Wages in 1873: Address read before the Social Science Association at Norwich

Transcribed from the 1873 Longmans, Green, and Co. edition by David Price.
ADDRESS
READ BEFORE THE
SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION
AT NORWICH.
THOMAS BRASSEY, M.P.
LONDON: LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 1873.
LONDON: PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE AND PARLIAMENT STREET
In the following Address I shall devote myself to the task of reviewing, I hope in an impartial spirit, the most recent phases of the labour movement. The great advance of wages is a conspicuous feature of modern English industry, and is obviously due to the rapid growth of the general trade of the country. The long depression following on the panic of 1866 has been succeeded by a period of unprecedented activity in every branch of our export trade. The demands upon the labour-market have far exceeded the supply; and the artisan and labourer have not been slow to take advantage of a situation which afforded to them a brilliant opportunity. Between 1866 and 1869 the value of the exports of the produce and manufactures of the United Kingdom had remained stationary; while it rose from £190,000,000 in 1869, to £256,257,000 in 1872. Such a leap was not possible without imposing a strain upon the powers of our labouring population, which must inevitably have led to a material alteration in the rate of wages.
It is too often alleged that the recent advance of wages is attributable to a series of successful strikes. I maintain, on the contrary, that a strike against a falling market is never successful, and that Trades Unions, as an organisation for the purpose of raising wages, can never do more than assist the workman to obtain an advance at a somewhat earlier date than that at which the competition among employers would have brought about the same result. I may quote the unfortunate strike in South Wales, at the commencement of this year, as a signal instance of the inability of Trades Unions to cope with the superior resources of employers when firmly united together.