134
These are the wage conditions of two of the most respectable firmsin Lancashire , which were already quoted by Ure and Baines forthe first decades of the century as instances applicable to theindustry of the county.
If the raising of wages depends upon technical alterations, and,therewith, growing demands on the working capacity of the opera-tive, it was the development of centralised industry, of the factorysystem, which also raised the income of the operative in anotherdirection. The cheapening of food, moving parallel with the in-crease of wages, is not an accidental occurrence, but is the result ofthe economical development delineated. This appeared the mosteffectively in the productions of centralised industry themselves;the striving after cheapening the costs of production and, there-with, of the goods, forms certainly the motive for the technicalprogress. For instance, in the cotton industry the prices since the“ thirties ” have gone down by at least one-half.
1830
1882
Cotton yarn, per lb.
No. 40's,s. d.
... 1 2i
0 10 *
( 10 )
No. 100’s.
... 3 4*... 1 10
Cotton woven goods, per yard.
6. d.
1839 . 0 5}
1882 . 0 3£
Such a development also took place with other productions of in-dustry.
But the cheapening of food was also-, as mentioned above, theimmediate result of industrial development. The corn duties fell,as soon as the export interest had become predominant, becauseevery burden on the chief imports represented a burden on export.If the economical development on the one side made the English operative the highest paid in Europe, it made England at the sametime one of the cheapest industrial countries. The price of wheatin the decade before the repeal of the Corn Laws was 58s. 7d. perquarter; in the decade 1872 to 1882 only 48s. 9d. (11).
But just as important for the operative was the equalisation ofprices, since formerly famine prices alternated periodically withextremely cheap prices. In 1836 the price was 36s.; 1838, 1839,1840, and 1841, it was 78s. 4d., 81s. 6d., 72s. 10d., 76s. Id. In 1812wefindeven an average price of 126s. 6d.; inl813 109s. 9d., and
10. Compare Ellison: “ Cotton Trade,” p. 61 ; G-iffen : “ Progress of theWorking Classes,” p. 11. Merttens: Paper read before the Manchester StatisticalSociety, April 18th, 1894, p. 129.
11. Compare G-iffen, pp. 8, 9.