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

142TEXTILES TEXTILES '43end. And it is the same in making of Buttons andBone lace, and the like. But it is not so in this Trade ;for they that have been apprentices to the Silk-weavingTrade, are able to make more commodities than canbe easily disposed of , , . . because there hathnot been for a long time any other but this, to placeforth poor men's Children, and Parish Boyes unto ;by which means the poor of this Trade have beenvery numerous."'During this period all the references to silkspinningconfirm the impression that it had becomea pauper trade. A pamphlet calling for the impositionof a duty on the importation of wrought silksexplains that " The Throwsters, by reason of thisextraordinary Importation of raw Silk, will employseveral hundred persons more than they did before,as Winders, Doublers, and others belonging to thethrowing Trade, who for the greatest part arepoor Seamen and Soldier's wives, which by thisIncrease of Work will find a comfortable Subsistencefor themselves and Families, and thereby take off aBurthen that now lies upon several Parishes, whichare at a great charge for their S~pport."~ The" comfortable subsistence " of these poor seamen'swives amounted to no more than IS. 6d. or IS. 8d.per week.'There seems here no clue to explain the transitionfrom a monopoly of gentlewomen conducting aprofitable business on the lines of Family Industryto a disorganised Capitalistic Trade, resting on thebasis of women's sweated labour. The earlier monopolywas, however, probably favoured by the expensivenature of the materials used, and the necessity' Trade $England, p. 18.' Answer to a Paper of Rejecttons, on the Project for laying a Dnty on EnglrsbWrought Stlks.' Casr ofthe Manufacturers $Gilt and Silver Wire, 1714.for keeping in touch with the merchants who importedthem, while social customs secured an equitabledistribution of the profits. With the destructionof these social customs and traditions, competitionasserted its sway unchecked, till it appeared asthough there might even be a relation betweenthe costliness of the material and the wretchednessof the women employed in its manufacture ; for thewomen who span gold and silver thread were inthe same stage of misery.Formerly women had been mistresses in this classof business as well as in the Silk Trade, but a Proclamationof June ~ ~ t 1622, h , forbade the exercise ofthe craft by all except members of the Company ofGold Wire Drawers.Under this proclamation the Silver thread of oneAnne Twiseltor was confiscated by Thomas Stockwood,a constable, who entered her hause and found herand others spinning gold and silver thread. " Thesaid Anne being since married to one John Bagshawehath arrested Stockwood for the said silver upon anaction of LIO, on the Saboth day going from Church,and still prosecuteth the suite against him in GuildHall with much clamor."' Bagshawe and his wifemaintained that the silver was sterling, and thereforenot contrary to the Proclamation. Stockwood refusedto return it unless he might have some of it. Thereforethey commenced the suit against him.Probably few, if any, women became members of theCompany of Gold Wire Drawers, and henceforward theywere employed only as spinners. Their poverty is shownby the frequency with which they are mentionedas inmates of tenement houses, which thrcugh overcrowdingbecame dangerous to the public health.It was reported to the Council for example, thatKatherine Barnaby " entertayns in her housc in GreatC.R., June 16, 1624.