Page:On the economy of machinery and manufactures - Babbage - 1846.djvu/321

Rh Commons to inquire into the watch trade, which was made in the year 1660; and there are many of ancient date, in the possession of the Clock-maker's Company, which are still actually kept going. The number of watches manufactured for home consumption was, in the year 1798, about 50,000 annually. If this supply was for Great Britain only, it was consumed by about ten and a half millions of persons.

(346.) Machines are, in some trades, let out to hire, and a certain sum is paid for their use, in the manner of rent. This is the case amongst the frame-work knitters: and Mr. Henson, in speaking of the rate of payment for the use of their frames, states, that the proprietor receives such a rent that, besides paying the full interest for his capital, he clears the value of his frame in nine years. When the rapidity with which improvements succeed each other is considered, this rent does not appear exorbitant. Some of these frames have been worked for thirteen years with little or no repair. But circumstances occasionally arise which throw them out of employment, either temporarily or permanently. Some years since, an article was introduced called "cut-up work," by which the price of stocking frames was greatly deteriorated. From the evidence of Mr. J. Rawson, it appears that, in consequence of this change in the nature of the work, each frame could do the work of two, and many stocking frames were thrown out of employment, and their value reduced full three-fourths.