English commentators quickly noted the effects of rural industry on families and daily life. Some were greatly impressed by the rise in living standards made possible by the putting-out system, while others noted the rising economic inequality between merchants and workers and the power the former acquired over the latter. In the first excerpt, novelist and economic writer Daniel Defoe enthusiastically praises cottage industry. He notes that the labor of women and children in spinning and weaving brought in as much as or more income than the man’s agricultural work, allowing the family to eat well and be warmly clothed. It is interesting to note that Defoe assumes a rural world in which the process of enclosure is complete; poor men do not own their own land, but toil as wage laborers on the land of others. He also offers one explanation for the increasing use of Africans as slaves in British colonies: reliable wages from cottage industry meant that the English poor did not have to “sell themselves to the Plantations,” thus leading plantation owners to seek other sources of labor.

The second source is a popular song written around 1700. Couched in the voice of the ruthless cloth merchant, it expresses the bitterness and resentment textile workers felt against their employers. One can imagine a group of weavers gathered together at the local tavern singing their protest on a rare break from work.

Daniel Defoe, A Plan of the English Commerce

Being a compleat prospect of the trade of this nation, as well the home trade as the foreign, 1728

[A] poor labouring man that goes abroad to his Day Work, and Husbandry, Hedging, Ditching, Threshing, Carting, &c. and brings home his Week’s Wages, suppose at eight Pence to twelve Pence a Day, or in some Counties less; if he has a Wife and three or four Children to feed, and who get little or nothing for themselves, must fare hard, and live poorly; ’tis easy to suppose it must be so.

But if this Man’s Wife and Children can at the same Time get Employment, if at next Door, or at the next Village there lives a Clothier, or a Bay Maker, or a stuff or Drugget Weaver;* the Manufacturer sends the poor Woman combed Wool, or carded Wool every Week to spin, and she gets eight Pence or nine Pence a day at home; the Weaver sends for her two little Children, and they work by the Loom, winding, filling quills, &c. and the two bigger Girls spin at home with their Mother, and these earn three Pence or four Pence a Day each: So that put it together, the Family at Home gets as much as the Father gets Abroad, and generally more.

This alters the Case extremely, the Family feels it, they all feed better, are cloth’d warmer, and do not so easily nor so often fall into Misery and Distress; the Father gets them Food, and the Mother gets them Clothes; and as they grow, they do not run away to be Footmen and Soldiers, Thieves and Beggars or sell themselves to the Plantations to avoid the Gaol and the Gallows, but have a Trade at their Hands, and every one can get their Bread.

N.B. I once went through a large populous manufacturing Town in England, and observ’d, that an Officer planted there, with a Serjeant and two Drums, had been beating up a long Time and could get no Recruits, except two or three Sots…. Enquiring the Reason of it, an honest Clothier of the Town answered me effectually thus, The Case is plain, says he, thus there is at this Time a brisk Demand for Goods, we have 1100 Looms, added he, in this Town and the Villages about it and not one of them want Work; and there is not a poor Child in the Town of above four Years old, but can earn his Bread; besides, there being so good a Trade at this Time, causes us to advance Wages a little and the Weaver and the Spinner get more than they used to do; and while it is so, they may beat the Heads of their Drums out, if they will, they’ll get no Soldiers here.

Anonymous, “The Clothier’s Delight”

Or the rich Men’s Joy, and the poor Men’s Sorrow, wherein is exprest the Craftiness and Subtility of many Clothiers in England, by beating down their Workmen’s Wages, ca. 1700

Of all sorts of callings that in England be

There is none that liveth so gallant as we;

Our trading maintains us as brave as a knight,

We live at our pleasure and take our delight;

We heapeth up richest treasure great store

Which we get by griping and grinding the poor.

And this is a way for to fill up our purse

Although we do get it with many a curse.

Throughout the whole kingdom, in country and town,

There is no danger of our trade going down,

So long as the Comber can work with his comb,

And also the Weaver weave with his lomb;

The Tucker and Spinner that spins all the year,

We will make them to earn their wages full dear.

And this is a way, etc.

And first for the Combers, we will bring them down,

From eight groats a score until half a crown;

If at all they murmur and say ’tis too small

We bid them choose whether they will work at all.

We’ll make them believe that trading is bad

We care not a pin, though they are n’er so sad.

And this is a way, etc.

We’ll make the poor Weavers work at a low rate,

We’ll find fault where there’s no fault, and so we will bate;

If trading grows dead, we will presently show it,

But if it grows good, they shall never know it;

We’ll tell them that cloth beyond sea will not go,

We care not whether we keep clothing or no.

And this is a way, etc.

Then next for the Spinners we shall ensue;

We’ll make them spin three pound instead of two;

When they bring home their work unto us, they complain

And say that their wages will not them maintain;

But that if an ounce of weight they do lack,

Then for to bate threepence we will not be slack.

And this is a way, etc.

But if it holds weight, then their wages they crave,

We have got no money, and what’s that you’d have?

We have bread and bacon and butter that’s good,

With oatmeal and salt that is wholesome for food;

We have soap and candles whereby to give light,

That you may work by them so long as you have sight.

And this is a way, etc.

…

And thus, we do gain our wealth and estate

By many poor men that work early and late;

If it were not for those that labour so hard,

We might go and hang ourselves without regard;

The combers, the weavers, the tuckers also,

With the spinners that work for wages full low,

By these people’s labour we fill up our purse,

Although we do get it with many a curse.

*Bay, stuff, and drugget were types of coarse woolen cloth typical of the inexpensive products of rural weaving.

Sources: Daniel Defoe, A Plan of the English Commerce: Being a compleat prospect of the trade of this nation, as well the home trade as the foreign (London, 1728), pp. 90–91; Paul Mantoux and Marjorie Vernon, eds., The Industrial Revolution in the Eighteenth Century: An Outline of the Beginnings of the Modern Factory System in England (1928; Taylor and Francis, 2006), pp. 76–77.

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