A HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE 



Arthur Young gives the wages of an apprentice as 2s. weekly for the 

 first year, and a rise of 3^. weekly in each succeeding year. He also gives 

 the current average wages of various classes of pottery workers, which vary 

 exceedingly, from the wage of the grinder at js. to that of the painters, 

 throwers, and handlers, who earned from 9^. to 1 2s. per week. 198 The general 

 average for men in 1771 may be taken as js. to I2J., and for women from 

 5-r. to 8j. per week. 



As in the mining industry, so also in the 'potting trade,' the year 1843 

 marks something of an epoch. In that year trade-unionism, started first in 

 1824, revived again after its collapse of seven years previous, and its central 

 committee began a campaign of reform directed against the special grievances 

 of the trade. Foremost among these were the truck system and the allow- 

 ance system ; but the union was successful in putting an end to the former by 

 taking proceedings against offending masters in the police courts. 194 



The allowance system, which had been going on unchecked for seven 

 years, was an ingenious method of lowering wages by exacting from the 

 journeyman an allowance of zd. or even 4^. in the shilling. 195 Against this 

 custom the union waged steady war, and finally put an end to it, having 

 obtained the opinion of an eminent lawyer that the deductions thus made 

 were absolutely illegal, and could be recovered in a court of law. Another 

 grievance was the system of annual hiring at Martinmas, at which time the 

 prices of labour were fixed for the coming twelve months, and the workman 

 was bound to his employer for the same period, though he could be dismissed 

 at the will of the master. This was not finally given up until 1865, how- 

 ever, when a month's notice on either side could terminate the engagement. 19 * 



A fourth cause of complaint only affected certain classes of workers, who 

 complained that deductions were made from their wages for injury done to 

 their work after it had left their hands. This grievance was a constant 

 source of irritation for forty years, and it was not till 1871 that redress was 

 obtained by the making of a special 'trade rule,' which laid down the general 

 principle that deductions should only be made for injury or bad work proved 

 to be the fault of the workman. 197 



Up to 1844 machinery had entered but little into the various processes 

 of pottery manufacture. 



When in that year it was rumoured that a machine had been invented 

 to make a certain article, the potters began to fear the worst, and when one 

 machine after another followed, something like a panic prevailed amongst 

 them. Money was raised by the union to fight the evil, and a great emigration 

 scheme was planned, whereby the surplus labour of the Potteries was to be 

 transferred to the United States, and a certain number of men were sent out 

 in advance to prepare the way and buy land. The whole thing was a fiasco ; 

 the funds of the union were drained to support the emigration society, and 

 the union itself collapsed, only to be revived again in i863. 198 



The effects of the introduction of machinery have been largely to in- 

 crease production, and, especially in some departments, to displace the labour 

 of men by that of women paid at lower rates. The number of women 



M Arthur Young, Tour through the North of England, iii, 254-5. 



194 Harold Owen, op. cit. 54-5. 195 Ibid. 56-8. J96 Ibid. 61, 113. 



' Ibid. 60, 131, 141. " Ibid. 78-105. 



308 



