The Sun.
London, England, 1840-01-31 00:00:00

THE COTTON TRADE.

(From the CcTlisla Journal,)
In a letter we have seen from Manchester, dated the
18th inst., it is stated—
" There is a general reduction of wages in all the
mills in this town of 10 per cent., and a reduction of
10 per cent. on power loom weaving takes place this
day."
From Stockport and from Glasgow we have ac-
counts of some hundreds of work people having left
their employment in the course of the last week rather
than suffer a farther reduction of wages ; and from all
parts of the manufacturing districts we have the most
heart-rending details of the privations and sufferings of
the working classes.
In such a state of things it is not the manufacturers
alone who suffer. Shopkeepers and tradesmen of every
description shave their fate ; and in whatever direction
you turn, you are met by the same tale of distress and
nun. The Co-n-laws have at length brought the
country to that pass which has all along been foreseen
by those who have watched their operation. So far
beck as 1826, Sir James Graham, in his pamphlet on
Corn and Currency" said—
" The landlord's best customer is the manufacturer ;
but his prosperity depends entirely on high profits,
which it is the avowed tendency of high prices to re-
duce. If corn be dearer in England than elsewhere,
wages must be higher ; and if wages be higher, profits
must be lower ; thus our foreign competitors obtain
the greatest possible advantage : and if the system be-
come permanent, manufacturing employment, except
for the home market, must cease in this country ; and
surely it is not the interest of any class so to enhance
the price of labour and provisions as to secure to the
foreigner successful competition, and to choke with ob-
structions the principal channels of native industry."
The effect which Sir James here contemplates, the
Corn-laws have produced. The foreigner has become
our successful competitor, and we now find " the
principal channels of native industry " choked with
obstructions which we have no longer the power of re-
moving.
" The feeling of the public," continues Sir James, in
the same pamphlet, " must be hostile to the present
Corn-law—the receivers of rent are a very small body
—backed by public opinion, they are almost omnipotent
—in violation of public opinion, they cannot long re-
tain an exclusive advantage. The contest is fearful ;
for on what grounds will it be decided ? On the very
topic which inflames to madness : that hunger, which
breaks through walls, will he arrayed against them,
reason will be heard no longer, the barriers of society
will be broken down ; and estates, distinctions, honours,
swept away in one resistless torrent. Let those who
seek high prices at all risks remember the words of
Tacit us : Vulgus ad magnitudinem beneficiorum
adcrat ; stultissimus quisqui pecurniis mercabatur ; apud
sapientes c ISS% habebantur, cum neque dare neque
accipi, salsa repuhlica poterant.'"
The " receivers of rent" have gone in violation of
public opinion, till that struggle which Sir James fore-
boded, has actually come to pass. The " topic which
inflames to madness" is now almost the sole topic of
public consideration ; and unless some more speedy
means be adopted for supplying the people with more
food—of clearing away the obstructions which now
impede the " principal channels of native industry."
we fear that consequences dire as those which Sir
James prefigures will hut too shortly come.
But though the Corn-laws are the main obstacle
to the success of our manufactures—and the direct
cause of much of the suffering which the working
classes endure, there are other obstructions thrown
in the way of our cotton manufactures which ought at
once to be removed, and which could only have been
imposed by folly or ignorance. We allude particu-
larly to the tax upon raw cotton—a petition for the
repeal of which we published in our last. At first
sight the tax appears to be a trifling matter—only
five-sixteenths of a penny per lb.—and persons who
have not considered the subject, might say that its
repeal could have no effect upon the cotton trade
generally. The evil of this obnoxious tax will be
easiest understood, perhaps, by showing its operation
in our own locality. Most of our readers are aware
that the great bulk of the cotton goods manufactured
in Carlisle is for the foreign market, and that much of
the yarn spun here is exported to Hamburgh, and
finds its way into mo't of the German markets.
The average quality—or rather we should say,
the average degree of fineness—of the yarn spin
here, is that known
as N. o. 30, and the quan-
tity used in the mills in and around Carlisle,
within a circle of six miles, may be estimated (we
are assured by those well acquainted with the busi-
ness) at 100,000ibs. per week. Now, it is to be
borne in mind that the tax is levied upon the raw
cotton as it is imported, and that before it can be
spun it has to undergo various dressings to clear it of
sand, dirt, &c. Then there is considerable waste in
spinning, winding, weaving, &c. ; so that before the
cotton is manufactured into cloth, the tax actually
levied amounts to something more than a halfpenny
in the pound—being nearly one-half the amount paid
to the spinner for his labour on No. 30's.* Iv ith the
aid of Cocker we find that a halfpenny per pound upon
100,0001bs. amounts to somewhat more than 2001. ster-
ling per week upon the cotton used in Carlisle—which
is just so much extracted from the wages of labour ; for
as our goods have to go into the foreign market, in com-
petition with goods produced in countries where no such
suicidal impost is levied as a tax on raw material, it fol-
lows that either the manufacturer's profits must be re-
duced below what will tempt the capitalist to go on, or
the difference must be taken from the wages of the ope-
rative. And then, as Sir James Graham says, " our fo-
reign competitors obtain thegreatest possible advantage,"
for, in addition to cheap corn, they have also untaxed
cotton to put in competition with cotton taxed to half
the amount of the cost of wages paid for working it into
yarn!
The net loss of cotton in spinning is estimated
vari-
ously by different individuals, In the calculations ofMrKennedy, made use of by him in a paper published in 'the
.
Transactions of the Manchester Literary and Philo
plrical Society,' it is taken at oz. per lb. ; whilst eMont-
gomery, in his Theory and Practice of Cotton Spinning,'
computes it at If oz., and Burn, at 11 oz."