Page:On the economy of machinery and manufactures - Babbage - 1846.djvu/372

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338
EFFECT OF MACHINERY IN REDUCING

called in the cotton manufacture a "Stretcher," worked by one man, produced as follows:

Year. Pounds of Cotton spun. Roving Wages per score. Rate of earning per week.
s. d. s. d.
1810 400 1 31/2 25 10[1]
1811 600 0 10 25 0
1813 850 0 9 31 101/2
1823 1000 0 71/2 31 3

The same man working at another Stretcher, the Roving a little finer, produced,

1823 900 0 71/2 28 11/2
1825 1000 0 7 27 6
1827 1200 0 6 30 0
1832 1200 0 6 30 0

In this instance, production has gradually increased until, at the end of twenty-two years, three times as much work is done as at the commencement, although the manual labour employed remains the same. The weekly earnings of the workmen have not fluctuated very much, and appear, on the whole, to have advanced: but it would be imprudent to push too far reasonings founded upon a single instance.

(410.) The produce of 480 spindles of "mule yarn spinning," at different periods, was as follows:

Year. Hanks, about 40 to the pound. Wages per thousand.
s. d.
1806 6,668 9 2
1823 8,000 6 3
1832 10,000 3 8

(411.) The subjoined view of the state of weaving by hand and by power looms, at Stockport, in the

  1. In 1810, the workman's wages were guaranteed not to be less than 26s.