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The
greater
the
social
wealth,
the
functioning
capital,
the
extent
and
energy
of
its
growth,
and,therefore,
also
the
absolute
mass
of
the
proletariat
and
the
productiveness
of
its
labour,
the
greater
is
the
industrial
reserve
army.
The
same
causes
which
develop
the
expansive
power
of
capital,
develop
also
the
labour
power
at
its
disposal.
The
relative
mass
of
the
industrial
reserve
army
increases
therefore
with
the
potential
energy
of
wealth.
But
the
greater
this
reserve
army
in
proportion
to
the
active
labour
army,
the
greater
is
the
mass
of
a
consolidated
surplus
population,
whose
misery
is
in
inverse
ratio
to
its
torment
of
labour.
The
more
extensive,
finally,
the
lazarus
layers
of
the
working
class,
and
the
industrial
reserve
army,
the
greater
is
official
pauperism.
This
isthe
absolute
general
law
of
capitalist
accumulation.Like
all
other
laws
it
is
modified
in
its
working
by
many
circumstances,
the
analysis
of
which
does
not
concern
us
here.
The
folly
is
now
patent
of
the
economic
wisdom
that
preaches
to
the
labourers
the
accommodation
of
their
number
to
the
requirements
of
capital.
The
mechanism
of
capitalist
production
and
accumulation
constantly
effects
this
adjustment.
The
first
word
of
this
adaptation
is
the
creation
of
a
relative
surplus
population,
or
industrial
reserve
army.
Its
last
word
is
the
misery
of
constantly
extending
strata
of
the
active
army
of
labour,
and
the
dead
weight
of
pauperism.
The
law
by
which
a
constantly
increasing
quantity
of
means
of
production,
thanks
to
the
advance
in
the
productiveness
of
social
labour,
may
be
set
in
movement
by
a
progressively
diminishing
expenditure
of
human
power,
this
law,
in
a
capitalist
society
–where
the
labourer
does
not
employ
the
means
of
production,
but
the
means
of
production
employ
the
labourer
–
undergoes
a
complete
inversion
and
is
expressed
thus:
the
higher
the
productiveness
of
labour,
the
greater
is
the
pressure
of
the
labourers
on
the
means
of
employment,
the
more
precarious,therefore,
becomes
their
condition
of
existence,
viz.,the
sale
of
their
own
labour
power
for
the
increasing
of
another's
wealth,
or
for
the
self-expansion
of
capital.
The
fact
that
the
means
of
production,
and
the
productiveness
of
labour,
increase
more
rapidly
than
the
productive
population,
expresses
itself,
therefore,capitalistically
in
the
inverse
form
that
the
labouring
population
always
increases
more
rapidly
than
the
conditions
under
which
capital
can
employ
this
increase
for
its
own
self-expansion.
We
saw
in
Part
IV.,
when
analysing
the
production
of
relative
surplus-value:
within
the
capitalist
system
all
methods
for
raising
the
social
productiveness
of
labour
are
brought
about
at
the
cost
of
the
individual
labourer;
all
means
for
the
development
of
production
transform
themselves
into
means
of
domination
over,and
exploitation
of,
the
producers;
they
mutilate
the
labourer
into
a
fragment
of
a
man,
degrade
him
to
the
level
of
an
appendage
of
a
machine,
destroy
every
remnant
of
charm
in
his
work
and
turn
it
into
a
hated
toil;
they
estrange
from
him
the
intellectual
potentialities
of
the
labour
process
in
the
same
proportion
as
science
is
incorporated
in
it
as
an
independent
power;
they
distort
the
conditions
under
which
he
works,
subject
him
during
the
labour
process
to
a
despotism
the
more
hateful
for
its
meanness;
they
transform
his
life-time
into
working-time,
and
drag
his
wife
and
child
beneath
the
wheels
of
the
Juggernaut
of
capital.
But
all
methods
for
the
production
of
surplus
value
are
at
the
same
time
methods
of
accumulation;and
every
extension
of
accumulation
becomes
again
a
means
for
the
development
of
those
methods.It
follows
therefore
that
in
proportion
as
capital
accumulates,
the
lot
of
the
labourer,
be
his
payment
high
or
low,
must
grow
worse.
The
law,
finally,
that
always
equilibrates
the
relative
surplus
population,or
industrial
reserve
army,
to
the
extent
and
energy
of
accumulation,
this
law
rivets
the
labourer
to
capital
more
firmly
than
the
wedges
of
Vulcan
did
Prometheus
to
the
rock.
It
establishes
an
accumulation
of
misery,
corresponding
with
accumulation
of
capital.Accumulation
of
wealth
at
one
pole
is,
therefore,
at
the
same
time
accumulation
of
misery,
agony
of
toil
slavery,
ignorance,
brutality,
mental
degradation,
at
the
opposite
pole,
i.e.,
on
the
side
of
the
class
that
produces
its
own
product
in
the
form
of
capital.25This
antagonistic
character
of
capitalistic
accumulation
is
enunciated
in
various
forms
by
political
economists,although
by
them
it
is
confounded
with
phenomena,certainly
to
some
extent
analogous,
but
nevertheless
essentially
distinct,
and
belonging
to
pre-capitalistic
modes
of
production.
The
Venetian
monk
Ortes,
one
of
the
great
economic
writers
of
the
18th
century,
regards
the
antagonism
of
capitalist
production
as
a
general
natural
law
of
social
wealth.
\"In
the
economy
of
a
nation,
advantages
and
evils
always
balance
one
another
(il
bene
ed
il
male
economico
in
una
nazione
sempre
all,istessa
misura):
the
abundance
of
wealth
with
some
people,
is
always
equal
to
the
want
of
it
with
others
(la
copia
dei
beni
in
alcuni
sempre
eguale
alia
mancanza
di
essi
in
altri):
the
great
riches
of
a
small
number
are
always
accompanied
by
the
absolute
privation
of
the
first
necessaries
of
life
for
many
others.
The
wealth
of
a
nation
corresponds
with
its
population,
and
its
misery
corresponds
with
its
wealth.
Diligence
in
some
compels
idleness
in
others.
The
poor
and
idle
are
a
necessary
consequence
of
the
rich
and
active,\"
&c.26
In
a
thoroughly
brutal
way
about
10
years
after
Ortes,
the
Church
of
England
parson,
Townsend,glorified
misery
as
a
necessary
condition
of
wealth.
\"Legal
constraint
(to
labour)
is
attended
with
too
much
trouble,
violence,
and
noise,
whereas
hunger
is
not
only
a
peaceable,
silent,
unremitted
pressure,but
as
the
most
natural
motive
to
industry
and
labour,
it
calls
forth
the
most
powerful
exertions.\"
Everything
therefore
depends
upon
making
hunger
permanent
among
the
working
class,
and
for
this,according
to
Townsend,
the
principle
of
population,especially
active
among
the
poor,
provides.
\"It
seems
to
be
a
law
of
Nature
that
the
poor
should
be
to
a
certain
degree
improvident\"
[i.e.,
so
improvident
as
to
be
born
without
a
silver
spoon
in
the
mouth],
\"that
there
may
always
be
some
to
fulfil
the
most
servile,
the
most
sordid,
and
the
most
ignoble
offices
in
the
community.
The
stock
of
human
happiness
is
thereby
much
increased,whilst
the
more
delicate
are
not
only
relieved
from
drudgery
...
but
are
left
at
liberty
without
interruption
to
pursue
those
callings
which
are
suited
to
their
various
dispositions
...
it\"
[the
Poor
Law]
\"tends
to
destroy
the
harmony
and
beauty,the
symmetry
and
order
of
that
system
which
God
and
Nature
have
established
in
the
world.\"27If
the
Venetian
monk
found
in
the
fatal
destiny
that
makes
misery
eternal,
the
raison
d'être
of
Christian
charity,
celibacy,
monasteries
and
holy
houses,the
Protestant
prebendary
finds
in
it
a
pretext
for
condemning
the
laws
in
virtue
of
which
the
poor
possessed
a
right
to
a
miserable
public
relief.
\"The
progress
of
social
wealth,\"
says
Storch,\"begets
this
useful
class
of
society
...
which
performs
the
most
wearisome,
the
vilest,
the
most
disgusting
functions,
which
takes,
in
a
word,
on
its
shoulders
all
that
is
disagreeable
and
servile
in
life,and
procures
thus
for
other
classes
leisure,
serenity
of
mind
and
conventional\"
[c'est
bon!]
\"dignity
of
character.\"28
Storch
asks
himself
in
what
then
really
consists
the
progress
of
this
capitalistic
civilisation
with
its
misery
and
its
degradation
of
the
masses,
as
compared
with
barbarism.
He
finds
but
one
answer:
security!
\"Thanks
to
the
advance
of
industry
and
science,\"says
Sismondi,
\"every
labourer
can
produce
every
day
much
more
than
his
consumption
requires.
But
at
the
same
time,
whilst
his
labour
produces
wealth,
that
wealth
would,
were
he
called
on
to
consume
it
himself,
make
him
less
fit
for
labour.\"
According
to
him,
\"men\"
[i.e.,
non
workers]
\"would
probably
prefer
to
do
without
all
artistic
perfection,
and
all
the
enjoyments
that
manufacturers
procure
for
us,
if
it
were
necessary
that
all
should
buy
them
by
constant
toil
like
that
of
the
labourer....
Exertion
today
is
separated
from
its
recompense;
it
is
not
the
same
man
that
first
works,
and
then
reposes;
but
it
is
because
the
one
works
that
the
other
rests....
The
indefinite
multiplication
of
the
productive
powers
of
labour
can
then
only
have
for
result
the
increase
of
luxury
and
enjoyment
of
the
idle
rich.\"
29
Finally
Destutt
de
Tracy,
the
fish-blooded
bourgeois
doctrinaire,
blurts
out
brutally:
\"In
poor
nations
the
people
are
comfortable,
in
rich
nations
they
are
generally
poor.\"30
Section
5:
Illustrations
of
the
General
Law
of
Capitalist
Accumulation
A.
England
from
1846-1866
No
period
of
modern
society
is
so
favourable
for
the
study
of
capitalist
accumulation
as
the
period
of
the
last
20
years.
It
is
as
if
this
period
had
found
Fortunatus'
purse.
But
of
all
countries
England
again
furnishes
the
classical
example,
because
it
holds
the
foremost
place
in
the
world-market,
because
capitalist
production
is
here
alone
completely
developed,
and
lastly,
because
the
introduction
of
the
Free-trade
millennium
since
1846
has
cut
off
the
last
retreat
of
vulgar
economy.
The
titanic
advance
of
production–
the
latter
half
of
the
20
years'
period
again
far
surpassing
the
former
–
has
been
already
pointed
out
sufficiently
in
Part
IV.
Although
the
absolute
increase
of
the
English
population
in
the
last
half
century
was
very
great,
the
relative
increase
or
rate
of
growth
fell
constantly,
as
the
following
table
borrowed
from
the
census
shows.
Annual
increase
per
cent.
of
the
population
of
England
and
Wales
in
decimal
numbers:
Let
us
now,
on
the
other
hand,
consider
the
increase
of
wealth.
Here
the
movement
of
profit,
rent
of
land,&c.,
that
come
under
the
income
tax,
furnishes
the
surest
basis.
The
increase
of
profits
liable
to
income
tax
(farmers
and
some
other
categories
not
included)
in
Great
Britain
from
1853
to
1864
amounted
to
50.47%
or
4.58%
as
the
annual
average,31that
of
the
population
during
the
same
period
to
about
12%.
The
augmentation
of
the
rent
of
land
subject
to
taxation(including
houses,
railways,
mines,
fisheries,
&c.),amounted
for
1853
to
1864
to
38%
or
3
5\/12%annually.
Under
this
head
the
following
categories
show
the
greatest
increase:
If
we
compare
the
years
from
1853
to
1864
in
three
sets
of
four
consecutive
years
each,
the
rate
of
augmentation
of
the
income
increases
constantly.32It
is,
e.g.,
for
that
arising
from
profits
between
1853
to
1857,
1.73%
yearly;
1857-1861,
2.74%,
and
for
1861-64,
9.30%
yearly.
The
sum
of
the
incomes
of
the
United
Kingdom
that
come
under
the
income
tax
was
in
1856,
￡307,068,898;
in
1859,
￡328,127,416;
in
1862,
￡351,745,241;
in
1863,
￡359,142,897;
in
1864,￡362,462,279;
in
1865,
￡385,530,020.33
The
accumulation
of
capital
was
attended
at
the
same
time
by
its
concentration
and
centralisation.Although
no
official
statistics
of
agriculture
existed
for
England
(they
did
for
Ireland),
they
were
voluntarily
given
in
10
counties.
These
statistics
gave
the
result
that
from
1851
to
1861
the
number
of
farms
of
less
than
100
acres
had
fallen
from
31,583
to
26,597,so
that
5,016
had
been
thrown
together
into
larger
farms.34From
1815
to
1825
no
personal
estate
of
more
than
￡1,000,000
came
under
the
succession
duty;
from
1825
to
1855,
however,
8
did;
and
4
from
1856
to
June,
1859,
i.e.,
in
4
years.35The
centralisation
will,however,
be
best
seen
from
a
short
analysis
of
the
Income
Tax
Schedule
D
(profits,
exclusive
of
farms,&c.),
in
the
years
1864
and
1865.
I
note
beforehand
that
incomes
from
this
source
pay
income
tax
on
everything
over
￡60.
These
incomes
liable
to
taxation
in
England,
Wales
and
Scotland,
amounted
in
1864
to￡95,844,222,
in
1865
to
￡105,435,579.36The
number
of
persons
taxed
were
in
1864,
308,416,
out
of
a
population
of
23,891,009;
in
1865,
332,431
out
of
a
population
of
24,127,003.
The
following
table
shows
the
distribution
of
these
incomes
in
the
two
years:
In
1855
there
were
produced
in
the
United
Kingdom
61,453,079
tons
of
coal,
of
value
￡16,113,167;
in
1864,
92,787,873
tons,
of
value
￡23,197,968;
in
1855,
3,218,154
tons
of
pig-iron,
of
value
￡8,045,385;
1864,
4,767,951
tons,
of
value
￡11,919,877.
In
1854
the
length
of
the
railroads
worked
in
the
United
Kingdom
was
8,054
miles,
with
a
paid-up
capital
of￡286,068,794;
in
1864
the
length
was
12,789
miles,with
capital
paid
up
of
￡425,719,613.
In
1854
the
total
sum
of
the
exports
and
imports
of
the
United
Kingdom
was
￡268,210,145;
in
1865,
￡489,923,285.
The
following
table
shows
the
movement
of
the
exports:
37
After
these
few
examples
one
understands
the
cry
of
triumph
of
the
Registrar-General
of
the
British
people:
\"Rapidly
as
the
population
has
increased,
it
has
not
kept
pace
with
the
progress
of
industry
and
wealth.\"38
Let
us
turn
now
to
the
direct
agents
of
this
industry,or
the
producers
of
this
wealth,
to
the
working
class.
\"It
is
one
of
the
most
melancholy
features
in
the
social
state
of
this
country,\"
says
Gladstone,\"that
while
there
was
a
decrease
in
the
consuming
powers
of
the
people,
and
while
there
was
an
increase
in
the
privations
and
distress
of
the
labouring
class
and
operatives,
there
was
at
the
same
time
a
constant
accumulation
of
wealth
in
the
upper
classes,
and
a
constant
increase
of
capital.\"39
Thus
spake
this
unctuous
minister
in
the
House
of
Commons
of
February
13th,
1843.
On
April
16th,
1863,
20
years
later,
in
the
speech
in
which
he
introduced
his
Budget:
\"From
1842
to
1852
the
taxable
income
of
the
country
increased
by
6
per
cent....
In
the
8
years
from
1853
to
1861
it
had
increased
from
the
basis
taken
in
1853
by
20
per
cent.!
The
fact
is
so
astonishing
as
to
be
almost
incredible
...
this
intoxicating
augmentation
of
wealth
and
power...
entirely
confined
to
classes
of
property
...
must
be
of
indirect
benefit
to
the
labouring
population,because
it
cheapens
the
commodities
of
general
consumption.
While
the
rich
have
been
growing
richer,
the
poor
have
been
growing
less
poor.
At
any
rate,
whether
the
extremes
of
poverty
are
less,I
do
not
presume
to
say.\"40
How
lame
an
anti-climax!
If
the
working
class
has
remained
\"poor,\"
only
\"less
poor\"
in
proportion
as
it
produces
for
the
wealthy
class
\"an
intoxicating
augmentation
of
wealth
and
power,\"
then
it
has
remained
relatively
just
as
poor.
If
the
extremes
of
poverty
have
not
lessened,
they
have
increased,because
the
extremes
of
wealth
have.
As
to
the
cheapening
of
the
means
of
subsistence,
the
official
statistics,
e.g.,
the
accounts
of
the
London
Orphan
Asylum,
show
an
increase
in
price
of
20%
for
the
average
of
the
three
years
1860-1862,
compared
with
1851-1853.
In
the
following
three
years,
18631865,
there
was
a
progressive
rise
in
the
price
of
meat,
butter,
milk,
sugar,
salt,
coals,
and
a
number
of
other
necessary
means
of
subsistence.41Gladstone's
next
Budget
speech
of
April
7th,
1864,
is
a
Pindaric
dithyrambus
on
the
advance
of
surplus-value
making
and
the
happiness
of
the
people
\"tempered
by
poverty.\"
He
speaks
of
masses
\"on
the
border\"
of
pauperism,
of
branches
of
trade
in
which
\"wages
have
not
increased,\"
and
finally
sums
up
the
happiness
of
the
working
class
in
the
words:
\"human
life
is
but,
in
nine
cases
out
of
ten,
a
struggle
for
existence.\"
42
Professor
Fawcett,
not
bound
like
Gladstone
by
official
considerations,
declares
roundly:
\"I
do
not,
of
course,
deny
that
money
wages
have
been
augmented
by
this
increase
of
capital
(in
the
last
ten
years),
but
this
apparent
advantage
is
to
a
great
extent
lost,
because
many
of
the
necessaries
of
life
are
becoming
dearer\"
(he
believes
because
of
the
fall
in
value
of
the
precious
metals)...\"the
rich
grow
rapidly
richer,
whilst
there
is
no
perceptible
advance
in
the
comfort
enjoyed
by
the
industrial
classes....
They
(the
labourers)
become
almost
the
slaves
of
the
tradesman,
to
whom
they
owe
money.\"43
In
the
chapters
on
the
\"working
day\"
and
\"machinery,\"the
reader
has
seen
under
what
circumstances
the
British
working
class
created
an
\"intoxicating
augmentation
of
wealth
and
power\"
for
the
propertied
classes.
There
we
were
chiefly
concerned
with
the
social
functioning
of
the
labourer.
But
for
a
full
elucidation
of
the
law
of
accumulation,
his
condition
outside
the
workshop
must
also
be
looked
at,
his
condition
as
to
food
and
dwelling.
The
limits
of
this
book
compel
us
to
concern
ourselves
chiefly
with
the
worst
paid
part
of
the
industrial
proletariat,
and
with
the
agricultural
labourers,
who
together
form
the
majority
of
the
working
class.
But
first,
one
word
on
official
pauperism,
or
on
that
part
of
the
working
class
which
has
forfeited
its
condition
of
existence
(the
sale
of
labour
power),and
vegetates
upon
public
alms.
The
official
list
of
paupers
numbered
in
England44851,369
persons;
in
1856,
877,767;
in
1865,
971,433.
In
consequence
of
the
cotton
famine,
it
grew
in
the
years
1863
and
1864
to
1,079,382
and
1,014,978.
The
crisis
of
1866,
which
fell
most
heavily
on
London,
created
in
this
centre
of
the
world
market,
more
populous
than
the
kingdom
of
Scotland,
an
increase
of
pauperism
for
the
year
1866
of
19.5%
compared
with
1865,
and
of
24.4%compared
with
1864,
and
a
still
greater
increase
for
the
first
months
of
1867
as
compared
with
1866.
From
the
analysis
of
the
statistics
of
pauperism,
two
points
are
to
be
taken.
On
the
one
hand,
the
fluctuation
up
and
down
of
the
number
of
paupers,
reflects
the
periodic
changes
of
the
industrial
cycle.
On
the
other,
the
official
statistics
become
more
and
more
misleading
as
to
the
actual
extent
of
pauperism
in
proportion
as,
with
the
accumulation
of
capital,
the
class-struggle,
and,therefore,
the
class
consciousness
of
the
working
men,develop.
E.g.,
the
barbarity
in
the
treatment
of
the
paupers,
at
which
the
English
Press
(The
Times,
PallMall
Gazette,
etc.)
have
cried
out
so
loudly
during
the
last
two
years,
is
of
ancient
date.
F.
Engels
showed
in
1844
exactly
the
same
horrors,
exactly
the
same
transient
canting
outcries
of
\"sensational
literature.\"But
frightful
increase
of
\"deaths
by
starvation\"
in
London
during
the
last
ten
years
proves
beyond
doubt
the
growing
horror
in
which
the
working-people
hold
the
slavery
of
the
workhouse,
that
place
of
punishment
for
misery.45
B.
The
Badly
Paid
Strata
of
the
British
Industrial
Class
During
the
cotton
famine
of
1862,
Dr.
Smith
was
charged
by
the
Privy
Council
with
an
inquiry
into
the
conditions
of
nourishment
of
the
distressed
operatives
in
Lancashire
and
Cheshire.
His
observations
during
many
preceding
years
had
led
him
to
the
conclusion
that
\"to
avert
starvation
diseases,\"
the
daily
food
of
an
average
woman
ought
to
contain
at
least
3,900
grains
of
carbon
with
180
grains
of
nitrogen;
the
daily
food
of
an
average
man,
at
least
4,300
grains
of
carbon
with
200
grains
of
nitrogen;
for
women,
about
the
same
quantity
of
nutritive
elements
as
are
contained
in
2
lbs.
of
good
wheaten
bread,
for
men
1\/9
more;
for
the
weekly
average
of
adult
men
and
women,
at
least
28,600
grains
of
carbon
and
1,330
grains
of
nitrogen.His
calculation
was
practically
confirmed
in
a
surprising
manner
by
its
agreement
with
the
miserable
quantity
of
nourishment
to
which
want
had
forced
down
the
consumption
of
the
cotton
operatives.
This
was,
in
December,
1862,
29,211
grains
of
carbon,
and
1,295
grains
of
nitrogen
weekly.
In
the
year
1863,
the
Privy
Council
ordered
an
inquiry
into
the
state
of
distress
of
the
worst-nourished
part
of
the
English
working
class.
Dr.
Simon,
medical
officer
to
the
Privy
Council,
chose
for
this
work
the
above-mentioned
Dr.
Smith.
His
inquiry
ranges
on
the
one
hand
over
the
agricultural
labourers,
on
the
other,
over
silk-weavers,
needlewomen,
kid-glovers,stocking-weavers,
glove-weavers,
and
shoemakers.The
latter
categories
are,
with
the
exception
of
the
stocking-weavers,
exclusively
town-dwellers.
It
was
made
a
rule
in
the
inquiry
to
select
in
each
category
the
most
healthy
families,
and
those
comparatively
in
the
best
circumstances.
As
a
general
result
it
was
found
that
\"in
only
one
of
the
examined
classes
of
in
door
operatives
did
the
average
nitrogen
supply
just
exceed,
while
in
another
it
nearly
reached,the
estimated
standard
of
bare
sufficiency
[i.e.,sufficient
to
avert
starvation
diseases],
and
that
in
two
classes
there
was
defect
–
in
one,
a
very
large
defect
–
of
both
nitrogen
and
carbon.
Moreover,
as
regards
the
examined
families
of
the
agricultural
population,
it
appeared
that
more
than
a
fifth
were
with
less
than
the
estimated
sufficiency
of
carbonaceous
food,
that
more
than
one-third
were
with
less
than
the
estimated
sufficiency
of
nitrogenous
food,
and
that
in
three
counties
(Berkshire,
Oxfordshire,
and
Somersetshire),insufficiency
of
nitrogenous
food
was
the
average
local
diet.\"46
Among
the
agricultural
labourers,
those
of
England,the
wealthiest
part
of
the
United
Kingdom,
were
the
worst
fed.47The
insufficiency
of
food
among
the
agricultural
labourers,
fell,
as
a
rule,
chiefly
on
the
women
and
children,
for
\"the
man
must
eat
to
do
his
work.\"
Still
greater
penury
ravaged
the
town-workers
examined.
\"They
are
so
ill
fed
that
assuredly
among
them
there
must
be
many
cases
of
severe
and
injurious
privation.\"48
(\"Privation\"
of
the
capitalist
all
this!
i.e.,
\"abstinence\"from
paying
for
the
means
of
subsistence
absolutely
necessary
for
the
mere
vegetation
of
his
\"hands.\")
49
The
following
table
shows
the
conditions
of
nourishment
of
the
above-named
categories
of
purely
town-dwelling
work-people,
as
compared
with
the
minimum
assumed
by
Dr.
Smith,
and
with
the
food
allowance
of
the
cotton
operatives
during
the
time
of
their
greatest
distress:
One
half,
or
60\/125,
of
the
industrial
labour
categories
investigated,
had
absolutely
no
beer,
28%no
milk.
The
weekly
average
of
the
liquid
means
of
nourishment
in
the
families
varied
from
seven
ounces
in
the
needle-women
to
24
ounces
in
the
stocking
makers.
The
majority
of
those
who
did
not
obtain
milk
were
needle-women
in
London.
The
quantity
of
bread
stuffs
consumed
weekly
varied
from
7
lbs.
for
the
needle-women
to
11
lbs.
for
the
shoemakers,
and
gave
a
total
average
of
9.9
lbs.
per
adult
weekly.
Sugar(treacle,
etc.)
varied
from
4
ounces
weekly
for
the
kid
glovers
to
11
ounces
for
the
stocking-makers;
and
the
total
average
per
week
for
all
categories
was
8
ounces
per
adult
weekly.
Total
weekly
average
of
butter
(fat,etc.)
5
ounces
per
adult.
The
weekly
average
of
meat(bacon,
etc.)
varied
from
7
ounces
for
the
silk
weavers,
to
18
ounces
for
the
kid-glovers;
total
average
for
the
different
categories
13.6
ounces.
The
weekly
cost
of
food
per
adult,
gave
the
following
average
figures;
silk-weavers
2s.
2d.,
needle-women
2s.
7d.,
kid-glovers
2s.
9d.,
shoemakers
2s
7d.,stocking-weavers
2s.
6d.
For
the
silk-weavers
of
Macclesfield
the
average
was
only
1s.
8d.
The
worst
categories
were
the
needle-women,
silk-weavers
and
kid-glovers.50Of
these
facts,
Dr.
Simon
in
his
General
Health
Report
says:
\"That
cases
are
innumerable
in
which
defective
diet
is
the
cause
or
the
aggravator
of
disease,
can
be
affirmed
by
any
one
who
is
conversant
with
poor
law
medical
practice,
or
with
the
wards
and
out-patient
rooms
of
hospitals....
Yet
in
this
point
of
view,
there
is,
in
my
opinion,
a
very
important
sanitary
context
to
be
added.
It
must
be
remembered
that
privation
of
food
is
very
reluctantly
borne,
and
that
as
a
rule
great
poorness
of
diet
will
only
come
when
other
privations
have
preceded
it.
Long
before
insufficiency
of
diet
is
a
matter
of
hygienic
concern,
long
before
the
physiologist
would
think
of
counting
the
grains
of
nitrogen
and
carbon
which
intervene
between
life
and
starvation,
the
household
will
have
been
utterly
destitute
of
material
comfort;
clothing
and
fuel
will
have
been
even
scantier
than
food
–against
inclemencies
of
weather
there
will
have
been
no
adequate
protection
–
dwelling
space
will
have
been
stinted
to
the
degree
in
which
overcrowding
produces
or
increases
disease;
of
household
utensils
and
furniture
there
will
have
been
scarcely
any
even
cleanliness
will
have
been
found
costly
or
difficult,
and
if
there
still
be
self-respectful
endeavours
to
maintain
it,
every
such
endeavour
will
represent
additional
pangs
of
hunger.
The
home,
too,
will
be
where
shelter
can
be
cheapest
bought;
in
quarters
where
commonly
there
is
least
fruit
of
sanitary
supervision,
least
drainage,
least
scavenging,
least
suppression
of
public
nuisances,
least
or
worst
water
supply,
and,if
in
town,
least
light
and
air.
Such
are
the
sanitary
dangers
to
which
poverty
is
almost
certainly
exposed,
when
it
is
poverty
enough
to
imply
scantiness
of
food.
And
while
the
sum
of
them
is
of
terrible
magnitude
against
life,
the
mere
scantiness
of
food
is
in
itself
of
very
serious
moment....These
are
painful
reflections,
especially
when
it
is
remembered
that
the
poverty
to
which
they
advert
is
not
the
deserved
poverty
of
idleness.
In
all
cases
it
is
the
poverty
of
working
populations.
Indeed,as
regards
the
in-door
operatives,
the
work
which
obtains
the
scanty
pittance
of
food,
is
for
the
most
part
excessively
prolonged.
Yet
evidently
it
is
only
in
a
qualified
sense
that
the
work
can
be
deemed
self-supporting....
And
on
a
very
large
scale
the
nominal
self-support
can
be
only
a
circuit,
longer
or
shorter,
to
pauperism.\"51
The
intimate
connexion
between
the
pangs
of
hunger
of
the
most
industrious
layers
of
the
working
class,and
the
extravagant
consumption,
coarse
or
refined,of
the
rich,
for
which
capitalist
accumulation
is
the
basis,
reveals
itself
only
when
the
economic
laws
are
known.
It
is
otherwise
with
the
\"housing
of
the
poor.\"Every
unprejudiced
observer
sees
that
the
greater
the
centralisation
of
the
means
of
production,
the
greater
is
the
corresponding
heaping
together
of
the
labourers,within
a
given
space;
that
therefore
the
swifter
capitalistic
accumulation,
the
more
miserable
are
the
dwellings
of
the
working-people.
\"Improvements\"of
towns,
accompanying
the
increase
of
wealth,
by
the
demolition
of
badly
built
quarters,
the
erection
of
palaces
for
banks,
warehouses,
&c.,
the
widening
of
streets
for
business
traffic,
for
the
carriages
of
luxury,and
for
the
introduction
of
tramways,
&c.,
drive
away
the
poor
into
even
worse
and
more
crowded
hiding
places.
On
the
other
hand,
every
one
knows
that
the
dearness
of
dwellings
is
in
inverse
ratio
to
their
excellence,
and
that
the
mines
of
misery
are
exploited
by
house
speculators
with
more
profit
or
less
cost
than
ever
were
the
mines
of
Potosi.
The
antagonistic
character
of
capitalist
accumulation,
and
therefore
of
the
capitalistic
relations
of
property
generally,52is
here
so
evident,
that
even
the
official
English
reports
on
this
subject
teem
with
heterodox
onslaughts
on\"property
and
its
rights.\"
With
the
development
of
industry,
with
the
accumulation
of
capital,
with
the
growth
and
\"improvement\"
of
towns,
the
evil
makes
such
progress
that
the
mere
fear
of
contagious
diseases
which
do
not
spare
even
\"respectability,\"
brought
into
existence
from
1847
to
1864
no
less
than
10
Acts
of
Parliament
on
sanitation,
and
that
the
frightened
bourgeois
in
some
towns,
as
Liverpool,
Glasgow,
&c.,took
strenuous
measures
through
their
municipalities.
Nevertheless
Dr.
Simon,
in
his
report
of
1865,
says:
\"Speaking
generally,
it
may
be
said
that
the
evils
are
uncontrolled
in
England.\"
By
order
of
the
Privy
Council,
in
1864,
an
inquiry
was
made
into
the
conditions
of
the
housing
of
the
agricultural
labourers,
in
1865
of
the
poorer
classes
in
the
towns.
The
results
of
the
admirable
work
of
Dr.
Julian
Hunter
are
to
be
found
in
the
seventh
(1865)
and
eighth
(1866)
reports
on
\"Public
Health.\"
To
the
agricultural
labourers,
I
shall
come
later.
On
the
condition
of
town
dwellings,
I
quote,
as
preliminary,
a
general
remark
of
Dr.
Simon.
\"Although
my
official
point
of
view,\"
he
says,\"is
one
exclusively
physical,
common
humanity
requires
that
the
other
aspect
of
this
evil
should
not
be
ignored
....
In
its
higher
degrees
it
[i.e.,over-crowding]
almost
necessarily
involves
such
negation
of
all
delicacy,
such
unclean
confusion
of
bodies
and
bodily
functions,
such
exposure
of
animal
and
sexual
nakedness,
as
is
rather
bestial
than
human.
To
be
subject
to
these
influences
is
a
degradation
which
must
become
deeper
and
deeper
for
those
on
whom
it
continues
to
work.To
children
who
are
born
under
its
curse,
it
must
often
be
a
very
baptism
into
infamy.
And
beyond
all
measure
hopeless
is
the
wish
that
persons
thus
circumstanced
should
ever
in
other
respects
aspire
to
that
atmosphere
of
civilisation
which
has
its
essence
in
physical
and
moral
cleanliness.\"53
London
takes
the
first
place
in
over-crowded
habitations,
absolutely
unfit
for
human
beings.
\"He
feels
clear,\"
says
Dr.
Hunter,
\"on
two
points;first,
that
there
are
about
20
large
colonies
in
London,
of
about
10,000
persons
each,
whose
miserable
condition
exceeds
almost
anything
he
has
seen
elsewhere
in
England,
and
is
almost
entirely
the
result
of
their
bad
house
accommodation;
and
second,
that
the
crowded
and
dilapidated
condition
of
the
houses
of
these
colonies
is
much
worse
than
was
the
case
20
years
ago.\"54\"It
is
not
too
much
to
say
that
life
in
parts
of
London
and
Newcastle
is
infernal.\"55
Further,
the
better-off
part
of
the
working
class,together
with
the
small
shopkeepers
and
other
elements
of
the
lower
middle
class,
falls
in
London
more
and
more
under
the
curse
of
these
vile
conditions
of
dwelling,
in
proportion
as
\"improvements,\"
and
with
them
the
demolition
of
old
streets
and
houses,advance,
as
factories
and
the
afflux
of
human
beings
grow
in
the
metropolis,
and
finally
as
house
rents
rise
with
the
ground-rents.
\"Rents
have
become
so
heavy
that
few
labouring
men
can
afford
more
than
one
room.\"56
There
is
almost
no
house-property
in
London
that
is
not
overburdened
with
a
number
of
middlemen.For
the
price
of
land
in
London
is
always
very
high
in
comparison
with
its
yearly
revenue,
and
therefore
every
buyer
speculates
on
getting
rid
of
it
again
at
a
jury
price
(the
expropriation
valuation
fixed
by
jurymen),
or
on
pocketing
an
extraordinary
increase
of
value
arising
from
the
neighbourhood
of
some
large
establishment.
As
a
consequence
of
this
there
is
a
regular
trade
in
the
purchase
of
\"fag-ends
of
leases.\"
\"Gentlemen
in
this
business
may
be
fairly
expected
to
do
as
they
do
–
get
all
they
can
from
the
tenants
while
they
have
them,
and
leave
as
little
as
they
can
for
their
successors.\"57
The
rents
are
weekly,
and
these
gentlemen
run
no
risk.
In
consequence
of
the
making
of
railroads
in
the
City,
\"the
spectacle
has
lately
been
seen
in
the
East
of
London
of
a
number
of
families
wandering
about
some
Saturday
night
with
their
scanty
worldly
goods
on
their
backs,
without
any
resting
place
but
the
workhouse.\"58
The
workhouses
are
already
over-crowded,
and
the\"improvements\"
already
sanctioned
by
Parliament
are
only
just
begun.
If
labourers
are
driven
away
by
the
demolition
of
their
old
houses,
they
do
not
leave
their
old
parish,
or
at
most
they
settle
down
on
its
borders,as
near
as
they
can
get
to
it.
\"They
try,
of
course,
to
remain
as
near
as
possible
to
their
workshops.
The
inhabitants
do
not
go
beyond
the
same
or
the
next
parish,
parting
their
two-room
tenements
into
single
rooms,
and
crowding
even
those....
Even
at
an
advanced
rent,the
people
who
are
displaced
will
hardly
be
able
to
get
an
accommodation
so
good
as
the
meagre
one
they
have
left....
Half
the
workmen
...
of
the
Strand...
walked
two
miles
to
their
work.\"59
This
same
Strand,
a
main
thoroughfare
which
gives
strangers
an
imposing
idea
of
the
wealth
of
London,
may
serve
as
an
example
of
the
packing
together
of
human
beings
in
that
town.
In
one
of
its
parishes,
the
Officer
of
Health
reckoned
581
persons
per
acre,
although
half
the
width
of
the
Thames
was
reckoned
in.
It
will
be
self-understood
that
every
sanitary
measure,
which,
as
has
been
the
case
hitherto
in
London,
hunts
the
labourers
from
one
quarter,
by
demolishing
uninhabitable
houses,
serves
only
to
crowd
them
together
yet
more
closely
in
another.
\"Either,\"
says
Dr.
Hunter,
\"the
whole
proceeding
will
of
necessity
stop
as
an
absurdity,
or
the
public
compassion
(!)
be
effectually
aroused
to
the
obligation
which
may
now
be
without
exaggeration
called
national,
of
supplying
cover
to
those
who
by
reason
of
their
having
no
capital,cannot
provide
it
for
themselves,
though
they
can
by
periodical
payments
reward
those
who
will
provide
it
for
them.\"
60
Admire
this
capitalistic
justice!
The
owner
of
land,of
houses,
the
businessman,
when
expropriated
by\"improvements\"
such
as
railroads,
the
building
of
new
streets,
&c.,
not
only
receives
full
indemnity.
He
must,according
to
law,
human
and
divine,
be
comforted
for
his
enforced
\"abstinence\"
over
and
above
this
by
a
thumping
profit.
The
labourer,
with
his
wife
and
child
and
chattels,
is
thrown
out
into
the
street,
and–
if
he
crowds
in
too
large
numbers
towards
quarters
of
the
town
where
the
vestries
insist
on
decency,
he
is
prosecuted
in
the
name
of
sanitation!
Except
London,
there
was
at
the
beginning
of
the
19th
century
no
single
town
in
England
of
100,000
inhabitants.
Only
five
had
more
than
50,000.
Now
there
are
28
towns
with
more
than
50,000
inhabitants.
\"The
result
of
this
change
is
not
only
that
the
class
of
town
people
is
enormously
increased,
but
the
old
close-packed
little
towns
are
now
centres,built
round
on
every
side,
open
nowhere
to
air,and
being
no
longer
agreeable
to
the
rich
are
abandoned
by
them
for
the
pleasanter
outskirts.
The
successors
of
these
rich
are
occupying
the
larger
houses
at
the
rate
of
a
family
to
each
room
[...
and
find
accommodation
for
two
or
three
lodgers
...]
and
a
population,
for
which
the
houses
were
not
intended
and
quite
unfit,
has
been
created,
whose
surroundings
are
truly
degrading
to
the
adults
and
ruinous
to
the
children.\"61
The
more
rapidly
capital
accumulates
in
an
industrial
or
commercial
town,
the
more
rapidly
flows
the
stream
of
exploitable
human
material,
the
more
miserable
are
the
improvised
dwellings
of
the
labourers.
Newcastle-on-Tyne,
as
the
centre
of
a
coal
and
iron
district
of
growing
productiveness,
takes
the
next
place
after
London
in
the
housing
inferno.
Not
less
than
34,000
persons
live
there
in
single
rooms.
Because
of
their
absolute
danger
to
the
community,
houses
in
great
numbers
have
lately
been
destroyed
by
the
authorities
in
Newcastle
and
Gateshead.
The
building
of
new
houses
progresses
very
slowly,
business
very
quickly.
The
town
was,
therefore,
in
1865,
more
full
than
ever.
Scarcely
a
room
was
to
let.
Dr.
Embleton,
of
the
Newcastle
Fever
Hospital,
says:
\"There
can
be
little
doubt
that
the
great
cause
of
the
continuance
and
spread
of
the
typhus
has
been
the
over-crowding
of
human
beings,
and
the
uncleanliness
of
their
dwellings.
The
rooms,
in
which
labourers
in
many
cases
live,
are
situated
in
confined
and
unwholesome
yards
or
courts,
and
for
space,
light,
air,
and
cleanliness,
are
models
of
insufficiency
and
insalubrity,
and
a
disgrace
to
any
civilised
community;
in
them
men,
women,
and
children
lie
at
night
huddled
together:
and
as
regards
the
men,
the
night-shift
succeed
the
day
shift,
and
the
day-shift
the
night-shift
in
unbroken
series
for
some
time
together,
the
beds
having
scarcely
time
to
cool;
the
whole
house
badly
supplied
with
water
and
worse
with
privies;
dirty,unventilated,
and
pestiferous.\"62
精選分類
