The figures in this table are not quite complete except for 1901; the relations between the changes shown for each class should nevertheless be accurately represented.

Index Numbers of Money, Wages and Prices.

1840. 1855. 1860. 1866. 1870. 1874. 1877. 1880. 1883. 1886. 1891. 1902.
Cotton operatives. 50 54 64 74 74 90 90 85 90 93 100 105
Average wages for eight trades 61 61 73 81 83 97 94 89 92 90 100 108.7*
Sauerbeck’s index number 103 73 99 102 96 102 94 88 82 69 72 69
Average price of wheat per quarter 66/4 40/3 53/3 49/11 46/11 55/9 56/9 44/4 41/7 31/- 37/- 28/1
* Average for a slightly different group.

Weekly Wages in the Manchester and District Cotton Trade.

1834.1836.1839.1841.1849.1850.1859.1860.1870.1877.1882.1883.1886.
s. d.s. d.s. d.s. d.s. d.s. d.s. d.s. d.s. d.s. d.s. d.s. d.s. d.
Spinners’ average23 423 1122 122 021 720 524 123 227 834 431 632 435 7
Big piecers’ average11 09 38 68 88 613 010 010 011 012 416 016 013 7
Weavers’ average11 010 29 69 610 610 311 210 812 215 115 615 013 3

The most noticeable features of these tables are the decrease in the proportion of children employed and the steady increase in the number of operatives as a whole until recent years. The contraction of the body of operatives of late years seems to have occurred primarily among children and young persons (where the first check would naturally be looked for), and secondarily among adult males. If allowance be made for the smaller value of children as compared with adults, and the census results be taken, it is not evident that there has been any diminution in the amount of labour-power; and if the factory inspectors’ returns be accepted, the falling off in the number of operatives cannot be proved to have taken place in either of the chief branches of the industry at so rapid a rate as to have occasioned the enforced dismissal of any hands. An industry which was not recruited at all would have dwindled at a greater rate. At least it may be inferred from these figures, when taken in conjunction with the large increase in spindles and looms, that the output per head has considerably advanced in spite of the rise in the average quality of both yarns and fabrics produced. This rise in the value per unit of the output accounts to some extent for the fact that wages have not been adversely affected of late.

Mr A. L. Bowley has calculated index numbers of wages for the leading trades, including the manufacture of cotton. Those for the cotton industry are given below, together with averages for cotton and wool workers, the building trades, mining, workers in iron, sailors, compositors Wages and piece-rate lists. and agriculturists (England), the numbers in each class being allowed for in the average. Side by side with these figures, Sauerbeck’s index numbers of general wholesale prices are given, together with the average prices of wheat per quarter.

It must be remembered that the figures given above for cotton workers and average wages for eight trades do not measure the differences between each, but only the differences between the movements of each. Actual average money wages in the cotton industry have probably been approximately those stated in the second table beneath, but as these figures are culled from various sources they must not be taken to indicate fluctuations.[42]

The wage of fine spinners exceeds the average wage of spinners by percentages varying from about 25 to 35. In the above figures the earnings of three classes of spinners are averaged.

The highest wages are earned by mule-spinners (who are all males); their assistants, known as piecers, are badly paid. Persons can easily be found, however, to work as piecers, because they hope ultimately to become “minders,” i.e. mule-spinners in charge of mules. The division of the total wage paid on a pair of mules between the minder and the piecers is largely the result of the policy of the spinners’ trade union. Almost without exception in Lancashire one minder takes charge of a pair of mules with two or three assistants according to the amount of work to be done. Among the weavers there is no rule as to the number of assistants to full weavers (who are both male and female), or as to the number of looms managed by a weaver, but the proportion of assistants is much less than in the spinning branches, perhaps because of the inferior strength of the weavers’ unions. For the calculation of wages piece-rate lists are universally employed as regards the payment of full weavers and spinners; some piecers get a definite share of the total wage thus assigned to a pair of mules, while others are paid a fixed weekly amount. Many ring-spinners are now paid also by piece-rate lists, and all other operatives are almost universally so paid, except, as a rule, the hands in the blowing-room and on the carding-machines. Spinning and weaving lists are most complicated; allowances are made in them for most incidents beyond the operatives’ control, by which the amount of the wage might be affected. Still, however, they could not cover all circumstances, and much is left to the manner of their application and private arrangement. They should be regarded as giving the basis, rather than as actually settling, the wage in all cases. The history of lists stretches back to the first quarter of the 19th century as regards spinners, and to about the middle of the century generally as regards weavers, though a weaving list agreed to by eleven masters was drawn up as early as 1834. There are still many different district lists in use, but the favourite spinning lists are those of Oldham and Bolton, and the weaving list most generally employed is that known as the “Uniform List,” which is a compromise between the lists of Blackburn, Preston and Burnley. Under the “Particulars Clause,” first included in a Factory Act in 1891 and given extended application in 1895, the particulars required for the calculation of wages must be rendered by the employer. As in spinning there used to be doubts about the quantity of work done, the “indicator,” which measures the length of yarn spun, is coming into general use under pressure from the operatives. We ought to observe here that the Oldham Spinning list differs from all others in that its basis is an agreed normal time-wage for different kinds of work on which piece-rates are reckoned. But in effect understandings as to the level of normal time-wages are the real basis everywhere. If the average wages in a particular mill are lower than elsewhere for reasons not connected with the quality of labour (e.g. because of antiquated machinery or the low quality of the cotton used), the men demand “allowances” to raise their wages to the normal level. Advances and reductions are made on the lists, and under the Brooklands Agreement, entered into by masters and men in the cotton spinning industry in 1893, advances and reductions in future must not exceed 5% or succeed one another by a shorter period than twelve months. The changes as a rule now are 5% or 2½%. In all branches of the cotton industry it is usual for a conference to take place between the interested parties before a strike breaks out, on the demand of one or other for an advance or reduction.