THE FACTORY SYSTEM.
While it is admitted that the inventions and discoveries of Sir Joseph Arkwright (partner of David Dale at Lanark), Hargreaves, Crompton, and Cartwright revolutionised industry, and in the long run brought a higher standard of living to the people, yet the first results of their application were not wholly good. For centuries spinning and weaving had been carried on in the homes of the people, but with the invention of the spinning jenny, the carding frame, and the power-loom the weaving industry was removed to larger buildings. At first these were merely makeshifts. A disused stable or cowshed, any building, in fact, which would house a number of looms was good enough for the new industry. The hand-loom weavers soon found that they were unable to compete with the new methods. To make matters worse, where they did not themselves give up and take service under the new regime, their wives and their children did, and became competitors in driving the husbands and fathers out of the industry.
Soon the millowners discovered that in the new methods with the new cheap labour there was a mine of wealth and, their greed growing by what it fed on, they sought for even cheaper labour than that of the poorly paid wage-slave women and children. This cheaper labour they found in the thousands of pauper children under the care of the supervisors of the poor. The story of the cruel treatment of these poor little mites, who were often chained to the frames of the looms and whipped to keep them awake, is one of the blackest pages in the whole history of the growth of the capitalist system in Great Britain.
In the weaving trades the entry of women and children changed the whole economy of the weavers’ homes. Formerly the work had been done by the male members of the families, assisted to some extent by the women, but under the new system the factory owner found that he could get as much work done by the mother at a considerable reduction on the wages paid to her husband, and so the husband found himself workless. Then it was found that the children soon became as expert as their elders, and so a further reduction in wages took place.
The net result was that it became a case of equal pay for equal work, but the standard of pay was that of the women and not of the men, and soon the whole family had to work to provide the necessaries of life for the home which should have been provided by the wages of the husband alone. Even to-day, while the women of the cotton mills who are members of their unions are probably the best paid female workers in the country, the standard for men is much below that for male workers in other trades; so that, in the case of the factory workers, “equal pay for equal work” has meant a general lowering of the standard of pay.
CHAPTER II.
THE DAWN OF CO-OPERATION.
CO-OPERATION IN PREHISTORIC TIMES—EARLY TEUTONIC CO-OPERATION—THE SCOTTISH CLAN SYSTEM—THE PRESENT CO-OPERATIVE SYSTEM—FENWICK AND OTHER CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES—EARLY CO-OPERATIVE BAKERIES—THE GLASGOW BAKING SOCIETIES—EARLY METHODS OF CONTROLLING PRICES—STIRLINGSHIRE AND THE HILLFOOTS—BAKING SOCIETIES IN FIFE AND THE NORTH—CO-OPERATIVE BAKING IN THE BORDERLAND—GLASGOW SOCIETY—CO-OPERATIVE BAKING IN 1866—THE FIRST FEDERATED BAKERY.
The Co-operative principle is as old as human intelligence. As soon as man became possessed of the first faint glimmerings of reason he began to seek communion with his fellows, and began, also, to take concerted action with them for mutual protection. It was natural that this should be so. The world must have been a terrible place for the human race in those early days. On land, in the sea, and in the air it was peopled with monsters, against whose attacks the unaided strength and skill of a solitary human were of no avail. Only by combination could he hope to survive. Results have proven that combination—Co-operation—is the law of life; that the men, the animals, the insects even which have learned to combine, have progressed in the scale of evolution; while the solitary monsters of past ages have disappeared, and are known only from a bone found here and a partially complete skeleton there.
That the human race gathered together in communities very early in its history there is abundance of evidence. In some of our cliffs there are caves which bear traces of human habitation; while scattered here and there over the world are immense mounds of shells, extending sometimes to a depth of many feet and acres in width, on what is believed to have been the seashore of prehistoric times, which show that, for a long period, these places were frequented by communities.
This community living has continued all down the ages. The “commune” system in vogue amongst the Teutonic races was an imperfect system of Co-operative farming by an agricultural community, which finally ceased in Germany during the nineteenth century. It was introduced into this country by the invading Teuton races in the early centuries of the Christian era; and, with various modifications and adaptations, was still in being at the time of the Norman conquest. From that date it gradually declined, until, by the end of the sixteenth century, it had all but died out in England, but was still alive in parts of Scotland in the clan system. There the old community spirit continued to prevail until after the rebellion of 1745, when the common lands of the clans were given to the chiefs. In the lowlands, also, some trace of this principle continued to be visible amongst the farming community.