Report on the mortality bills of the city of Glasgow and suburbs, for 1851, with illustrative social statistics / by John Strang.

  • Strang, John, 1795-1863.
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the mortality bills of the city of Glasgow and suburbs, for 1851, with illustrative social statistics / by John Strang. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    not be denied that tlie average rate of the weekly wages, as furnished me by two or three of the leading manufacturing houses in Grlasgow, being from 5s. 9d. to 6s. per week, is indeed a miserable pittance, even when measured by the reduced prices of every article of consumpt. The following is a progressive statement of the average wages earned by the Hand-loom Weavees, from 1824 till 1851 :— 1824, 1825, 1826, 1827, 1828, 1829, 1830, 1831, 1832, 1833, 1834, 1835, 1836, 1837, 13s. 3d. per week. 13s. 6d. — 10s. 2d. — 9s. — 9s. — 7s. 6d. — 7s. 6d. — 6s. 6d. — 6s. 9d. — 6s. 9d. — 8s. — 8s. — 8s. 9d. — 7s. — 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842, 1843, 1844, 1845, 1846, 1847, 1848, 1849, 1850, 1851, 7s. per week. 7s. lOd. — 6s. 9d. — 6s. 9d. — 6s. 2d. — 6s. Id. — 6s. 8d. — 6s. 5d. — 6s. 5d. — 6s. 8d. — 6s. — 6s. 4d. — 6s. 6d. — 5s. 8d. — The above Table fully confirms what I have already said with respect to the general condition of hand-loom weavers. Many of them are, in fact, far worse paid than our most ignorant day laboiurers. At this moment the first class of weavers of plain muslins earn from 7s. to 8s.; the second class from 5s. 6d. to 6s. 6d.; and the third class, being boys and girls under 15 years of age, from 3s. to 4s. No doubt there are many engaged in finer work who obtain far higher remuneration for their labour ; but, taken «.s a class, they are ill paid. The only com- pensation that persons employed in this way enjoy over factory workers and other artizans, lies in the feeling that they are their own masters, can work short or long, late or early, in the garden or in the shop, and that without any detriment to their web ; that they can employ their wives and children, either as adjuncts or assistants in their own labour ; and can thus, from the united exertions of themselves and their families, eke out a tolerable subsistence, without the restraints imposed on many of their more money-gaining bretln-en.