Factory Acts

Acts of Parliament designed to improve the working conditions of mainly women and children in factories, i.e., reducing the number of working hours and raising the minimum age.

Background

During the Industrial Revolution “the prosperity of the English manufactures was based upon [children`s] helpless misery” (Hammond quoted in Nardinelli) as large numbers of children were employed and exploited under bad working conditions.

Beginnings

The so-called Peel`s Bill of 1819 or Cotton Mills Act is considered the starting point of factory legislation in England because it raised the question of state interference in the industry sector. It prohibited the employment of children under the age of nine but it only applied to the cotton factories and lacked proper and adequate supervision.

The Factory Act of 1831

The battle for political reform which resulted in the First Reform Act (1832) led to an increasing awareness for the working conditions the mill-workers in general and for children in particular. The Factory Act of 1831 reduced the maximum working hours for all those under eighteen to twelve hours per day. Yet again, it only applied to the cotton industry and its enforcement was not supervised.

The Factory Act of 1833

Michael Sadler`s Committee Report (1833) and Lord Anthony Ashley-Cooper`s motion of a Ten-Hour Bill (Ten-Hour Movement) led to the Factory Act of 1833, also known as the Althorp`s Act which applied to all textile factories except the silk ones. According to it, children between the age of eleven and thirteen were permitted to work a maximum of twelve hours per day. Those between nine and eleven years were limited to an eight-hours workday or a forty-eight hours-week. If children under thirteen were employed the manufacturers had to provide them with schooling for at least two hours a day. The limitation of working hours in combination with the costs for schooling led to an implicit taxation of child labour. Most importantly, so-called Government or Factory inspectors under the control of the Home Secretary were appointed, who were to check and control whether the factory owners followed regulations. In the following years, the number of children employed in textile factories fell from 56,000 to 33,000 and child labour declined from 15.9% to 7.9 %. I

Further Factory Acts followed:

The Factory Act of 1844

With the Factory Act of 1844 safety regulations were introduced. Therefore, it can be regarded as the first health and safety act in Great Britain. These safety regulations included for instance that all dangerous machinery had to be fenced in and that mill machinery was not to be cleaned while it was in motion. Furthermore, the minimum age for employment was lowered from nine to eight years but the maximum hours of work for the eight to thirteen years old ones was reduced to six and a half and the schooling hours were raised to three hours a day. Young people between thirteen and eighteen and women were allowed to work a maximum of twelve hours.

The Factory Act of 1847

With the Factory Act of 1847 finally Ashley`s bill for a ten-hour working day for adults and children was put into notion ('Ten Hours Act').

The Factory Act of 1867

The Factory Act of 1867 or Extension Act extended the existing factory laws and legislations to all factories which employed more than 50 people and to other specified industries, e.g. iron, glass, paper etc. Previously, the factory legislations were restricted to the textile industry and its factories. In addition, the employment of children and women on Sundays was forbidden.

The Factory Act of 1891

With the Factory and Workshop (Consolidating) Act of 1891 the minimum age of employment was again raised from eight to eleven years.

Sources

Blaug, Mark. “The Classical Economists and the Factory Acts — A Re-Examination.” The Quarterly

    Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 72, no. 2, 1958, pp. 211-226. JSTOR, 
    https://doi.org/10.2307/1880596. Accessed 9 February 2021.

Nardinelli, Clark. “Chidl Labor and the Factory Acts.” The Journal of Economic History, vol. 40, no. 4,

    Dec. 1980, pp. 739-755.  JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/2119999. Accessed 9 February 
    2021.

UK Parliament. About Parliament: The 1833 Factory Act.https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-

    heritage/transformingsociety/livinglearning/19thcentury/overview/factoryact/. Accessed 9 
      February 2021.

UK Parliament. About Parliament: Later factory legislation. https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-

    heritage/transformingsociety/livinglearning/19thcentury/overview/laterfactoryleg/. Accessed 9    
    February 2021.