That machines do not, even at their first introduction, invariably throw human labour out of employment, must be admitted; and it has been maintained, by persons very competent to form an opinion on the subject, that they never produce that effect.  The solution of this question depends on facts, which, unfortunately, have not yet been collected:  and the circumstance of our not possessing the data necessary for the full examination of so important a subject, supplies an additional reason for impressing, upon the minds of all who are interested in such enquiries, the importance of procuring accurate registries, at various times, of the number of persons employed in particular branches of manufacture, of the number of machines used by them. and of the wages they receive.

408.  In relation to the enquiry just mentioned, I shall offer some remarks upon the facts within my knowledge; and only regret that those which I can support by numerical statement are so few.  When the crushing mill, used in Cornwall and other mining countries, superseded the labour of a great number of young women, who worked very hard in breaking ores with flat hammers, no distress followed.  The reason of this appears to have been, that the proprietors of the mines, having one portion of their capital released by the superior cheapness of the process executed by the mills, found it their interest to apply more labour to other operations.  The women, disengaged from mere drudgery, were thus profitably employed in dressing the ores, a work which required skill and judgement in the selection.

409.  The increased production arising from alterations in the machinery, or from improved modes of using it, appears from the following table.  A machine called in the cotton manufacture a ‘stretcher’, worked by one man, produced as follows: 

 Year; Pounds of cotton spun; Roving wages per score; Rate of earning per week
                s. d. s. d.

1810 400 1 31/2 25 10(1*) 1811 600 0 10 25 0 1813 850 0 9 31 101/2 1823 1000 0 71/2 31 3

The same man working at another stretcher, the roving a little finer, produced,

1823 900 0 71/2 28 11/2 1825 1000 0 7 27 6 1827 1200 0 6 30 0 1832 1200 0 6 30 0

In this instance, production has gradually increased until, at the end of twenty-two years, three times as much work is done as at the commencement, although the manual labour employed remains the same.  The weekly earnings of the workmen have not fluctuated very much, and appear, on the whole, to have advanced:  but it would be imprudent to push too far reasonings founded upon a single instance.

410.  The produce of 480 spindles of ‘mule yarn spinning’, at different periods, was as follows: 

Year; Hanks about 40 to the pound; Wages per thousand (s. d.)

1806; 6668; 9 2 1823; 8000; 6 3 1832; 10,000; 3 8

411.  The subjoined view of the state of weaving by hand- and by power-looms, at Stockport, in the years 1822 and 1832, is taken from an enumeration of the machines contained in 65 factories, and was collected for the purpose of being given in evidence before a Committee of the House of Commons.