November 17th – Died, James Kay, innkeeper, New-road, Oldham. November 18th – This day meal 3s. 4d.; flour. 3s. 5d. a peck; pottatoes, 8s. a load. November 23rd. – This (Saturday), Manchester meal 68s. a load. November 25th – Oldham meal 3s. 4d. to 3s. 6d.; flour, 3s. 5d. to 3s. 8d. a peck. November 30th – Manchester meal from 62s. to 63s. a load; and Oldham meal 3s. 2d. to 3s. 5d.; flour, 3s. 8d. a peck. And cotton wool is now selling 1s. 10d. Cotton fit to be used in velveteens, nine shafts, &c., 1s. 6d. to 1s. 8d. Notwithstanding, the price of fustian pieces are monsterous lowe, so that the poor weaver has from 3s. to 5s. less wages for a velveteen than when cotton was 4s. a pond, and other sorts of fustians in proportion. All sorts of light goods are extreemly bad, and very little to be obtained by the weaver. Callicoes are wove at 3s., and some at 3s. 6d. per cut; and to fill up the measure of our distress I refer you to the price of provisions. Such is the distressedness of the times that it involves nearly all ranks of people. Most of the middling rank of people are banking, and the working class are half-starved for want of provisions, the poor little innocent children crying for bread. December 7th – Manchester meal, 58s. to 60s. a load; flour, 70s. a load; potatoes 7s. a load; And Oldham meal 3s. to 3s. 3d.; flour, 3s. 3d. a peck. This is a sad picture surely. In order that my readers may understand the position, I cannot do better than quote a memorial which at that time was got up by the hand-loom weavers. I quote it from a Manchester paper of the period. This memorial lays great blame on the masters, but it will be seen from the entry of Rowbottom that “most of the middling rank of people (employers) were banking” – that is breaking. An instance is given of velveteen weaving wages being reduced to 3s. 11¼d. per man for a week of six days, of fourteen hours per day. These mistaken men were anxious for Government interference, and addressed themselves to the task of exposing that “common fallacy of wages free and unshackled, or finding their own level”.
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They could not see that they were being hustled out of the way to make room for a more competent workman, namely, “Old Ned”. It took many years to teach them this. There were men living among them who could look over their shoulders, however, and who were bold enough to resist the idea of State-protected labour. Here is the memorial:- “To the Nobility, Gentry, and People of Great Britain” “We , the undersigned, in conjunction with the cotton weavers of the several counties of Chester, York, Derby, and Lancaster, intend to present a petition next meeting of Parliament, praying for leave to bring in a Bill to regulate the length and breadth of pieces, the settling of wages, the pay and price of labour, &c., &c., from time to time as occasion may require, in such manner and under such rules and regulations as to the honourable Commons of Great Britain may seem meet. In carrying on the said petition frequent attempts have been made to prejudice the public mind against us by insinuating that we were connected with seditious societies. We hereby solemnly declare that such insinuations are founded on the grossest misrepresentations, that we have no connection with political societies of any description, being, a body of labouring people subject to such impositions that we presume were never borne by any other in Britain, surrounded on every side by designing men, who daily endeavour to caluminate and misrepresent. We are necessitated to appeal to the nobility and gentry of the country at large, humbly soliciting their serious attention to our situation, which we will endeavour to lay before them as plainly as possible. Our grievances consist chiefly in the reduction of our wages, the lengthening our pieces without an equivalent, together with the increasing quantity of our work, arbitrary abatements of our wages, after they have promised us one sum giving us far less, some masters giving one price for work, some more, some less; all lengths are made from fifty to seventy yards at the same money, and perhaps the seventy in some places less for working than the fifty. Pieces that a few years back were made at the length of thirty-two yards have been increased to the above length. Masters striving with each other in lengthening the pieces and reducing the wages of their workmen, have brought them into the most distressing condition”. |
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The following table will show the prices given in 1792 and 1799, the quantity of work calculated by the numbers of yards of weft in one piece, the length at the above periods, &c.:- |
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Sort of Cloth |
Price in 1792 |
Length in 1792 |
Price in 1799 |
Length in 1799 |
No. of yards (weft) in one piece in 1792 |
No. of yards (weft) in one piece in 1799 |
Differing in quantity of work |
Differing in price |
£ s d |
yards |
£ s d |
yards |
£ s d |
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Velveteen |
4 0 0 |
40 |
1 12 0 |
46 |
228,480 |
317,520 |
89.040 (more) |
2 8 0 (less) |
Velveteen |
2 0 0 |
28 |
2 8 0 |
48 |
120,960 |
333,900 |
212,940 (more) |
0 8 0 (more) |
Corduroy |
3 4 0 |
44 |
2 8 0 |
491⁄2 |
271,360 |
384,426 |
113,066 (more) |
0 16 0 (less) |
Velveteen |
4 16 0 |
42 |
2 8 0 |
46 |
2 8 0 (less) |
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Velveret |
1 4 6 |
48 |
0 11 0 |
58 |
0 13 6 |
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Muslin (40 reed) |
1 0 0 |
20 |
0 10 6 |
20 |
0 9 6 |
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Muslin (60 reed) |
2 16 0 |
20 |
1 1 6 |
20 |
1 14 6 |
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Quiltings |
2 10 0 |
25 |
1 4 0 |
25 |
1 6 0 |
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Dimities |
1 5 0 |
25 |
0 13 0 |
55 |
0 12 0 |
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N. B. – The first four sorts are manufactured out of the raw cotton for prices affixed to them. It is to be observed that every sort is reduced in a similar manner to the above. A variety of practices prevail in the manufactory that ultimately tend to injure it and the workmen, such as making thin and shallow goods, as for instance thick middles and thin ends in muslins, thin ginghams, and muslinets, well callendered quiltings made light, velverets, thicksets, &c., made up in so slight a manner that they do not answer the expectations of the purchasers, thereby bringing the manufacturers into discredit. Added to this the constant impositions practised on those employed in working the goods, together with a variety of other injurious practices, all tending to expose that “common fallacy of wages free and unshackled or finding their own level”. Upon these pretences the wages of the workmen have been reduced in the manner above mentioned, and we will show by an accurate calculation what it is possible for a workman to get per week by constant hard labour, together with what he might have got in 1792 at the same rate of working, and show the reduction of his wages per week. 1st. What a person may get by working velveteen. Admitting a person extremely diligent to work one piece in 12 days of 14 hours per day each, that is 26,460 yards of weft per day without intermission. Admitting a second to prepare the cotton ready for carding, to rove and spin it in the same time, it will be 26,460 yards, multiplied by 312 days will be 8,255,520 yards of weft in one year, which divided by 317,520 yards, the number in one piece in 1799, the quotient will be twenty pieces at £1. 12s., making £41. 12s. for two persons. Now, the next thing to be considered is how much of the above sum is not money. In the first place, to enable two persons to work 14 hours per day they will be necessitated to use 46 lbs. of candles in the year:- Candles, 46 lbs., at 9d. per lb......... £1 14 6
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Which, deduct from £41.12s. leaves £29. 9s. 6d., divided betwixt two person will be each 5s.8d. per week. The next to be shown is what the same rate of working would have been in 1792: 26,460 yards, multiplied by 312 days, will be 8,255,520 yards as before. Now, on examining the above table, it will be found that in the year 1792 one piece contained 228,480 yards of weft; divide 8,255,520 yards by 228,480 will give 36,132 pieces, at that time £4 per piece. 36, 132 pieces at £4 would amount to £144 10s. 6½ d; subtract as before £12. 2s. 6d., the remainder, £132. 8s. 0½d., divided betwixt two persons, will be £1 5s. 5½d. per week each person. Subtract 5s. 8d., and it will prove a reduction of 19s. 9½d. per week in the wages of one person. Here follows a calculation of what a person might earn by working six yards per day of velveret for 312 days of fourteen hours each day: 312 days, 6 yards per day; total 1,872 yards. 60 – 31 pieces 12 yards at 11s. per piece will be about £17 1s. Subtract £6 13s. 9d. for bobbin winding, candles, &c., &c., will leave £10 7s. 3d. Divided by 52 weeks, will be 3s. 11¼d., so that a person must constantly work six yards per day to earn 3s. 11¼d. per week. What he might have got at the same rate of working in the year 1791: - 312 days, six yards per day; total 1,872 yards. 48 yards, 39 pieces, at £1 4s. 6d., £47 15s. 6d. Subtract £6 13s. 9d., will leave £41 1s. 9d. Divided by 52 weeks, will be 15s. 9½d. per week, which proves a reduction of 11s. 9¼d. per week. Dimities, muslinets, and ginghams are little better than the above. Muslins and some sorts rather better, but those that are something better are going fast after the heels of the others. A reduction in most sorts is now taking place. Ginghams, three months ago 4½d. per yard, are now worked at 2d. Muslins reduced 2s. to 3s. per piece, and that little that remains of our wages is far from being secure to us, unless the legislature in the plenitude of its wisdom, will grant us such regulations as will in future protect us from the impositions we at present labour under. We shall offer no comment on our situation, believing it will be plainly understood by all who come to a knowledge of the above facts. We earnestly solicit the support of those whom we address on behalf of ourselves and fifty thousand of our fellow-weavers in the utmost distress, and are with the greatest respect their humble and obedient servants, Richard Owen, James Draper, Thomas Haslam, John Roper, George Beswick, Thomas Knowles, Ralph Hart, Joseph Shufflebottom, Thomas Thorpe, John Settle, William Riding, James Holcroft, John Greenhalgh, William Haslam. Bolton, Lancashire, Dec. 16th, 1799” |
Page 51
William Rowbottom's Diary as published in the Oldham Standard |
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