Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/485

 WOMEN'S WORK IN LEEDS 463 are therefore purely hypothetical, calculated with reference to the ratio in 1861. CENSUS RETUmS OF FLX LINEN MNUFACTUR n LEEDS. 1841 1851 1861 1871 1881 F. F. under 20. above 20. 2035 1052 8671 2479 8868 9.58O [6] under 20. above 20. 1008 653 1166 1298 826 155 [70] 62 Fm 8087 6150 5898 27O9 1656 2464 2351 792 Total. 4743 8614 8249 [598] 3501 Compang these figres with the census returns for the wooHen manufacture, it will be seen that in 1861 the numbers of women and girls employed in flax spinning were slightly less than in 1851, and of those employed in the woollen trade slightly greater. It looks very much as though the elder girls had been attracted by the higher wages into the cloth trade. The fall in the flax trade, and the rise in the woollen trade in the number of women and girls is much more marked in 1871. There was but little linen weaving in Leeds, and although flax spinning was not much worse paid than wool spinning, 8s. and 9s. was about the maximum that could be earned, and the elder girls and women must have been attracted in considerable numbers to the cloth power loom weaving, which was steadily displacing the hand loom between 1861 and 1871. CENSUS RETURNS OF WOO%r.mN MANUFACTUUm IN LEEDS. 1841 1851 1861 1871 1881 Fm under 20. 957 1710 1776 Fm above 0. 1606 2624 8147 4298 under 20. 2015 292O 2543 t[2027] above 20. 7341 7640 7494 6183 Fm 2568 9356 4834 1056O 4923 10087 [6798] [8210] 6782 5457 Total. 11919 14894 1496O [15OO8] 12239 The census of 1881 was taken during a marked depression of trade, and the change of fashion from wooHen to worsted cloths had seriously affected the Leeds trade. But women at least did not suffer so much as might have been expected, nor did wages fall sufficiently for the flax trade to revive, partly because a few enterprising manufacturers had adapted themselves and their machinery to the change in fashion, and were making worsted