On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures

On the Position of Large Factories

277.  It is found in every country, that the situation of large manufacturing establishments is confined to particular districts.  In the earlier history of a manufacturing community, before cheap modes of transport have been extensively introduced, it will almost always be found that manufactories are placed near those spots in which nature has produced the raw material:  especially in the case of articles of great weight, and in those the value of which depends more upon the material than upon the labour expended on it.  Most of the metallic ores being exceedingly heavy, and being mixed up with large quantities of weighty and useless materials, must be smelted at no great distance from the spot which affords them:  fuel and power are the requisites for reducing them; and any considerable fall of water in the vicinity will naturally be resorted to for aid in the coarser exertions of physical force; for pounding the ore, for blowing the furnaces, or for hammering and rolling out the iron.  There are indeed peculiar circumstances which will modify this.  Iron, coal, and limestone, commonly occur in the same tracts; but the union of the fuel in the same locality with the ore does not exist with respect to other metals.  The tracts generally the most productive of metallic ores are, geologically speaking, different from those affording coal:  thus in Cornwall there are veins of copper and of tin, but no beds of coal.  The copper ore, which requires a very large quantity of fuel for its reduction, is sent by sea to the coalfields of Wales, and is smelted at Swansea; whilst the vessels which convey it, take back coals to work the steam-engines for draining the mines, and to smelt the tin, which requires for that purpose a much smaller quantity of fuel than copper.

278.  Rivers passing through districts rich in coal and metals, will form the first highroads for the conveyance of weighty produce to stations in which other conveniences present themselves for the further application of human skill.  Canals will succeed, or lend their aid to these; and the yet unexhausted applications of steam and of gas, hold out a hope of attaining almost the same advantages for countries to which nature seemed for ever to have denied them.  Manufactures, commerce, and civilization, always follow the line of new and cheap communications.  Twenty years ago, the Mississippi poured the vast volume of its waters in lavish profusion through thousands of miles of countries, which scarcely supported a few wandering and uncivilized tribes of Indians.  The power of the stream seemed to set at defiance the efforts of man to ascend its course; and, as if to render the task still more hopeless, large trees, torn from the surrounding forests, were planted like stakes in its bottom, forming in some places barriers, in others the nucleus of banks; and accumulating in the same spot, which but for accident would have been free from both, the difficulties and dangers of shoals and of rocks.  Four months of incessant toil could scarcely convey a small bark with its worn-out crew two thousand miles up this stream.  The same voyage is now performed in fifteen days by large vessels impelled by steam, carrying hundreds of passengers enjoying all the comforts and luxuries of civilized life.  Instead of the hut of the Indian, and the far more unfrequent log house of the thinly scattered settlers—­villages, towns, and cities, have arisen on its banks; and the same engine which stems the force of these powerful waters, will probably tear from their bottom the obstructions which have hitherto impeded and rendered dangerous their navigation.(1*)

279.  The accumulation of many large manufacturing establishments in the same district has a tendency to bring together purchasers or their agents from great distances, and thus to cause the institution of a public mart or exchange.  This contributes to diffuse information relative to the supply of raw materials, and the state of demand for their produce, with which it is necessary manufacturers should be well acquainted.  The very circumstance of collecting periodically, at one place, a large number both of those who supply the market and of those who require its produce, tends strongly to check the accidental fluctuations to which a small market is always subject, as well as to render the average of the prices much more uniform.

280.  When capital has been invested in machinery, and in buildings for its accommodation, and when the inhabitants of the neighbourhood have acquired a knowledge of the modes of working at the machines, reasons of considerable weight are required to cause their removal.  Such changes of position do however occur; and they have been alluded to by the Committee on the Fluctuation of Manufacturers’ Employment, as one of the causes interfering most materially with an uniform rate of wages:  it is therefore of particular importance to the workmen to be acquainted with the real causes which have driven manufactures from their ancient seats.

“The migration or change of place of any manufacture has sometimes arisen from improvements of machinery not applicable to the spot where such manufacture was carried on, as appears to have been the case with the woollen manufacture, which has in great measure migrated from Essex, Suffolk, and other southern counties, to the northern districts, where coal for the use of the steam-engine is much cheaper.  But this change has, in some instances, been caused or accelerated by the conduct of the workmen, in refusing a reasonable reduction of wages, or opposing the introduction of some kind of improved machinery or process; so that, during the dispute, another spot has in great measure supplied their place in the market.  Any violence used by the workmen against the property of their masters, and any unreasonable combination on their part, is almost sure thus to be injurious to themselves.”

281.  These removals become of serious consequence when the factories have been long established, because a population commensurate with their wants invariably grows up around them.  The combinations in Nottinghamshire, of persons under the name of Luddites, drove a great number of lace frames from that district, and caused establishments to be formed in Devonshire.  We ought also to observe, that the effect of driving any establishment into a new district, where similar works have not previously existed, is not merely to place it out of the reach of such combinations; but, after a few years, the example of its success will most probably induce other capitalists in the new district to engage in the same manufacture:  and thus, although one establishment only should be driven away, the workmen, through whose combination its removal is effected, will not merely suffer by the loss of that portion of demand for their labour which the factory caused; but the value of that labour will itself be reduced by the competition of a new field of production.

282.  Another circumstance which has its influence on this question, is the nature of the machinery.  Heavy machinery, such as stamping-mills, steam-engines, etc., cannot readily be moved, and must always be taken to pieces for that purpose; but when the machinery of a factory consists of a multitude of separate engines, each complete in itself, and all put in motion by one source of power, such as that of steam, then the removal is much less inconvenient.  Thus, stocking frames, lace machines, and looms, can be transported to more favourable positions, with but a small separation of their parts.

283.  It is of great importance that the more intelligent amongst the class of workmen should examine into the correctness of these views; because, without having their attention directed to them, the whole class may, in some instances, be led by designing persons to pursue a course, which, although plausible in appearance, is in reality at variance with their own best interests.  I confess I am not without a hope that this volume may fall into the hands of workmen, perhaps better qualified than myself to reason upon a subject which requires only plain common sense, and whose powers are sharpened by its importance to their personal happiness.  In asking their attention to the preceding remarks, and to those which I shall offer respecting combinations, I can claim only one advantage over them; namely, that I never have had, and in all human probability never shall have, the slightest pecuniary interest, to influence even remotely, or by anticipation, the judgements I have formed on the facts which have come before me.

Notes: 

1.  The amount of obstructions arising from the casual fixing of trees in the bottom of the river, may be estimated from the proportion of steamboats destroyed by running upon them.  The subjoined statement is taken from the American Almanack for 1832.

Between the years 1811 and 1831, three hundred and forty-eight steamboats were built on the Mississippi and its tributary streams.  During that period a hundred and fifty were lost or worn out.

Of this hundred and fifty:  worn out 63
                           lost by snags 36
                           burnt 14
                           lost by collision 3
                           by accidents not ascertained 34
Thirty six or nearly one fourth, being destroyed by accidental
obstruction.

Snag is the name given in America to trees which stand nearly upright in the stream with their roots fixed at the bottom.

It is usual to divide off at the bow of the steamboats a watertight chamber, in order that when a hole is made in it by running against the snags, the water may not enterthe rest of the vessel and sink it intantly.