Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

other-in-law, John Millward, needlemaker. 280
In practice many workers adapted their
skills and supplied fish-hooks or needles according to demand. James Millward, needlemerchant,
asks the trustees of his will to raise £1150 from the business to enable his son
Thomas to continue in the fish-hook trade. 281
This mix of diversification and specialisation was similar to the situation amongst
Birmingham’s metal workers. 282
Diversifying into the production of different needles
and fish-hooks allowed flexibility, while division of labour boosted production and
profitability. Nevertheless the needle industry was not without its problems. In 1759
journeymen needlemakers hereabouts ‘rose in large bodies’ to protest at the use of
unskilled labour and to demand more pay as they ‘could scarcely get bread and were
almost starved’. They appear to have been successful in their demands, but consequently
the masters had to raise the price of their needles. As a footnote the newspaper report
stated: ‘There are more sewing needles made in those parts of the country than in all the
kingdom besides.’ 283
With little competition from elsewhere the local needle-masters for
the most part continued to thrive despite this necessary price-rise. That the protest
stopped their use of unskilled labour is less certain. To hedge their bets, some
needlemakers continued in other trades too, for example as labourers, yeomen,
bootmakers or victuallers.
The role of women and children in the needle and fish-hook trade was important,
but largely undocumented. However, poor law records show that children of both sexes
were taken on as apprentices, and sometimes the employer was female, such as Sarah
280 WoRO, probate of Walter Bryan, Studley, fish-hook maker, 1785.
281 WoRO, probate of James Millward, Redditch, needle-merchant, 1790.
282 E. P. Duggan, ‘The impact of industrialisation on an urban labour market’, PhD thesis, University of
Wisconsin, (1972), p.5.
283 Berrow’s Worcester Journal 15 March, 10 May and 17 May 1759.
306