The Birmingham Button Trade part 8
No notice of button making would
be complete without some comparative reference to the position
of the trade abroad. Certain classes of buttons are made in
every country on a limited scale, since where official uniforms
are required the small quantities of buttons needed to furnish
them cannot be always conveniently imported, and the metropolis
of every country contains therefore some manufacture of buttons.
The great seats of this industry, however, are confined to
a few localities. In France, where the development of the
trade has been something magnificent within the last quarter
of a century, it is followed mainly in Paris, and some few
places within a circuit of sixty miles from it, which I shall
notice presently; also at Lyons.
In Germany there are a multitude of houses producing all the
cheaper kinds of fancy buttons in the Rhenish Provinces of
Prussia, chiefly about Elberfeld and Barwed; and in Bohemia,
as before stated; vast quantities of cheap fancy glass buttons
are produced at Prague and adjacent towns; at Vienna also
the pearl button-making rivals Birmingham, and has extinguished
its competition in certain descriptions.
There is no extensive industry in button making in other countries
of Europe, unless I include the existence of one very considerable
manufactory at Milan; but in the United States there are again
large quantities of all kinds produced. In proof of the resources
of the makers there, it may be mentioned that on the breaking
out of the civil war the Northern States found no need to
come to Europe for the sudden and enormous demand there must
have been for army and navy buttons, but were supplied throughout
by their own manufacturers; the Southern States naturally
imported all they could by the blockade runners from Europe.
One peculiarity of the United States productions has
been the making of considerable quantities of vulcanized rubber
buttons, a description which has not been patronised in Europe,
partly, perhaps, from their peculiar smell. As, however, the
United States are large importers of buttons from Europe,
and not at all exporters hither, we English manufacturers
do not hear much about our brethren of the guild on the other
side the ocean.
Of the position of the trade in France, I give the following
account as received from a Parisian friend, who, from his
intimate acquaintance with all its branches, and with most
of the manufacturers there, has good opportunities for forming
a correct opinion. There is, however, the same difficulty
there in arriving at precise statistics as here, in consequence
of the number of small makers, which number from 80 to 100
for various kinds of metal buttons alone, from 70 to 80 for
covered buttons, and from 70 to 80 for other kinds.
There are employed in Paris alone:
A. In metal buttons of all kinds,
and including buttons mounted or set with metal about |
2,800 |
B. In covered buttons about |
1,800 |
C. In other kinds of buttonsas
horn, pearl, bone, &c about |
2,000 |
Totalsay |
6,600 |
As for bone, pearl, vegetable
ivory, wood, &c., buttons, they are made chiefly at Meru
and its neighbouring towns, as Chaumont, Valdampierre, Bearnais,
from 40 to 60 miles from Paris, on the northern side, where,
probably, fully 2,000 people are employed in these branches;
perhaps another 1,000 or so being employed in the making of
sewn-silk, &c., buttons, about Apremont, near Chantilly.
The porcelain buttons are made at Briare and Montereau, each
some sixty miles from Paris. At the former is the celebrated
establishment of Mons. Bapterosse, employing about 1,000 people,
besides another 4,000 or more of outworkers in a circuit of
twenty miles, who however are all women and children, to whom
the buttons are given out at their homes to be carded or sewn
on, or to have the shanks fixed in, which has to be done by
hand. At the latter place there are also between 200 to 300
hands employed for the same buttons, with a corresponding
number of outworkers.
There are also about 2,000 persons employed in some kinds
of button making in the prisons in France, where the Government
seems to have succeeded better than our own in utilising the
labour of criminals.
 |
At Lyons, where various kinds of very cheap
buttons are made, there are another 2,000 or so employed
in their production, so that altogether this industry
may engage in the whole of France about 20,000 persons,
a tangible proof that its development must exceed considerably
that of the trade here, though when comparing France with
England we must add about 1,000 more to the numbers given
as employed in Birmingham, to allow for those who are
engaged in London and other parts of the country in button
making. Some twenty to thirty years ago there were more
buttons exported hence to France than there were from
France hither. Now, however, this state of matters is
quite reversed; and though some few Birmingham buttons,
more especially linen ones, for shirts, are sold in France
in no inconsiderable quantities; and though some of us
keep up a spirited competition, even in those fancy goods
in which the French particularly excel, they must be admitted
on the whole to be masters of the course in our own markets
in all except the ordinary styles of plain goods. |
Various causes have conspired
to produce this result:
FirstlyThe unmistakable fact that in all fancy articles
the ingenuity, taste, and artistic skill which are the peculiar
gifts of the French are more important elements than accidental
advantages, such as the possession of a lower rate of labour,
or of cheaper raw material.
SecondlyThe French have a wider and easier market. Great
Britain, by the abolition of all duties on imported buttons,
is entirely open to foreign manufacturers, while to buyers
from other ports of Europe, Paris is a more central mart,
and being the acknowledged leader of fashion, is for every
reason universally visited, and multitudes throng there to
select their stocks for millinery or tailors purposes,
who would never dream of coming to Birmingham. True it is
that for many distant places, such as our own colonies, the
East and West Indies, &c., &c., London and Manchester,
where
Birmingham goods are well represented, are very generally
visited; but even this does not apply with much force to buyers
for such articles as suit milliners and tailors, who, if they
do come here from those localities always go to Paris as well.
Thirdlywithin the period referred to La Boutonnerie
has been energetically promoted in Paris by a series of business-like
and clever men, who have made it their special work. Every
trade has its seasons of vigour and decay, due in some measure
to the activity or inertness of its professors, irrespective
of fortuitous circumstances. When a period of such activity
occurs, in combination with favourable commercial conditions,
trade advances with rapid strides, and this I consider to
have been the case of the button trade in Paris during the
past and present generation.
In the cost of all metals, copper, steel, iron, and in such
raw materials as pearl shells, corozo nuts, and perhaps hoofs
in the materials for covered buttons (silk excepted)and
in the cost of labour, Birmingham enjoys certain advantages,
as compared with Paris, which have enabled her to maintain
her position in the trade. In Paris, the makers have to import
most of their materials from England, and as to wages, those
of women, who are the most numerous, average 10 to 20 per
cent. higher than in England, while there are many cases,
in warehouses and responsible positions, where they get clerks
salaries, a thing unheard of here. Some kinds of work, moreover,
which are done here by skilled women, are done there by men,
and consequently cost more, although, perhaps, such men do
not get large wages for men. In other respects mens
wages are probably much about the same as here, certainly
not less.
These remarks, however, do not refer to the country towns
in France where buttons are made, where wages no doubt range
at lower rates.
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