★ Find a new page on our Untranscribed Manuscripts list.
28
whose men can never get drunk, unless he chooses they shall do so? and
who, so far from being able to raise their wages by combination, are obliged
to take whatever pittance he thinks it most for his interest to allow. In all
other manufactories those members of a family who can and will work
must earn enough to maintain, not only themselves, but those who either
cannot or will not work. Each master of a family must earn enough to
maintain, or at least help maintain, a wife, and to maintain such as
are yet helpless amongh his children My manufacturer's workmen, however
cramped in other respects, have the good or ill fortune to be freed from this
incumbrance: a freedom, the advantage of which will be no secret to their
master, who, seeing he is to have the honour of their custom in his
capacity of shopkeeper, has taken care to get the measure of their earning
to a hairs breadth. What other manufacturers are there, who reap their
profit at the risk of other people, and who have the purse of the nation to
support them, in case of any blameless misfortune? And, to crown the whole bu
the great advantage which is the peculiar fruit of this new principle,
what other master of manufacturer is ther, who, to appearance constantly,
and in reality as much as he thinks proper, has every look and
motion of each workman under his eye? Without any of these advantages,
we see manufacturers not only keeping their heads above water, but
making their fortunes every day. A manufacturer in this situation
may certainly fail, because so may he in any other. But the probability
is he would not fail; because, even without these great advantages,
much fewer fail than thrive, or the wealth of the country would not
have gone on increasing, as it has done, from the reign of Brutus
to the present. And if political establishments were to wait, till
probability be converted into certainty before trial, Parliament might as
well go to bed at once, and sleep on the same pillow with sister Corovocation.
|
Identifier: | JB/550/222/002"JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 550. |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
|
550 |
|||
|
222 |
|||
|
002 |
|||
