The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-06-15 00:00:00

!nt state of thing

and to excite the longing desires of the poor ma.' for
loaf. (Hear, bear.) That is very easy, I say ; it wants no
argument : there yen are, and a cheap loaf is a treasure to
(Hea ',ear, and laughter.) They who raise this cry
dose y' such fools as to imagine that in that change
eh iF proposed, nothing

suppose you arc

else would be changed except
Now the people oaf England

:e -experimental philosophers seem

now know that if' the ►rice 6-1 bread b€

greatly changed, then, that by and bye, not perhaps immedi-
ately, and not equally in every place—for there arc different
circumstances in different places, which in a country like
this roust be taken into the calculation—circumstances which
interfere with the direct, immediate, and palpable sequence
of effects from their producing causes, and which baffle the
observations of inexperienced observer S—l say the people
now know, that by and bye, most assuredly if the price of
bread goes down, the price of labour will go down too.
(Hear, hear, and much cheering.) Upon this subject, as it

refers to the intelligent workmen in our factor
take the liberty of rea-r

1 want to

to you

ter manufacturer and two of his

men,

John Guest

mitt Powell. The scene was a little court-
',age mill, and the time about ten days a

-yard in front
ago. (Hear,

Enter a master manufacturer with two of his workmen,
John Guest and Benjamin Powell.
_ _

Master.—Now, my lads, 1 wish you joy. We shall be
able at last to compete with the continental manufacturer.
Our patriotic government have announced their intention to
do away with the odious bread tax, and allow us to have a
cheaper loaf. But we must agitate for it, or they will not be
able to carry it, they are opposed by such a powerful body of
tory monopolists, headed all through the country by those
hypocritical parsons. Come therefore, my lads,' let us all
attend the , great demonstration, and show the government
that the country is up, and that they may calculate upon

John Guest.—Please let us have a word with you, master.
We want a little more enli;•htening upon this subject. You
my you will be able at last to hold your own with the conti-
iental manufacturers. Pray what is the reason you have

not been able to do so all along? And why cant y'oudO-;O

Master.—Why, John, for the simplest reason in the world
They have untaxed corn and cheap bread, axd we have thi:

John Guest. —W ell, sir, that may he a very simple sober
reason to your better understanding, but that is precisely the
point on which we wish to have further instruction. I have
been talking to Benjamin Powel here about it, and he is a
tolerable scholar in a small way, but we cannot make out
how it is that this question bears upon us. Will you tell us,
master, how is it that the cheap bread on the continent, and
the dear bread here in England affects your powers of com-
petition with the foreign manufacturer?
Master.—lt works in this way, John. The continental
manufacturer can undersell us in all the markets of the world,
because he gets his work done so much cheaper than we can
get our's.

Benjamin Powell.-1-1a! John, did Inot tell you where the
pivot of the machine lay ? They get their work done cheaper
because they don't give their workmen half as much waves
as we get, and that s because their workmen don't pay half
as much for bread as we do. Don't you see that master wants
us to get cheap bread from the shop, in order that he may get
cheap labour from us, and so be able to compete with those
who get cheap labour on the continent? and don't you see,
therefore, that in order to accomplish master's grand object
of competition, if we could buy to-morrow as much bread for
sixpence as we can now buy for a shilling, we would have to
do as much work for sixpence as we now do for a shilling?
John Guest.—l do see it, and I see now that whatever ad-
vantage such a change might bring to our master, it would
do us no good; it would leave us just where it found us—
buying rahraalfsanyrsit:e,,,aintdwwooulidkibneg,
as allbodrayafd aorhs
it
alfisprlcer.!.
As Tim l‘ ,
row," or rather,itAvorildbet lars,rfv, as it broad.

3enjamin Polvei

It svou

goes in bread. We have a many other things to buy for the
family, as clothes and soap, Aome.b.utb-r, and a piece of ba-
con. Now, John, you consider this, and let master tell us
•.:

e thinks of it. We are getting now 18s. a week:
calf of it, as I said, goes for bread : that leaves us 9s.
for other things. Now, if the shilling loaf goes down
ice, then master will be lAA:, to compete with the

tinental master, by getting i;:s won: toe
of 18s. Still about half pre-
.
t price ; that is, we shall give a week's work for 9a., in_
ti.
the wages will go fcr bread ;
then 4s. 6d. will buy as much bread as 9s. will buy now.
Tefore, as far as the one article of bread goes, we shall be

ust where we started ; but for all other articles that we want,
se shall havz only 4s. 6d. a week, instead of 9s. ; and, there-
bre, we would be worse off with the cheap bread than we are
vith the dear bread; so that, John, I don't see why we
hould agitate .he matter at all, unless it be to prevent the