CHAPTER XXIV

THE CONDITION OF THE WORKING CLASSES

§ 233. Disastrous Effects of the New Industrial System. WE have already seen, in various preceding chapters, that the condition of the labourers deteriorated from the time of Elizabeth onwards, but in the middle of the eighteenth century it had been materially improved owing to the increase of wealth from the new agriculture and to the general growth of foreign trade. But then came the great Continental wars and the Industrial Revolution, and it is a sad but significant fact that, although the total wealth of the nation was vastly increased at the end of last century and the beginning of this, little of that wealth came into the hands of the labourers, but went almost entirely into the hands of the great landlords and new capitalist manufacturers, or was spent in the enormous expenses of foreign war.1 We saw, too, that the labourer felt far more severely than any one else the burden of this war, for taxes had been imposed on almost every article of consumption,2 while at the same time the price of wheat had risen enormously. Moreover, labour was now more than ever dependent on capital, and the individual labourer was thoroughly under the heel of his employer. This was due to the new conditions of labour, both in agriculture and manufactures, that arose after the Industrial and Agricultural Revolution, and to the extinction of bye-industries. The workman was now! practically compelled to take what his employer offered him, either in the factory or the farm; for, as a mill-hand, he had nothing to fall back upon except the work offered' at the mill, while for the agricultural labourer the increase 2 Above, ib.; cf. also Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 489. *Above, p. 386.

1

Above, p. 373. 3 Above, p. 375.

of enclosures, both of the common fields and the waste, had deprived him of the resources which he formerly possessed.1 Few labourers had now a plot of ground to cultivate, or any rights to a common where they could get fuel for themselves and pasture for their cattle. The Assessment of Wages by the justices had indeed become inoperative, for it seems to have practically died out in the south of England at the close of the seventeenth century, and in the north at the beginning of the eighteenth. But the low rates of pay which had been fixed thereby had become almost traditional, and from a variety of causes, already alluded to, pauperism was growing with alarming rapidity. Moreover, it was impossible for the labourer to improve his position by agitating for higher wages, for all combination in the form now known as Trades Unions was suppressed, and his condition sank to the lowest depth of poverty and degradation.

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§ 234. The Allowance System of Relief.

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This state of things was aggravated by various misfortunes, among which the most prominent was the rise in the price of food. At the end of the seventeenth century 'there had been a succession of bad harvests, and the price of wheat, for the four years ending 1699, was between 64s. and 71s. a quarter, or more than double the average of the four years ending in 1691. This high price was maintained till 1710, when there was a considerable fall," and the price of wheat continued, on the whole, fairly low till about 1751. But after that, and especially from 1765, the seasons were most unsatisfactory, harvests were poor, and the price of wheat rose enormously.7

The latter part of the eighteenth century was marked by almost chronic scarcity, and after 1790 wheat was rarely below 50s. a quarter, and often double that price,

1 Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 101.

2 Rogers, Economic Interpretation of History, p. 43.

4 Prothero, English Farming, App. I. (p. 244).

5Cf. figures in Prothero, u. 8.

3 Ib.

The prices were, in 1710, 788. a qr.; in 1714, 50s.; in 1720, only 378. 7 Tooke, History of Prices, i. 66, 82, and i., ch. iii. generally.

8 [b.

as it was after the deficient harvest of 1795, when the price was 108s. a quarter.1 The famine was enhanced by the restrictions of the Corn Laws. Meanwhile, population was growing with portentous and almost inexplicable rapidity. The factories employed large numbers of hands, but these were chiefly children whose parents were often compelled to live upon the labour of their little ones; 2 and the introduction of machinery had naturally caused a tremendous dislocation in industry, which could not be expected to right itself immediately.3 Poverty was so widespread that, in May 1795, the Berkshire justices, in a now famous meeting at Speenhamland, near Newbury, declared the old quarter sessions assessment of wages unsuitable, besought employers to give rates more in proportion to the cost of living, but added that, if employers refused to do this, they would make an allowance to every poor family in accordance with its numbers. This is the celebrated "Speenhamland Act of Parliament," which never received the sanction of law, but was immediately followed in many counties, and obeyed much more cheerfully than is sometimes the case with the Acts of the Parliament at Westminster.5 It is, therefore, worth while to notice the wording of the resolutions which the Berkshire Justices passed. They resolved (1) that the present state of the poor does require further assistance than has generally been given them; (2) that it is not expedient for the magistrates to grant that assistance by regulating the wages of day-labourers, according to the directions of the Statutes of the 5th Elizabeth and 1st James; but the magistrates very earnestly recommend to the farmers and others throughout the county to increase the pay of their labourers in proportion to the present price of provisions; and, agreeable thereto, the magistrates now present have unanimously resolved that they will, in their several divisions, make the following calculations and allowances for the relief of all poor and industrious men and 1 For prices (average) see Prothero, English Farming, App. I. (p. 244) and for 1795 and 1796 specially, Tooke, Prices, i. 182, 187.

their families, who, to the satisfaction of the justices of their parish, shall endeavour (as far as they can) for their own support and maintenance-that is to say, when the gallon loaf of seconds flour, weighing 8 lbs. 11 oz., shall cost 18., then every poor and industrious man shall have for his own support 3s. weekly, either procured by his own or his family's labour, or an allowance from the poor rates; and for the support of his wife and every other member of the family, 1s. 6d. When the gallon loaf shall cost 1s. 6d., then he shall have 4s. weekly for his own support, and 1s. 10d. for the support of every other of his family. And so, in proportion, as the price of bread rises or falls, that is to say, 3d. to the man and 1d. to every other of his family on every 1d. which the loaf rises above 1s.” 1

§ 235. The Growth of Pauperism and the old
Poor Law.

Such were the celebrated Speenhamland resolutions. The fact that the country justices felt compelled to pass them shows how desperate the case of the labourer had become. His position had grown steadily worse. Pauperism had been slowly increasing in the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, even when agriculture, manufactures, and commerce were improving, when the price of corn was low, and money wages comparatively high; 2 and we may well ask what was the cause of this curious combination of progress and poverty? The answer is to be found in the conditions which that progress created, and especially in the case of agriculture. It becomes increasşingly evident that a very powerful cause of pauperism was the system of enclosures, accompanied by evictions of farmers and cottagers by landowners, eager to try new agricultural improvements.

Sometimes, also, farmers sent off their labourers on turning their fields into pasture; at others the farmers themselves were ejected, and sank into the condition of 1 See Nicholls, History of the Poor Law, ii. 137.

2 Cf. Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 100.

3 Eden, State of the Poor, ii. 30, 147, 384, 550.

Laurence, Duty of a Steward, 3, 4; Toynbee, u. s., 100.

labourers, or swelled the numbers of the unemployed.1 |

The consolidation of farms 2 placed the labourer at the mercy of the capitalist farmer, who ground down his wages to the lowest possible point; and enclosures, though ultimately beneficial, contributed at first rather to the growth than to the removal of pauperism. The Act of Elizabeth, which provided that each new cottage should have four acres of land, was repealed, ostensibly on the ground that it made it difficult for the industrious poor to procure habitations ; but, in reality, because it did not always suit the selfish interests of the landowners. Its repeal was a great blow, which was further aggravated by the loss of bye-industries, and by the bad harvests already referred to; and the problem of poverty became so acute that the Legislature had to devise some method of dealing with it.

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Hence we find several Poor Law Acts passed towards the close of the eighteenth century. The most noticeable of these was that known as Gilbert's Act, in 1782. It alludes to the great increase of expenditure, and the equally great increase of pauperism, and, after blaming the parochial authorities for this state of things, takes away from them the administration of relief. The justices were constituted the guardians of the poor and the administrators of relief, and power was given to form Unions of parishes by voluntary arrangement, and to build a Workhouse for the Union. The guardians were expressly forbidden to send any but the "impotent" to the workhouse, and were to find suitable employment for the able-bodied near their own homes. The main result of this well-meaning but fallacious measure was to increase the cost of relief some 30 per cent. Other Acts, dealing with minor details of administration, were subsequently passed, but the decisive step of legalising out-door relief to the able-bodied and giving it in aid of wages was not taken till 1796. The old workhouse test

of 1722 was hereby abolished as inconvenient and oppres

1 Eden, State of the Poor, i. 329, ii. 30, 384, 550.

Ibid., and Toynbee, Indust. Rev., p. 101.

Fowle, Poor Law, p. 68. Elizabeth's Act was the 31 Eliz., c. 7.

4 The 22 Geo. III., c. 83.

6 The Act 36 George III., c. 10 and c. 23.

5 Fowle, Poor Law, p. 69.