Hard At Work In Factories And Mines

The Economics Of Child Labor During The British Industrial Revolution

Carolyn Tuttle

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9780429721519
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Children have worked for centuries and continue to work. The history of the economic development of Europe and North America includes numerous instances of child labor. Manufacturers in England, France, Belgium, Germany, and Prussia as well as the United States used child labor during the initial stages of industrialization. In addition, child labor prevails currently in many industries in the Third World. This book examines the explanations for child labor in an economic context. A model of the labor market for children is constructed using the new economics of the family framework to derive the supply of child labor and the traditional labor theory of marginal productivity to derive the demand for child labor. The model is placed into a historical context and is used to test the existing supply-and-demand-induced explanations for an increase in child labor during the British Industrial Revolution. Evidence on the extent of childrens employment, their specific tasks and trends in their wages from the textile industry and mining industry is used to support the argument that it was technological innovation which created a demand for child labor. Certain mechanical inventions and process innovations increased the demand for child labor in three ways: increasing number of assistants needed; increasing the substitutability between children and adults, and creating work situations that only children could fill. Specific innovations in the production of textiles and in the extraction of coal, copper and tin are highlighted to show how they favored the use of child workers over adult workers. The book concludes with a look at the current situations in developing countries where child labor is prevalent. Considerable insight is gained on the role of child labor in economic development when this historical model is applied to the contemporary situation.

1 Child Labor in the Past and Present

DOI: 10.4324/9780429036989-1

The history of the economic development of Europe and North America includes numerous instances of child labor. Manufacturers in England, France, Belgium, Germany, Prussia as well as the United States used child labor during the initial stage of industrialization. In many cases, the employment of children was quite extensive and the conditions, hours and treatment appalling by twentieth-century standards. In Great Britain nearly half of the work force in the textile industry in 1833 was under the age of sixteen. Silk mills were the most extensive employers of children with 46 percent of its work force under sixteen, the cotton industry with 35 percent of its workers under sixteen and the flax and woollen industries employed roughly 40 percent of their workers under the age of sixteen. Further, children made up nearly half of the work force in coal mines (Tuttle 1986:2). French industrial enterprises in 1845 employed 143,665 children under the age of sixteen, which constituted 11.7 percent of the total industrial work force. Seventy-three percent of France's industrial child laborers were employed in one of the textile industries. In fact, children comprised roughly one fifth of the work force in these industries with cotton blends the highest with 23.9 percent of the work force under age sixteen and cotton and woollen close behind with 18.3 percent and 18.6 percent, respectively (Weissbach 1989:16-19). A similar story can be told for Belgium where the textiles were the greatest employers of children. The linen, hemp and lace industries hired 40 percent of its workers under the age of sixteen while the cotton textiles had 27 percent of its entire work force under sixteen, years of age. As in Britain, the percentage of children working in coal mines was considerable with 22 percent of its employees under sixteen (Statistique de la Belgique, Recensement General 1846). Goldin and Sokoloff estimate from a sample of firms of the U. S. Federal Census of Manufactures that 23 percent of all workers in manufacturing in the Northeast in 1820 were children. Again, they found large proportions of the labor force of textile establishments were children. Their estimates in 1820 show proportions comparable to those calculated for Britain, with half of the work force in cotton firms and 41 percent in wool firms comprised of children. They conclude that "Women and children composed a major share of the entire manufacturing labor force during the initial period of industrialization and that the employment of these groups was closely associated with production process used by large establishments across a broad range of industries" (1982:773).

Even today we hear from the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the United Nations Center on Human Rights that, "The use of child labor is endemic in virtually all developing countries" (Jacobson 1992:9). Despite the existence of child labor laws in most Third World countries, children continue to work. According to the ILO, 95 percent of all child workers in the world live in developing countries and at least 18 percent of the children and youths between the ages of ten and fourteen are working (American Federation of Teachers (AFT) 1998:1). Unlike their predecessors in Europe, they no longer work in the formal sector but have moved into the informal sector where the law do not apply or are not strictly enforced. Consequently, today's child laborer toils in small manufacturing enterprises rather than factories or large industrial firms. They work as cheap, "sweated" labor in a variety of cultures and countries but in many of the same industries. The similarities across countries in the lists provided in both columns of Table 1.1 are striking. The first column lists industries which export to the United States where the existence of child labor is well documented. The second column lists industries where child labor abuses have occurred but documentation is scanty at best. Employment in the carpet industry, garment industry and mining industry appears to be widespread for contemporary child laborers.

It is clear from the documented cases alone that child labor prevails in the twentieth century in many industries in the Third World. Children sew cloth in the garment industry in Bangladesh, Brazil, Guatemala, Indonesia, Morocco, the Philippines and Thailand. Children tie knots to make hand-knotted carpets in Egypt, India, Morocco and Pakistan. Children spin and weave cotton, silk and wool in the textile industries of Brazil, India and Mexico. Children carry dirt and sift out precious metals in tin, chromium and gold mines of Columbia and Brazil. Can we dismiss these cases of child labor as isolated reports of a few employers? Definitely not. Millions of child laborers toil away their days. The International Labour Organization estimates that at least 250 million children between the ages of five and fourteen continue to work throughout the world (Capdevila 1998:1). Although it is difficult to obtain a precise figure for the number of children employed in specific industries, rough estimates exist for some countries which provide a benchmark for researchers. A press release from the Washington Office of the ILO showed the employment of children had reached epidemic proportions in 1992:

In July 1992, the ILO concluded in a new study that child labor is a serious and alarming problem, that as many as 25 percent of all children between the ages of 10 and 14 in some regions are estimated to be working. Asia has the highest numbers of child laborers accounting for up to 11 percent of the labor force in some countries. India alone is estimated to have as many as 44 million child laborers. In Latin America, up to 26 percent

TABLE 1.1 Child Labor in the World

Country	Child Labor in Export Industries for U.S. Market	Child Labor in Other Industrie.^a
Bangladesh	Garment Industry	Shrimp catching & processing
Brazil	Footwear, garment & textile industries, Tin mining	Leather-processing, watches, electronics, eyeglasses, handicrafts, ceramics, plastic industries, Gold mining
Columbia	Flower agribusiness	Coal & emerald mining, leather tanning
Egypt	Hand-knotted carpet industry	Textile & leather, perfumes, handicrafts, glass industries
Guatemala	Garment industry	Agricultural processing
India	Hand-knotted carpet, textiles, silk & footwear, brass & base metal, glass & glassware, fireworks	Furniture, sporting goods, garment, locks, pottery, leather & tile, Iron and steel products, shrimp & seafood processing, Granite, mica, slate mining & quarrying
Indonesia	Garment & embroidery, wood & rattan furniture industries	Food processing, shrimp & seafood processing, plastic & metal industries
Mexico	Electrical & electronic, textile industries, sporting goods, toys & furniture	Footwear & handicraft industries, Agriculture
Pakistan	Hand-knotted carpet industry, surgical instruments & sporting goods	Leather & footwear industries, Mining
The Philippines	Garment industry	Wood & rattan furniture, Gold Mining
Portugal	Garment & footwear, ceramics, granite paving stone industry
Thailand	Garment & leather handbag, wood & rattan furniture, shrimp & seafood processing
Zimbabwe	Chromium & gold mining

^a This column represents industries with alleged or definite child labor abuses, but little documentation providing specifics.

Source: Child Labor Monitor, (1995), pp. 4-5. Reprinted by permission.

of children may be working. In Brazil, for example, it is estimated that 34 percent of all children work (Harvey 1993:20).

After considerable work by the ILO and UNICEF "child labour has now shot to the top of the global agenda and consumer concerns in both developing and industrialized countries" (ILO 1996:5). The worldwide movement against child labor has forced government officials, politicians, capitalists and laborers to recognize the "sad exploitation of children which takes place for economic advancement" (AFT 1998:1). Increased interest in the plight of the child laborer has led to the creation of consumer groups Tree the Childr...