On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures by Charles Babbage (english books to improve english TXT) 📕

Chard 190

Isle of Wight 80

In sundry other places 990

4500

Of the above owners, one thousand work in their own machines,

and enter into the class of journeymen as well as that of masters

in operating on the rate of wages. If they reduce the price of

their goods in the market, they reduce their own wages first;

and, of course, eventually the rate of wages throughout the

trade. It is a very lamentable fact, that one-half, or more, of

the one thousand one hundred persons specified in the list as

owning one, two, and three machines, have been compelled to

mortgage their machines for more than their worth in the market,

and are in many cases totally insolvent. Their machines are

principally narrow and making short pieces, while the absurd

system of bleaching at so much a piece goods of all lengths and

widths, and dressing at so much all widths, has caused the new

machines to be all wide, and capable of producing long pieces; of

course to the serious disadvantage, if not utter ruin, of the

small owner of narrow machines.

It has been observed above, that wages have been reduced, say

25 per cent in the last two years, or from 24s. to 18s. a week.

Machines have increased in the same time one-eighth in number, or

from four thousand to four thousand five hundred, and one-sixth

in capacity of production. It is deserving the serious notice of

all proprietors of existing machines, that machines are now

introducing into the trade of such power of production as must

still more than ever depreciate (in the absence of an immensely

increased demand) the value of their property.

431. From this abstract, we may form some judgement of the

importance of the bobbin net trade. But the extent to which it

bids fair to be carried in future, when the eastern markets shall

be more open to our industry, may be conjectured from the fact

which Mr Felkin subsequently states that ‘We can export a durable

and elegant article in cotton bobbin net, at 4d. per square yard,

proper for certain useful and ornamental purposes, as curtains,

etc.; and another article used for many purposes in female dress

at 6d. the square yard.’

432. Of patents. In order to encourage the invention, the

improvement, or the importation of machines, and of discoveries

relating to manufactures, it has been the practice in many

countries, to grant to the inventors or first introducers, an

exclusive privilege for a term of years. Such monopolies are

termed patents; and they are granted, on the payment of certain

fees, for different periods, from five to twenty years.

The following table, compiled from the Report of the

Committee of the House of Commons on Patents, 1829, shows the

expense and duration of patents in various countries:

Countries; Expense (L s. d.); Term of years; Number granted in

six years, ending in 1826.(Rep. p. 243.)

England; 120 0 0; 14; 914

Ireland; 125 0 0; 14;

Scotland; 100 0 0; 14;

America; 6 15 0; 14;

France; 12 0 0; 5;

32 0 0; 10;

60 0 0; 15; 1091

Netherlands; L6 to L30; 5, 10. 15

Austria; 42 10 0; 15; 1099

Spain(3*) Inventor; 20 9 4; 15;

Improver; 12 5 7; 10;

Importer; 10 4 8; 6;

433. It is clearly of importance to preserve to each inventor

the sole use of his invention, until he shall have been amply

repaid for the risk and expense to which he has been exposed, as

well as for the talent he has exerted in completing it. But, the

degrees of merit are so various, and the difficulties of

legislating upon the subject so great, that it has been found

almost impossible to frame a law which shall not, practically, be

open to the most serious objections.

The difficulty of defending an English patent in any judicial

trial, is very great; and the number of instances on record in

which the defence has succeeded, are comparatively few. This

circumstance has induced some manufacturers, no longer to regard

a patent as a privilege by which a monopoly price may be secured:

but they sell the patent article at such a price, as will merely

produce the ordinary profits of capital; and thus secure to

themselves the fabrication of it, because no competitors can

derive a profit from invading a patent so exercised.

434. The law of copyright, is, in some measure, allied to

that of patents; and it is curious to observe, that those species

of property which require the highest talent, and the greatest

cultivation—which are, more than any other, the pure creations

of mind—should have been the latest to be recognized by the

State. Fortunately, the means of deciding on an infringement of

property in regard to a literary production, are not verv

difficult; but the present laws are, in some cases, productive of

considerable hardship, as well as of impediment to the

advancement of knowledge.

435. Whilst discussing the general expediency of limitations

and restrictions, it may be desirable to point out one which

seems to promise advantage, though by no means free from grave

objections. The question of permitting by law, the existence of

partnerships in which the responsibility of one or more of the

partners is limited in amount, is peculiarly important in a

manufacturing, as well as a commercial point of view. In the

former light, it appears calculated to aid that division of

labour, which we have already proved to be as advantageous in

mental as it is in bodily operations; and it might possibly give

rise to a more advantageous distribution of talent, and its

combinations, than at present exists. There are in this country,

many persons possessed of moderate capital, who do not

themselves enjoy the power of invention in the mechanical and

chemical arts, but who are tolerable judges of such inventions,

and excellent judges of human character. Such persons might, with

great success, employ themselves in finding out inventive

workmen, whose want of capital prevents them from realizing their

projects. If they could enter into a limited partnership with

persons so circumstanced, they might restrain within proper

bounds the imagination of the inventor, and by supplying capital

to judicious schemes, render a service to the country, and secure

a profit for themselves.

436. Amongst the restrictions intended for the general

benefit of our manufacturers, there existed a few years ago one

by which workmen were forbidden to go out of the country. A law

so completely at variance with everv principle of liberty, ought

never to have been enacted. It was not, however, until experience

had convinced the legislature of its inefficiency, that it was

repealed. * When, after the last war, the renewed intercourse

between England and the Continent became extensive, it was soon

found that it was impossible to discover the various disguises

which the workmen could assume; and the effect of the law was

rather, by the fear of punishment, to deter those who had left

the country from returning, than to check their disposition to

migrate.

436. (4*) The principle, that government Ought to interfere

as little as possible between workmen and their employers, is so

well established, that it is important to guard against its

misapplication. It is not inconsistent with this principle to

insist on the workmen being paid in money—for this is merely to

protect them from being deceived; and still less is it a

deviation from it to limit the number of hours during which

children shall work in factories, or the age at which they shall

commence that species of labour—for they are not free agents,

nor are they capable of judging, if they were; and both policy

and humanity concur in demanding for them some legislative

protection. In both cases it is as right and politic to protect

the weaker party from fraud or force, as it would be impolitic

and unjust to interfere with the amount of the wages of either.

NOTES:

1. Twenty eight shillings per cwt for the finer, twenty one

shillings per cwt for the coarser papers.

2. I cannot omit the opportunity of expressing my hope that this

example will be followed in other trades. We should thus obtain a

body of information equally important to the workman, the

capitalist, the philosopher, and the stateman.

3. The expense of a patent in Spain is stated in the report to be

respecitivly 2000, 1200 and 1000 reals. If these are reals of

vellon, in which accounts are usually kept at Madrid, the above

sums are correct; but if they are reals of plate, the above sums

ought to be nearly doubled.

4. In the year 1824 the law against workmen going abroad, as well

as the laws preventing them from combining, were repealed, after

the fullest enquiry by a Committee of the House of Commons. In

1825 an attempt to re-enact some of the most objectionable was

made, but it failed.