"The fraudulent millowner begins work at a quarter of an hour (sometimes more, sometimes less) before 6 a.m., and leaves off a quarter of an hour (sometimes more, sometimes less) after 6 p.m. He takes 5 minutes from the beginning and from the end of the half hour nominally allowed for breakfast, and 10 minutes at the beginning and end of the hour nominally allowed for dinner. He works for a quarter of an hour (sometimes more, sometimes less after 2 p.m. on Saturday. Thus his gain is
| Before 6 a. m. ................ | 15 | minutes. |
| After 6 p. m..................... | 15 | " |
| At breakfast time............. | 10 | " |
| At dinner time.................. | 20 | " |
| 60 | " | |
| Five days—300 minutes. | ||
| On Saturday before 6 a. m........ | 15 | minutes. |
| At breakfast time....................... | 10 | " |
| After 2 p. m................................ | 15 | " |
| 40 | minutes. | |
| Total weekly.............................. | 340 | minutes. |
Or 5 hours and 40 minutes weekly, which multiplied by 50 working weeks in the year (allowing two for holidays and occasional stoppages) is equal to 27 working days."[1]
"Five minutes a day's increased work, multiplied by 50 weeks, are equal to two and a half days of produce in the year."[2]
"An additional hour a day gained by small instalments before 6 a.m., after 6 p.m., and at the beginning and end of the
- ↑ Suggestions, &c. by Mr. L. Horner, Inspector of Factories in: Factory Regulations Act. Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, 9th August, 1859, p. 4, 5.
- ↑ Reports of the Inspector of Factories for the half year, October, 1856, p. 35.
chiefly from the free trade period after 1848, that age of paradise, of which the commercial travellers for the great firm of free trade, blatant as ignorant, tell such fabulous tales. For the rest England figures here in the foreground because she is the classic representative of capitalist production, and she alone has a continuous set of official statistics of the things we are considering.
