in value as the total consumption of clothing by all its members,
from, the parent down to the infant child.

Let us now suppose this factory closed; what then would be the value
of the labour of these girls, few of whom have strength for field-work
even if our habits of thought permitted that it should be so employed?
It would be almost nothing, for they could do little except
house-work, and the only effect of sending them home would be that,
whereas one person, fully employed, performs now the labour of the
house, it would henceforth be divided between two or three, all of
whom would gradually lose the habit of industry they have been
acquiring. The direct effect of this would be a diminution in the
demand for female labour, and a diminution of its reward. While the
factory continues in operation there is competition for the purchase
of such labour. The parent desires to retain at least one child. A
neighbour desires to hire another, and the factory also desires one.
To supply these demands requires all the females of the neighbourhood
capable of working and not provided with families of their own, and
thus those who are willing to work have the choice of employers and
employment; while the competition for the purchase of their services
tends to raise the rate of wages. If, now, in the existing state of
things, another factory were established in, the same neighbourhood,
requiring a hundred or a hundred and fifty more females, the effect
would be to establish increased competition for the purchase of
labour, attended by increased power of choice on the part of the
labourer, and increased reward of labour--and it is in this increased
power of choice that freedom consists. If, on the contrary, the
factories were closed, the reverse effect would be produced, the
competition for the purchase of labour being diminished, with
corresponding diminution of the power of choice on the part of the