A HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE Arthur Young gives the wages of an apprentice as 2s. weekly for the first year, and a rise of 3^. weekly in each succeeding year. He also gives the current average wages of various classes of pottery workers, which vary exceedingly, from the wage of the grinder at js. to that of the painters, throwers, and handlers, who earned from 9^. to 1 2s. per week. 198 The general average for men in 1771 may be taken as js. to I2J., and for women from 5-r. to 8j. per week. As in the mining industry, so also in the 'potting trade,' the year 1843 marks something of an epoch. In that year trade-unionism, started first in 1824, revived again after its collapse of seven years previous, and its central committee began a campaign of reform directed against the special grievances of the trade. Foremost among these were the truck system and the allow- ance system ; but the union was successful in putting an end to the former by taking proceedings against offending masters in the police courts. 194 The allowance system, which had been going on unchecked for seven years, was an ingenious method of lowering wages by exacting from the journeyman an allowance of zd. or even 4^. in the shilling. 195 Against this custom the union waged steady war, and finally put an end to it, having obtained the opinion of an eminent lawyer that the deductions thus made were absolutely illegal, and could be recovered in a court of law. Another grievance was the system of annual hiring at Martinmas, at which time the prices of labour were fixed for the coming twelve months, and the workman was bound to his employer for the same period, though he could be dismissed at the will of the master. This was not finally given up until 1865, how- ever, when a month's notice on either side could terminate the engagement. 19 * A fourth cause of complaint only affected certain classes of workers, who complained that deductions were made from their wages for injury done to their work after it had left their hands. This grievance was a constant source of irritation for forty years, and it was not till 1871 that redress was obtained by the making of a special 'trade rule,' which laid down the general principle that deductions should only be made for injury or bad work proved to be the fault of the workman. 197 Up to 1844 machinery had entered but little into the various processes of pottery manufacture. When in that year it was rumoured that a machine had been invented to make a certain article, the potters began to fear the worst, and when one machine after another followed, something like a panic prevailed amongst them. Money was raised by the union to fight the evil, and a great emigration scheme was planned, whereby the surplus labour of the Potteries was to be transferred to the United States, and a certain number of men were sent out in advance to prepare the way and buy land. The whole thing was a fiasco ; the funds of the union were drained to support the emigration society, and the union itself collapsed, only to be revived again in i863. 198 The effects of the introduction of machinery have been largely to in- crease production, and, especially in some departments, to displace the labour of men by that of women paid at lower rates. The number of women M Arthur Young, Tour through the North of England, iii, 254-5. 194 Harold Owen, op. cit. 54-5. 195 Ibid. 56-8. J96 Ibid. 61, 113. ' Ibid. 60, 131, 141. " Ibid. 78-105. 308
