Collected Works of V. I. Lenin - Vol. 3 - From Marx to Mao

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CAPITALISM IN RUSSIA
397
consecutive operations in working up the raw material:
1) hemp scutching; 2) combing; 3) spinning; 4) coiling;
5) tarring; 6) winding on drum; 7) passing threads through
perforated board; 8) passing threads through iron bush;
9) stranding of plaits, twisting and gathering of ropes.*
The organisation of the hemp industry in Orel Gubernia
is evidently similar: from among the considerable number
of small peasant establishments big manufactories emerge,
principally in the towns, and are included among the “factories
and works” (according to the Directory for 1890 there
were in Orel Gubernia 100 hemp-scutching factories, with
1,671 workers and an output totalling 795,000 rubles).
The peasants work in the hemp industry “for merchants”
(probably for the very same manufacturers), using the
latter’s materials, at piece rates, the work being divided
up into special operations: “scutchers” scutch the hemp;
“spinners” spin it; “bearders” trim it, “wheelmen” turn the
wheel. The work is very hard; many contract consumption
and “rupture.” The dust is so thick that “unless accustomed
you will not stay in it for a quarter of an hour.”
The work is done in ordinary sheds from dawn to dusk,
from May to September.**
4) T h e W o o d - W o r k i n g T r a d e s
The most typical example of capitalist manufacture in
this sphere is the chest-making industry. According to the
data, for instance, of the Perm investigators, “this industry
is organised as follows: a few big proprietors, owning
workshops that employ wage-workers, purchase materials,
partly make the wares on their own premises, but mainly
give out material to small workshops making parts, and in
their own shops assemble them and, after finishing, send the
ready article to market. Division of labour . . . is employed
* The Handicraft Industries of Perm Gubernia at the Siberian-
Urals Exhibition, Pt. III, p. 47 and foll.
** See Zemstvo statistical returns for Trubchevsk, Karachev
and Orel uyezds of Orel Gubernia. The connection between the big
manufactories and the small peasant establishments is also evident
from the fact that the employment of wage-labour develops in the
latter as well: for example, in Orel Uyezd, 16 peasant master spinners
employ 77 workers.