[13] Smith, "Wealth of Nations," edited by J. S. Nicholson, pp. 135 and
280. It is of course true that Adam Smith meant by this merely
what is in a way true, that domestic servants earn no profit for
their employers. He does not deny (p. 136) that their labour
"has a certain value." But, like all the economists who followed
him, he is content to dismiss domestic workers with this cursory
treatment and to identify labourers with the workers hired for
profit-making purposes.
[14] See "Principles of Economics" (4th ed.), pp. 192, 772.
[15] Marshall, "Principles" (4th ed.), p. 764: "The working classes had
then no other beds than loose straw, reeking with vermin and
resting on damp floors."
[16] Thorold Rogers is a partial exception.
[17] _e.g._ Rowntree, "Poverty: a Study of Town Life;" portions of
Booth's "Life and Labour of the People;" reports to the Board of
Trade on the cost of living.
[18] Webb, S. and B., "Industrial Democracy" (cheap edition), p. 674.
[19] Marshall, "Principles of Economics," vol. i. p. 159.
[20] There is an assumption here which needs perhaps some discussion,
_i.e._ that expenditure or consumption of goods can be most
conveniently studied on the basis of family life. This is
obviously the case with house-room, food, fuel, cleanliness,
&c., less so with regard to clothes or recreation; it was truer
of the past than of the present, and is truer of the poor than
of the rich. In some classes, _e.g._ the professional class,
where marriage is commonly delayed and a considerable period may
intervene between the end of education and the establishment of
a fresh household, it may be necessary to supplement the study
of family expenditure by a consideration of the standard of
living of unmarried men and women. Attempts, too, must be made
to deal with the various forms of institutional life, varying
from prisons and workhouses on the one hand to expensive
boarding-schools and hotels on the other. But when all these
necessary deductions have been made, it remains true that in
order to study expenditure we must in the great majority of
cases take the family as our basis of investigation. Consumption
is organised on a family basis.
[21] See Marshall, "Principles," book ii. chap. ii.
[22] Ashley, "Economic History," vol. i. part ii. p. 262.
[23] The economic historian must always be prepared to acquiesce in a
certain vagueness in the matter of dates. He is not dealing with
definite events, such as battles and the enactment of special
laws, but rather with social tendencies, each constituted by a
large number of small events; such as, for instance, the
replacement of hand labour by machinery, the appearance of
limited liability companies in the place of the single employer,
or the determination of middle-class girls to earn their own
living instead of remaining dependent on father or brothers.
Tendencies such as these appear at different times in different
industries and in different parts of the country, and only a
misleading precision can be gained by any mention of definite
dates.
[24] Summarised from Seebohm, "Village Community," pp. 156-157.
[25] Gasquet, "English Monastic Life," p. 197.
[26] "Economic History," vol. i.
[27] Surtees Society, Boldon Book, p. 28.
[28] "English Monastic Life," p. 198.
[29] The English were famed in the Middle Ages for their preference for
good bread. They would eat no bread
"That beans in come,
But of cocket[30] or clerematyn[30] or else of clean wheat."
--_Piers Plowman_, A. vii. 292.
[30] Better kinds of bread, but not the best (wastel).
[31] Walter of Henley, p. 29.
[32] Apparently, it is only within the last hundred years that the cow
has ceased to be a normal possession of the agricultural
labourer. See Slater, "English Peasantry and Common Fields," pp.
122-128.
[33] Eddy, "English House," p. 133.
[34] England at that time possessed her own vineyards, _e.g._ near
Gloucester, and produced white wine.
[35] Rules of S. Robert as given in "Walter of Henley," p. 145.
[36] Broth in which the meat had been boiled.
[37] Pepper.
[38] Stiff.
[39] "Meals and Manners of the Olden Time," p. 164.
[40] Kind of sauce.
[41] Pork, eggs, cloves, currants, dates, sugar boiled in a bladder,
cut into strips and served with hot rich sauce.
[42] A soteltie was an elaborate confection of pastry painted or
adorned with paper to represent a saint or a figure of spring,
summer, &c.
[43] Spiced wine.
[44] Panter and pantry, from pain.
[45] Butler = bottler.
[46] Rules of S. Robert in "Walter of Henley," pp. 138-140, _passim._
[47] Webb, "Essay on Gloucester Abbey," p. 13.
[48] "Meals and Manners," p. 74.
[49] _Libes Niges Domus_, p. 65.
[50] Gasquet, "English Monastic Life," p. 211.
[51] The maintenance of a large retinue was one of the easiest ways
available for indicating the possession of surplus wealth. This
fact, coupled with the almost absurd over-elaboration of the
details of serving, incline me to believe that in the mediaeval
castle servants were numerous and not overworked.
[52] Riley, "Memorials of London," p. 48.
[53] Riley, "Memorials of London," p. 199. There is, unfortunately, no
indication of the social standing of this felon, Hugh le Bevere
by name. The list of clothes suggests that he was fairly
well-to-do, in which case his equipment of cooking and table
utensils is certainly meagre. It is curious that pottery is not
mentioned; it can hardly be urged that although in use it was
too unimportant for a place in the inventory, since room is
found for one small canvas bag, value 1d.
[54] Hence the name convertible husbandry.
[55] This is, of course, a very summary statement of changes which it
took centuries to bring about. On the one hand, money economy
existed in the mediaeval town; on the other, subsistence farming
continued in England to some extent until within a hundred years
ago. Yet it is roughly true that in the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries production for the market and not for use markedly and
suddenly increased.
[56] By an Act of 1589, it was ordained that four acres of land should
be attached to every cottage. _Cf._ Hasbach. "English
Agricultural Labourer," p. 40.
[57] See Cunningham, "English Industry and Commerce," vol. ii. p. 40
(4th ed.).
[58] Poultry.
[59] "Description of England," p. 238 _ff._
[60] _Op. cit._, vol. i. p. 150.
[61] Pickled pork.
[62] This class is never described by him.
[63] See Cunningham, ii. p. 78, "Issue of Patents for making Soap and
Vinegar."
[64] _e.g._ Slater, "English Peasantry and the Enclosure of the Common
Fields." Hasbach, "History of the English Agricultural
Labourer." Toynbee, "The Industrial Revolution." Hobson,
"Evolution of Capitalism."
[65] [Near Halifax]. "After we had mounted the third hill, we found the
country one continuous village ... hardly a House standing out
of speaking distance from another, and as the day wore on we
could see at every House a tenter, and on almost every tenter a
Piece of Cloth, Kersey or Shalloon, which are the three articles
of this country's labour.... Then as every clothier must
necessarily keep one horse at least to fetch home his wool and
his provisions from the market, to carry his yarn to the
spinners, his Manufacture to the fulling mill, and when finished
to the market to be sold and the like; so every one generally
keeps a cow or two for his Family.... Nor is the industry of the
people wanting.... Though we met few People without Doors, yet
within we saw the Houses full of lusty fellows, some at the
dye-vat, some at the loom, others dressing the cloths, the women
and children carding or spinning. All employed from the youngest
to the oldest. Scarce a thing above four years old, but its
hands were sufficient for its own support." Defoe, "Tour through
Great Britain" (1769), vol. iii. p. 146.
[66] "The increase of urban areas can be gathered from the Census
Reports. In 1851 ... the population of such areas amounted
approximately to 9,000,000, or 50 per cent. of the total
population of England and Wales; by 1881 the population of urban
sanitary areas, as defined by the Public Health Acts, 1872 and
1875, was 17,600,000, or 68 per cent. of the aggregate
population; by 1901 ... the population of boroughs and urban
districts amounted to 25,000,000, or 77 per cent. of the
aggregate population."--Blue Book on Public Health and Social
Conditions, p. 6 [Cd. 4671 of 1909].
[67] It should be noted, too, that the advantages of the large-scale
method of production are greatly diminished by the dangers of
adulteration. _Cf._ p. 177.
[68] In the absence of an efficient system of police, it probably was
not safe for women to walk or travel alone. In the security
provided for us by paved and lighted streets, guarded by trained
constables, and in the complete safety of modern methods of
travelling, some of us are apt now to forget these elementary
considerations, once of supreme importance.
[69] For the whole subject, see Hutchins and Harrison, "History of
Factory Legislation."
[70] In "Educated Working Women," by Clara E. Collet, 1902. Miss Collet
says: "Were statistics available it might perhaps be shown that
the unmarried women are to a large extent the daughters of
clerks and professional men.... Emigration is probably more
frequent in the salaried class; and where the sons are obliged
to emigrate, it frequently happens that the daughters have to
work for their living. In this class I believe the inequality of
the sexes is greatest and the chances of marriage least" (pp.
37-38).
[71] P. 171.
[72] I cannot refrain at this point from inserting the following
quotations from "Shirley" (chapter xxii.). Charlotte Bronte's
genius illumined the situation of many girls even in her time,
and of a larger number since. Caroline is speaking. "Old maids,
like the houseless and unemployed poor, should not ask for a
place and an occupation in the world; the demand disturbs the
happy and rich; it disturbs parents. Look at the numerous
families of girls in this neighbourhood. The brothers of these
girls are every one in business or in professions ... their
sisters have no earthly employment but household work and
sewing.... Men of England! look at your poor girls, many of them
fading around you, dropping off in consumption or decline; or,
what is worse, degenerating to sour old maids, envious,
backbiting, wretched, because life is a desert to them; or, what
is worst of all, reduced to strive, by scarce modest coquetry
and debasing artifice, to gain that position and consideration
by marriage which to celibacy is denied."
[73] I am not suggesting here that the pioneers of women's higher
education were wrong in the attitude they adopted. To win for
women intellectual freedom was the most important duty for them,
and that could only be achieved by women submitting to the same
intellectual tests as men. But the problems which call for
solution by their successors of a later generation have assumed
a new form.
[74] See Raymond Unwin, "Housing and Town-Planning."
[75] In June 1908, the value of the property of the various tenants'
companies was only a little short of a quarter of a million
pounds, and their operations have since then been extended in
various directions.
[76] For comparison:--
Number of
Occupation. Persons Employed.
Agriculture 1,197,922
Textile fabrics 1,155,397
Professional occupations 606,260
[77] Owing to a change in the system of enumeration which alters the
basis of comparison, the year 1891 cannot be used in our
calculations.
[78] The competent single-handed maid is meant here, not the little
"slavey" who assists her mistress in the rougher part only of
the work.
[79] A further inquiry is needed into this matter. I am not at all
clear whether servants are derived from the class of the fairly
prosperous artisan or from the unskilled labouring class.
[80] "There are unfortunately no reliable statistics as to the average
wages earned by women workers, but, speaking from a large
experience, I estimate that the average wage of the manual woman
worker, taking into account slackness, sickness, &c., is
certainly not more than 7s. 6d. all the year round."--"Trade
Unions," by Mary Macarthur, in "Women in Industry from Seven
Points of View," p. 66.
[81] Stephen Reynolds in "A Poor Man's House" paints this situation
with great psychological insight.
[82] Compare Salmon, "Domestic Service," pp. 145-6.
[83] Compare "Englishwomen's Year-book for 1910," p. 69.
[84] _e.g._ Rowntree, "Poverty: a Study of Town Life"; Liverpool
Economic and Statistical Society, "How the Casual Labourer
Lives"; "Study of the Diet of the Labouring Classes in
Edinburgh" (published by Otto Schulze & Co., now out of print);
Recent Blue-books on the Cost of Living, &c.
[85] Rowntree, "Poverty: a Study of Town Life," pp. 117, 298 _ff._, as
to inadequacy of diet of labourer, pp. 235 and 303. Mr.
Rowntree's conclusions have been impugned by several critics,
and it may be that his dietary standard is too high. But even if
it turns out that only a quarter and not a third of the
population are in receipt of incomes insufficient for the
expenditure necessary to secure bodily efficiency, the fact is
serious enough.
[86] Calculated by Messrs. Rowntree and Sherwell to amount to 6s. 10d.
per family of the working-class population. "Temperance Problem
and Social Reform" (7th ed.), p. 20.
[87] "Principles" (4th ed.), p. 194.
[88] A special charge was made for guests in this household, and the
amount received was deducted from the weekly food bill.
[89] "The Camel and the Needle's Eye."
[90] "The Camel and the Needle's Eye," p. 153.
SOME RELATIONS OF SANITARY SCIENCE TO FAMILY LIFE AND INDIVIDUAL
EFFICIENCY