Edited by H. de B. GIBBINS, M.A. Crown 8vo., 2s. 6d. A series of volumes upon those topics of social, economic and industrial interest that are at the present moment foremost in the public mind. Each volume is written by an author who is an acknowledged authority upon the subject with which he deals, and who treats his question in a thoroughly sympathetic but impartial manner, with special reference to the historic aspect of the subject. The following Volumes are now ready. 1. TRADE UNIONISM-NEW AND OLD. G. HOWELL, M.P., Author of The Conflicts of Capital and Labour. Second Edition. 2. PROBLEMS OF POVERTY: An Inquiry into the Industrial Condition of the Poor. By J. A. HOBSON, M.A. 3. THE CO-OPERATIVE MOVEMENT TO-DAY G. J. HOLYOAKE, Author of The History of Co-operation. 4. MUTUAL THRIFT. Rev. J. FROME WILKINSON, M.A., Author of The Friendly Society Movement. 5. THE COMMERCE OF NATIONS. C. E. BASTABLE, LL.D., Pro fessor of Political Economy in the University of Dublin. 6. THE ALIEN INVASION. W. H. WILKINS, B.A., Secretary to the Association for Preventing the Immigration of Destitute Aliens. (With an Introductory Note by the Right Reverend the Bishop of Bedford.) 7. THE RURAL EXODUS: Problems of Village Life. P. ANDERSON GRAHAM. 8. LAND NATIONALIZATION. HAROLD Cox, B.A. 9. A SHORTER WORKING-DAY. R. A. HADFIELD, and H. De B. GIBBINS, M.A. 10. BACK TO THE LAND. HAROLD E. MOORE, F.S.I. 11. TRUSTS, POOLS, AND CORNERS. By J. STEPHEN JEANS. 12. THE FACTORY SYSTEM. By R. W. COOKE-TAYLOR, Author of The Modern Factory System, etc. 13. THE STATE AND ITS CHILDREN. BY GERTRUDE TUCKWELL. The following are in preparation:— 14. WOMEN'S WORK. LADY DILKE and others. 15. SOCIALISM. REV. M. KAUFMANN. METHUEN & CO., 36, ESSEX STREET, W.C THE FACTORY SYSTEM AND THE FACTORY ACTS ichard BY R. W. COOKE-TAYLOR, F.S.S.; F.R. HIST. S. Methuen & Co. 36, ESSEX STREET, STRAND, LONDON 1894, [All rights reserved] 05--5--419 L D B Handma 2356 PREFACE HALF-A-CENTURY ago the Factory System meant to the minds of most people a new and portentous phenomenon in industry against which unusual precautions had to be taken lest it should issue in a degenerated race of operative labourers; Factory Acts meant the partial and peculiar body of laws specially devised to avert this catastrophe. At the present day both these significations are completely obsolete. So far from the Factory System being regarded now as likely to degenerate labourers, it is that persistently recommended by some of the best friends of labour as a happy means of escape from other modes of industry; and the Factory Acts are so little partial in their operation, that it is difficult for anyone, not an expert, to say what is, and what is not (within the compass of productive industry) excluded from their wide-spreading influence. These great changes seem to require some explanation. The fundamental explanation resides, of course, in "The age and body of the time Its form and pressure :" which have welded out those malleable materials into this new mass; but a popular statement of how it all has come about, and to what extent actually proceeded, should not be out of place either in view of the manifold interests concerned. This is the purpose of the following pages. |