working life of women seventeenth century - School of Economics ...

TEXTILESwas paid better than the labourer who worked forthem all the year round, and whose family dependedexclusively on him. Disorganization and lack of bargainingpower, coupled with traditions founded uponan earlier social organization, were responsible for thelow wages of the spinsters. The agricultural labourerwas crippled in his individual efforts for a decent wagebecause society persisted in regarding him as a householdservant. The spinster was handicapped because in asociety which began to assert the individual's right tofreedom, she had from her infancy been trained tosubjection.It must however be remembered that though a largepart of the ensuing chapter is concerned with spinstersand their wages, much, perhaps most, of the threadspun never came into the market, but was produced fordomestic consumption. Thus we find all three formsof industrial organisation existing simultaneously inthese trades-Domestic Industry, Family Industry,and Capitalistic Industry.Domestic Industry lingered especially in the LinenTrade until machinery made the spinning wheelobsolete, and Family Industry was still extensivelypractised in the seventeenth century ; but CapitalisticIndustry, already established in the Woollen Trade,was making rapid inroads on the other branches of theTextile Trades.Although Capitalism undermined the position ofconsiderable economic independence enjoyed bymarried women and widows in the tradesman andfarming classes, possibly its intoduction may haveimproved the position of unmarried women, andothers who were already dependent on wages ; butsuch improvements belong to a later date. Theironly indication in the seventeenth century is the clearlyproved fact that wages for spinning were higher in themore thoroughly capitalistic woollen trade, than in thelinen trade. Further evide'nce is a suggestion by DefoeTEXTILES97that wages for spinning in the woollen trade weredoubled, or even trebled, in the first decade of theeighteenth century, but no sign of this advance canbe detected in our period.(B.) Woollen Trade.The interest of the Government and of all those whostudied financial and economic questions, was focussedupon the Woollen Trade, owing to the fact that itformed one of the chief sources of revenue for theCrown. At the close of the seventeenth centurywoollen goods formed a third of the English exports.'Historically the Woollen Trade has a further importance,due to the part which it played in the developmentof capitalism. The manufacture of woollenmaterials had existed in the remote past as a familyindustry, and even in the twentieth century this methodstill survives in the remoter parts of the British Isles ;but the manufacture of cloth for Foreign trade wasfrom its beginning organized on Capitalistic lines, andthe copious records which have been preserved of itsdevelopment, illustrate the history of Capitalismitself.It was estimated that about one million men, womenand children were exclusir.ely employed in the clothingtrade,-" all have their dependence solely and whollyupon the said Manufacture, without intermixingthemselves in the labours of Hedging, Ditching,Quickretting, and others the works belonging toHusbandry."'In 1612 eight thousand persons, men, women and-p----' Davenant (Inspector-General of Exports and Irnrorts). An account oftbc tradebetween Greate Brztazn, Franre, Holland, Spurn, Portup Italy, Afrrca, Newfoundlandetc. wzth the zmportatzons and exportatzons of all Commodttres, partrcularly of theWoollen Manufactures, deltoered zn hzs reports made to the Commtsszoners for PubltckAccounts. 1715, p. 71. Our general exports for the year 1699 are valued atE6, 788,166, 17s 63d. Whereof the Woollen Manufacture for the same year arevalued at Lr,93z,z9z, 17s. 63d.Prozerb Crossed, p. 8, 1677. See also Case of the Woollen Manufacturers of GreatBrztnrn which states that they are " the subsistance of more than a Million of Poorof both sexes, who are employed there~n."