138 FIELDS, FACTORIES AND WORKSHOPS. 



As every one knows from Thorold Roger's work, 

 or, at least, from Toynbee's lectures, the growth of 

 the factory system in England was intimately con- 

 nected with that enforced exodus. Whole industries, 

 which prospered in the country, were killed downright 

 by the forced clearing of estates.* The workshops, 

 much more even than the factories, multiply wherever 

 they find cheap labour; and the specific feature of this 

 country is, that the cheapest labour that is, the greatest 

 number of destitute people is to be found in the great 

 cities. The agitation raised (with no result) in connec- 

 tion with the " Dwellings of the Poor," the " Unem- 

 ployed," and the " Sweating System," has fully disclosed 

 that characteristic feature of the economic life of Eng- 

 land and Scotland ; and the painstaking researches made 

 by Mr. Charles Booth have shown that one-quarter of 

 the population of London that is, 1,000,000 out of 

 3,800,000 would be happy if the heads of their families 

 could have regular earnings of something like l a 

 week all the year round. Half of them would be 

 satisfied with even less than that. Cheap labour is 

 offered in such quantities at Whitechapel and South- 

 wark, and in the suburbs of all the great cities of Great 

 Britain, that the petty and domestic trades which are 

 scattered on the Continent in the villages, gather in this 

 country in the cities. Exact figures as to the small 

 industries are wanting, but a simple walk through the 

 suburbs of London would do much to realise the variety 

 of petty trades which swarm in the metropolis, and, in 

 fact, in all chief urban agglomerations. The evidence 

 given before the " Sweating System Committee " has 

 shown how far the furniture and ready-made clothing 

 palaces and the " Bonheur des Dames " bazaars of Lon- 

 don are often mere exhibitions of samples, or markets for 

 the sale of the produce of the small industries. Thou- 



* Thorold Rogers, The Economic Interpretation of History; Arn. 

 Toynbee, Lectures on the Industrial Revolution in England. 



