Chapter 487: Does the machine take people's jobs? (two)

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At that time, shearers were "the nobles among woolen workers."
The steps they are responsible for are extremely difficult. Only one step of shearing, workers need to use a 40-pound hand scissors, stand at a height of 4 feet, and precisely maintain the opening and closing angle of the two blades at about 37°. The work is completed smoothly, and the quality of their work can directly affect the price of about 20% of the finished woolen products.
This group of "senior workers" have higher salaries. They have formed one strict guild after another. They are known for their "toughness and unity". Employers often do nothing about them. At the same time, they implement a strict apprenticeship system. Apprentices are only 7 years old. Able to pick up jobs.
So it is not difficult to understand the lethality of the raising machine to their work. Once such a high-efficiency machine is used on a large scale, the social and economic status of the shearers will decline rapidly.
With the development of the Industrial Revolution, the raising machine and other textile machines went from being used secretly to the government turning a blind eye to the government completely forgetting the previous laws and allowing factory owners to use them. In 1809, the country even completely abolished everything. The protection decree of the woolen industry makes it impossible for workers to protect themselves.
Most people saw the industrial revolution only saw the prosperity of the country’s economy and the glory of the empire, but they forgot to see the division of the country’s society. The Industrial Revolution created a greater gap between the rich and the poor. The factory owners who jumped up slowly became the new masters of the country, while the workers faced more serious survival problems.
In just over ten years, the wages of most textile workers have fallen by about 70%, and the wages of some types of jobs that are less difficult to operate have fallen by 97% until they disappear, and the wages of shearers have also fallen by 60%. the above.
Although the birth of new industries has created more jobs, in terms of proportions, the number of unemployed is obviously more than the number of new jobs. For example, in Yorkshire, the number of shearers using machines rose from 100 to 1,462, but at the same time 1,170 traditional shearers were unemployed, and 1,445 shearers were in a semi-employed state.
Some of the shearers are veterans who have returned to the country and demobilized on the front line. They sent an anonymous letter to the congressman to express the despair of their lives. The letter read:
Some of us have served 6 years, 8 years or even 10 years of military service to defend this country. Now this defended country sends us to starvation after peace!
Yorkshire is ready for a revolution!
Signature: A soldier and his wife and crying child.
It is in such a social atmosphere that workers are generally pessimistic about the future, and the government is unable to come up with good policies to help workers. As a result, revolutionary sentiment is constantly brewing, and one after another uprisings and demonstrations follow. .
In the most glorious period of the industrial revolution in the country, the workers' resistance movement cast a haze over the so-called sun never set empire.
Before the large-scale and widespread violent movement, the working class actually adopted peaceful reforms plus small-scale raids, hoping that the bourgeois rulers would show kindness and improve the treatment of workers.
At this time, standing on the front line of the movement was the most influential shearers' association in the country: the Concise Association.
The Concise Association is a strict trade union. They have a serious admission ceremony, high membership fees, a unified membership logo, a complete branch structure from the central to the local level, and even some small secret action teams.
In 1802, when the raising machine began to be introduced into the country of Witt County, the shearing workers fought for the job at hand.
In a series of special operations, the workers destroyed 3 factories, while 6 other factories suffered losses. They broke into the factory with their faces masked while holding the scissors for their work, shouting for their livelihood! Waiting for words, destroyed the factory, the most serious Leddington factory was completely destroyed, the loss exceeded 8,000 pounds.
After that, the government representing the interests of the bourgeoisie quickly arrested the workers who caused the accident, but encountered difficulties during the trial. Because the decree of King Edward VI more than 100 years ago was still not repealed, whether it was the factory owner or the workers who broke the law first, it suddenly fell into a deadlock.
Although no direct evidence can be found, the Concise Association is likely to be related to the attacks on the factories. They then proceeded with the flow and used Yorkshire woolen merchant Benjamin Gott to illegally hire apprentices and launched a four-month high-tech strike. , The momentum was huge, but the results were minimal, just Gott gave up hiring apprentices.
The leaders of the Concise Association saw the power of the working class and prepared to use mass strikes and demonstrations to fight for the rights of workers. Since then began a seven-year legislative struggle.
They put forward a ban on the restoration of the raising machines, and at the same time demanded that the number of other machines be restricted and workers' treatment should be improved. The Concise Association once obtained the signature support of 39,000 people, and they submitted their demands to the House of Commons through legal means.
However, the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie accounted for the main components in the parliament, and they did not consider the ideas of the working class. Therefore, through legal means, the bill was continuously shelved for several years.
In 1809, George III announced the abolition of all old laws and regulations in the woolen industry, announcing the failure of the peace reform movement led by the Concise Association.
The matter is already very clear. The government intends to use tough industrial policies to promote industrial upgrading and use machines to completely replace manual production.
In the year when the labor protection law was scarce, these unemployed workers could not receive any assistance and protection from the government and society, and gradually became a time bomb.
In the 1810s ~EbookFREE.me~ the country was hit by Napoleon's double blow. On the one hand, it was the quagmire of war, and on the other hand, it was the European blockade policy. One of the manifestations was the high speed of wheat prices out of control. The price of wheat once reached 120 shillings quarts, and at that time, even the former high-level jobs like shearing workers only had 8-12 shillings a week, and a child worker could only earn 1 shilling a day.
At this time, the widespread use of hosiery machines became the fuse of the Ludd movement. The hosiery machine was able to sew socks at high speed, but the quality was extremely poor and the price was low, which immediately hit the market, causing numerous traditional hosiery factories to close down one after another and workers to lose their jobs. The workers once called on the factory owners not to use hosiery machines, but with little success, they launched a violent campaign, the Ludd movement.
There are two versions of Ludd’s name. One is that in Leicestershire, a worker named Ludd took the lead in smashing the hosiery machine; the other is that Ludd is a legendary name.
This movement centered on shearers and included the vast majority of the lower classes in society. The momentum was so great that at one time the British army suppressing the rebellion was greater than the army fighting Napoleon on the European battlefield.
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