Part 4

I can only repeat once more that, in the present condition of our trade, there is nothing to justify serious misgivings as to our power of continuing a successful competition with foreign producers. It does not follow that, because we have lost a monopoly of a particular branch of trade abroad, the skill of the English workman must have deteriorated, or the cost of production have been unduly enhanced by the rise of wages. Foreign countries may have imported from us a particular commodity at a former time, solely because they were entirely inexperienced in its manufacture. When my father was executing the Rouen and Havre Railway, he imported the rails from England, although he had to pay an import duty at the French Custom-house, amounting to a considerably larger sum than the selling price of the rails at home. The almost incredible difference between the price of English and French rails at that time no longer exists: because that special branch of industry is now as well understood in France as in England. So, too, in the case of the employment of English contractors for the execution of public works on the Continent. An opportunity was offered to them in the origin of the railway system on the Continent; because in those early days of railways there were no native contractors, sufficiently acquainted with the art of making railways to venture to compete with the English invaders. Their intelligent observation of our methods of construction soon enabled the contractors on the Continent to tender in competition with the English; and for many years past all the railway works in France have been carried out by Frenchmen. It does not follow that the English contractor has lost his former skill. The true inference is, that the French, who had been previously in a position of inferiority solely from lack of experience, were enabled, as soon as they had gained that experience, to execute the works required, without the assistance of foreigners.

The development of our commercial relations with France, since the negotiation of the Treaty of Commerce, affords convincing proof of the great capabilities of our manufacturing industry. Since 1860, the exportation of iron, wrought and unwrought, to France has increased in value £540,000.

Looking therefore to the present condition of our iron trade, there is nothing to justify serious misgivings. According to the last report of the Commissioners of Customs, the average value of the pig iron exported in 1870 was £2. 19s. 2d. per ton; in 1871, £3. 1s. 8d.; in 1872, £5. 0s. 11d.; and yet the demand for pig iron continued unchecked. The increase in the quantity exported in 1872 over 1871 was 28 per cent. The increase in the price ranged as high as 108 per cent.

While the export of pig iron attained to the figures I have quoted, the total increase in the exports of iron and steel manufactures did not exceed 6.7 per cent. Indeed the manufacture of steel actually fell off from a value of £683,000 in 1871, to £623,000 in 1872; a result the more remarkable as compared with the increase in pig iron, because the price of steel had not advanced in the same proportion as the rise in pig iron. The price of the latter article had risen, as I have said, from £3. 1s. 8d. to £5. 0s. 11d. per ton; while unwrought steel had only advanced from £30. 12s. 3d. to £32. 18s. 7d. per ton, and steel manufactures from £52. 8s. 1d. to £55. 4s. 10d. per ton.

Hence it would appear that a demand once created for an article of the first necessity, such as iron, is not easily checked, even by a very marked advance of price.

It must, however, be remembered that, when the course of trade has been changed, and consumers, alarmed by the high prices in our market, have been taught to look for their supplies in another, the position once lost is not easily recovered. The superiority of our artisans in skill and industry has assisted our manufacturers to compete successfully in the past. The same success will not be maintained in future, unless our employers and workmen continue, as before, to use their united efforts to reduce the cost of production.

Shipbuilding.

Perhaps no branch of industry has been more successfully prosecuted in this country than shipbuilding; and the extensive use of iron for ships of the largest type makes it a point of great interest to ascertain how far the cost of building ships has been affected by the recent advance of wages. I am informed by an eminent firm of shipbuilders, that at the close of 1871, shortly after the reduction in the hours of labour from fifty-nine or sixty hours a week to fifty-four, an agitation was commenced amongst all classes of men for an advance in their rates of wages, which has been, in some shape or other, conceded to them, to the extent of from 7½ to 15 per cent. In reality, this was the natural consequence of the reduction in the hours of labour; although, at the outset the leaders of that movement professed that they had no desire to raise the rates of wages.

The reduced hours of labour increased the cost of production of all articles, and led to the necessity for an advance in the rates of wages. In point of fact, the advantage of the reduction in the hours of labour being conceded, on social and moral grounds, the necessity for some corresponding advance in wages followed as a matter of course, and was perhaps not unreasonable. The two causes combined have resulted in an increased cost of production, so far as labour is concerned, of from 20 to 25 per cent. The cost of building first-class steamers and first-class marine engines has, in consequence of the rise in wages and materials, been increased from 30 to 40 per cent.

The actual diminution, by the nine hours’ movement, in the amount of work, turned out with a given plant, should, in theory, be only in proportion to the reduced number of the hours of work, or, say, about one-tenth. It is in reality from 15 to 20 per cent.

From an eminent firm on the Clyde, I learn that on riveters’ and smiths’ piece-work there has been an increase of 20 per cent. and 10 per cent. respectively, in the last two years; on the other hand, in fitters’ piece-work there has been a decrease of 10 per cent. The price of first-class steamers in 1871 was about £24 per ton. At present the cost would be from 30 to 35 per cent. higher. While the building of sailing ships decreased in 1871 and 1872, in 1873 there has been an increase in the number built. The building of steamers has not been so brisk in 1873 as in 1871 or 1872; a marked falling-off in orders having taken place since the beginning of this year.

On the Thames I find that piece-work is at least 15 per cent. dearer now than in 1869 and 1870. The operatives, employed in attending to large self-acting machines, which require little manual labour, are only working fifty-four hours instead of sixty hours. Again, there has been a large increase of overtime, since the nine hours’ movement commenced. Wages for overtime are higher than for ordinary time. An hour and a half’s pay is given for every hour’s work, and many men refuse to work unless a certain amount of overtime is given to them.

With these recent reports from shipbuilders it may be useful to compare the general progress of shipbuilding in the United Kingdom, in the last ten years. The tonnage of the ships built increased from 328,000 tons in 1867 to 475,000 tons in 1872. There has been no increase in the registered tonnage in the interval, but the vast increase in the proportion of steam to sailing vessels will fully explain the apparently stationary condition of the mercantile marine, if tested solely by the amount of tonnage. It is equally reassuring to find that, in the estimation of foreigners best qualified to form an opinion, the extent of our merchant navy excites profound admiration. M. Bal, director of the Bureau Veritas, in giving evidence before the French Parliamentary Commission of inquiry into the condition of the French Mercantile Marine, said that to him it seemed almost incredible that England, which has only 27,000,000 inhabitants, had 6,903,000 tons of shipping, whereas all the other maritime Powers combined had only 6,648,000 tons.

In the United States, until the quite recent, and still but partial, revival of the trade, the decline of shipbuilding had been very remarkable. In a country possessed of less natural resource, the suffering, which would have been entailed on the particular industries, would have been almost insupportable. According to Mr. Wells, 15,000 men were employed in New York, in 1860, in building and repairing marine steam engines. In 1870, fewer than 700 found employment in the same branch of industry.

In France, it would seem, from the report of Mr. West, that a wooden ship costs from £3 to £4 a ton more than a similar ship built in England or Canada; and in regard to iron steamers, the price of wrought iron in France for shipbuilding purposes is so much higher than in England, as to make competition impossible.

Amid the many difficulties of the present time, English employers may perhaps take comfort by looking abroad, where they will generally find that the same problems, with which they have to deal, are presenting themselves, and often in a still more aggravated form.

The engineering trade.

Passing from shipbuilding to engineering, I have ascertained that in an establishment on the largest scale, in which the cost of production has been minimised to the utmost, the increased cost of production in 1871 over 1870 was, for wages, 2.73 per cent., and for materials, 2.59 per cent. Again, the increase in 1872 over 1871 was, for wages, 7.97, and for materials, 7.94 per cent., thus showing that the most liberal application of capital, the most ingenious machinery, and skilful administration, had failed to compensate for the great advance in the rate of wages.

I may also quote the following details from a report received from an engineering establishment with which I am connected.

The average wages of some of the most important trades in our employ in 1871, 1872, and 1873, were as follows:—

Trade. Year 1871. Year 1872. Year 1873. s. d. s. d. s. d. Fitters 29 0 30 0 33 0 Turners 30 0 31 0 34 0 Planers 24 0 25 0 28 0 Slotters 24 0 25 0 28 0 Drillers 20 0 21 0 23 0 Moulders 34 0 34 0 36 0 Dressers 24 0 24 0 26 0 Coppersmiths 32 0 33 0 36 0 Smiths 31 0 32 0 35 0 Strikers 19 0 20 0 22 0 Patternmakers 31 0 33 0 36 0 Joiners 30 0 31 0 34 0 Carpenters 42 0 42 0 42 0 Painters 29 0 29 0 32 0 Platers (boilermakers) 34 0 34 0 36 0 Riveters 28 0 30 0 32 0 Holders-up 24 0 24 0 26 0 Platers (ship yard) 35 0 35 0 36 0 Riveters 30 0 30 0 30 0 Holders-up 23 0 23 0 24 0 Labourers 18 0 18 0 20 0

In reply to my inquiry, as to the effect of the nine hours’ movement in diminishing the amount of work turned out, I am informed that, while wages have considerably advanced, no increased activity on the part of the men has taken place. Indeed, less work is performed in nine hours now than formerly when ten hours constituted an ordinary day’s work.

The rise of wages has been very considerable in the last two years. The price of locomotives has, in consequence of these various causes, increased from 25 to 30 per cent. An ordinary passenger engine, which might have been built in 1871 for £2,200, cost in 1872 £2,400, and in the present year the price would be £2,600. In modern marine engines the cost of materials and labour is about equal. An engine, which might have been built in 1871, at £40 per horse-power, would have cost in 1872 £46. In the present year the price has advanced from £55 to £60 per horse-power.

In one of the largest steel and iron works in the North I learn that the wages of skilled hands are now from ten to sixteen shillings a day, and have increased 25 per cent. since 1870.

Lastly, I am informed that there is no appreciable difference in the dress or appearance of the working man in the town, in which my works are situated, that there is more money and more time spent in the public-house, and that time in the morning is not so well kept now as it was before the nine hours’ movement commenced. It is suggested to me that the improvement in wages and the shortening of the time came too suddenly upon the working man.

It is sometimes difficult to overcome a feeling of depression as to the future of our mechanical industry. But, when we look to the progress made in the past, there is no ground for discouragement. The value of our exports of steam engines in 1866 was £1,760,000, in 1872 £2,995,000. The value of our exports of machinery of other sorts was, in 1866, £2,998,000; in 1872, £5,606,000. The past has been prosperous, and there is no reason why a cloud should overshadow the future of our industry, if only the time-honoured rule be observed, of giving a fair day’s work for a fair day’s wages.

Rise of wages on Continent.

I now proceed to examine the situation of affairs among our continental rivals. Valuable materials for such investigation are furnished to our hands by the recently-published reports of our Secretaries of Legation, and by a most important pamphlet prepared by Mr. Redgrave. From these authorities we learn that, in the last ten years, wages at Verviers, a great centre of industry in Belgium, have gradually increased by 20 per cent. and that the working hours are shorter than they were. At Ghent the rate of wages has risen 60 per cent. in the last fifteen years. The average prices of the necessaries of life show an increase in Belgium of 50 per cent. in the last thirty years. Beef and mutton are now 8d. per pound, and bread is about 8d. the four-pound loaf. The rise of wages has, however, been greater in proportion than the increase in the cost of lodging, clothes, and food.