Key Arguments

• Following the Court decision and expansion of the relay system, workers shifted from passive resistance to active protest: 'They now protested in Lancashire and Yorkshire in threatening meetings. The so-called Ten Hours’ Act, they said, was thus mere humbug, a parliamentary fraud. It had never existed!'
• Factory inspectors warned the government 'that class antagonisms had reached an unheard-of degree of tension.'
• Even some manufacturers complained that the non-uniform application of the law created 'a condition of things altogether abnormal and anarchical' with 'one law' in Yorkshire, another in Lancashire, and with town manufacturers able to evade the law while country manufacturers could not use the relay system.
• Marx generalizes this as a specifically capitalist demand: 'And the most fundamental right under the law of capital is the equal exploitation of labour-power by all capitalists.'
• Under these pressures, 'it came to a compromise between manufacturers and men, given the seal of parliamentary approval in the supplementary Factory Act of 5 August 1850.'
• The Act lengthened the nominal week-day hours but fixed and limited them: 'The working day for “young persons and women” was lengthened from 10 to 10½ hours for the first five days of the week, and shortened to 7½ hours on Saturdays. The work had to take place between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., with pauses of not less than 1½ hours for meal-times, these meal-times to be allowed at exactly the same time for all, and in accordance with the regulations laid down in 1844.'
• By imposing common meal-times within a fixed 12‑hour span, the Act 'ended once and for all' the relay system, which depended on staggered movements of different groups in and out of the factory.
• Marx notes that 'For child labour, the Act of 1844 remained in force,' showing that the compromise did not further improve children’s legal position at this point.

Source Quotes

So far, the workers had offered a resistance which was passive, though inflexible and unceasing. They now protested in Lancashire and Yorkshire in threatening meetings. The so-called Ten Hours’ Act, they said, was thus mere humbug, a parliamentary fraud. It had never existed! The factory inspectors urgently warned the government that class antagonisms had reached an unheard-of degree of tension.

It had never existed! The factory inspectors urgently warned the government that class antagonisms had reached an unheard-of degree of tension. Some of the manufacturers themselves grumbled: ‘On account of the contradictory decisions of the magistrates, a condition of things altogether abnormal and anarchical obtains.

One law holds in Yorkshire, another in Lancashire; one law in one parish of Lancashire, another in its immediate neighbourhood. The manufacturer in large towns could evade the law, the manufacturer in country districts could not find the people necessary for the relay system, still less for the shifting of hands from one factory to another, etc.’ And the most fundamental right under the law of capital is the equal exploitation of labour-power by all capitalists. Under these circumstances, it came to a compromise between manufacturers and men, given the seal of parliamentary approval in the supplementary Factory Act of 5 August 1850.

The manufacturer in large towns could evade the law, the manufacturer in country districts could not find the people necessary for the relay system, still less for the shifting of hands from one factory to another, etc.’ And the most fundamental right under the law of capital is the equal exploitation of labour-power by all capitalists. Under these circumstances, it came to a compromise between manufacturers and men, given the seal of parliamentary approval in the supplementary Factory Act of 5 August 1850. The working day for ‘young persons and women’ was lengthened from 10 to 10½ hours for the first five days of the week, and shortened to 7½ hours on Saturdays.

The work had to take place between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., with pauses of not less than 1½ hours for meal-times, these meal-times to be allowed at exactly the same time for all, and in accordance with the regulations laid down in 1844. By this the relay system was ended once and for all. For child labour, the Act of 1844 remained in force. One set of manufacturers secured to themselves special seigniorial rights over the children of the proletariat, just as they had done before.

Key Concepts

• They now protested in Lancashire and Yorkshire in threatening meetings. The so-called Ten Hours’ Act, they said, was thus mere humbug, a parliamentary fraud. It had never existed!
• the factory inspectors urgently warned the government that class antagonisms had reached an unheard-of degree of tension.
• And the most fundamental right under the law of capital is the equal exploitation of labour-power by all capitalists.
• it came to a compromise between manufacturers and men, given the seal of parliamentary approval in the supplementary Factory Act of 5 August 1850.
• By this the relay system was ended once and for all. For child labour, the Act of 1844 remained in force.

Context

Same section, narrating how conflict between classes and competition among capitalists produced a new legal settlement in 1850 which standardized but slightly lengthened the working day for women and young persons while abolishing the relay system.