AND ON THE CONTINENT.

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CONCLUSION.

In conclusion, there are two misunderstandings to be avoided.By no means is it to be accepted, in the first place, that the presenteconomical and social conditions of the staple industry o! Lanca-shire are in general those of English industry. Much rather, inthe field of English textile industry, are the various stages ol' thedevelopment of centralised industry to be seen at the present timeside by side. Accordingly we meet here also social conditionswhich possess much similarity with those of Lancashire in the'“thirties” and of the present German.

If we go, say, for instance, from Manchester to Bradford, thecentre of the worsted industry, we enter into another economicalas well as social world. Even the raw-material market is hereless developed than that for cotton. While the spinner in Lanca-shire buys from week to week, the wool is sold at half-yearlyauctions in Liverpool. Therewith there is a special class of wool-buyers necessary in Bradford, who attend to the mixing andcombing of the wool on commission. Both occupations have,throughout, the character of a season business. They are doneduring one part of the year in day and night shifts, whereby thewages are low, and the conditions of labour are opposed to health.For instance, the wool-combers (one to every two combingmachines), who labour, in the night shift, 60 hours per week at120 deg. F., have no more than £1 per week, and lose 20 weeks inthe year for want of work.

In economical development the worsted spinning and weavingof Bradford stands behind, compared with Lancashire ; 10,000spindles are given me as the average number for the worsted-spinning mills of Yorkshire , and 60 to 100 looms for the averageweaving-mills in Bradford. Where there are exceptionally largemills they do not depend upon the “limited” principle, which isin genera] little developed, hut on the monopoly of some specialtyor other. Hereto belong, for instance, the weaving-mills in Saltaire.