Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/662

 640 ' THE ECONOMIC JOURNAL Black has since informed me of an altogether exceptional case in London, in which female cigar-makers demanded and obtained a rise of wages apart from their male colleagues in the same estab- lishment, some of whom now receive less than some of the women. The point requires further investigation, and it would be unsafe, in the meantime, to draw any conclusions, one way or another, from the facts yet recorded as to this industry. Perhaps the clearest case of similar work is that of the Lanca- shire cotton-weavers, where men and women often perform exactly the same work side by side in the same shed, under practically the same Factory Act restrictions. Here the piece-work rates are the same for women as for nen, and clever women often get through more work, and thus earn higher weekly wages than men. The following table, compiled from the Board of Trade return, shows that the average weekly earnings of the most highly skilled men and women cotton-weavers are, in the most important districts, nearly equal.  Average Earnings per Iek (at piece-w. ork).in 1885. of Cotton Cloth Four-loom IVeavers. District. , Men. Burnley Darwen. Preston ..... Blackburn. . Ashton ...... Oldham. . . Todmorden ...... Rochdale. . Stockport. . . Carlisle.!!.. Manchester $. d. 21 7 22 2 21 11 21 0 21 5 19 5 19 7 19 2 19 8 22 2 Women. -s:--d. 21 4 20 11 20 9 2O 8 20 4 19 9 19 4 19 0 18 11 18 4 17 11 17 9 Proportion of Men employed (all branches). 35'4 26'1 20'6 28'6 20'9 24'9 33'0 24'0 19'0 18'2 17'9 16'0 Compiled from pp. ix. and x. of C. 5807 of 1889. A similar equality of task wages appears to prevail in cotton weaving in France? This is not often the case in cotton  It may be interesting to record that this equality of rates and equality of earnings prevMlcd :among cotton workers ,as fa, r back as 1824, when cotton spinning machines were first by women in Glasgow. mirtee :ox Artiza.s ,d Mchiery, 1824, p. 525.) a Le Trcvail des mmss au Dix-NexYme SScle. P. Leroy*Beauliem