Rise of wages on Continent.
I now proceed to examine the situation of affairs among our continental rivals. Valuable materials for such investigation are furnished to our hands by the recently-published reports of our Secretaries of Legation, and by a most important pamphlet prepared by Mr. Redgrave. From these authorities we learn that, in the last ten years, wages at Verviers, a great centre of industry in Belgium, have gradually increased by 20 per cent. and that the working hours are shorter than they were. At Ghent the rate of wages has risen 60 per cent. in the last fifteen years. The average prices of the necessaries of life show an increase in Belgium of 50 per cent. in the last thirty years. Beef and mutton are now 8d. per pound, and bread is about 8d. the four-pound loaf. The rise of wages has, however, been greater in proportion than the increase in the cost of lodging, clothes, and food.
In Prussia, Mr. Plunkett states that there is a universal tendency to reduce the hours of labour, and to raise the rate of wages. The Breslau Chamber of Commerce state that, in consequence of the increased cost both of labour and raw material, the prices of cotton carded yarn had advanced 10 per cent. on the best and 16 per cent. on the ordinary qualities. In the Silesian cloth trade, in 1871, prices rose 15 per cent.
In the spinning and weaving factories in Silesia, according to a statement by Dr. G. Reichenheim, quoted by Mr. Plunkett, the increase in the rate of wages in the last ten years has been about 30 per cent. for female weavers, while in the case of male labour it is more than double. The same complaints are made, which we hear in this country, as to the effect of higher pay in rendering the operatives less careful in their work, and more insubordinate than formerly.