INDUSTRIES 





is done by out-door hands at home. The card- 

 board is cut by men, and then made up by 

 women and girls. Skill is required ; and a 

 girl does not become a good hand at plain 

 work under two years, whilst for fancy work 

 three years' training is required. Matchbox 

 making requires no previous training, and is 

 the lowest in the scale of the industries of the 

 poor. It is the last resort of the destitute, and 

 the employment of children of the earliest age. 

 A child can earn id. an hour, and few women 

 can earn more than i\d. an hour. 



Brush-making is carried on principally in fac- 

 tories, very few of which give out work. The 

 work is fairly regular, and requires a combina- 

 tion of skill and honesty. The lighter parts 

 of the work are performed by women, and 

 shorter hours on the whole prevail in this 

 trade than in most others. 



Match-making is a notable industry of East 

 London, in which over one thousand women 

 and girls are employed. The match girls have 

 successfully combined to promote their in- 

 terests, and make each other's cause their own. 

 They form clubs among themselves for buying 

 clothes and feathers, seven or eight paying is. 

 a week, and drawing lots to decide who shall 

 have the money each week. Their prolonged 

 strike in July 1888 resulted in the formation 

 of a Trade Union, the largest in England com- 

 posed of women and girls. By improvements 

 in the manufacture, the quantity of phosphorus 

 employed has been very greatly reduced, and a 

 considerable diminution in the terrible disease 

 necrosis has consequently resulted. 



In the confectionery factories, the manufac- 

 ture of jam, preserves, pickles, and even sweets, 

 is in greater part performed by men, women 

 only being employed for labelling, packing, &c. 

 The employment is of an irregular kind, only a 

 certain number of the better hands being kept 

 on permanently. 



Among other industries which deserve more 

 than a passing notice is that of cap-making. 

 Here the factory system is driving the small 

 workshops out of the field. The largest fac- 

 tory employs 600 girls, and the work is very 

 laborious, although fairly well paid. 



Artificial flowers are made in Hoxton and De 

 Beauvoir Town, as well as by a few workers in 

 the East End. This is a season trade, and subject 

 also to much irregularity from the caprices of 

 fashion. 



Feather-curling, although fluctuating with 

 changes of fashion, gives fairly regular employ- 

 ment to a large number of girls in East and 

 North-East London. 



The industries which supply man's every- 

 day wants have the same characteristics more 

 or less in every locality. Among beverages, 



the manufacture of aerated and mineral waters 

 is carried on by many firms such as Perrier, 

 Idris & Co., Schweppes Ltd., and John G. 

 Webb & Co. 



Turning to solid food it is a noticeable 

 feature of the present day that the wants of 

 residents and visitors of all classes of society 

 were never so well provided for as by the 

 various hotels, restaurants, bread and dairy 

 companies, and people's cafe which now 

 abound. In this great improvement the me- 

 tropolis has certainly led the way. Of sauce 

 and pickle manufacturers there are two well- 

 known firms in Middlesex, John Burgess and 

 Son, and Crosse & Blackwell. In its vinegar 

 works the metropolis until lately took the lead, 

 and among the principal firms were those 

 of Champion & Co., in Old Street, and Henry 

 Sarson and Sons, City Road. 



Middlesex was formerly noted for its exten- 

 sive distilleries ; the duty paid by English distil- 

 leries for the year ending 5 January 1833 was 

 1,420,525 io*., which was nearly 100,000 

 above that paid in Scotland, but below that in 

 Ireland. 12 Of the total duty paid in England, 

 two firms in the metropolis contributed to- 

 gether more than one-fourth, viz., O. H. 

 Smith and R. Carrington of Thames Bank 

 201,287 5*., and T. and G. Smith of 

 Whitechapel 207,559 2s. 6</. This industry 

 is still extensively carried on in Middlesex, but 

 almost wholly within the metropolitan district. 



There are maltsters at Brentford, Chiswick, 

 Isleworth, Staines, and many other localities. 

 Malting seems to have b^en carried on at En- 

 field to a considerable extent at an early period. 

 In the latter half of the 1 5th century it is re- 

 corded 13 that John Hunnesdon of ' Endefeld ' 

 sought to recover 8 135. lod. from Robert 

 Trott of Southwark, brewer, who ' hath used 

 wekely to bye malt by the space of many yeres 

 of your seid besecher,' and who it seems never 

 settled in full for the same. ' At some tyme 

 ther hath remayned unpayed for 2 or 3 quarters 

 of malt, at som tyme 4 or 5, at som tyme mor,' 

 until at length Hunnesdon's patience was ex- 

 hausted. Other Middlesex maltsters (of the 

 same period) of whom record exists are William 

 Hall of ' Endfeld,' 14 Henry Wynn of Enfield, 15 

 and William Barley of ' Enffelde.' I6 



Hat-making was formerly a great Middlesex 

 industry, but has of late years shrunk to very 

 small proportions in the metropolis. The 

 manufacture of felt hats was introduced early 

 in the reign of Henry VIII ; while in 1530 



" Commissioner! 0, Excise Enq. Rep. vii, 1834-5, 

 p. 229. 



11 Early Chan. Proc. bdle. 60, no. 97. 



14 Ibid. bdle. 64, no. 189. " Ibid. no. no 



" Ibid. bdle. 86, no. 47. 



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