III. And to prevent the oppression of the labourers and workmen imployed in the woollen, linen, fustian, cotton and iron manufacture, be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, That all payments and satisfactions hereafter to be made to any of the same labourers and workmen, for any work by them done in the same manufacture, shall be by the lawful coin of this realm, and not by any cloth, victuals, or commodities, in lieu thereof: and all wool delivered out to be wrought up, shall be so delivered, with declaration of the true weight thereof, on pain that every offender, in either of the said cases, shall forfeit and pay to such labourer or worker, double the value of what shall be due for such work by him, her, or them done; and if any such labourer or worker shall be guilty of any such fraud or default in the work by him, her, or them done, then such labourer or worker shall allow and answer to the owner of such work double the damages thereby sustained.
[Cf. 12 Geo. I. c. 34, sec. iii.—"every clothier, sergemaker or woollen or worsted stuffmaker, or person concerned in making any woollen cloths, serges or stuffs, or any wise concerned in employing woolcombers weavers or other labourers in the woollen manufactory, shall ... pay unto all persons by them employed ... the full wages or other price agreed on in good and lawful money of this kingdom; and shall not pay the said wages ... or any part thereof, in goods or by way of truck.">[
2. A Wages Assessment at Warwickshire Quarter Sessions [Ashby, The Poor Law in a Warwickshire Village (Oxford Studies in Social and Legal History, Vol. III, p. 175)], 1738.
The particular rate of wages of all manner of artificers, labourers, and servants, as well by the day with meat and drink as without, as also by the whole year in gross or by task, made and provided, having a special regard and consideration to the prices of provisions and all other circumstances necessary to be considered at this time. April, 1738.
3. Spitalfields Weavers Act [Statutes, 13 Geo. III, 68], 1773.
An Act to impower the magistrates therein mentioned to settle and regulate the wages of persons employed in the Silk Manufacture within their respective jurisdictions.
Whereas it would be for the benefit of persons employed in the Silk Manufacture, if the magistrates were impowered to settle, between the master weavers and their journeymen, the price of labour in the several branches of the said manufacture; be it therefore enacted by the King's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords spiritual and temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament, assembled and by the authority of the same, that from and after the first day of July, one thousand seven hundred and seventy-three, the wages and prices for work of the journeymen weavers within the city of London shall be settled, regulated, and declared, by the Lord Mayor, Recorder and Aldermen, of the said city; and in all places in the county of Middlesex, by the Justices of the Peace for the said county; and in all places within the city and liberty of Westminster, at the General Quarter Sessions of the peace holden in and for the said city and liberty; and in all places within the liberty of the Tower of London, at the General Quarter Sessions of the Peace holden in and for the said liberty, at their General Quarter Sessions of the Peace respectively; and the Lord Mayor, Recorder and Aldermen of the city of London, and the said Justices of the Peace, are hereby respectively authorised and impowered, from time to time, upon application being made to them for that purpose, to settle, regulate, order, and declare the wages and prices of work of the journeymen weavers working within their respective jurisdictions as aforesaid; and shall and may, within the space of fourteen days next after the making every such order, cause the same to be printed and published, at the reasonable expense of the person or persons applying for the same, three times, in any two daily newspapers published in London or Westminster; which publication shall be deemed and allowed to be sufficient notice and publication thereof; and from and after publication thereof, all weavers, and their journeymen, are hereby strictly required to observe the same.
And be it further enacted, that if after the said first day of July, one thousand seven hundred and seventy-three, any master weaver, within either of the aforesaid districts, shall give more or less wages, or pay larger or less prices, to any of the journeymen weavers aforesaid, for their work, than shall be settled or allowed as aforesaid, and shall be convicted of the said offences before any two of His Majesty's Justices of the Peace, within either of the districts or jurisdictions aforesaid where the said offence shall be committed, on the oath or oaths of one or more credible witness or witnesses, he shall forfeit the sum of fifty pounds; to be levied by distress and sale of the offender's goods; and the said penalty, when recovered, shall be paid into the hands of the Master of the Weavers' Company, first deducting the expense of such prosecution, to be distributed by him, in conjunction with the Wardens of the said company, to any distressed journeymen weavers or their families, who shall have been last employed in either of the aforesaid jurisdictions, at their discretion.
And be it further enacted, that if any journeyman weaver or weavers within the districts aforesaid, shall ask, receive, or take more or less wages, or larger or less prices for their work than shall be settled by the respective quarter-sessions, as aforesaid; or shall enter into any combination to raise the wages or prices of the said work, or for this purpose shall decoy, solicit, or intimidate, any journeyman or journeymen weavers within the districts aforesaid, so that he or they quit their masters, for whom they shall then be employed; or shall assemble themselves in any numbers exceeding the number of ten, in order to frame or deliver petitions or other representations, touching their wages or prices of work, except to the said Justices of the Peace, or to the Lord Mayor, Recorder, and Aldermen of the city of London, at their respective Quarter Sessions, and shall be convicted of any of the said offences, on the oath or oaths of one or more credible witness or witnesses, before any two or more of His Majesty's Justices of the Peace, within either of the districts or jurisdictions aforesaid where the offence shall be committed, [he or they] shall forfeit a sum not exceeding forty shillings: And if the said forfeiture be not immediately paid, it shall and may be lawful for the said Justices to commit the said offender to the House of Correction, to hard labour, for any time not exceeding three months; the said forfeiture, when recovered, to be applied in the same manner as the forfeiture of fifty pounds afore-mentioned.