HOW TO ESTABLISH THE LINEN TRADE. 349 



employment for your redundant population, profitable investment for 

 capital, and be the means of renovating trade, and of restoring pros- 

 perity to the city. 



That individual wealth and enterprise could accomplish this vast 

 good I have no doubt, because many opulent and indefatigable manu- 

 facturers of the North employ, it is said, more hands than could be 

 obtained at the Norwich labour-market the market to which your own 

 manufacturers resort, and by which they regulate the rate of wages. 

 This Mr. Willet clearly and candidly explained. "The first thing," 

 he observed, " was to have all the people employed, and the natural 

 consequence would follow of a higher rate of wages ; but if there were 

 more operatives than were required, wages would fall." 



It is evident that the present depressed state of Norwich is mainly 

 attributable to the low rate at which the working classes are paid. It 

 is also evident that, until the labour-market is cleared of surplus hands, 

 it will be impossible to remedy the evil. Therefore, it becomes the 

 duty, as well as the interest of every inhabitant, to find employment for 

 the redundant population. 



But, as it cannot be expected that any individual of sufficient wealth, 

 zeal, and devotion, would embark in such an undertaking, I propose, 

 as the only alternative, that a Linen Company, embracing the spinning, 

 weaving, and bleaching departments of the trade, be formed, and sup- 

 ported for three or four years by the voluntary contributions of a 

 philanthropic public. The Company to erect the Spinning-mills, Boil- 

 ing-house, Machinery, &c., &c., and find capital for purchasing Stock, 

 payment of Wages, &c. The voluntary fund to be appropriated to 

 the defrayment of all expenses consequent upon instruction, altering of 

 hand-looms, inexperience, &c. &c. 



Thus protected from loss through incidental expenses, monied parties 

 would come forward, and the Linen Trade be established ; or some 

 opulent spinner might be induced by a guarantee of five hundred a-year 

 for four years, to open a branch to his business in the city, and thus 

 by the payment of only one shilling each from the 10,000 rate-payers 

 originally assessed, the Norwich operatives may be emancipated from 

 their worse than Egyptian bondage. 



Were I able to state the amount of money required, either to support 

 or to conduct the various branches in question, it would, at present, be 

 unnecessary ; but my desire is to induce, through the medium of this 

 Tract, a searching inquiry, from which, I am confident, the happiest 

 results would flow. 



I will, however, observe, that the number of surplus hands is by no 

 means so great as imagination depicts ; that the sums required to em- 

 ploy them, in the way proposed, are comparatively trifling ; that there 



