Low wages and cheap production not convertible terms.
The most recent inquiries tend to establish the fact, which I have, on former occasions, endeavoured to urge on the attention of employers, that underpaid labour is by no means the most economical. It does not follow that, when a workman receives more pay for exactly the same amount of labour, there is no increase in the cost of production. It would be absurd to put such an interpretation on the axiom assumed by my father, when estimating the cost of work, that the cost of labour in a fully peopled country was, as a general rule, the same, whatever might be the nominal rate of daily wages. But, where the principle of payment by the piece is adopted, (and, trades-union opposition notwithstanding, no other system of payment can be really equitable), there it will be found that labour, when stimulated by a liberal reward, is far more productive than that of the ill-paid operative. The reports to which I have referred are full of illustrations on this point.
Belgium.
In Belgium, all the factory occupiers are of opinion that the English operatives are far superior to the Flemish. An Englishman, being better fed, possesses greater physical power, produces as much work in ten hours as a Fleming in twelve, and, understanding the machinery which he works, he can point to the cause of an accident; whereas in Ghent half-an-hour is constantly lost in seeking for the reason of a stoppage. Although the rates of wages are lower, and the hours of labour longer; English manufacturers have but little to fear from Belgian competition.
Russia.
Mr. Egerton states, that, in Russia, 13 hours a day is the average length of the hours of labour, children generally working the same time as men; and yet there is no country in which there is so great a waste of labour. In mills where the best and newest machinery is used, it is necessary to limit the earnings, which, if large in amount, would be expended in drinking. In England a spinner will, with his assistants, attend to 2,000 spindles. In Russia, he never has more than 1,000, and generally 500 spindles under his charge.
Switzerland.
Mr. Gosling says of the Swiss workman, that he is inferior to the British workman in physical strength and energy.
France.
The French manufacturers insist strongly on the greater cost of production in their country as compared with England. They estimate the cost of wages per week for the hands employed upon 10,000 spindles at £59. 10s., as compared with £41, which would be the corresponding amount in an English factory. ‘The value of the English workman,’ says Mr. Redgrave, ‘still remains pre-eminent, although the interval between him and his competitors is not so great as it was; he has not retrograded, but they have advanced.’ We see too much of intemperance in England, but there is much reason to complain in Belgium and the manufacturing districts of France, where the cheapness of intoxicating liquors is a fearful temptation to the working classes.