Page:On the economy of machinery and manufactures - Babbage - 1846.djvu/385

Rh desire to procure them, that many persons deposited a large part, or the whole, of the price, in the hands of the frame-makers, in order to insure their having the earliest supply. This, as might naturally be expected, raised the price of wages amongst the workmen employed in machine-making; and the effect was felt at a considerable distance from Nottingham, which was the centre of this mania. Smiths not used to "flat filing," coming from distant parts, earned from 30s. to 42s. per week. Finishing smiths, accustomed to the work, gained from 3l. to 4l. per week. The forging smith, if accustomed to his work, gained from 5l. to 6l. per week, and some few earned 10l. per week. In making what are technically called insides, those who were best paid, were generally clock and watch makers, from all the districts round, who received from 3l. to 4l. per week. The setters-up,—persons who put the parts of the machine together, charged 20l. for their assistance; and, a six-quarter machine, could be put together in a fortnight or three weeks.

(426.) Good workmen, being thus induced to desert less profitable branches of their business, in order to supply this extraordinary demand, the masters, in other trades, soon found their men leaving them, without being aware of the immediate reason: some of the more intelligent, however, ascertained the cause. They went from Birmingham to Nottingham, in order to examine into the circumstances which had seduced almost all the journeymen clockmakers from their own workshops; and it was soon apparent, that the men who had been working as clock-makers in Birmingham, at the rate of 25s. a week, could earn