ABSTRACT
In the 1830s and 1840s the factory question put into clear focus the general debate on the desirability and limitations of State intervention. From it emerged three pieces of legislation, imposing on employers increasingly stringent conditions for the employment of women and children. The 1833 Factory Act, which differed from its predecessors in 1802 and 1819 in containing provision for government inspection to ensure that its provisions were effected, excluded all children under nine years of age from textile factories, and set a maximum of forty-eight hours a week on children between nine and thirteen. Young persons of thirteen to eighteen might work a maximum of sixty-nine hours. Further agitation secured an Act in 1844 which limited employment of children under thirteen to six- and-a-half hours. For the first time, the labour of women in factories was regulated. No woman, or young person under eighteen, must work longer than twelve hours a day. In 1847 a ten-hour day in factories was secured for women and children, though the existence of relay-working provided a loophole for some manufacturers to exploit for a few more years (3f).
