WAR AND WAGES

NZ Truth, Issue 571, 27 May 1916, Page 12

WAR AND WAGES

LABOR AfTER THE WAR N THE LESSONS OF HISTORY SCRUTINISED , Probable Great < Demand for Labor After the War; j But Dubious Times for Landowners

Of late, there lias been much discussion as to what will happen when the war is over. The belief of some that there will necessarily be great distress among the working classes after the war is over, is, however, quite unjustified by THE FACTS OF HISTORY. Indeed, it stands to reason that, after a "great war,. there must be s. greater demand for the services of the toiler than before the war broke out. Not only have a vast number of structures, and their contents, destroyed hi the course of the present war. to be reouilt and replenished with suitable contents; but, owing to the destruction of human life wrought by the war, there will be far fewer able-bodied men to do the -work. Consequently, owing to decreased competition for employment, there will be an increase m wages, and a general improvement m labor conditions. 'That this will be the case, is proved by history. . . ' . THE HAPPIEST PERIOD of history for the English people was the fifteenth century. Writers on this periqd call it "the golden age" of the English workman. Why was it a time of so much prosperity for the English worker? Because the population of working people had been most seriously diminished by famines, by a great plague, and by a civil war. Professor H. de B. Gibbins, m his "Industrial History of England," shows, clearly, that the prosperity of the fifteenth century resulted from the plague and the wars. After pointing out that the country had already begun to prosper, before the PLAGUE OF THE BLACK DEATH, as the result of tho thriving peace which followed the famines, and "the cessation of those great civil conflicts which harried England" m the reign of King Stephen, the author* then; goes on to speak thus of the Great Plague which arrived, m England from the Continent m August 1348:— Its ravages were frightful Whole districts were depopulated, and about one-third of the people perished. Norwich and London, being busy and crowded towns, suffered especially from the pestilence, and though the numbers of the dead have been grossly exaggerated by the panic of contemporaries and the credulity of modern historians, there can be no doubt that the loss of life was enormous. The most immediate consequence of the Plague was -a marked scarcity m the number 'of % laborers available, for. being of the poorest . class, they '"naturally succumbed ; more readily to famine and sickness. This - V • SCARCITY OF, LABOR naturally resulted m higher wages. Tho landowners' began to fear that their lands would not be cultivated properly, and were content to buy labor at higher prices than would, have been given at a time when the necessity of the laborer to the capitalist was more obscur- . ■ cd. Hence, the wages of lab or era rose far above the customary rates. In harvest work, for example, tho rise was nearly 60 per cent., and, what is more/ it remained so for a long period. The rise m agricultural wages generally was 50 per cent.; so it was also In the case of artisans' wages, m the case of carpenters, masons, and others* . . Now, although there was A GREAT RISE m the price of labor, the price of the laborer's food did not rise m proportion. The price of provisions, indeed, was but little affected, for food did not require much manual labor m Its production, and hence the rise of wages would not be much felt here. What did rise was the price of all articles that required much labor In their production, or the cost of which depended entirely upon human labor. The price of fish, for instance, is determined almost entirely by the cost of the fisherman's labor, and the cost of transit; and such, indeed, was the case, So, too, there was an enormous increase m the price of tiles, wheels, canvas, lead, ironwork," and all agricultural materials, these being articles whoso value dependß chiefly upon tho amount of labor spent upon them, and upon tho COST OF THAT LABOR. Hence, both peasant and artisan gained higher wages, while the cost of living. for them remained much tho same; and thoso who sufterod most were tho owners of largo estates, who had to pay more for tho labor which worked these estates, and more, too, for the Implements used m working them. So much for the Groat Plague of 1348 and\ Jtn effects. Lot uh now consider the effects of tho Civil War which occurred a little more than 30 years later. This civil war reßuHed from a communistic Insurrection, under the leadership of Wat Tyler and John Ball. Thus, the population had been depleted by, first, famines; then by the Great Plague, or Black Death, of 1313, and then by the great Insurrection, which Is generally known as ' WAT TYLER'S REBELLION. Tho effects that nil this destruction of labor had upon tho labor market are thus stated by Professor H. do B. Gioblntj; After this great Insurrection. cofflo whnt has boon termed tho goldon ttge of tho English laborer, and It lasted all through tho ilfteonth century, Food was cheap and abundant; watrcs were amply sulllciont . . .prosperity was pro-

gressivo and continuous till the evil ' days of Henry VHX ... Professor De Gibbins. then gives the v/xiges of laborers and artisans. These seem, at first, to be astonishingly low; but they were actually not low; for the, purchasing : power of money -was enormously greater then than it is now. , He says: The wages of a good agricultural labore? before the Plague had been £2 7s lOd per year as an average, including the labor of his wife and child; after the Plague his wages would bo £3 15s, and the cost of his living certainly not more than £3 4s 9d. An artisan, working 300 days a year, would get, say, I £3 18s l%d before 1348. and after that date £6 15s 7d, which was so far above THE COST OF MAINTENANCE as to give him a very comfortable position. ■; His working day,, too, was not excessive, while the fixed rents of the time were very low. These low rents were,, also, one great cause of the prosperity of the new yeoman, or tenant farmer, class, that had arisen after the collapse of the capitalistic land owners In consequence of, the Plague., This class remained for at least two centuries the backbone of English agriculture. _. ■•■.'.-■':'..-•■•■... Even the terribly prolonged wars with, France, one of which (the Hundred Years' War) began about the middle of the fourteenth century and lasted until about < ; the middle of the next, helped to strengthen the position of the working classes. This tact should be taken into consideration m considering the probable length of the present, great war with Germany. Professor EL-Dc B. Gibbins thus comments upon • THE EFFECTS OF THE WAR, Insurrection, famino and pestilence upon the condition of the working classes m the fifteenth century: The fifteenth, century was a period of, prosperity and content, m spite of both civil and foreign wars; and even the wasteful reign of Henry VI., with its unsuccessful war with France, and huge subsidies to Rome, though it imide the Government unpopular and caused widespread national discontent and occasional insurrections m Kent ' and Wiltshire, did not materially injure the general prosperity. The King himself, however, was nearly bankrupt. The - WARS OF THE ROSES,, which followed (1445-86) did not affect the country at large, being fought m a series of much exaggerated skirmishes by small bodies of . nobles and their followers. . They V ended m a very desirable eon Su- H mation of the ruin of the remnants i of the feudal aristocracy, and at the same time opened a further path ! for the influence of the industrial classes, whoso favor Henry VIL had the wisdom to court, and, m return, was supported by them m his policy of weakening the power of the great barons. He encouraged commence, ; and aided the prosperity of his ■ kingdom, thereby amassing, for his ' own treasury, considerable wealth. In Ms reign the feudal system was dying out, the nation prospered, and the Middle Ages came to a close m a wealtihy and industrious England. The beneficial effects to the surviving workers of the famines, plagues, insurrections and wars to which we have referred were, mainly, the result of the scarcity of labor produced. The prosperity that follows war was not a phenomenon confined to the fifteenth century. The commercial wars of Cromwell and the wars of William UL and Anne alary vesulted m prosperity, as Is thus stated by Professor Do B. Gibbins: EXPANSION OF ENGLISH TRADE AFTER THESE WARS.— Even during the above wars, English trade had been spreading. English merchants now did business m the Mediterranean with Turkey and Italy. In the North with Holland, Germany. Russia and Norway; m the East with India, Arabia and Africa; m tho West with America and the Spanish colonies. Many companies wore started, too numerous to mention here, for those who had hoarded their money during tho war were

now anxious to make profitable use of it. ... All" this mania for investing capital, however, shows how prosperous England had now become, and how great a quantity of wealth had been accumulated, partly by trade, but also by the growth of manufactures and improvements in 1 agriculture. Englishmen now felt strong enough to have another struggle tor' the monopoly of trade, with the result that fresh wars were undertaken, and the country was heavily burdened with debt. But the wars were, on the whole, a success, though the wish for a monopoly was a mistake. The wars referred to were with Spain and France. 'There was a short peace after 1763, to which Professor H. De B. Gibbins thus refers: — But the short, peace which ensued after 1762 ga.ve us an. opportunity which we did not neglect, of increasing our national Indus-, tries, and practically GAVE US THE GREAT START * m manufactures to which we owe our present wealth. An apparent exception to the rule that prosperity among the working classes follows the close of a war, and especially a. great' war, , is disclosed by the facts as .to the condition, of the English workers after the close of the war with Napoleon. But there is a very good reason why there was great distress among the workers for some years after the close of the wars with Napoleon. The reason for this distress was. simply the well-known fact that a great quantity of labor-saving machinery had been introduced, and that this enabled work to be done with the aid of one little boy or girl which had hitherto necessitated the labor of a number of men. Prior to the intro-duction-of the labor-saving machinery, and of the factory system of manufacture, the British workman was, as is shown by the. contemporary chronicles of Arthur Young, decidedly prosperous. The factory system involved a CONDITION OF CHILD-SLAVERY m England which, was worse m some respects, than the slavery among the negroes m the Southern States of America. The Factories Acts, however, at last mitigated the horrors of faotory life; and much of the displaced labor was again absorbed. Among 'subsequent military events of note were .the Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny. , Of these Professor De B. Gibbins says: : As mentioned before, the Crimean War gave 'A. GREAT STIMULUS to our agriculture, and and a similar effect upon our manufactures. The Indian Mutiny, which followed it, did not much effect our trade, : but it rendered necessary the deposition of the East Indian Company and the assumption of government by- the Crown (1858), and thus eventually served to put our relations to that vast and rich Empire upon a much more satisfactory and profitable basis, About the same time, the Chinese wars of 1842 and 1857, regrettable as they were, established our commercial relations with the East generally upon a firm footing; and since then our trade with Eastern nations has largely developed. Then came the Civil War m America (1861-65), after which there was an urgent demand for English products 1 to replace the waste caused by this severe conflict. The Instances that^we have quoted are sufficient to show that it will not require MUCH BRAIN-POWER to absorb the members of the armies m industry when the great war is over. There may be some slight temporary difficulty; but a Government that could not satisfactorily over-, come this difficulty would surely be suffering from fatty degeneration of the brain. .