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²⁶ Hansard (Commons), 3rd ser. CCCL, 1711, 26 Feb. 1891.

²⁷ Minority report by Abraham, W., Austin, M., Mawdsley, J. and Mann, T., Royal commission on labour (P.P., 1894Google Scholar, XXXV), pp. 130–46.

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³² Ibid. Hobson, however, doubted that the S.C.S.S.'s proposal of producer co-operatives was aviable one. See Hobson, , Problems of poverty: an inquiry into the industrial conditions of the poor (London, 1891)Google Scholar, ch. VI.

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³⁷ Ibid. p. 749.

³⁸ Ibid. p. 748.

³⁹ Ibid. pp. 765–60.

⁴⁰ Hobson also believed that his living wage should vary according to different types of workers and different regions of the country for ‘No principle of absolute or mechanical equity can be maintained’. See Hobson, , ‘A living wage’, pp. 128–9Google Scholar.

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⁴³ Despite the comparative newness of Australia and New Zealand, their abundance of land and relative scarcity of labour, investigations carried out in the 1880s and 1890s revealed that, underneath the surface prosperity, there was a morass of sweating. Unlike Britain, however, the two colonies had been prepared to countenance state intervention in the wages contract. In New Zealand, the evils of sweating were combatted through the courts of arbitration. Originally established by an Act of 1894 to prevent strikes and lock-outs, local courts of arbitration (conciliation boards) also had power to fix a legal minimum wage for low-paid workers. In Victoria, by contrast, wage regulation was embodied in the Factory Act of 1896, following a campaign carried out by the Victorian anti-sweating league. The 1896 Act empowered the governor to appoint special boards to fix legal minimum wages for persons employed in or outside a factory in certain specified trades. These boards consisted of between four and ten members and representation on them was divided equally between employers and employees. The boards held office for two years and were under the direction of a chairman. Dilke favoured wages boards (as opposed to the state arbitration of New Zealand), since they did not interfere with the more powerful trade unions which possessed adequate collective bargaining machinery. See Reeves, W. Pember, ‘The minimum wage law in Victoria and South Australia’, Economic Journal, XI (1901), 335–8Google Scholar. See also, Dilke's, evidence before the Select committee on homework (S.C.H.), (P.P., 1908Google Scholar, VIII), QQ. 3926, 4028.

⁴⁴ Mill, however, eventually rejected wages boards on Malthusian grounds. See Mill, , Principles, p. 219Google Scholar.

⁴⁵ Dilke attributed his inspiration for wages boards, before the S.C.H., to Mill. See S.C.H. (P.P., 1908, VIII), Q. 3920. There is little doubt, however, that Charles Deakin, Chief Secretary of Victoria, persuaded Dilke that wages boards were actually workable. See Rickard, J., ‘The anti-sweating movement in Britain and Victoria: the politics of empire and social reform’, Historical Studies, XVIII (1979), 585Google Scholar.

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⁴⁸ Labour Leader, 17 May 1907.

⁴⁹ The W.I.C. had carried out several valuable enquiries into the problems of homework, and had also sent investigators to gather further information on the subject in other English-speaking nations overseas. In America, the W.I.C. became aware of the licensing system. In New York and Massachusetts, and in several other states, outwork was forbidden unless the place where the work was going to be completed had been inspected and licensed. The workers, themselves, had to apply for this licence, and were to produce it when applying for work. The MacDonalds made a visit to the U.S.A., and were personally converted to the scheme. See MacDonald, R., Margaret Ethel MacDonald (London, 1924), pp. 137–46Google Scholar.

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⁵⁶ Daily Mews, 25 April 1906, 13 June 1906. Cadbury also compensated those who were, as a result of appearing in the exhibition, victimized. See Daily Mews, 8 May 1906.

⁵⁷ Justice, the organ of the Social Democratic Federation, however, sarcastically remarked that princesses and sweated workers went well together. See Justice, 5 May 1906.

⁵⁸ Daily Mews, 13 June 1906.

⁵⁹ Gladstone, in fact, bought a shawl for one old lady at work in the exhibition who was sitting in a draught. Ibid. 18 May 1906.

⁶⁰ Mudie-Smith, R. (ed.), Sweated industries being a handbook of the ‘Daily News’ exhibition (London, 1906)Google Scholar. See also, Williams, , The state, pp. 105–6Google Scholar.

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⁶⁸ N.A.S.L., , Report of conference on a minimum wage, held at the Guildhall, London (London, 1907), p. 6Google Scholar.

⁶⁹ Ibid. pp. 54–8. Later in life, though, Hobson campaigned for a voluntary living wage since this did not impinge on free collective bargaining. See Brailsford, H. N., Hobson, J. A., Jones, A. Creech and Wise, E. F., The living wage (London, 1926), pp. 33–5Google Scholar.

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⁷⁶ Ibid. p. xii. The committee also acknowledged its great debt to the government arbitrator, George Askwith, who had shown that ‘Wages Boards are workable … and ought to be tried.’ Ibid. p. xiv.

⁷⁷ Hansard (Commons), 5th ser. II, 1792–3, 24 03 1909Google Scholar.

⁷⁸ See speech by Gooch, , Hansard (Commons), 5th ser. IV, 400, 28 04 1909Google Scholar. Henderson, in fact, clashed with MacDonald at the 1908 Labour Party conference over the issue of trade boards. Henderson was also instrumental in gaining union support for the boards. See Cole, M., Makers of the labour movement (London, 1948), p. 253Google Scholar, and Hamilton, M. A., Arthur Henderson (London, 1938). PP. 55–7Google Scholar.

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⁸⁵ Ibid. p. 273.

⁸⁶ Aves' report was uncertain and inconclusive. He doubted whether the experiment of Victoria could be considered applicable for Britain. See Aves, , Report to the Home Secretary on the wages boards and industrial conciliation and arbitration acts of Australia and New Zealand (P.P., 1908Google Scholar, LXXI).

⁸⁷ S.C.H. (P.P. 1908, VI), Q. 822.

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⁹⁷ Belgium, France, Luxemburg, Holland, Portugal and Spain all have a general minimum wage. See Starr, G., Minimum wage fixing (International Labour Organization, Geneva, 1981)Google Scholar, ch. 3.

⁹⁸ Hansard (Commons), 5 ser. XXIV, 1881–1924, 26 04 1911Google Scholar.

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