TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 155 



this moment there are no fewer than 600 persons, who work up 2740 tons of clay, and 

 who manufacture, finish, and pack about 2700 gross of pipes per day, and whose wages 

 amount for each person employed to about 20s. yer week. The whole value of this 

 manufacture may amount to £44,000. 



Assuming, then, all these statements to be as correct as they probably can be made^ 

 let us see what the gross value of these branches are in twelve months : — 



Value of porcelain j6120,000 



Value of flint-glass 40,000 



Value of bottles 104,000 



Value of tobacco-pipes 44,000 



We find, also, from the foregoing statements, that the number of persons employed 

 in these branches, and the wages paid, during one year, were as follows : — 

 Employed in porcelain and earthenware manufactories, 



2000, at 12s. per week £62,400 



Employed in flint-glass works, 323 16,000 



Employed in bottle works, 400, at 30s. per week. . . 31,200 

 Employed in tobacco-pipe manufactories, COO, at 20s. . 31,200 

 In short, the foregoing Tables show that the porcelain, glass, bottle, and tobacco-pipe 

 manufactories in Glasgow, produce at present an annual value of £288,000, and give 

 employment to 3323 persons, who receive for their labour wages to the amount of 

 £140,800. 



The rapid progress which these several manufactures have made in Glasgow may 

 be chiefly attributed to the demand which the foreign trade of the Clyde has created 

 for bulky freight, and which the following Table, showing the number and tonnage of 

 the vessels employed in the foreign trade at the harbour of Glasgow alone, will best 

 illustrate : — 



Number of Vessels. Tonnage. 



1851 716 176,441 



1852 700 195,062 



1853 760 221,139 



1854 878 245,062 



1855 756 212,913 



It is well known that Liverpool has long enjoyed, through the manufacturers of 

 Staffordshire, the desideratum of bulky freight; and no sooner had Glasgow become, 

 as it has only done within twenty years, an increasing harbour for vessels trading to 

 every quarter of the globe, than it was found, that while she could furnish abundance of 

 heavy freight in the shape of pig, malleable iron, and coal, she was deficient in such 

 bulky articles as coarse earthenware, common porcelain, flint, and bottle glass and 

 china to fill up the space unoccupied by finer goods. It is probable, therefore, that 

 the manufactures whose progress we have been attempting to illustrate will go on in- 

 creasing with the increase of foreign commerce, and that the increase of these will in 

 future be chiefly excited and marked by the increasing tonnage employed in the 

 foreign trade from the harbour of Glasgow and the other lower ports of the Clyde. 



On the Money-rate of Wages of Labour in Glasgow and the West of Scotland. 

 By John Strang, LL.D., F.S.S. 



A correct chronicle of wages, as applied to differentkinds of manufactures and hand- 

 crafts, combined with the changing cost of the necessaries and even the common 

 luxuries of life, would form one of the most valuable contributions to economic science. 

 While the rate of these would at once mark the advance or fall on the value of labour 

 at particular epochs, it would, at the same time, note the changes which have taken 

 place in the value of labour as applied to particular distinct handicrafts; and if the 

 money-rate were further measured by the cost of the great necessaries of existence, 

 would give a pretty clear insight into the social condition of the labourer at any period 

 of the country's history. As a humble contribution to this chronicle of labour, 1 have 

 now to present you witli a comparative statement of the rate of wages in one of the 

 most important of tlie labour marts of Great Britain, I mean the City of Glasgow and 

 its neighbourhood; and for this purpose I shall select, from the long list of mechanics, 



