STATE OF LABOR IN EUROPE:

1878.

REPORTS FROM THE UNITED STATES CONSULS

IN THE

SEVERAL COUNTRIES OF EUROPE

ON THE

RATES OF WAGES; COST OF LIVING TO THE LABORERS; PAST AND
PRESENT RATES; PRESENT CONDITION OF TRADE; BUSINESS
HABITS, AND SYSTEMS; AMOUNT OF PAPER MONEY

IN CIRCULATION, AND ITS RELATIVE VALUE TO
GOLD AND SILVER; FOR THE SEVERAL
CONSULAR DISTRICTS,

IN RESPONSE TO

A CIRCULAR FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE REQUESTING
INFORMATION UPON THESE SUBJECTS;

TOGETHER WITH

A LETTER FROM THE SECRETARY OF STATE TRANSMITTING THESE REPORTS TO
THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

WASHINGTON:
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE.
1879.

46TH CONGRESS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 1st Session.

(Ex. Doc. No. 5.

STATE OF LABOR IN EUROPE.

LETTER

FROM

THE SECRETARY OF STATE,

TRANSMITTING

Reports from United States consuls in relation to the state of labor in

Europe.

MAY 20, 1879.-Referred to the Committee on Education and Labor and ordered to be printed.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
Washington, May 17, 1879.

SIR: In compliance with section 208 of the Revised Statutes, I have the honor to submit herewith reports from the consuls of the United States in Europe on labor and labor statistics in their several districts, covering the following principal subjects: Rates of wages; cost of living to the laborers; past and present rates compared; present condition of trade; business habits and systems; character of paper money, the amount in circulation, and the relative value of paper money and coin to each other.

These reports are in response to a labor circular-a copy of which will be found immediately preceding said reports in this volume-issued by this Department under date of April 11, 1878.

These reports, covering, as they do, the labor question in all its aspects, in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Italy, Holland, Spain, and Switzerland (which, with the United States, may be said to comprise the world of educated and progressive labor), embrace so vast and interesting a field of investigation, that, in order to exhibit as directly as possible the salient points relating to the several districts, I have arranged them into national groups, thereby presenting a compact yet comprehensive view of the present state of labor in the various countries of Europe, and at the same time a comparison between labor in those countries and in the United States.