466 WAGES, LABOUR AND TRADES' UNION. 



trade of shipbuilding-, which was at one time carried on to a consi- 

 derable extent at Dublin, has now been almost wholly driven away to 

 other ports. And can we wonder at it, when the sawyers of Dublin 

 stand out for wages at the rate of 4s. 2d. for the same work which is 

 done at Liverpool for little more than half the money ? 



In the above cases it invariably appears, that where the system of 

 combination has been introduced amongst the workmen of any par- 

 ticular district, it has had the immediate effect of throwing the de- 

 mand for that species of labour into some other district, where the 

 same circumstances do not prevail. These results, though they 

 materially affect the relative interests of the individual manufacturers 

 of those two places, will probably not extend their baneful influence 

 to the national prosperity at large. The Sheffield workman is thrown 

 out of employ, and industry at Sheffield is at a stand still. But 

 straightway the orders which the Sheffield manufacturer cannot exe- 

 cute by reason of the combination amongst his men, are transferred 

 to Birmingham, where lower wages are paid. The Birmingham 

 workmen and the Birmingham manufacturers have increased busi- 

 ness ; and the capital which was formerly employed at Sheffield, is 

 in due time carried to Birmingham. Under these circumstances, the 

 workmen of a particular district are badly employed, but the public 

 is equally well supplied with the article of their produce. But let 

 us suppose a combination so extensively and so well organized, that 

 no hands can be found throughout the kingdom to supply the place 

 of the disaffected. Under such circumstances, the cost of that parti- 

 cular manufacture must be increased, and, as a necessary conse- 

 quence, its supply must decrease, and not only amongst ourselves, 

 but abroad. Foreign nations will be stimulated to manufacture for 

 themselves, instead of importing from us ; and the competition be- 

 comes one, not between Birmingham and Sheffield,, or Manchester 

 and Spitalfields, but between England and France, or Prussia, or 

 Germany. The consequence is, that actual labour being from five to 

 twenty-fold cheaper on the continent than here, the skill and practice 

 being soon acquired, England is in due time deprived of her foreign 

 customers her export trade falls from her bit by bit. One illustra- 

 tion of this will suffice ; it is contained in the evidence of Mr. Jack- 

 son, before the Coramittee of Manufactures : 



" I remember," he says, " after a journey to the continent in 1826, 

 I obtained considerable orders for what are called the billet webs (a 

 particular description of saw) ; we could at that time compete both 

 with the German and the French manufacturers ; but on arriving at 

 home, business was good, and the workmen refused to manufacture 

 these articles, excepting by a certain process, which, being more ex- 

 pensive, rendered us altogether unable to supply the French market ivith 

 that article. Since that, the French manufacturers have so much im- 

 proved, that competition is out of the question." 



It may be urged, in reply to this argument, that it does not apply 

 universally, but only to such articles of manufacture as are generally 

 subject to exportation. This is prim a facie, a fair enough objection ; 

 and wishing to treat the subject upon the broadest possible grounds, 

 we will endeavour to show that the principle still holds good in all 



