CHAPTER IV.

THE MANUFACTURED IRON TRADE.

HERE is no portion of our industrial history more interesting or more important than that of the manufactured iron trade of the North of England, both in regard to the rapid growth of a mighty industry and the improvement of the relations between masters and men. No better example than this can be given of the profound truth which I have placed upon the title-page, and which is the text and key to the investigation of all social phenomena. The relations between employers and employed are not arbitrary or capable of being altered in any way that fancy may dictate. Notwithstanding the

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fact that so many employers have issued from the ranks of labour, the constant tendency throughout the long past, dating from the period when slavery or serfdom was the mode of industrial rule, has been for employers and employed to become more distinct, more different, and more unlike. Not to see and recognize this divergence, is to fail to understand the conditions of the problem by the solution of which these conflicting forces are to be reconciled and united in harmonious action. The past has been remarkable for the increase of actual force the force of combined numbers on the one hand, of concentrated wealth on the other. The problem of the future is therefore a double one: that of combining the two and regulating their action. Employers and employed, and the relations subsisting between them, constitute an essential part of the natural structure or order of modern society. Industrial progress may be analyzed into two constituents-material and human. We may consider the lower of these first, namely, the material or economical progress, and investigate the gradual improvement in the modes of accumulating, pre

serving, and distributing wealth. The second and higher progress is the actual development of the individual employers and employed, and of the natural human relations between them. The manufacturers of this country, desirous to obtain light on these difficult matters, appear to me to have over-estimated the value of the lower, and neglected the study of the higher progress. The fact that the economical laws are a necessary foundation does not clash with the truth that the higher progress is assuming an ever increasing importance. The industrial struggles would never have assumed the dimensions they have attained to if the employers had realized the importance of the higher progress, and had done more for the education of the individual workman, and for the development of his family life. The foregoing chapters show that a great change is taking place, and that the English capitalists are now rising to a consciousness of the higher progress, and this will be still more fully borne out by the present chapter.

The iron trade is one of the greatest and most remarkable branches of British industry. It may,

perhaps, be said to be more characteristic of, and more connected with, the material power of England than any other trade. Enormous capital is invested in the production and manufacture of iron; and thereby large populations in various parts of England, Scotland, and Wales find means of livelihood. The manufacturer has not to rely on other countries for a supply of his raw material; which fact, by itself, tends to exclude some sources of instability. But, on the other hand, the great extent of its export relations with other countries, its close dependence upon the production of coal, its complicated labour difficulties, its connection with the railway system; all these are causes which may partially explain how it is that the iron trade is subject to the most remarkable fluctuations in prices. "You cannot," said one of the ironworker's delegates, "see a fortnight before you in the trade." These changes are so large and sudden that they seem to defy all prudence and render foresight all but impossible.

The economist or social philosopher may well seek to unravel the complicated conditions on which such phenomena depend, and to find a uniform constancy

amidst such a changing variety. Viewed, however, with reference to the practical purpose of this book, they are precisely the very circumstances most calculated to strain a system of conciliation to the farthest point. The magnitude of the interests involved, by the side of which industries like the two staple trades of Nottingham seem insignificant, renders the introduction and success of a board of arbitration and conciliation in the iron trade one of the most hopeful industrial events of the present time.

Without the proof of actual success, an opponent might not unreasonably have argued that a scheme like that of the Nottingham Boards must necessarily be inapplicable to an industry like the manufacture of iron. Moreover, there were other most serious obstacles, which had to be overcome before any reconciliation could be effected between the ironmasters and the ironworkers. The work the men have to do in the manufacture of iron is extremely trying to their health and strength. Excessive physical labour is not conducive to intellectual vigour, but the reverse. Intellectual capacity is by no means necessary to the successful