First Published in 2005. This book is a part of the studies in Economic and Political Science series and is a study of the British Clothing Trades. The first aim is to describe the present-day structure and localization of the Clothing Industry in Great Britain. The second is to compare existing conditions in the industry with those which prevailed some twenty years ago and to determine the causes to which the changes which have taken place are due.
CLOTHING WORKERS OF GB: S P DOBBS:
CONTENTS
page
Author’s Preface… ix
Introduction by the Rt. Hon. Sidney Webb,
LL.B., MP. … xi
chapter
I. Introductory… 1
II. The Clothing Trades… 10
III. The Localization of the Industry… 33
IV. Wage Regulation and the Trade Boards… 83
V. The Wage Level and Methods of Wage Payment… 107
VI. Trade Unions… 125
VII. Employers’ Associations… 146
VIII.… Apprenticeship and the Problem of Recruitment… 161
IX. The Decline of Homework and Sweating. General Review of Conditions in the Industry… 172
Bibliography… 203
Appendix I. Numbers Engaged in the Clothing Trades… 205
Appendix II. Earnings… 207
Appendix III. Methods of Wage-Payment… 209
Appendix IIIa, Example of ‘Log’ Rates… 209
Appendix IV. Methods of Work in the Retail Bespoke Tailoring Trades… 212
Index… 215
Biography
S.P Dobbs Formerly Lecturer in Economics in the Universities of Toronto and Sheffield