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14
The census of England and Wales shows: all persons employed in agriculture (landlords, farmers,
gardeners,
shepherds, &c., included): 1851, 2,011,447; 1861, 1,924,110. Fall, 87,337. Worsted
manufacture: 1851, 102,714 persons; 1861, 79,242. Silk weaving: 1851, 111,940; 1861, 101,678.
Calico-printing: 1851, 12,098; 1861, 12,556. A small rise that, in the face of the enormous extension
of this industry and implying a great fall proportionally in the number of labourers employed. Hat-
making: 1851, 15,957; 1861, 13,814. Straw-hat and bonnet-making: 1851, 20,393; 1861, 18,176.
Malting: 1851, 10,566; 1861, 10,677. Chandlery, 1851, 4,949; 1861, 4,686. This fall is due, besides
other causes, to the increase in lighting by gas. Comb-making: 1851, 2,038; 1861, 1,478. Sawyers:
1851, 30,552; 1861, 31,647 — a small rise in consequence of the increase of sawing-machines. Nail-
making: 1851, 26,940; 1861, 26,130 — fall in consequence of the competition of machinery. Tin and
copper-mining: 1851, 31,360; 1861, 32,041. On the other hand: Cotton-spinning and weaving: 1851,
371,777; 1861, 456,646. Coal-mining: 1851, 183,389, 1861, 246,613, “The increase of labourers is
generally greatest, since 1851, in such branches of industry in which machinery has not up to the
present been employed with success.” (Census of England and Wales for 1861. Vol. III. London,
1863, p. 36.)
15
Added in the 4th German edition. — The law of progressive diminution of the relative magnitude of
variable capital and its effect on the condition of the class of wage workers is conjectured rather than
understood by some of the prominent economists of the classical school. The greatest service was
rendered here by John Barton, although he, like all the rest, lumps together constant and fixed capital,
variable and circulating capital. He says:
“The demand for labour depends on the increase of circulating, and not of fixed capital. Were it true
that the proportion between these two sorts of capital is the same at all times, and in all circumstances,
then, indeed, it follows that the number of labourers employed is in proportion to the wealth of the
state. But such a proposition has not the semblance of probability. As arts are cultivated, and
civilisation is extended, fixed capital bears a larger and larger proportion to circulating capital. The
amount of fixed capital employed in the production of a piece of British muslin is at least a hundred,
probably a thousand times greater than that employed in a similar piece of Indian muslin. And the
proportion of circulating capital is a hundred or thousand times less ... the whole of the annual savings,
added to the fixed capital, would have no effect in increasing the demand for labour.” (John Barton,
“Observations on the Circumstances which Influence the Condition of the Labouring Classes of
Society.” London, 1817, pp. 16, 17.) “The same cause which may increase the net revenue of the
country may at the same time render the population redundant, and deteriorate the condition of the
labourer.” (Ricardo, l. c., p. 469.) With increase of capital, “the demand [for labour] will be in a
diminishing ratio.” (Ibid., p. 480, Note.) “The amount of capital devoted to the maintenance of labour
may vary, independently of any changes in the whole amount of capital.... Great fluctuations in the
amount of employment, and great suffering may become more frequent as capital itself becomes more
plentiful.” (Richard Jones, “An Introductory Lecture on Pol. Econ.,” Lond. 1833, p. 13) “Demand [for
labour] will rise ... not in proportion to the accumulation of the general capital. ... Every augmentation,
therefore, in the national stock destined for reproduction, comes, in the progress of society, to have
less and less influence upon the condition of the labourer.” (Ramsay, l. c., pp. 90, 91.)
16
H. Merivale. “Lectures on Colonisation and Colonies,” 1841, Vol. I , p. 146.
17
Malthus, “Principles of Political Economy,” pp. 215, 319, 320. In this work, Malthus finally
discovers, with the help of Sismondi, the beautiful Trinity of capitalistic production: over-production,
over-population, over-consumption — three very delicate monsters, indeed. Cf. F. Engels, “Umrisse
zu einer Kritik der Nationalökonomie,” l. c., p, 107, et seq.
18
Harriet Martineau, “A Manchester Strike,” 1832, p. 101.
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19
Even in the cotton famine of 1863 we find, in a pamphlet of the operative cotton-spinners of
Blackburn, fierce denunciations of overwork, which, in consequence of the Factory Acts, of course
only affected adult male labourers. “The adult operatives at this mill have been asked to work from 12
to 13 hours per day, while there are hundreds who are compelled to be idle who would willingly work
partial time, in order to maintain their families and save their brethren from a premature grave through
being overworked.... We,” it goes on to say, “would ask if the practice of working overtime by a
number of hands, is likely to create a good feeling between masters and servants. Those who are
worked overtime feel the injustice equally with those who are condemned to forced idleness. There is
in the district almost sufficient work to give to all partial employment if fairly distributed. We are only
asking what is right in requesting the masters generally to pursue a system of short hours, particularly
until a better state of things begins to dawn upon us, rather than to work a portion of the hands
overtime, while others, for want of work, are compelled to exist upon charity.” (“Reports of Insp. of
Fact., Oct. 31, 1863,” p. 8.) The author of the “Essay on Trade and Commerce” grasps the effect of a
relative surplus population on the employed labourers with his usual unerring bourgeois instinct.
“Another cause of idleness in this kingdom is the want of a sufficient number of labouring hands ....
Whenever from an extraordinary demand for manufactures, labour grows scarce, the labourers feel
their own consequence, and will make their masters feel it likewise — it is amazing; but so depraved
are the dispositions of these people, that in such cases a set of workmen have combined to distress the
employer by idling a whole day together.” (“Essay, &c.,” pp. 27, 28.) The fellows in fact were
hankering after a rise in wages.
20
Economist, Jan. 21. 1860.
21
Whilst during the last six months of 1866, 80-90,000 working people in London were thrown out of
work, the Factory Report for that same half year says: “It does not appear absolutely true to say that
demand will always produce supply just at the moment when it is needed. It has not done so with
labour, for much machinery has been idle last year for want of hands.” (“Rep. of Insp. of Fact., 31st
Oct., 1866,” p. 81.)
22
Opening address to the Sanitary Conference, Birmingham, January 15th, 1875, by J. Chamberlain,
Mayor of the town, now (1883) President of the Board of Trade.
23
781 towns given in the census for 1861 for England and Wales “contained 10,960,998 inhabitants,
while the villages and country parishes contained 9,105,226. In 1851, 580 towns were distinguished,
and the population in them and in the surrounding country was nearly equal. But while in the
subsequent ten years the population in the villages and the country increased half a million, the
population in the 580 towns increased by a million and a half (1,554,067). The increase of the
population of the country parishes is 6.5 per cent., and of the towns 17.3 per cent. The difference in
the rates of increase is due to the migration from country to town. Three-fourths of the total increase
of population has taken place in the towns.” (“Census. &c.,” pp. 11 and 12.)
24
“Poverty seems favourable to generation.” (A. Smith.) This is even a specially wise arrangement of
God, according to the gallant and witty Abbé Galiani “Iddio af che gli uomini
che esercitano mestieri
di prima utilità nascono abbondantemente.” (Galiani, l. c., p. 78.) [God ordains that men who carry on
trades of primary utility are born in abundance] “Misery up to the extreme point of famine and
pestilence, instead of checking, tends to increase population.” (S. Laing, “National Distress,” 1844, p.
69.) After Laing has illustrated this by statistics, he continues: “If the people were all in easy
circumstances, the world would soon be depopulated.”
25
“De jour en jour il devient donc plus clair que les rapports de production dans lesquels se meut la
bourgeoisie n’ont pas un caractère un, un caractère simple, mais un caractère de duplicité; que dans les
mêmes rapports dans lesquels se produit la richesse, la misère se produit aussi; que dans les mêmes
rapports dans lesquels il y a développement des forces productives, il y a une force productive de