms the strength of England in internationalcompetition. Up to the repeal of the Corn Laws English wages,at all events in money value, but not, which is the real factor,in purchase value of foodstuffs, had been higher than those onthe Continent (54).

In conclusion, Ure draws attention to the fact that the anta-gonistical feeling between employer and employed, which injuredthe competitive capacity of England so much, was due in a greatdegree to the Corn Laws. Blue-Books, indeed, prove, by theprinted evidence of the workers, how much the Corn Laws seemedto them as “ a law for the rich,” which had for its purpose thekeeping down of the workers in their needy position—an irre-movable source of hatred against the Government and society(55).

The manufacturers were also not wrong in thinking that theabolition of the duties would secure more peaceful relationsbetween capital and labour. This did not happen, however, inthe manner which they pictured to themselves, for the Chartists banished this hope at once by opposing the League. But by therepeal of the Cora Laws a stage of industrial development wasprepared which made those political-revolutionary classes repre-sentatives of the past. Cottage-industrial and decaying hand-workers, along with that earliest, hopeless factory proletariatevolved by Centralised Industry, had been their foundation. Whilethe path of centralised industrial development was opened by

54. They amounted, according to Ure, on the average to about one-thirdmore than the Continental, just as the prices of food were just so much higher.

55. Compare Committee on Manufactures (10,614) : “ They think it(repeal of duties) would cause a complete revolution in wages and profits; itwould cause an unbounded extension of manufactures.” Further, 10,018,10,G22, 10,027, li 081