A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX 



quarter sessions the wages of journeymen silk 

 weavers. Penalties were inflicted upon such 

 masters as gave and upon such journeymen 

 as received or demanded either more or less 

 than should be thus settled by authority, and 

 silk weavers were prohibited from having more 

 than two apprentices at one time. The Act 

 of 1792 included those weavers who worked 

 upon silk mixed with other materials, and that 

 of 1811 extended the provisions to female 

 weavers. The ' Spitalfields Acts ' continued 

 in force until i824; 26 and their effect can 

 only be described as disastrous. They were 

 passed to get rid of an evil, but they originated 

 an evil of a different kind ; they were intended 

 to protect both masters and men from unjust 

 exactions on either part, but they only brought 

 about a paralysis of the Spitalfields trade which 

 would have ended in its utter ruin but for 

 their repeal. But, as the effects of the Acts 

 did not immediately manifest themselves, they 

 were at first exceedingly popular. After 1785, 

 however, the substitution of cottons in the 

 place of silk gave a severe check to the manu- 

 facture, and the weavers then began to dis- 

 cover the real nature of the Spitalfields Acts. 

 Being forbidden to work at reduced wages 

 they were totally thrown out of employment, so 

 that in 1793 upwards of 4,000 Spitalfields looms 

 were quite idle. In 1798 the trade began to 

 revive, and continued to extend slowly till 

 1815 and 1816, when the Spitalfields weavers 

 were involved in sufferings far more exten- 

 sive and severe than at any former period. 27 

 At a public meeting held at the Mansion 

 House on 26 November 1816, for the relief 

 of the Spitalfields weavers, the secretary stated 

 that two-thirds of them were without employ- 

 ment and without the means of support, that 

 ' some had deserted their houses in despair un- 

 able to endure the sight of their starving families, 

 and many pined under languishing diseases 

 brought on by the want of food and clothing.' 

 At the same meeting Sir T. Fowell Buxton 

 stated that the distress among the silk weavers 

 was so intense that ' it partook of the nature of 

 a pestilence which spreads its contagion around 

 and devastates an entire district.' 



The repeal of these Acts was largely brought 

 about by a petition presented to the House of 

 Commons on 9 May 1823. The petitioners 

 stated 28 that ' these Acts by not permitting 

 the masters to reward such of their workmen 

 as exhibit superior skill and ingenuity, but 

 compelling them to pay an equal price for all 

 work whether well or ill performed, have 



* Repealed by 5 Geo. IV, cap. 66. 

 "McCulloch, Did. of Commerce (1882), 1279. 

 " Knight, op. cit. ii, 395. 



136 



materially retarded the progress of improve- 

 ment and repressed industry and emulation.' 

 In consequence of an order from the magis- 

 trates that silk made by machinery should be 

 paid for at the same rate as that made by 

 hand, few improvements could be introduced, 

 and ' the London silk-loom with a trifling 

 exception remains in the same state as at its 

 original introduction into this country by the 

 French refugees.' 29 On the effect of this 

 important legislation McCulloch remarks : M 



The monopoly which the manufacturers had 

 hitherto enjoyed, though incomplete, had had 

 sufficient influence to render inventions and dis- 

 coveries of comparatively rare occurrence in the 

 silk trade ; but the Spitalfields Act extinguished 

 every germ of improvement. Parliament in its 

 wisdom having seen fit to enact that a manufacturer 

 should be obliged to pay as much for work done 

 by the best machinery as if it were done by hand, 

 it would have been folly to have thought of attempt- 

 ing anything new. It is not, however, to be denied 

 that Macclesfield, Norwich, Manchester, Paisley, 

 &c., are under obligations to this Act. Had it 

 extended to the whole kingdom it would have 

 totally extirpated the manufacture ; but being 

 confined to Middlesex it gradually drove the most 

 valuable branches from Spitalfields to places where 

 the rate of wages was determined by the competi- 

 tion of the parties, on the principle of mutual 

 interest and compromised advantage. 



During the continuance of the Acts there 

 was in the Spitalfields district no medium 

 between the full regulation prices and the 

 total absence of employment, and the repeal 

 of this restrictive legislation gave immediate 

 relief to the local industry. The introduction 

 at this time of the loom invented byjacquard, 31 

 a straw-hat manufacturer at Lyons, for the 

 manufacture of figured silks, largely helped 

 to restore the falling fortune of the Spitalfields 

 trade. The elaborate brocades which were 

 previously made at Spitalfields 32 were pro- 

 duced only by the most skilful among the 

 craft, who bestowed upon them an immense 

 amount of labour. The most beautiful pro- 

 ducts of the Jacquard loom are executed by 

 workmen possessing only the ordinary amount 

 of skill, whilst the labour attendant upon the 

 actual weaving is but little more than that 

 required for making the plainest goods. In 

 1 846 the figure weavers of Spitalfields engaged 

 in the production, by the aid of a Jacquard 

 loom, of a piece of silk which was to surpass 

 everything hitherto made in England, and to 

 rival a masterpiece of the Lyons weavers pro- 



89 Porter, op. cit. 78. 



'" Diet, of Commerce (1882), 1279. 



" Thos. R. Ashenhurst, Weaving (1893), 61. 



" Porter, op. cit. 245. 



