The Factory Commission of 1866 published evidence that may be accepted as reliable regarding the wages paid in the trade before legislation intervened. Mention is made in the Report of one firm of printers who employed four girls for folding and stitching, three of whom, under thirteen years of age, earned from 2_s._ to 3_s._ 6_d._; the fourth, a sort of overlooker, earned 12_s._ Another firm of printers paid the younger girls 4_s._ to 5_s._ a week; the older ones 8_s._ and 10_s._ The women employed by a third firm earned at least 14_s._ a week and 3_d._ an hour overtime. In a fourth a young girl earned 9_s._ 10½_d._ for fifty-three hours, another 12_s._ 10¾ _d._ for forty-eight hours, another 13_s._ for fifty-seven hours, and the journeywoman 17_s._ 6_d._ for sixty hours. In a firm where women made envelopes, one girl working from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day, and till 3 p.m. on Saturdays, said she could earn 10_s._ 6_d._, and a journeywoman earned from 10_s._ to 12_s._ Women making envelopes for another firm earned 9_s._ or 10_s._ a week. Paper-box makers earned, on an average, 9_s._ or 10_s._, some made 15_s._ or more. In another firm they earned 7_s._ or 8_s._ up to 25_s._ on piecework. Timeworkers earned 12_s._ or 14_s._; young girls earned 2_s._ 6_d._ These wages are very much the same as those paid to-day, and the hours then were undoubtedly longer.[74] Nor must it be assumed that wages would have risen more satisfactorily had there been no Factory Acts. Had there been any tendency for wages to rise which the Factory Law was retarding, that tendency would have shown itself in a marked way during the intervals between each Act, but no such thing is observable, as Mr. Wood's figures in the footnote indicate. Moreover, taken all together, the evidence gathered by this investigation proves that neither the demand for improvement nor the organisation to make that demand effective exists in the case of the woman worker. On the other hand, there is no evidence to show that legislation has improved wages, except in so far as it has reduced hours without apparently having lowered rates. [Footnote 74: _Cf._ "The Course of Women's Wages during the Nineteenth Century," by Mr. G. H. Wood, printed as an Appendix to "A History of Factory Legislation," by B. L. Hutchins and A. Harrison, where the following figures are given as the estimated average weekly earnings of women and girls in the printing trade: 1840, 6_s._ 3_d._; 1850, 6_s._ 6_d._; 1860, 7_s._ 5_d._; 1866, 7_s._ 10_d._; 1870, 8_s._ 6_d._; 1883, 8_s._ 9_d._; 1886, 8_s._ 9_d._; 1891, 9_s._ 10_d._; 1895, 9_s._ 10_d._; 1900, 10_s._ 1_d._] On the whole there seems to be no ground for considering that special legislation for women in this trade has materially injured the value of their labour. There is nothing to show that their wages have decreased, that legislation has acted as a drag upon their income, or that they have lost employment to any appreciable extent.