WCP2653

Letter (WCP2653.2543)

[1]1,2

3, Andover Road

Hammersmith. W.,3

8, March 18844

My dear Sir,

I forward, as you request, Wade’s History of the Middle and Working Classes5 prior to 50 years ago.

You will probably find something useful there.

I think Mr. Giffen6 in error in saying the Mechanics of 50 years ago eat [sic] no meat. The price of good joints was about 8[d] p[er] lb. [2] Inferior pieces of beef could be had by late attendance at Markets @ 5d or 6d per pound.

Among the Agricultural labouring Class work on the whole was st[several letters unclear]ess. as Machinery had not then superseded hand labour.

There is one fact which the Statisticians overlook, namely the panics[?] periodically arising and of our pernicious, blundering system of Currency. There was a panic in 1826-7. Another in 1837. and then in 1841[?] when trade was paralized [sic] by the action of the Bank directors [3]7 who had run up the interest to 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 per cent for accom[m]odation in solvent[?] Cases, ruinous to Manufacturers and checking trade, caused by the sale of Bullion to the Bank of France. At the same time Lord Overston8 received some £250,000 in interest for his share.

The bank making great profits out of the necessities created by their own policy of selfishness.

Trade was of course irregular. Houses are somewhat better but the necessities of the artizan [sic] are causing overcrowding in flats or tenements not built for seperate [sic] families.

9At Ralahine10 we fixed prices [4] of meat at half the usual Charge. We charged for beef 4d per lb | Pork 2 1/2 per lb | New Milk per Q[u]art 1d

Clothing was more durable as there was little or no shoddy (waste cotton) then.

The great advantage to the Artizan [sic] Class in [1 word illeg.] of late years arises from better sanitary arrangements. and facilities for the Education of Children, although the system is very defective as it Makes Clerks and Counter [1 word illeg] instead of handy artizans [sic] and producers.

From contrast see Financial Reform11 for this year on the list of Millionaires dying possessed of £250,000 personality[?] and over[.]

Yours faithfully | E T Craig [signature]

1
Text in another hand in the top right corner reads "77".
2
In the top left corner there is a drawing in red ink of two people facing each other across a stream, one carrying a basket in his or her hands, the other a basket balanced on the head. Underneath, the text reads "WEALTH, THE FRUIT OF LABOUR, IS BEST DISTRIBUTED BY FREE EXCHANGES, AIDED BY MONEY TOKENS AND REPRESENTATIVE LABOUR NOTES." the word "WEALTH" is in larger letters than the rest of the text.
3
The text "Hammersmith. W.," is printed in red ink in the middle of the page.
4
The text "188" is printed in red ink.
5
Wade, John. (1883). History of the Middle and Working Classes, Effingham Wilson, London, 647pp.
6

Giffen, Sir Robert (1837-1910). Economist and politician. Giffen’s Presidential Address to the Statistical Society in 1883, "Progress of the Working Classes in the Last Half Century", argued that people were better off than they had been in the past. It was issued as a pamphlet in 1884.

Wallace's presidential address to the third annual meeting of the Land Nationalisation Society, presented on 18 June 1884 and printed in the Society's annual report for 1883-4, described, on page 20, Giffen’s pamphlet as "a piece of pure special pleading, full of errors, fallacies, and illogical statements, the author utterly ignoring the real causes which produce the depopulation of the country, and the congested state of the towns, with their terrific consequences." S371a:1884. The Alfred Russel Wallace Page. Wallace tackled Giffen’s paper again in a letter to the Editor printed on page 2 of the 28 January 1886 issue of The Daily News. S385a: 1886. Wallace Online. He later re-visited the arguments on wages and food prices in his autobiography. A. R. Wallace (1905). My Life, Vol. I, Chapman & Hall, London. i-ix, ,1-436 [pp. 81-86]. S729.1, Wallace Online.

7
Text in another hand in the top right corner reads "78".
8
Loyd, Samuel Jones, Baron Overstone (1796-1883), banker. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
9
In the bottom left corner of the page, next to the word "At", there is a crown with the letters B. M. below it, all in red ink.
10
Wallace described the experiment at Ralahine in Ireland, 1831-33, where Craig established a co-operative farm in Wallace. A. R. (1900). Ralahine and Its Teachings. S586:1900, The Alfred Russel Wallace Page. from Wallace’s collection published in 1900, Studies Scientific and Social, Chapter XXV, pp. 455-476.
11
The Financial Reform Almanack for 1884. A Vade Mecum for Fiscal Reformers, Free Traders, Politicians, Public Speakers and Writers, and the Public Generally. Containing Elaborately-Tabulated Statistical Information. The Financial Reform Association, Liverpool, England. 220 pp.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP2653.2543)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by Ghosh, Susan [2015-05-21] Transcription checked by Benny, Ruth [2015-05-21] Transcription checked by Sherwood, Danni [2020-08-10]

Please cite as “WCP2653,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 28 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP2653