INTRODUCTION


The history of the proletariat in England begins with the second half of
the last century, with the invention of the steam-engine and of machinery
for working cotton. These inventions gave rise, as is well known, to an
industrial revolution, a revolution which altered the whole civil
society; one, the historical importance of which is only now beginning to
be recognised. England is the classic soil of this transformation, which
was all the mightier, the more silently it proceeded; and England is,
therefore, the classic land of its chief product also, the proletariat.
Only in England can the proletariat be studied in all its relations and
from all sides.

We have not, here and now, to deal with the history of this revolution,
nor with its vast importance for the present and the future. Such a
delineation must be reserved for a future, more comprehensive work. For
the moment, we must limit ourselves to the little that is necessary for
understanding the facts that follow, for comprehending the present state
of the English proletariat.

Before the introduction of machinery, the spinning and weaving of raw
materials was carried on in the working-man's home. Wife and daughter
spun the yarn that the father wove or that they sold, if he did not work
it up himself. These weaver families lived in the country in the
neighbourhood of the towns, and could get on fairly well with their
wages, because the home market was almost the only one, and the crushing
power of competition that came later, with the conquest of foreign