Essays; Political, Economical, and Philosophical — Volume 1

by Graf von Benjamin Rumford

Another arrangement by which the inhabitants have been relieved from much importunity, and by which a stop has been put to many abuses, is the new regulation respecting those who suffer by fire; such sufferers commonly obtain from government special permission to make collections of charitable donations among the inhabitants in certain districts, during a limited time. Instead of the permission to make collections in the city of Munich, the sufferers now receive certain sums from the funds of the institution for the poor. By this arrangement, not only the inhabitants are relieved from the importunity which always attends public collections of alms, but the sufferers save a great deal of time, which they formerly spent in going about from house to house; and the sale of these permissions to undertakers, and many other abuses, but too frequent before this arrangement took place, are now prevented.

The detailed account published in the Appendix, No. III. of the receipts and expenditures of the institution during five years, will show the amount of the expense incurred in relieving the inhabitants from the various periodical and other collections before mentioned.

But not to lose sight too long of the most interesting object of this establishment, we must follow the people who were arrested in the streets, to the asylum which was prepared for them, but which no doubt appeared to them at first a most odious prison.

CHAPTER. V.

The different kinds of employment given to the beggars upon their
being assembled in the house of industry.
Their great awkwardness at first.
Their docility, and their progress in useful industry.
The manner in which they were treated.
The manner in which they were fed.
The Precautions used to prevent Abuses in the Public Kitchen from
which they were fed.

As by far the greater part of these poor creatures were totally unacquainted with every kind of useful labour, it was necessary to give them such work, at first, as was very easy to be performed, and in which the raw materials were of little value; and then, by degrees, as they became more adroit, to employ them in manufacturing more valuable articles.

As hemp is a very cheap commodity, and as the spinning of hemp is easily learned, particularly when it is designed for very coarse and ordinary manufactures, 15,000 pounds of that article were purchased in the palatinate, and transported to Munich; and several hundred spinning wheels, proper for spinning it, were provided; and several good spinners, as instructors, were engaged, and in readiness, when this house of industry was opened for the reception of the poor.

Flax and wool were likewise provided, and some few good spinners of those articles were engaged as instructors; but by far the greater number of the poor began with spinning of hemp; and so great was their awkwardness at first, that they absolutely ruined almost all the raw materials that were put into their hands. By an exact calculation of profit and loss, it was found that the manufactory actually lost more than 3000 florins upon the articles of hemp and flax, during the first three months; but we were not discouraged by these unfavourable beginnings; they were indeed easy to be foreseen, considering the sort of people we had to deal with, and how necessary it was to pay them at a very high rate for the little work they were able to perform, in order to persevere with cheerfulness in acquiring more skill and address in their labour. If the establishment was supported at some little expence in the beginning, it afterwards richly repaid these advances, as will be seen in the sequel of this account.

As the clothing of the army was the market upon which I principally depended, in disposing of the manufactures which should be made in the house, the woollen manufactory was an object most necessary to be attended to, and from which I expected to derive most advantage to the establishment; but still it was necessary to begin with the manufacture of hemp and flax, not only because those articles are less valuable than wool, and the loss arising from their being spoiled by the awkwardness of beginners is of less consequence, but also for another reason, which appears to me to be of so much more importance as to require a particular explanation.

It was hinted above that it was found necessary, in order to encourage beginners in these industrious pursuits, to pay them at a very high rate for the little work they were able to perform; but every body knows that no manufacture can possibly subsist long, where exorbitant prices are paid for labour; and it is easy to conceive what discontent and disgust would be occasioned among the workmen upon lowering the prices which had for a length of time been given for labour, By employing the poor people in question at first in the manufactures of hemp and flax, manufactures which were not intended to be carried on to any extent, it was easy afterwards, when they had acquired a certain degree of address in their work, to take them from these manufactures, and put them to spinning of wool, worsted, or cotton; care having been taken to fix the price of labour in these last-mentioned manufactures at a reasonable rate.