Page:Through China with a camera.pdf/131

 resembles the finer sorts of lace. Close by these ivory-turners are men designing patterns of birds, butterflies and flowers on satin robes. The wages of the people who do this lovely work are very small indeed. The artist who furnishes the designs receives about ^i 5s a month, and the following table gives the average at which skilled labourers are paid.

£ s d

Shoemaker 150 a month with food

Blacksmith 100 ,,

First-class ivory carver .280 ,,

Skilled embroiderer. . . 15 o ,,

Silversmith i 12 o ,,

Painter 18 o ,,

It takes about ten days to complete the embroidery of a pair of shoes; and these, when soled and finished, fetch fifteen shil- lings a pair. The wages of the embroiderer, according to this calculation, would amount to six shillings or thereabouts, and the balance, to cover cost of material and making, would leave but a modest profit to the master; but then embroidered shoes are in constant demand, and a lady of rank will require some thirty pairs for her marriage trousseau alone. Some ladies em- broider their own shoes, but the practice is by no means a common one. The dress shoes of the men are embroidered too, and are used by all except the poorest class. It will be seen from the foregoing notes that skilled labour is so cheap in China as to give artisans a great advantage in all those various branches of native industry which find a market abroad; and this will one day render the clever, careful and patient China- man a formidable rival to European manufacturers, when he has learned to use machinery in weaving fabrics of cotton or silk.