A Discourse on Trade, and Other Matters Relative to itCary, John
History
A Discourse on Trade, and Other Matters Relative to it
Cary, John
Great Britain -- Commerce -- Early works to 1800; Great Britain -- Commercial policy -- Early works to 1800
A Mistress, whose Business was to look after the Kitchen and Lodgings, to
provide their Meals at set Times, and other Things which related to the
Government of the House.
Tutresses to teach them to Spin, under each of which we put Five and
Twenty Girls.
A School-Mistress, to teach them to read.
Servants in the Kitchen, and for washing, &c. but these we soon
discharged, and caused our biggest Girls to take their Turns every Week.
We also appointed an old Man to keep the Door, and to carry forth and
fetch in Work, and such kind of Services.
Being thus provided, we received in one hundred Girls, and set them to
work at Spinning of Worsted Yarn; all which we first caused to be stript
by the Mistress, washed, and new Clothed from Head to Foot; which,
together with wholesome Dyet at set Hours, and good Beds to lie on, so
incouraged the Children, that they willingly betook themselves to their
Work.
We likewise provided for them Apparel for _Sundays_; they went to Church
every Lord’s Day; were taught their Catechisms at home, and had Prayers
twice every Day; we appointed them set Hours for working, eating, and
playing; and gave them leave to walk on the Hills with their Tutresses,
when their Work was over, and the Weather fair; by which means we won
them into Civility, and a love to their Labour. But we had a great deal
of Trouble with their Parents, and those who formerly kept them, who
having lost the sweetness of their Pay, did all they could to set both
their Children and others against us; but this was soon over.
Hitherto things answered above our Expectations; our Children grew sober,
and worked willingly, but we very much questioned, whether their Labours
at the Rates we were paid, would answer the charge of their Maintenance;
and if not, our great Doubt was how we might advance it, without
prejudicing the Manufactures.
To clear the first, we supposed ourselves in a fair way, having appointed
their Diets to be made up of such Provisions as were very wholesome,
afforded good nourishment, and were not costly in Price, _viz._ Beef,
Pease, Potatoes, Broath, Pease-porridge, Milk-porridge, Bread and Cheese,
good Beer, (such as we drank at our own Tables) Cabbage, Carrots,
Turnips, &c. in which we took the Advice of our Physician, and bought the
best of every Sort. They had three Meals every Day, and as I remember, it
stood us (with Soap to wash) in about Sixteen-pence _per_ Week for each
of the one hundred Girls. We soon found the effect of their Change of
Living, Nature being well supported, threw out a great deal of Foulness,
so that we had generally twenty down at a Time, in the Measels,
Small-pox, and other Distempers; but by the Care of our Physician, and
the Blessing of God on his Endeavours, we never buried but Two, though we
have had seldom less than one hundred in the House at any Time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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