cannot assent. Surely the property of being in the place where they are
wanted, which carriers and distributors are said to confer on external
objects, cannot be said to be fixed--if, indeed, it be strictly
_embodied_ in the objects, since the very act of distribution consists
in the alteration of this local relation, and transferring such objects
to the possession of another. Is not the utility which the weaver fixes
and embodies in a yard of cotton, a very different utility from that
effected by the linendraper in handing the same yard of cotton over the
counter in exchange for so much money? and in this particular act, it
would be difficult to perceive what is fixed and embodied, seeing that
it consists essentially in an exchange of commodities.
Mr. Mill’s mistake appears to consist in not discerning that there is
another class of labour besides that employed in producing utilities
_directly_, and that occupied in _fitting other things_ to afford
utilities: viz., that which is engaged in _assisting_ those who are so
occupied in fitting things to be useful. This class consists of such
as are engaged in aiding the producers of permanent material utilities
either _before_ or during production, and such as are engaged in
aiding them _after_ production. Under the first division are comprised
capitalists, or those who supply the materials and tools for the
work, superintendents and managers, or those who direct the work, and
labourers, or those who perform some minor office connected with the
work, as in turning the large wheel for a turner, in carrying the
bricks to a bricklayer, and the like; while in the second division, or
those who are engaged in assisting producers _after_ production, are
included carriers, or those who remove the produce to the market, and
dealers and shopmen, or those who obtain purchasers for it. Now it is
evident that the function of all these classes is merely _auxiliary_ to
the labour of the producers, consisting principally of so many modes of
economizing their time and labour. Whether the gains of some of these
auxiliary classes are as disproportionately large, as the others are
disproportionately small, this is not the place to inquire. My present
duty is merely to record the fact of the existence of such classes, and
to assign them their proper place in the social fabric, as at present
constituted.
Now, from the above it will appear, that there are four distinct
classes of workers:--
I. ENRICHERS, or those who are employed in producing utilities
fixed and embodied in material things, that is to say, in producing
exchangeable commodities or riches.
II. AUXILIARIES, or those who are employed in aiding the production of
exchangeable commodities.
III. BENEFACTORS, or those who are employed in producing utilities
fixed and embodied in human beings, that is to say, in conferring upon
them some permanent good.
IV. SERVITORS, or those who are employed in rendering some service,
that is to say, in conferring some temporary good upon another.
Class 1 is engaged in investing _material_ objects with qualities
which render them serviceable to others.
Class 2 is engaged in aiding the operations of Class 1.
Class 3 is engaged in conferring on _human beings_ qualities which
render them serviceable to themselves or others.
Class 4 is engaged in giving a pleasure, averting a pain (during
a longer or shorter period), or preventing an inconvenience, by
performing some office for others that they would find irksome to do
for themselves.
Hence it appears that the operations of the first and third of the
above classes, or the Enrichers and Benefactors of Society, tend to
leave some _permanent acquisition_ in the improved qualities of either
persons or things,--whereas the operations of the second and fourth
classes, or the Auxiliaries and Servitors, are limited merely to
promoting either the labours or the pleasures of the other members of
the community.
Such, then, are the several classes of Workers; and here it should be
stated that, I apply the title Worker to all those who do _anything_
for their living, who perform any act whatsoever that is considered
worthy of being paid for by others, without regard to the question
whether such labourers tend to add to or decrease the aggregate wealth
of the community. I consider all persons doing or giving something for
the comforts they obtain, as self-supporting individuals. Whether that
something be really an equivalent for the emoluments they receive, it
is not my vocation here to inquire. Suffice it some real or imaginary
benefit is conferred upon society, or a particular individual, and
what is thought a fair and proper reward is given in return for it.
Hence I look upon soldiers, sailors, Government and parochial officers,
capitalists, clergymen, lawyers, wives, &c., &c., as self-supporting--a
certain amount of labour, or a certain desirable commodity, being
given by each and all in exchange for other commodities, which are
considered less desirable to the individuals parting with them, and
more desirable to those receiving them.
Nevertheless, it must be confessed that, economically speaking, the
most important and directly valuable of all classes are those whom I
have here denominated Enrichers. These consist not only of Producers,
but of the Collectors and Extractors of Wealth, concerning whom a few
words are necessary.
There are three modes of obtaining the materials of our wealth--(1)
by collecting, (2) by extracting, and (3) by producing them. The
industrial processes concerned in the collection of the materials
of wealth are of the rudest and most primitive kind--being pursued
principally by such tribes as depend for their food, and raiment, and
shelter, on the spontaneous productions of nature. The usual modes by
which the collection is made is by gathering the vegetable produce
(which is the simplest and most direct form of all industry), and when
the produce is of an animal nature, by hunting, shooting, or fishing,
according as the animal sought after inhabits the land, the air, or
the water. In a more advanced state of society, where the erection of
places of shelter has come to constitute one of the acts of life, the
felling of trees will also form one of the modes by which the materials
making up the wealth of the nation are collected. In Great Britain
there appears to be fewer people connected with the mere _collection_
of wealth than with any other general industrial process. The fishermen
are not above 25,000, and the wood-cutters and woodmen not 5000; so
that even with gamekeepers, and others engaged in the taking of game,
we may safely say that there are about 30,000 out of 18,000,000, or
only one-six hundredth of the entire population, engaged in this mode
of industry--a fact which strongly indicates the artificial character
of our society.
The _production_ of the materials of wealth, which indicates a far
higher state of civilization and which consists in the several
agricultural and farming processes for increasing the natural stock of
animal and vegetable food, employs upwards of one million; while those
who are engaged in the _extraction_ of our treasures from the earth,
either by mining or quarrying, both of which processes--depending, as
they do, upon a knowledge of some of the subtler natural powers--could
only have been brought into operation in a highly advanced stage of
the human intellect, number about a quarter of a million. Altogether,
there appear to be about one million and a half of individuals engaged
in the industrial processes connected with the collection, extraction,
and production of the materials of wealth; those who are employed
in operating upon these materials, in the fashioning of them into
manufactures, making them up into commodities, as well as those engaged
in the distribution of them--that is to say, the transport and sale
of them when so fashioned or made up--appear to amount to another two
millions and a half, so that the industrial classes of Great Britain,
taken altogether, may be said to amount to four millions. For the more
perfect comprehension, however, of the several classes of society, let
me subjoin a table in round numbers, calculated from the census of
1841, and including among the first items both the employers as well as
employed:--
Engaged in Trade and Manufacture 3,000,000
„ Agriculture 1,500,000
„ Mining, Quarrying, and Transit 750,000
---------
Total Employers and Employed 5,250,000
Domestic Servants 1,000,000
Independent persons 500,000
Educated pursuits (including Professions
and Fine Arts) 200,000
Government Officers (including
Army, Navy, Civil Service, and
Parish Officers) 200,000
Alms-people (including Paupers,
Prisoners, and Lunatics) 200,000
---------
7,350,000
Residue of Population (including
3,500,000 wives and 7,500,000 children) 11,000,000
----------
18,350,000
Now, of the 5,250,000 individuals engaged in Agriculture, Mining,
Transit, Manufacture and Trade, it would appear that about one million
and a quarter may be considered as employers; and, consequently, that
the remaining four millions may be said to represent the numerical
strength of the operatives of England and Scotland. Of these about
one million, or a quarter of the whole, may be said to be engaged in
producing the materials of wealth; and about a quarter of a million,
or one-sixteenth of the entire number, in extracting from the soil the
substances upon which many of the manufacturers have to operate.
The artizans, or those who are engaged in the several handicrafts
or manufactures operating upon the various materials of wealth thus
obtained, are distinct from the workmen above-mentioned, belonging
to what are called skilled labourers, whereas those who are employed
in the collection, extraction, or growing of wealth, belong to the
unskilled class.
An artisan is an _educated_ handicraftsman, following a calling that
requires an apprenticeship of greater or less duration in order to
arrive at perfection in it; whereas a labourer’s occupation needs no
education whatever. Many years must be spent in practising before a
man can acquire sufficient manual dexterity to make a pair of boots
or a coat; dock labour or porter’s work, however, needs neither
teaching nor learning, for any man can carry a load or turn a wheel.
The artisan, therefore, is literally a handicraftsman--one who by
practice has acquired manual dexterity enough to perform a particular
class of work, which is consequently called “skilled.” The natural
classification of artisans, or skilled labourers, appears to be
according to the materials upon which they work, for this circumstance
seems to constitute the peculiar quality of the art more than the tool
used--indeed, it appears to be the principal cause of the modification
of the implements in different handicrafts. The tools used to fashion,
as well as the instruments and substances used to join the several
materials operated upon in the manufactures and handicrafts, differ
according as those materials are of different kinds. We do not, for
instance, attempt to saw cloth into shape nor to cut bricks with
shears; neither do we solder the soles to the upper leathers of our
boots, nor nail together the seams of our shirts. And even in those
crafts where the means of uniting the materials are similar, the
artisan working upon one kind of substance is generally incapable of
operating upon another. The tailor who stitches woollen materials
together would make but a poor hand at sewing leather. The two
substances are joined by the same means, but in a different manner, and
with different instruments. So the turner, who has been accustomed to
turn wood, is unable to fashion metals by the same method.
The most natural mode of grouping the artisans into classes would
appear to be according as they pursue some _mechanical_ or _chemical_
occupation. The former are literally mechanics or handicraftsmen--the
latter chemical manufacturers. The handicraftsmen consist of (1) The
workers in silk, wool, cotton, flax, and hemp--as weavers, spinners,
knitters, carpet-makers, lace-makers, rope-makers, canvas-weavers,
&c. (2) The workers in skin, gut, and feathers--as tanners, curriers,
furriers, feather dressers, &c. (3) The makers up of silken, woollen,
cotton, linen, hempen, and leathern materials--as tailors, milliners,
shirt-makers, sail-makers, hatters, glove-makers, saddlers, and the
like. (4) The workers in wood, as the carpenters, the cabinet-makers,
&c. (5) The workers in cane, osier, reed, rush, and straw--as
basket-makers, straw-plait manufacturers, thatchers, and the like.
(6) The workers in brick and stones--as bricklayers, masons, &c. (7)
The workers in glass and earthenware--as potters, glass-blowers,
glass-cutters, bottle-makers, glaziers, &c. (8) The workers in
metals--as braziers, tinmen, plumbers, goldsmiths, pewterers,
coppersmiths, iron-founders, blacksmiths, whitesmiths, anchor-smiths,
locksmiths, &c. (9) The workers in paper--as the paper-makers,
cardboard-makers. (10) The chemical manufacturers--as powder-makers,
white-lead-makers, alkali and acid manufacturers, lucifer-match-makers,
blacking-makers, ink-makers, soap-boilers, tallow-chandlers, &c. (11)
The workers at the superlative or extrinsic arts--that is to say, those
which have no manufactures of their own, but which are engaged in
adding to the utility or beauty of others--as printing, bookbinding,
painting, and decorating, gilding, burnishing, &c.
The circumstances which govern the classification of _trades_ are
totally different from those regulating the division of work. In trade
the convenience of the purchaser is mainly studied, the sale of such
articles being associated as are usually required together. Hence the
master coachmaker is frequently a harness manufacturer as well, for
the purchaser of the one commodity generally stands in need of the
other. The painter and house-decorator not only follows the trade
of the glazier, but of the plumber, too; because these arts are one
and all connected with the “doing up” of houses. For the same reason
the builder combines the business of the plasterer with that of the
bricklayer, and not unfrequently that of the carpenter and joiner
in addition. In all of these businesses, however, a distinct set of
workmen are required, according as the materials operated upon are
different.
We are now in a position to proceed with the arrangement of the several
members of society into different classes, according to the principles
of classification which have been here laid down. The difficulties of
the task, however, should be continually borne in mind; for where so
many have failed it cannot be expected that perfection can be arrived
at by any one individual; and, slight as the labour of such a task may
at the first glance appear to some, still the system here propounded
has been the work and study of many months.
CLASSIFICATION
OF
THE WORKERS AND NON-WORKERS
OF GREAT BRITAIN.
THOSE WHO WILL WORK.
I. ENRICHERS, as the Collectors, Extractors, or Producers of
Exchangeable Commodities.
II. AUXILIARIES, as the Promoters of Production, or the Distributors
of the Produce.
III. BENEFACTORS, or those who confer some permanent benefit,
as Educators and Curators engaged in promoting the physical,
intellectual, or spiritual well-being of the people.
IV. SERVITORS, or those who render some temporary service, or
pleasure, as Amusers, Protectors, and Servants.
THOSE WHO CANNOT WORK.
V. THOSE WHO ARE PROVIDED FOR BY SOME PUBLIC INSTITUTION, as the
Inmates of workhouses, prisons, hospitals, asylums, almshouses,
dormitories, and refuges.
VI. THOSE WHO ARE UNPROVIDED FOR, and incapacitated for labour, either
from want of power, from want of means, or from want of employment.
THOSE WHO WILL NOT WORK.
VII. VAGRANTS.
VIII. PROFESSIONAL BEGGARS.
IX. CHEATS.
X. THIEVES.
XI. PROSTITUTES.
THOSE WHO NEED NOT WORK.
XII. THOSE WHO DERIVE THEIR INCOME FROM RENT.
XIII. THOSE WHO DERIVE THEIR INCOME FROM DIVIDENDS.
XIV. THOSE WHO DERIVE THEIR INCOME FROM YEARLY STIPENDS.
XV. THOSE WHO DERIVE THEIR INCOME FROM OBSOLETE OR NOMINAL OFFICES.
XVI. THOSE WHO DERIVE THEIR INCOME FROM TRADES IN WHICH THEY DO NOT
APPEAR.
XVII. THOSE WHO DERIVE THEIR INCOME BY FAVOUR FROM OTHERS.
XVIII. THOSE WHO DERIVE THEIR SUPPORT FROM THE HEAD OF THE FAMILY.
THOSE WHO WILL WORK.
I. _Enrichers_, or those engaged in the collection, extraction, or
production of exchangeable commodities.
A. COLLECTORS.
1. Fishermen.
2. Woodmen.
3. Sand and Clay-collectors.
4. Copperas, Cement-stones, and other finders.
B. EXTRACTORS.
1. Miners.
_a._ Coal.
_b._ Salt.
_c._ Iron, Lead, Tin, Copper, Zinc, Manganese.
2. Quarryers.
_a._ Slate.
_b._ Stone.
C. GROWERS.
1. Farmers.
_a._ Capitalist Farmers.
i. Yeomen, or Proprietary Farmers.
ii. Tenant Farmers.
_b._ Peasant Farmers.
i. Peasant Proprietors; as the Cumberland “Statesmen.”
ii. “Metayers,” or labourers paying the landlord a certain portion of
the produce as rent for the use of the land.
iii. “Cottiers,” or labouring Tenant Farmers.
2. Graziers.
3. Gardeners, Nurserymen, Florists.
D. MAKERS OR ARTIFICERS.
1. Mechanics.
_a._ Workers in Silk, Wool, Worsted, Hair, Cotton, Flax, Hemp, Coir.
_b._ Workers in Skin, Gut, and Feathers.
_c._ Workers in Woollen, Silken, Cotton, Linen, and Leathern Materials.
_d._ Workers in Wood, Ivory, Bone, Horn, and Shell.
_e._ Workers in Osier, Cane, Reed, Rush, and Straw.
_f._ Workers in Stone and Brick.
_g._ Workers in Glass and Earthenware.
_h._ Workers in Metal.
_i._ Workers in Paper.
2. Chemical Manufacturers.
_a._ Acid, Alkali, Alum, Copperas, Prussian-Blue, and other
Manufacturers.
_b._ Gunpowder Manufacturers, Percussion-Cap, Cartridge, and Firework
Makers.
_c._ Brimstone and Lucifer-match Manufacturers.
_d._ White-lead, Colour, Black-lead, Whiting, and Blue Manufacturers.
_e._ Oil and Turpentine Distillers, and Varnish Manufacturers.
_f._ Ink Manufacturers, Sealing-wax and Wafer Makers.
_g._ Blacking Manufacturers.
_h._ Soap Boilers and Grease Makers.
_i._ Starch Manufacturers.
_j._ Tallow and Wax Chandlers.
_k._ Artificial Manure Manufacturers.
_l._ Artificial Stone and Cement Manufacturers.
_m._ Asphalte and Tar Manufacturers.
_n._ Glue and Size Makers.
_o._ Polishing Paste, and Glass and Emery Paper Makers.
_p._ Lime, Coke, and Charcoal Burners.
_q._ Manufacturing Chemists and Drug Manufacturers.
_r._ Workers connected with Provisions, Luxuries, and Medicines.
i. Bakers, and Biscuit Makers.
ii. Brewers.
iii. Soda-water and Ginger-beer Manufacturers.
iv. Distillers and Rectifiers.
v. British Wine Manufacturers.
vi. Vinegar Manufacturers.
vii. Fish and Provision Curers.
viii. Preserved Meats and Preserved Fruit Preparers.
ix. Sauce and Pickle Manufacturers.
x. Mustard Makers.
xi. Isinglass Manufacturers.
xii. Sugar Bakers, Boilers, and Refiners.
xiii. Confectioners and Pastry-cooks.
xiv. Rice and Farinaceous Food Manufacturers.
xv. Chocolate, Cocoa, and other Manufacturers of Substitutes for Tea.
xvi. Cigar, Tobacco, and Snuff Manufacturers.
xvii. Quack, and other Medicine Manufacturers, as Pills, Powders,
Syrups, Cordials, Embrocations, Ointments, Plaisters, &c.
3. Workers connected with the Superlative Arts, that is to say, with
those arts which have no products of their own, and are engaged either
in adding to the beauty or usefulness of the products of other arts, or
in inventing or designing the work appertaining to them.
_a._ Printers.
_b._ Bookbinders.
_c._ Painters, Decorators, and Gilders.
_d._ Writers and Stencillers.
_e._ Dyers, Bleachers, Scourers, Calenderers, and Fullers.
_f._ Print Colourers.
_g._ Designers of Patterns.
_h._ Embroiderers (of Muslin, Silk, &c.), and Fancy Workers.
_i._ Desiccators, Anti-dry-rot Preservers, Waterproofers.
_j._ Burnishers, Polishers, Grinders, Japanners, and French Polishers.
_k._ Engravers, Chasers, Die-Sinkers, Embossers, Engine-Turners, and
Glass-Cutters.
_l._ Artists, Sculptors, and Carvers of Wood, Coral, Jet, &c.
_m._ Modellers and Moulders.
_n._ Architects, Surveyors, and Civil Engineers.
_o._ Composers.
_p._ Authors, Editors, and Reporters.
⁂ Operatives are divisible, _according to the mode in which they are
paid_, into--
1. Day-workers.
2. Piece-workers.
3. “Lump” or Contract-workers; as at the docks.
4. Perquisite-workers; as waiters, &c.
5. “Kind” or Truck-workers; as the farm servants in the North of
England, Domestic Servants and Milliners, Ballast-heavers, and men
paid at “Tommy-shops.”
6. Tenant-workers; or those who lodge with or reside in houses
belonging to their employers. The Slop-working Tailors generally lodge
with the “Sweaters,” and the “Hinds” of Northumberland, Cumberland,
and Westmoreland have houses found them by their employers. These
“Hinds” have to keep a “Bondager,” that is, a female in the house
ready to answer the master’s call, and to work at stipulated wages.
7. Improvement-workers; or those who are considered to be remunerated
for their work by the instruction they receive in doing it; as
“improvers” and apprentices.
8. Tribute-workers, as the Cornish Miners, Whalers, and Weavers in
some parts of Ireland, where a certain proportion of the proceeds of
the work done belongs to the workmen.
The wages of “society-men” among operatives are settled by _custom_,
the wages of “non-society-men” are settled by _competition_.
Operatives are also divisible, _according to the places at which they
work_, into--
1. Domestic workers, or those who work at home.
2. Shop or Factory workers, or those who work on the employer’s
premises.
3. Out-door workers, or those who work in the open air; as
bricklayers, agricultural labourers, &c.
4. Jobbing-workers, or those who go out to work at private houses.
5. Rent-men, or those who pay rent for
_a._ A “seat” at some domestic worker’s rooms.
_b._ “Power,” as turners, and others, when requiring the use of a
steam-engine. Some operatives have to pay rent for tools or “frames,”
as the sawyers and “stockingers,” and some for gas when working on
their employer’s premises.
Operatives are further divisible, _according to those whom they employ
to assist them_, into--
1. Family workers, or those who avail themselves of the assistance of
their wives and children, as the Spitalfields Weavers.
2. “Sweaters” and Piece-master workers, or those who employ other
members of their trade at less wages than they themselves receive.
3. “Garret-master” workers, or those who avail themselves of the
labour (chiefly) of apprentices.
Operatives are moreover divisible, _according to those by whom they are
employed_, into--
1. “Flints” and “Dungs;” “Whites” and “Blacks,” according as they work
for employers who pay or do not pay “society prices.”
2. Jobbing piece-workers, or those who work single-handed for the
public (without the intervention of an “employer”) and are paid by the
_piece_. These mostly do the work at their own homes, as cobblers,
repairers, &c.
3. Jobbing day-workers, or those who work single-handed for the public
(without the intervention of an “employer”) and are paid by the _day_.
These mostly go out to work at persons’ houses and frequently have
their food found them. Among the tailors and carpenters this practice
is called “whipping the cat.”
4. “Co-operative men,” or those who work in “association” for their
own profit, obtaining their work directly from the public, without the
intervention of an “employer.”
Lastly, Operatives admit of being arranged into two distinct classes,
viz., the superior, or higher-priced, and the inferior, or lower-priced.
The superior, or higher-priced, operatives consist of--
1. The skilful.
2. The trustworthy.
3. The well-conditioned.
The inferior, or lower-priced operatives, on the other hand, are
composed of--
1. The unskilful; as the old or superannuated, the young (including
apprentices and “improvers”), the slow, and the awkward.