CHAPTER VIII. The New Age, 1897–1911

THE NEW AGE, 1897–1911

§ 1. INDUSTRIAL EXPANSION--It is impossible in the compass of a brief chapter to deal otherwise than in the barest outline with the industrial developments of the last fourteen years. The period opens with the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, includes the whole reign of her son, King Edward the Seventh, and closes in the Coronation year of her grandson, George the Fifth. From one point of view the country has during this time made marvellous advances in general prosperity. The population, indeed, which according to the returns of 1911 stands at the figure of 36,075,269 for England and Wales, shows a slower rate of progress than for any other decennial period since the institution of the census in 1801; but in so far as the diminished birth-rate is due to a higher standard of living among the people, such a slackening is itself a token of material well-being. And judging by the ordinarily accepted standards neither the accumulated wealth nor the productivity of our nation has ever before attained so great a height.

The gross amount of income brought under the survey of the Inland Revenue Department in 1907–08 (the last year for which returns are available) amounted for the first time to over £1,000,000,000 sterling, while the net amount available for taxation was over £693,000,000 as against £525,000,000 in 1897–98. The public applications for capital registered in London in the year 1910 reached a total of £267,439,100, a vast sum which exceeds all previous records by more than £75,000,000, and (apart from the large number of unrecorded private investments) {224} shows the prosperity of undertakings at home and the amount of surplus capital available for investment abroad.

Wages also, which declined from 1901 to 1905, yet show a marked increase over the whole period under review, though this increase is unfortunately largely nominal, owing to the contemporaneous rise in prices and house-rent.

Both shipping and railway transport have undergone a vast expansion: the statistics for inland traffic are the chief among our few data regarding the advance of home trade. Foreign trade, which the “man in the street” has been led by recent controversy to take as the main criterion of industrial progress, after breaking all previous records in 1907, again surpassed itself in 1910. Our total imports for that year were £678,440,173, and our exports of British produce amounted to £430,589,811. A comparison with 1897, when the value of our imports was £451,028,960 and of our exports £294,174,118, shows how remarkable has been the increase in the volume of our foreign trade. A noteworthy feature is the growth in the re-export figures, which in 1910 for the first time exceeded £100,000,000, thus testifying to the maintenance of our position as the great carrier and transport agent for the world.

§ 2. WARS, CALAMITIES, AND THE AMERICAN CRISIS--Yet there is another side to this picture of progress and well-being. During the same period the various quarters of the world were visited by a long series of calamities, both natural and artificial, from which our own dominions were not exempt. The Spanish-American War of 1898, the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05, and the disastrous earthquakes at San Francisco (1906), Jamaica (1907), and Messina (1908) all caused not only loss of life and great physical suffering, but widespread destruction of capital, the effects of which were felt in all industrial countries. {225} In the earlier years of the period plague and famine in India and a succession of serious droughts in Australia also checked the productive capacity and purchasing power of these great dependencies, and consequently affected our industries at home.

But the closest and most malign influence was that of the South African War (1899–1903), which, after at first giving an apparent impetus to the trades supplying munitions of war, left behind it a legacy of debt, increased military and naval expenditure, and widespread depression in trade, with consequent unemployment during the “lean years” that followed. The National Debt in 1898–99, before the outbreak of war, stood at £638,000,000, but had risen by 1903–04 to £798,000,000, or to the level of 1870, thus wiping out in four years the laborious debt reductions of more than thirty years.

After some years of depression trade again revived, and throughout the world 1907 was a year of abnormally high prices and widespread speculation, which culminated during the autumn in an acute financial crisis in the United States. There practically all the banks suspended cash payments for some months. The effects of this shock to credit were felt far and wide. Vast quantities of gold were shipped to the United States, and although London at the time stood the strain much better than any other financial centre, the Bank of England was forced to raise its rate of discount to seven per cent. In the following year the United States and Japan still suffered from commercial depression, and in India the harvest proved a failure. Hence, as the consuming power of these great areas was checked, their demand for British goods fell off. Thus the volume of our foreign trade was greatly reduced and the average of the monthly unemployment returns by the Trade Unions {226} for 1908 was far the highest for many years past, being 9·1 per cent., as against 4·3 in the preceding year.

§ 3. THE INCREASE OF PUBLIC EXPENDITURE--During the Boer War and since its close there has been an unparalleled growth both in national and municipal expenditure. For every £5 that was required by public departments in 1895 £8 is now expended. The addition to the National Debt, and consequently to the debt charges, has been already noticed, and the following table shows the general figures for the opening and close of the period under review:--

Expenditure Estimated Expenditure 1897–98 1910–11

Army £19,330,000 £27,760,000 Navy 20,850,000 40,604,000 Civil Service 23,446,000 42,686,000 National Debt and other services 25,000,000 36,945,000 Post Office, Customs and Inland Revenue 14,310,000 23,852,000 _____________________________________ Total £102,936,000 £171,847,000 _____________________________________

These totals represent an expenditure per head of the total population of £2, 11s. in 1897–98 and of £3, 16s. in 1910–11.

We must remember, however, that the expenses of the Post Office are more than covered by the revenue derived from that institution, and that much of the addition to the Civil Service estimates is due to Old Age Pensions and to the increased provision for education. “The Civil Service charge has risen as the natural result of multiplied and enlarged activities, and advance has been specially heavy in the last two decades, but the Civil Service includes education, poor law, the improvement of roads and health, and many other services which conduce to national well-being. It stands on a very different economic level from armaments, which represent {227} the workings of international discord and jealousy.” Yet there is no doubt that in all departments the public money is being expended more freely and extravagantly than was the case some twenty-five years ago.

The portentous increase in naval expenditure must be ascribed partly to the Boer War, but chiefly to our recent rivalry in naval construction with Germany, and our adoption of the Dreadnought type of battleship. Army expenditure increased between 1897 and 1899 through a series of “little wars” in Egypt and India, and since the South African War we have been practically maintaining a war establishment in time of peace.

Thus we see that owing to the growth of armaments and fresh expenditure on social needs the taxpayer has to endure a heavy burden, which threatens to grow as the rate of increase among the population slackens. Any expenditure beyond what is required for military efficiency and social well-being is not only wasteful but actually injurious to our industry and commerce, since it diverts capital from productive channels. There is no justification for maintaining taxation at a war level in time of peace. As Mr Gladstone said, money is best left to fructify in the pockets of the people; or, to quote his great opponent, Lord Beaconsfield, who was always in agreement with him on this point, “the more you reduce the burdens of the people in time of peace, the greater will be your strength when the hour of peril comes.”

§ 4. FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION. THE COLONIES--Ever since the repeal of the Corn Laws there had been in England a group of agricultural Protectionists, and some thirty years ago a small number of manufacturers began to advocate retaliation against foreign tariffs under the title of “Fair Trade.” Towards the close of Queen {228} Victoria’s reign the growth of Imperial sentiment brought into prominence suggestions for a closer political and commercial union between England and her colonies. In 1903 these various strands of thought were combined by Mr Joseph Chamberlain, then Colonial Secretary, in his campaign on behalf of “Tariff Reform.” This movement (which thus at first contained the inconsistent elements of protection to the British farmer, retaliation against the foreign manufacturer, and colonial preference) met with some acceptance in that year of depressed trade, and has now been adopted as the programme of the Unionist Party, in spite of the opposition of an important minority. In the General Election of 1906 the Protectionists sustained a crushing defeat, and they have not since been able to secure a majority in the House of Commons.

Although the controversy is still unsettled, it is at present, for various reasons, somewhat in abeyance. Old Age Pensions, which were to have been provided out of the revenues of the tariff, have been granted without recourse to protection, and other questions have occupied the political field at home, while the recent great expansion both in home and foreign trade seems, in the eyes of the public, to have falsified the more gloomy predictions of the “Tariff Reformers.”

The supporters of the movement emphasize the growing political and commercial importance of our colonies, and the rapid advances made by Germany and the United States in neutral markets, and they point to the tariff walls which block our trade with foreign nations. Free-traders, in reply, maintain that the progress of Germany and America is due to a combination of many causes apart from their tariffs. They are, for purposes of internal trade, the largest free trade areas in the world. {229} Since the trade of nations is mutually interdependent we cannot suffer from an increase in commercial prosperity elsewhere, and retaliation has never proved a successful method of fighting hostile tariffs. In conclusion, they declare that an impossible task awaits any statesman who undertakes to frame a British tariff satisfactory alike to farmer, manufacturer, the colonies and India, and one which would not involve an increase in the price of food and other necessaries.

The reader must refer to larger treatises for details of the controversy, which has been much embittered by party spirit. But it seems at least that the war of statistics and arguments has not proved that the position of the working classes in regard to real wages, continuity of employment, and conditions of labour is better in protected countries than among our own people: indeed, as skilled economists constantly remind us, so many other factors are involved and so many qualifications must be made that it is almost impossible to draw trustworthy comparisons of this nature. Nor has the response of the colonies to the suggestions of the Preferentialists been encouraging. They have shown without ambiguity that highly as they value their connexion with the mother-country, they value equally highly their own political and commercial independence. In 1901 the various States of Australia united in a Federal Commonwealth whose tariff is highly protective, and in 1911 Canada began to negotiate mutual tariff concessions with the United States, her nearest and most important market. Our colonies are thus rapidly developing into practically independent States, bound to us, indeed, by ties of filial affection and interest, but determined to shape their own careers. South Africa has just entered upon the most hopeful chapter of her chequered history {230} by the federation of the four colonies in the Union of South Africa. The original settlements of Cape Colony and Natal and the two Boer States conquered in the late war form now a self-governing whole--a happy reconciliation, hardly to have been anticipated at the end of the war, which is a high tribute to the wisdom of statesmen at home and to the healing effects of time in South Africa.

§ 5. THE POSITION OF THE WORKERS. SOCIAL LEGISLATION--Returns recently published by the Local Government Board and other official statistics show that in the last half-century there has been a very marked improvement in regard to public health and social conditions. The rate of infantile mortality (among children less than one year old) is still sadly high in many town areas, yet, though it stood in 1907 at 118 per thousand for the whole of England and Wales, this figure is lower than that for any Continental country except Holland, and the death-rates from many diseases have also fallen rapidly in recent years. Housing accommodation has improved, statistics of overcrowding in 1901 showing a considerable reduction upon those of the previous census, and pauperism has on the average steadily declined. Wage statistics are inadequate and very difficult of interpretation, but they seem to indicate a marked rise during the last forty years, while the level of prices has fallen 24 per cent. during the same period. A detailed consideration of the last five years, however, reveals a less cheerful picture. The depression of trade resulting from the expenditure of capital during the South African War led to a fall in wages and a serious increase in unemployment. The hardships of the workers were aggravated by a period of rising prices and by the reflex effects of the American crisis. The statistics of pauperism in 1907 and {231} 1908 showed a proportion of 24 per thousand inhabitants against an average of 22 per thousand for the preceding decade. In October and November 1908 the Trade Unions returned 9 per cent. of their members as unemployed, whilst amongst unorganized and casual workers the proportion was no doubt higher.

Yet at the same time there is a greatly increased sensitiveness of the public conscience regarding the condition of the vast majority of the population, as has been shown both in Parliamentary legislation and in unofficial movements for social betterment. Among the latter, garden villages and schemes for housing and town-planning bear witness to a recognition by employers and municipalities of a duty to provide workers and their families with some of the necessities for “good life.”

Such questions have become all the more urgent with the recent rapid growth of great suburban districts on the borders of our cities. This phenomenon--due to the eagerness of workers to escape into regions of somewhat purer air and lower rates outside the municipal areas--is emphasized in the latest census returns. According to these the boroughs are actually increasing in population less rapidly than their neighbouring counties, and in London itself the overflow is shown by decreases in many of the boroughs and an increase of 33 per cent. in the “Outer Ring.”

In another direction the success of the Workers’ Educational Association and kindred efforts proves that many among the working classes are eager to grasp opportunities for intellectual growth. But it is in recent legislation that we find the most remarkable testimony both to the power of the labour movement and the awakened {232} national conscience to which allusion has just been made.

There was an attempt in 1907 to check the drift townwards by offering the labourer an inducement to remain in the country. The aim of the Small Holdings and Allotments Act of that year was to provide him with a few acres of land at a reasonable rate with security of tenure, and so to re-establish the small cultivator. The Budgets from 1906 to 1908 not only relieved the general taxpayer by debt reduction and the middle classes by a differentiation of the income-tax in favour of earned incomes, but also reduced the tea and sugar duties, which fall most heavily on the working classes. But the Budget of 1908 will be remembered chiefly for the step then taken towards the relief of the aged poor. The institution of Old Age Pensions (already in force for some years in our Australasian colonies) was hotly decried as a Socialistic measure debasing to the recipients. So far, however, the test of experience seems to show none but good results, and since the recent removal of the poor relief disqualification there has been a marked fall in the statistics of pauperism. In 1909 the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr Lloyd-George, introduced his first Budget. Its rejection by the House of Lords, which marked the crisis of the long struggle between the two Houses, has made it famous in constitutional history. But, avoiding its controversial clauses, we may note that this Budget also provided a small sum for the establishment of Labour Exchanges, on the Continental model, throughout the country. These exchanges, which are now working, aim at rendering labour more mobile, at bringing employers requiring workers and workers needing employment into touch with one another, and at publishing reliable information as to the condition of the labour {233} market. The Workmen’s Compensation Act of 1897, which placed the liability for industrial accidents on the shoulders of employers, was extended in 1906 to all workers (including domestic servants) whose annual earnings are under £250. Lastly, in 1911, a far-reaching scheme was introduced by which, with State assistance, all wage-earners (under a maximum of £160 per annum) are to be insured against sickness (including for women a maternity benefit) and the experiment of an insurance against unemployment is to be tried in the case of building, shipbuilding, and engineering--the trades which suffer most acutely from periodical lack of work.

We may also notice here the publication in 1909 of the exhaustive Report of the Poor Law Commission appointed in 1905. This is noteworthy both for its wholesale condemnation of the existing poor law system and its drastic proposals for a new method of dealing with the problem of poverty and unemployment. Four Commissioners, led by Mrs Sidney Webb, the well-known social writer, published their own “Minority” report, which contains a still more far-reaching scheme of State control. Both reports have aroused keen interest, they have influenced some of the legislation just described, and one of the schemes or a compromise between them will no doubt form the basis for the expected reform of the Poor Law.

§ 6. TRADE UNIONISM AND THE LABOUR MOVEMENT--It was remarked in the last paragraph that the social legislation recorded was due in part to the pressure of the organized forces of labour upon politicians. The membership of Trade Unions has risen from 1,688,531 in 1898 to 2,426,592 in 1910; while in Parliament the Labour Party consisted in 1911 of about forty members, the majority of whom were nominated by Trade Unions and {234} maintained out of Trade Union funds. Through these representatives Trade Unionists have been able to exert a considerable influence upon legislation. By the decision, on appeal, of the House of Lords, in the Taff Vale Case (1901), the Trade Unions Act of 1871 was so interpreted as to make it possible for a Trade Union to be sued in tort for the acts of its members, and for Trade Union funds to become liable for any damages that might be awarded. Trade Unionists protested against the decision as contrary to the spirit of the legislation of 1871, and sufficient pressure was exerted by the Labour members to ensure the passage of the Trade Disputes Act in 1906. This restored Trade Unions to their original position under the law of 1871.

But in 1909 the “Osborne Judgment” struck a blow at the existence of the Labour Party itself. Osborne, a member of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, sued the officials of that union on the ground that the enforced levy from members for the maintenance of Parliamentary representatives was ultra vires and accordingly void. After prolonged litigation the House of Lords gave its final judgment in favour of the plaintiff. The Labour Party in Parliament began to press for the reversal of this decision, and at the same time tried to conciliate opposition by abolishing the “pledge” to which all its members had been forced to subscribe. But the obvious difficulties which handicapped men of moderate means, of whatever party, in their attempts to enter Parliament, led to another movement amongst Liberals, Labour Members, and some Conservatives for the payment of all Members of Parliament out of State funds, and provision for this step was made in the Budget of 1911.

Of recent years there has been considerable unrest in {235} the labour world and much loss of time and money has accrued to both employers and employed through industrial disputes. The most important stoppages were those in the coal trade (in South Wales in 1898 and 1910 and in the North in 1910), in the Lancashire cotton industry in 1908 and 1910, in the engineering centres on the north-east coast in 1908, and in the shipbuilding trade in 1910. In August 1911 the country had to face stoppages at the London and Liverpool docks, and, closely following, a general railway strike, which occurred at twenty-four hours’ notice. The dockers gained their demands; the railway strike, through the efforts of the Government, only lasted two days, as a small and impartial Commission was immediately appointed to inquire into the working of the Railway Conciliation Boards, the inefficiency of which to remedy grievances was put forward by the railway unions as the cause of the strike. These recent transport difficulties occasioned very serious trade losses and much inconvenience to the general public, and in certain parts of the country were attended by grave rioting and disorder. All the disputes have taxed the powers of skilled arbitrators (Board of Trade officials or distinguished private individuals), but their most disquieting feature has been, in several cases, the tendency of the workers not to comply with the terms of settlement, and the apparent inability of Trade Union officials to enforce such compliance. Action of this kind can only have the effect of alienating popular sympathy even in the case of genuine grievances. However, it is admitted by most observers that the recent increase in the prices of important commodities and the general rise in the standard of life amongst the working classes make the claim for higher wages and shorter hours of work a well-founded one.

{236}

§ 7. RECENT INVENTIONS AND INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENTS--With regard to industrial machinery recent years have shown rather a greater perfection and rapidity of working than any actually new invention. Perhaps the greatest technical improvements have been made in engineering and steel production, but in many branches of industry the part of the machine constantly increases in importance and that of the individual worker diminishes.

The most striking developments of the last fifteen years have been in connection with transport and communication. The telephone has become a business necessity, and now wireless telegraphy (associated with the name of M. Marconi) has extended our power of rapid intercourse even to mid-ocean. There has been an enormous increase in the size and speed of merchant vessels, the most sensational evidence of which is seen in the vast ocean liners of German and Anglo-American companies plying between Europe and the United States. Not only have these ships reduced the passage between New York and Liverpool to a length of about five days, but they are able to carry much larger cargoes than their predecessors, and thus doubly tend to swell the volume of international trade. On land there has been an extraordinary increase in the use of motor transport both for goods and passenger traffic, and the recent successes of aviation seem to foretell that at no distant time the air will form another highway for human intercourse.

Glancing at the changes in the industrial world we may note the tendency (due to resultant economies of marketing and management) towards an increase in the {237} size of a single business and in the amount of capital invested in it. This tendency is seen in many of the great staple manufactures, such as the textile trades and milling, but also in banking and finance generally, where the huge joint-stock concerns with many branches have swallowed up the old-fashioned private bank with its local connexion. In retail trading, too, the great stores, providing many classes of goods under one roof, prove formidable rivals to the small shopkeepers. These stores are generally run as joint-stock companies and often have branches throughout the country. Nevertheless, thanks mainly to the absence of a protective tariff, which shelters the growth of monopoly, England is comparatively free from the dominance of great Trusts. Some partial or local monopolies exist, of which railways, newspaper combines, and the “tied” public-houses attached to some brewing companies form the most obvious examples. But in the opinion of those qualified to judge, the small trader or manufacturer is holding his own in many branches of industry.

The census returns, which show the shifting of employment in various groups of industry, form a good criterion of their relative importance. Those for 1901 have been analysed as follows by a recent writer:--

“The orders which show the greatest decline are textiles and dress. While metal, ships, pottery, wood, food, etc., show a moderate advance, precious metals and instruments, vehicles, chemicals, printing, show a great increase. A still closer examination into the sub-orders of the census returns shows that the foundational and the staple processes of manufacture are stagnant or declining in importance, while those concerned with the finishing processes of manufacture, especially those {238} concerned with the manufacture of more highly specialized articles, are increasing.”

Mr Hobson adds that the most noteworthy advance is shown in two special groups, the trades concerned with the building and furnishing of houses and those which manufacture vehicles for land and water carriage. The growth in the first of these groups tends to corroborate the statistics of improved housing accommodation already mentioned, while that in the second introduces us to the most significant movement of all, the enormous increase in all occupations connected with land and water transport. This again may be correlated with the figures for our re-export trade already given, since both show England’s marvellous position as the great market and carrier for the world.

§ 8. THE NECESSITY OF STUDYING ECONOMIC FACTORS IN HISTORY--Hitherto our prosperity, great as it is, has frequently had its drawbacks, and has passed through many vicissitudes. Our ancestors and ourselves have made many mistakes, and till recently, as we have seen, the growth of our national wealth has been slow. But a study of industrial history is not without its uses, if it helps us to-day to understand how we have come into our present position, and what faults and follies we must avoid in order to retain it. Unfortunately, few historians have thought it worth their while to study seriously the economic factors in the history of nations. They have contented themselves with the intrigues and amusements of courtiers and kings, the actions of individual statesmen, or the destructive feats of military heroes. They have often failed to explain properly the great causes which necessitated the results they claim {239} to investigate. But just as it is impossible to understand the growth of England without a proper appreciation of the social and industrial events which rendered that growth possible, and which provided the expenses which that growth entailed, so it will be impossible to proceed in the future without a systematic study of economic and industrial affairs. Many of the great political questions of our day derive most of their difficulty from economic causes; while international politics tend more and more to centre round matters of commercial and industrial importance. After all, the means by which we gain our daily bread form for the majority of mankind the most pressing of problems; and what is true of the individual is true on a larger scale of the nation also. Man is by no means a purely economic animal, but the material wants of human life must be satisfied, and much of human activity must be directed toward their fulfilment. The history of mankind is the history of man’s activity, and so long as human nature and men’s material conditions are what they are, so long must economic and industrial factors have a potent influence in the course of political and social life. We have seen in these pages how such factors have influenced the growth of our own nation and contributed towards bringing us into our present position; and it is only reasonable to believe that commercial and industrial considerations must weigh more and more heavily with us if that position is to be secured and maintained. And those of us who wish to help in maintaining and advancing our national progress must seek carefully to answer the economic questions that are forcing themselves continually upon us, by looking at them in the light afforded by the industrial history of a great industrial nation.

{241}

NOTE ON AUTHORITIES FOR INDUSTRIAL HISTORY

For the earlier periods of English industrial history the ordinary student will find Cunningham’s Growth of Industry and Ashley’s Introduction to English Economic History and Theory useful. Besides these he should endeavour by all means to read the Domesday Book, a translation or copy of which may be found in most public libraries. The well-known histories of Stubbs and Freeman are also a great help. Then, for the whole of the period from Henry III. to the eighteenth century, the large work, The History of English Agriculture and Prices (in six volumes) by Professor Thorold Rogers affords a perfect mine of information. The same author’s Six Centuries of Work and Wages and Economic Interpretation of History are absolutely indispensable for anyone who wants to understand, not only our industrial, but our general history. Time spent over these two books is amply repaid. For the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries especially, Toynbee’s Industrial Revolution and Leone Levi’s History of Commerce must be read, and the Blue-books of the period should also be consulted.

Besides these works by modern authors, Arthur Young’s Northern and Southern Tours in England, and Defoe’s Tour afford a valuable picture of English industries in the last century, as also does the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith. There is likewise a useful little History of British Commerce, from the earliest times, by G. L. Craik (published in 1844 by Charles Knight, but now long since out of print), which I have found very helpful and fairly complete.

For the political portion of our history Green’s History of the English People will probably be sufficient for general readers; and it contains occasionally a reference to industrial events. Mr George Howell’s Conflict of Capital and Labour should be read, as affording a clear view of the old gilds and their modern descendants, the Trade Unions; and no student of modern industrial questions should omit to familiarize himself with the {242} History of Co-operation, by Mr Holyoake. A little book called The Romance of Trade gives a number of interesting industrial facts in a disconnected sort of way, and may be read with advantage when the student knows the general outlines of industrial history. Harrison’s Elizabethan England (now published in the Camelot Classics Series) might be read in a similar way, as giving a picture of sixteenth century life.

I must acknowledge my indebtedness to all the above works, which I have freely used in this little history, and especially to the works of Professor Thorold Rogers, without which no complete industrial history could have been written. I have also utilized in some places the material already existing in my own Short Account of the Growth of English Industry in the Co-operative Annual of 1890, and in my article on English Agriculture in the Westminster Review of December 1888. I have preferred to state in this note the more accessible works that I have consulted, omitting others which are not immediately necessary for ordinary readers, rather than to burden my pages with continual footnotes and references. I trust that the works here indicated may help to guide students of economic history in reading far beyond the limits within which this short outline is necessarily confined.

I have also dealt with this subject more fully in a larger work entitled Industry in England (Methuen: London, 1896).

H. de B. G.

Of recent years some standard works on Domesday have been published, including Round’s Feudal England, F. W. Maitland’s Domesday Book and Beyond, Vinogradoff’s Villeinage in England and Ballard’s Domesday Inquest--the last being an excellent summary. Webb’s Industrial Democracy and History of Trade Unionism, Hobson’s Evolution of Modern Capitalism and Booth’s monumental Life and Labour of the People of London, all deal with the modern period. No serious student should fail to consult the publications of Government departments and Royal Commissions concerning questions of trade, industry, and social progress. The census returns and the current Statistical Abstracts are also useful. Bowley’s Elementary Manual of Statistics affords valuable help in the interpretation of these publications.

M. E. H

{243}

NOTES

1. POPULATION OF ROMAN BRITAIN (p. 2)--It is, of course, impossible to state this accurately. Much of the land that supported a large population in Roman times afterwards fell waste--e.g. the fens of the eastern counties (p. 111); but the numerous Roman remains still left to us testify to a considerable economic development. (Cf. also the facts given in Cunningham’s Growth of English Industry, p. 53).

2. MARKETS ON BOUNDARIES (p. 3)--A good example of this is Moreton-in-Marsh, an ancient market town situated on the boundaries of the four counties of Oxford, Gloucester, Worcester and Warwick shires. This fact is recorded by a stone, known as “the four shires’ stone,” and situated about a mile from the town on the London Road. The religious origin of many markets, alluded to in the case of Glasgow, should not be forgotten. (Cf. Cunningham’s Growth of English Industry, p. 76.)

3. DANISH INFLUENCE ON COMMERCE (p. 4)--The Danes, before ever they came to England, were enterprising navigators, as is shown by their very early commerce with Russia, their colonization of Iceland (A.D. 874), and discovery of Greenland (A.D. 985), and the coast of the (now) Eastern United States. They settled chiefly in the north of England, in very large numbers and formed an active industrial population, many of them becoming leading merchants. They were instrumental in causing English trade to develop in the north of Europe, and generally speaking gave a stimulus to navigation. (Cf. Cunningham’s Growth of English Industry, p. 83 sqq.--1890 ed.)

4. MANORIAL COURTS (p. 19)--The court baron was composed of a kind of jury of freeholders and was concerned with civil proceedings. The court leet was composed of all tenants, both free and serf, who acted as a jury in criminal cases, minor offences, and so forth. Both courts were presided over by the lord of the manor or his bailiff. Thus local discipline and law was concentrated in the hands of the inhabitants of the parish themselves, and the {244} manorial courts were a very useful means of education in local self-government. Unfortunately their power, utility, and educational influence declined with the decay of the whole manorial system. (Cf. Rogers’ Work and Wages, pp. 63 and 420.--1889 ed.)

5. DECAY OF MANORIAL SYSTEM (p. 22)--The decay of this social and economic system begins most clearly and markedly with the changes made by the Black Death (1348), and by the social revolution which followed it, of which the Peasants’ Revolt was the first and most startling symptom (cf. pp. 73, 74–77). The legislation of Edward I. forms, again, another epoch from which to date the decay of manorial institutions. As Dr Cunningham says (Growth of Industry, p. 243), “In regard to commerce, manufactures, and to agriculture alike, the local authorities were gradually overtaken and superseded by the increasing activity of Parliament, till in the time of Elizabeth the work was practically finished.” The essentially local and personal relations of the manor gave way to the more general and impersonal relations of national government and national economy.

6. THE JEWS (p. 36)--It appears that this expulsion of the Jews was not absolutely complete, and Jewish tradition gives the year 1358 as the date of final expulsion; but in 1410 a Jewish physician, Elias Sabot, was certainly allowed to practise in England. There seems to have been a certain immigration of Jews to England, when they were expelled from Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella (1492), for there are notices of them recovering debts in English law-courts. Their presence in this country was, however, only first publicly sanctioned by Cromwell; and during the Commonwealth and the reign of Charles II. they came back here in considerable numbers. (Cf. Wolf’s Anglo-Jewish Exhibition Papers, p. 57; and my own History of Commerce in Europe, p. 99.)

7. COMMERCIAL RELATIONS WITH FLANDERS (p. 49)--We may add to the notices here given the treaty of 1274 between Edward I. and the Countess of Flanders, protecting the export of English wool to Flanders, and the well-known case of Perkin Warbeck. This impostor was supported by the dowager Duchess of Burgundy, and was well received in Flanders, then ruled by the Archduke Philip. As Philip, at the instigation of the Duchess, encouraged Warbeck, Henry VII. took the step of banishing all Flemings from England (1493), and as Philip replied by expelling all the English from Flanders, commercial intercourse between the two countries was almost entirely suspended. The result was, as {245} Bacon tells us, this interruption “began to pinch the merchants of both nations very sore,” and they besought their respective sovereigns “to open the intercourse again.” Philip withdrew his support from Warbeck and the impostor was left without resources, so that his subsequent appearance in England was a complete failure. The want of English wool thus altered the policy of the Flemish rulers, and before long the “great treaty,” or Intercursus Magnus, was made between the two nations (1496), by which trade was once more allowed to proceed unchecked, and “the English merchants came again to their mansion at Antwerp where they were received with procession and great joy.”

Henry VII. also made a commercial treaty with Denmark (1490); and one with the Republic of Florence, securing to that city a stipulated supply of English wool every year. (Cf. Commerce in Europe, p. 98.)

8. OTHER SOURCES OF INCOME (p. 50)--Of course we must not forget that the kings who fought against the French got money for their wars by other means as well. Large amounts were extorted from the Jews; enormous debts were contracted by Edward III. with the great Florentine bankers the Bardi; and his repudiation of them in 1345 caused the failure of that firm. Edward III. also pawned his crown and jewels, which were in pledge at Cologne, and could not redeem them, till the Hansa merchants in England came to his rescue and lent him the necessary cash in return for trading privileges in London. (Cf. Commerce in Europe, §§ 44 and 62. The question of taxation, etc., may be studied from larger political histories.)

9. ASSIZE OF BREAD AND ALE (p. 61)--The best example of such regulation is found, perhaps, in the Act 13, Rich. II., st. 1, c. 8 (1389–90), which ordains: “Forasmuch as a man cannot put the price of corn and other victuals in certain, the justices of the peace shall every year make proclamation “by their discretion,” according to the dearth of victuals, how much every mason, carpenter, tiler, and other craftsmen, workmen, and other labourers by the day shall take by the day, with meat and drink or without meat and drink, and that every man shall obey such proclamations from time to time, as a thing done by statute.” Finally, provision is made for the correct keeping of the assize, or assessment from time to time, of the prices of bread and ale. The earliest notice of an “assize” in England is found in the Parliament Rolls for 1203, but the practice is probably much {246} older; and the most ancient law upon the subject is the 51st Hen. III. (A.D. 1266), “Assisa Panis et Cerevisiæ.” The assize of bread was in force till the beginning of the nineteenth century, and was only then abolished in London.

10. STOURBRIDGE FAIR (p. 63)--This Stourbridge or Sturbridge is now almost in Cambridge itself, the relics of the fair being held in a field near Barnwell, about a mile and a half from the city. In ancient times it was very easy for merchants to come up the River Ouse in barges or light boats, as water-transport was much more used then than now, and even the sea-going ships were very light craft. Probably a Flemish merchant would find no difficulty in sailing all the way from Antwerp to Cambridge in a light ship.

11. SURVIVALS OF VILLEINAGE (pp. 74, 79)--Of course an ancient and universal custom could not die out all at once, but its decay after 1381 was certainly rapid. Dr Cunningham (Growth of Industry, p. 360) quotes cases to prove that villeinage existed in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, but he himself says that Fitzherbert (On Surveyinge, 1539) “laments over the continuance of villanage as a disgrace to the country”; and Fitzherbert would surely not have spoken thus if it was a recognized institution, instead of a decaying survival. Again, in 1574 Elizabeth enfranchised all bondmen on her estates; and she would hardly have done this if it had been the universal custom to retain villeins in their old bondage. We may readily admit that there were plenty of survivals of villeinage, although the old institutions were practically obsolete.

11a. MONOPOLIES (p. 102)--These had been used by the crown partly in order to raise money by their sale and partly as a convenient method of paying or rewarding ministers or court favourites. Thus Elizabeth’s favourite, Essex, had a monopoly of sweet wines. But by Elizabeth’s time they had become so unpopular, and people saw so clearly the taxes which they inflicted on all articles thus monopolized that Parliament demanded (in 1601) their abolition. So determined was the House that the Queen gave way, though she was no doubt within the legal limits of her prerogative. James I., however, used his prerogative to create so many new monopolies that Parliament again protested (in 1609), and he also revoked them all. But after the suspension of Parliamentary government in 1614 monopolies were granted again, till in 1621 their revocation was one of the main points mentioned among the grievances which the House {247} of Commons proceeded to redress, and monopolies were then once more abolished. The three patents (or monopolies) chiefly complained of were those on (1) inns and hostelries, (2) alehouses, (3) gold and silver thread. The Act abolishing monopolies is the 21 Jac. I. cap. 3 (1624). This Parliamentary struggle about monopolies shows very clearly the beginnings of the great fight between Parliament and the Crown, the former trying to regain rights which had for some time (especially under the Tudors) been in abeyance, and the Crown to keep prerogatives which had hitherto been exercised unchecked.

12. ELIZABETH’S POOR LAW (p. 107)--There is no doubt that the original intention of the Act was beneficent, and its framers are not to be held responsible for the use made of it in later times.

The ACT OF APPRENTICESHIP, incidentally fixing wages by assessment, was mainly concerned with the relations of masters to their journeymen and apprentices; and enacted also that no person should exercise a craft or trade unless he had been apprenticed to it for seven years.

13. BANKING AND THE STOP OF THE EXCHEQUER (p. 130)--Banking was now becoming a regular business, carried on especially by goldsmiths, who often advanced money to the sovereign upon the security of taxes or personal credit. A pamphlet of 1676, called “The Mystery of the Newfashioned Goldsmiths or Bankers Discovered,” shows how banking and money-lending had become a regular business, and gives the year 1645 as about the time when commercial men began regularly to put their cash in the hands of goldsmiths. It also states that “the greatest of them (i.e. of the goldsmiths) were enabled to supply Cromwell with money in advance upon the revenues, as his occasions required, at great advantage to themselves.” Similarly the famous goldsmith George Heriot had frequently obliged James I. It is well known how the London goldsmiths advanced Charles II. as much as £1,300,000, at 8 to 10 per cent. interest, upon the security of the taxes; and how (in 1672) he suddenly refused to pay them, saying they must be content with the interest, and closed the exchequer, thus causing a serious commercial panic.

The unsatisfactory method of obtaining loans from goldsmiths and other private persons was partly the cause of William Paterson’s project, now known as the BANK OF ENGLAND (1694). Paterson offered to provide the Government of William III. with £1,200,000, to be repaid by taxation on beer or other liquors and {248} by rates on shipping, while those who subscribed this money were incorporated into a regular company which was to receive 8 per cent. interest and also £4000 a year for management. Thus the matter of loans was first placed upon a proper basis and the Bank thus formed, and supported by Government credit, took at once a leading position in English commerce. (Cf. Rogers’ First Nine Years of Bank of England.)

14. NATIONAL DEBT (p. 145)--This loan, mentioned in the last note, was the beginning of a regular National Debt, the system of contracting loans upon the security of the supplies or upon Government credit, and of paying them off gradually in succeeding generations. (Cf. my Commerce in Europe, p. 145, and Grellier’s National Debt.)

THE RESTORATION OF THE CURRENCY was due to Montague, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Up to the time of Charles II. silver money was made by simply cutting the metal with shears, and shaping and stamping it with a hammer. It was thus quite easy to clip or shear the coins again without being detected, and then pass them off to an unsuspecting person for their full nominal value. So the coins became smaller and smaller, and people often found on presenting them at a bank or elsewhere that they were only worth half their nominal value. At first, under Charles II., it was thought sufficient to issue new coins with a ribbed or “milled” edge, but the only result of this was that the good coin was melted or exported and (as is always the case) the inferior money remained at home. It was then seen, by Montague and Sir Isaac Newton (the Master of the Mint), that the only way was to call in the old coinage and issue an entirely new and true milled currency. The expenses of this re-coinage, which cost some two and a half millions, were defrayed by a tax on window-panes. (Cf. Rogers’ Economic Interpretation of History, p. 200.)

THE EAST INDIA COMPANY’S NEW CHARTER was granted on October 7th, 1693, by William III., and restored all the former powers and privileges of the Company. This Company’s monopoly of trade with India had been frequently infringed by private traders, and it was generally regarded with such great hostility that the House of Commons in 1692 requested the King to dissolve the Company upon the ground of mismanagement and conduct injurious to national interests. However, the enemies of the Company failed, and all its privileges were confirmed by the Charter of 1693. Its monopoly was nevertheless still often disregarded, and {249} the validity of it denied by Parliament in spite of the King’s favour. A New Company was even formed in 1698, but after a few years the two rival Companies were amalgamated (1708).

15. EXPORT OF BULLION (p. 169)--“In form the prohibition on the export of gold and silver coin continued to 1816. People were allowed to export gold in bars, foreign coin, and bullion the produce of foreign coin; and an oath had to be taken that exported bars were of this character. People were hired to swear that they were so, and sworn-off gold, as it was called, was worth 1⁠½d. an ounce more than other gold was. Three-halfpence an ounce was the bullion-dealer’s payment for perjury” (Rogers’ Economic Interpretation of History, p. 187).

The necessities of their Eastern trade compelled the East India Company to acquire large stores of bullion and export it to India, in spite of any prohibition to the contrary; and their trade, with its enormous profits, was thus a very clear example of the mistaken character of the theory which taught that gold and silver must not be exported for fear of impoverishing the country. This fact, in the case of the East Indian trade, was seen by some economists early in the eighteenth century, and was then clearly stated by a writer in the paper called the British Merchant (i. 26), who estimated the export of bullion to India and China at £400,000 or £500,000 a year (in 1764 it was £369,831, and £532,705 in 1790). The British Merchant was first published in 1713.

16. IMPORTANT COMMERCIAL EVENTS (p. 125)--Among the important commercial events of this period one ought certainly to include the Darien Scheme and the Union of England and Scotland, although these belong more fitly to a History of Commerce than of Industry. The Darien scheme was a project originated by William Paterson, the founder of the Bank of England, who proposed to colonize the Isthmus of Darien and use it as “the key of the Indies and door of the world” for commerce. English capitalists, however, would not support his scheme and it was denounced by the English Parliament. Nevertheless a company was formed in Scotland, called “The Scottish African and Indian Company,” a charter was given it by the Scotch Parliament in 1695, and a capital of £900,000 was ultimately raised, £400,000 coming from Scotland, then a very poor country, and the rest from English and Dutch merchants. The hostility of the East India Company, the Levant Company, and of the Dutch in {250} general, however, never ceased, and it was owing to their influence that, when the ill-fated colony at last set out for Darien in July 1698, the settlers were left quite unaided against the attacks of the Spaniards, who claimed the monopoly of South American trade. In fact, Spanish attacks and the climate, so utterly unsuited for European colonists, sealed the fate of the expedition, and few who went out ever returned. This failure had the most serious effect in impoverishing the Scotch, who could then ill afford the loss, but there is little doubt that it greatly helped to bring about the subsequent Act of Union between England and Scotland, in which William Paterson was largely concerned (1707). The Union proved of considerable benefit to Scotland, as, by it, trade between the two countries became free, English ports and colonies were thrown open to the Scotch, and Scotland found a large market for woollen and linen goods and cattle in England.

The date of the Methuen Treaty is 1703, and it was arranged by John Methuen between England and Portugal. It was agreed that British woollen goods should be admitted into Portugal and her colonies, provided that at all times Portuguese wines were admitted into England at two-thirds of the duty (whatever it might be) levied on French wines. The result was a considerable increase of trade with Portugal, but an even greater decrease of trade with France, while the wine-drinking of our upper classes took a very different direction, for port, which had hitherto been almost unknown in England, became the typical drink of the English gentleman, and more port was sent to the United Kingdom than to all the rest of Europe together. It was not till the time of the commercial treaty of 1860 with France, that the heavy duties on light French wines were reduced, and with them the duties on French manufactures. Till then, as Gladstone said in his speech on the subject in 1862, “it was almost thought a matter of duty to regard Frenchmen as traditional enemies,” not only in politics but in commerce. This treaty was only one among the many great services of Cobden to the commerce of his country.

17. DEPOSITION OF EAST INDIA COMPANY (p. 217)--In June, 1858, the East India Company ceased to exist, the territories of India were transferred to the Crown of England, and the Queen was proclaimed sovereign of India on November 1st, 1858. The Company’s army became part of the Queen’s army, and Lord Canning, who had been Governor-General, became the first Viceroy. All the powers hitherto exercised by the East India {251} Company, or by the Board of Control, were vested in the Secretary of State for India, assisted by a Council of fifteen members appointed by the Crown.

18. HUSKISSON’S REFORMS (p. 213)--It was Huskisson who in 1823 passed a “Reciprocity of Duties Bill,” by which English and foreign ships had equal advantages in England whenever foreign nations allowed the same to English vessels in their ports. He threw open the commerce of our colonies, under certain restrictions, to other nations. He reduced the duties on silk and wool in 1824, and in the same year the Acts fixing wages (cf. p. 107), and limiting the free travelling about of workmen (p. 189) were repealed. So also were all laws controlling combinations of either masters or workmen; though combinations of workmen to intimidate employers were made illegal in 1825.

{253}

INDEX

Accounts, bailiffs’ mediæval, 18; modern farmers’ lack of, 113, 205

Acreage of England (A. Young), 114

Adam Smith, 150, 189

Agriculture, early combined, 8; before and after Great Plague, 71, 73; mediæval, 40–45; in 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, 109–117; modern, 198–201; depression of, 202, 209

Agricultural improvements, 104, 113, 201; gangs, 208; labourer, 40, 71, 79, 119, 142, 150, 188, 205, 208; reforms, 210; wages, 79, 119–121; wealth, 152, 209; population, 150, 153, 206; writers, 42, 110; union, 208

Alfred, 4, 5

Allowance system of relief, 188

American War, 170

Anglo-Saxon trade, 3

Antwerp, 59, 95; decay of, 97

Apprentices, in gilds, 29; in factories, 179, 181

Arable land in a manor, 6, 20

Arch, Joseph: his work, 207, 208

Aristocracy: feudal, 32; land-owning, 143, 198

Arkwright’s inventions, 159

Artisans: mediæval, 29; modern, 174, 190, 221; wages of, 71, 79, 120, 150, 162, 174, 187, 195; Huguenot, 134, 135

Assessments of wages, 107, 119, 187

Aston, manor of, 12

Australian colonies, 216, 225, 229

Aviation, 236

Bailiffs’ Accounts, 18, 42

Baltic trade, development of our, 99

Bank of England, 144, 173, 223

Barons’ wars, 31

Beaconsfield, 227

Beggars (Defoe’s remark), 149

Berlin decree, 173

Birmingham, 152

Black Death. See Great Plague

Blincoe, Robert, on factories, 181

Bodmin, staple for tin, 92

Bombay, 123, 127

Bordars, 12

Boston, port, 64

Boulton’s inventions, 165

Bounties on corn, 200

Bradford, 161, 163, 183

Bread, wheat, 68, 150; price of, 150

Brickmaking, 105, 142

Bristol, 23, 39, 64

Britain in Roman times, 1, 2

Bruges, 95; staple at, 59

Burslem, 140

Bye industries, 155

Calais, our staple town, 59

Cambridge, coal at, 138

Canada, 125, 128, 216, 229

Cape Colony, 216, 230

Capital, 223

Capital in agriculture (A. Young), 115; to-day, 205; loss of farmers’, 203

Capitalist agriculture, 42; cessation of, 73; artisans, 147; manufacturers, 147, 174, 176

Capitalist manufacture, epoch of, 162; present system of, 219

Capitalists and workmen, 221, 222; the coming of, 146, 162; mistakes of (Mercantile Theory), 168

Captains of industry, 218

Cartwright’s inventions, 160

Carucate of land, 16 (note)

Castles, growth of towns near, 23

Cattle in mediæval times, 44; improvements in breed of, 114

Census, 237

Chamberlain, 228

Champaign land, 43

Charlemagne, commercial treaty with, 5

Charles I. and coal trade, 137

Charter, the Great, 34

Charters of towns, 25, 28; of companies, 98

Chartism, 191

Cheese, consumption of, 151

Chester a Roman town, 2, 24

Chinese wars, 217

Cistercian monks wool-growers, 42, 49

Civil Service, 226

Civil War in England, its effect, 134

—— in America, 217

Climate, our, useful for manufactures, 133

Closes, 21, 43

Cloth trade, 54, 55, 135. See Manufactures

Clover, introduction of, 113

Coal trade, 136, 137; influence on manufactures, 164 and map

Cobbett, 175

Cobden, 201, 215

Colonies, our, 122, 128, 167, 170, 215

Combination Laws, 189, 190; power of, 221; of workmen, 191; Combination of peasants in the Peasants’ Revolt, 76, 78

Commerce, early, 4; our first treaty of, 5. See Trade

Commerce and war, 121–129, 169, 216

Commercial progress, 129; depressions, 218, 225

Common fields, 8, 20; enclosure of, 116, 199; pasture, 20

Communal land, 8, 43

Commutation of services for money payments, 16, 41, 74

Companies, formation of trading, 98, 129, 212

Company, East India, 98; Levant, 129; Hudson’s Bay, 131

Competition, appearance of, 92; checked by feudalism, 32; foreign, 209, 220; modern, 219

Condition of the people. See Wages and Artisans and Agricultural labourers

Conquest, England after Norman, 37, 39

Continental War, 171, 195

Co-operation, growth of, 221

Corn Laws, 200, 201, 215; Repeal of, 186, 201, 227

Cort’s inventions, 165

Cottars, 12

Cotton manufacture, 164

Counties, Eastern, cloth trade in, 57, 135, 163; Northern, desolation of in mediæval times, 38; Northern, shifting of population to, 163, and map; Southern most populous, 11, 37, 152

Craft gilds, 27, 29

Crisis (United States), 225

Cromwell’s commercial wars, 123

Crusades, 26, 33

Currency, debasement of, 86

Cuxham manor, 17, 18

Dairy Farming, 210; dairyman, 43

Debasement of currency, by Henry VIII., 86

Defoe, references to his Tour, 64, 145, 148

Demand for labourers after Great Plague, 71

Discoveries of Columbus and others, 89

Dissolution of monasteries, 84

Distress of working classes after 1815, 174, 192

Distribution of wealth before Industrial Revolution, 153, 156

Domesday Book, its historical value, 10; condition of England as shown in, 11, and map; towns in, 24; manors in (Cuxham and Aston), 16, 17; population in, 12, 13

Drawbacks of mediæval life, 79, 80

Dreadnought, 227

Dutch, agricultural improvements due to, 105, 110; other improvements, 140; wars with (Cromwell’s), 123, 130; carrying trade once in hands of, 130

Dyeing, 55, 133

Earthquakes, 224

East, development of trade with, after Crusades, 33; in James I.’s reign, 129

East India Company, 98, 127, 145, 216

Eastern counties, manufactures in, 57, 135, 163

Economic folly, 170, 203, 211

Economics, importance of, in history, 238

Economist, 226

Edward I. and Edward III., usefulness of wool to them, 49; their alliances with Flanders, 49

Edward III. and Statute of Labourers, 71; and manufactures, 53

Edward VI. and the Hansa in London, 95

Eight Hours’ Movement, 186, 235

Elizabethan England, 100–109; sea-captains, 97, 122

Emancipation of villeins, 74

Employers, capitalist, 67, 146, 192, 221; their assessments of wages, 107

Enclosures, 46, 116

England before Norman Conquest, 1–9; after it, 11, 37; in Middle Ages, 68, 81; in Elizabeth’s reign, 100; modern, 211 sqq.; a commercial power, 121

England and other nations’ wars 216

Estone manor, 16

Expenditure, public increase of, 226

Export of corn, 200

Exports in Roman times, 2; in 12th century, 33; of wool, 36, 48, 51, 92; exports in 15th century, 92, 96; later, 103, 130, 131, 132, 166, 174, 212

Factories set up, 161

Factory Acts, 181–185

Factory children, 179, 182

Factory system, germs of, 66; growth of, 176–181, 186

Fairs, 53, 61–63

Famine of 1315, 70

Farmers, losses of, 209

Fens, the, 38; drainage of, 111

Feudal system, 8; effects of, 31

“Firma Burgi,” the, 25

Flanders, its manufactures, 48, 52; our trade with, 95, 132, 169

Flemish weavers in England, 36, 37, 53, 103

Foreign competition, 134, 209, 216, 220

France and England, 123, 126, 157, 167, 172, 213

Frauds, Statute of, 115

Free Trade, 212, 213, 227

Friars, the coming of the, 75

Game, 111

Gangs, agricultural, 208

Germany, 134, 167, 217, 227, 228

Gilds, 27–30; in cloth trade, 54

Gild lands, confiscation of, 86

Gladstone’s budget of 1853, 215, (quoted), 227

Glasgow, 3

Gold, discoveries of, 216

Greshams, the, 96

Guicciardini on trade, 96, 103

Hansa, the, factory in London, 94, 95

Hargreaves, 159

Harrison’s Elizabethan England, 104, 108

Henry of Huntingdon (quoted), 33

Henry II., 31; Henry V., 49; Henry VIII., 83–91

History, economic questions in, 238

Hobson, 237, 238

Holland, 122, 123, 168, 230. See Dutch

Home trade, value of, 219

Houses, mediæval, 19

Housing and town-planning, 230

Huguenots in England, 134

Hull, 64

Huskisson and Free Trade, 213

Imports, 34, 63, 93, 212. See Trade

Income-tax, 223

India, 5, 127, 225

Industrial Revolution. See Revolution

Industrial transition in 14th century, 55

Industrial villages (mediæval), 65

Industries, manual, 142

Industry, growth of, 212

Infant mortality, 230

Inhabitants of a manor, 12, 13

Inventions, 138, 140, 159, 160, 165, 236

Iron trade, 138, 139, 164

Jews in England, 35

Jewries, 35

John, King, 39

Joint-Stock Companies, 237

Ket’s Rising, 47

King, Gregory, referred to, 112, 114, 116

“Knight’s Fee,” a, 18

Labour, power of, 221

Labour. See Agricultural labourer, Manufacturing population, and Artisans; also Wages and Capitalist

Labour Exchanges, 232

Labour Party, 233

Labourer, the “Golden Age” of, 79

Lace, 103

Land, different kinds of, in a manor, 21

Landlords, 73, 77; rapacity of, 109, 204; their gains, 198; services of, 198, 204

Latimer on rent, 118

Leeds, 151, 156, 163

Liverpool, 152, 236

Lloyd-George, 232

London, 2, 24, 39; the Western emporium, 97

Lord of the manor, 7, 11

Manchester, 152

Manor, 7, 12

Manufacturers and politics, 56, 145; large and small, 147

Manufacture, domestic system of, 155

Manufactures, 36, 51, 100, 135

Manufacturing towns, mediæval, 57; decay of, 65; monopolies of, 101; population, 149, 152, 178, 231

Marconi, 236

Mark, the, 5, 6; mark-moot, 6

Markets, 3, 38, 60; “a sole market,” 168; new, 219

Master clothiers, 66

Meadow land valuable, 21

Members, payment of, 234

Mercantile Theory, the, 168

Merchant gilds, 27, 28

Middle Ages, close of, 81

Mining, 141, 164; women in mines, 194

Misery of working classes, 194

Monasteries, dissolution of, 84, 85

Money, 3

Monopolies, 101, 237

More, Sir Thomas, evidence of, 88, 90

Motor transport, 236

Napoleon I., 173

National Debt, 145, 173, 225

Navigation Acts, 130, 169, 213

Newcastle (coals), 130, 137

New World, discoveries in, 89

Norfolk, 46, 51, 112; agriculture in, 199

Northern counties, desolation of, 38; growth of, 162

Norwich, 26, 39

Nottingham, 24, 58, 60

Oastler, Richard, 183

Old Age Pensions, 226, 228, 232

“Osborne Judgment,” 234

Over-production, 220

Oxford, origin of, 23, 25

Pauperism, 100, 192, 193, 232

Peasants’ Revolt, 78

Petition, the Merchants’, in 1820, 213

Pigs, 45

Pitt, 171

Plague, the Great, 70; its effects, 71, 73

Ploughing, 44

Politics and industry, 49, 55, 144, 175, 222

Poor Law Commission Report, 233

Poor Laws, the, 107, 188. See Allowance and Assessments

Poor priests, the, 76

Population of England, 37, 41, 108, 151, 162

Ports, mediæval, 64

Post Office, 226

Pottery trade, 140

Prices after the Plague, 72; mediæval, 80; later, 90, 112, 174, 202; inflation of, 90, 225

Productiveness of land, 41

Protectionism, 169, 216, 227, 237

Protestant refugees to England, 97, 103, 110, 134

Railways, 214, 224

Reforms, needed agricultural, 210

Rent, mediæval, 15, 22

Rent, rise of, 88, 112, 118, 119, 204, 224

Restrictions on labour, 189

Revolution, the Industrial, 144 sqq., 157, 161, 164, 190; the French, 157, 171, 190; the Agricultural, 158, 206

Rights of villeins, 13, 43

Rush for new markets, the, 219

Salt, 142

Seamen, the Elizabethan, 91, 97

Serfs, 13

Services due to a lord, 14, 15

Settlement, law of, 189

Shaftesbury, Lord, 183

Sheep, 45

Sheep farming, 46

Sheffield, 58, 152

Silver, discoveries of, 90

Sixteenth century, changes of, 88, 90

Slave, 13; in modern England, 179

Small Holdings, 232

Smith, Adam, 150, 189

Social movements, 68, 75, 142, 146, 190

Social comforts, 105

Soke-men, 15

South Africa, 225, 229

Southampton, 25, 64

South Sea and other Companies, 125

Spain and England, 121, 126, 167

Speenhamland Act, 188

Staple towns, 59

Steam and machinery, 160

Steamers, 214, 236

Steelyard, the, 94

“Stock and Land Lease,” the, 42, 85

Stourbridge fair, 63

Strikes, 235

Taff Vale Case, 234

Tax on wool, 49, 50

Taxation, 174, 232

Telegraphs, 214

Telegraphy, wireless, 236

Telephone, 236

Ten Hours’ Bill, 185

Tenants of a manor, 11; free tenants, 15

Town, life in a mediæval, 30

Towns: in Domesday, 11; origin of, 21; growth in England, 23; charters of, 25; mediæval, 58; staple, 56

Township, 7

Toynbee, Arnold, 186

Trade, Anglo-Saxon, 3, 4, 5; later, 33; expansion of, 91–99, 103, 125, 129, 131, 173, 212, 224

Trade Unions, 191, 207, 221, 231, 233

Trading clauses in the Great Charter, 34

Transit, means of, 214, 224

Truck Act, 194

Trusts, 237

Tyler’s Revolt, 78

Unemployment, 230

United States, 225, 228

Venetian Fleet, the, 63, 93

Village, a mediæval, 19; industrial, 65

Villeinage, land in, 20

Villeins, 13, 41, 68; emancipation of, 74, 79

Virgate, 12

Wage-earning class, rise of, 40, 69

Wages, 71, 79, 106, 119, 120, 150, 174, 195, 206, 220, 224, 230

Walter de Henley on farming, 42, 44

War, South African, 225, 230

War, the Thirty Years’, 134; the Continental, 171, 195

—— cost of, 173

Wars and industry, 81, 122–129, 134, 166, 167–175, 216, 224

“Waste,” the, 6, 20

Watt’s inventions, 138, 160, 165

Weavers’ gilds, 29, 54

Wedgwood, 141

Wheat, prices of, 174, 195, 200, 203; and see Wages

Wiklif, 75

Winchester fair, 62

Women and girls in mines, 194

Women’s wages, 196

Wool, 47, 50, 104, 136

Workers’ Educational Association, 231

Working classes. See Artisans, Agricultural labourer, and Manufacturing population; also 187–197

Workmen’s Compensation, 233

Worsted industry, the, 53

Writers on commerce, 130

Yeomen, rise of the, 73; decay of, 115–116

Young, Arthur, referred to, 114, 117, 150, 153, 199, 206, 221

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE:

Original spelling and grammar have been generally retained, with some exceptions noted below. Original printed page numbers are shown like this: {52}. Original small caps are now uppercase. Italics look like this. Footnotes have been relabeled 1–68, and moved from within paragraphs to nearby locations between paragraphs. The transcriber produced the cover image and hereby assigns it to the public domain. Ditto marks have been removed, replaced by the referenced text. Original page images are available from archive.org—search for “industrialhistor00gibb”.

Page 135. “Norfork” to “Norfolk”.

Page 170. “with South America,” to “with South America.”

Page 245. There is an unmatched double quotation mark in this sentence: ‘“Forasmuch as a man cannot put the price of corn and other victuals in certain,” the justices of the peace shall every year make proclamation “by their discretion,” according to the dearth of victuals, how much every mason, carpenter, tiler, and other craftsmen, workmen, and other labourers by the day shall take by the day, with meat and drink or without meat and drink, and that every man shall obey such proclamations from time to time, as a thing done by statute.”’. This edition omits the one following ‘certain,’, but that’s just a guess.

Page 246. “Parlamentary” to “Parliamentary”.