646 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 



worsted manufacture into combing, spinning, and weaving as opposed to the 

 combination of all processes in each firm in the -woollen industry. Aim of the 

 paper to throw light on the causes of these differences. 



The causes are partly technical, partly economic; some .are of old standing, 

 some are the outcome of recent developments. In the first place, at the time of 

 the industrial revolution the worsted trade in Yorkshire was younger and more 

 adaptable than the woollen trade ; large mills grew up more generally and rapidly. 



Worsted spinning was always an ' export ' trade in Yorkshire, and recent 

 developments have accentuated this characteristic. 



Technical considerations largely account for the establishment of combing as 

 a separate trade; here again recent developments have stimulated an existing 

 tendency. 



Separation of spinning and weaving in worsted encouraged by (1) the extensive 

 use of yarns other than worsted, and (2) the great variety of fabrics manufactured. 



The late survival of the master clothier and the hand-loom, in part responsible 

 for the present organisation of the woollen trade. 



An important technical consideration in the case of the woollen industry, 

 which tends to preserve the present type of organisation, is the absolute necessity 

 that the manufacturer should control the spinning of his yarn. (This being in 

 some ways desii'able in both branches, the worsted trade suffers somewhat from 

 the existing sub-division.) 



' Infection ' from the cotton trade is at times alleged as the cause of the sub- 

 division of the worsted trade ; some slight force in tbis. 



The great variety of processes in the typical woollen mill and the limitations 

 of the market partly explain the relatively small size of the mills. 



The partial supersession of woollen by worsted since the 'seventies helps to 

 explain the present organisation of the former industry. 



5. Chmj) Railway Tickets for Workmen in Belgium. 

 By Professor E. Mahaim, LL.D. 



During the last ten years the weekly ' abonnements ' for workmen have 

 increased so rapidly that it is probable that Belgium will shortly become, for some 

 kinds of labour, strictly one market, i.e., distances will have practically no effect 

 on the price of labour. 



The origin of especially cheap weekly tickets for workmen goes back to 1869. 

 Until 1888 their number increased but slowly. In that year it was eleven 

 millions. It doubled between 1889 and 1895, reaching twenty-one millions in the 

 latter year. Since 1895 the increase has been still more rapid : in 1905 more 

 than fifty-three million such tickets were issued. It is estimated that about 

 120,000 workmen, i.e., one-sixth of the total industrial population, use these tickets 

 on the State and companies' railways. 



The cheapness of the fares may bo measured by the fact that the weekly ticket for 

 six daily return journeys costs less than one ordinary third-class return ticket. 

 The average length of journey was in 1904 seventeen and a quarter kilometres, or 

 about eleven miles, and the average ticket cost twelve centimes, or less than seven- 

 tenths of a centime per kilometre. 



Now let us consider the main effects of this phenomenon. 



A. As direct economical effect, the double purpose aimed at is really attained : 

 (1) To give sufficient and cheap labour to employers ; (2) to give more opportu- 

 nities to the labourers for finding work. Many trades or businesses in towns 

 and large villages could not have been started, and many Flanders labourers or 

 agricultural hands would not have had industrial work— and wages — had it not 

 been for the cheap tickets. The indirect consequences are obvious : (1) Relative 

 equalisation of wages in both senses — those in trades' places lowering and those in 

 agricultural districts increasino: ; (2) The great cheapness of labour in the whole 

 country — a characteristic of Belgium — being maintained ; (3) The competition 

 between employers bearing more op other elements of cost of production than labour, 



