This was the
notorious "sweatshop system."
The contractor or sweatshop boss was a mere labor broker deriving his
income from the margin between the piece rate he received from the
merchant-capitalist and the rate he paid in wages. As any workman could
easily become a contractor with the aid of small savings out of wages,
or with the aid of money advanced by the merchant-capitalist, the
competition between contractors was of necessity of the cut-throat kind.
The industrial class struggle was now a three-cornered one, the
contractor aligning himself here with the journeymen, whom he was forced
to exploit, there with the merchant-capitalist, but more often with the
latter. Also, owing to the precariousness of the position of both
contractor and journeyman, the class struggle now reached a new pitch of
intensity hitherto unheard of. It is important to note, however, that as
yet the tools of production had not undergone any appreciable change,
remaining hand tools as before, and also that the journeyman still owned
them. So that the beginning of class struggles had nothing to do with
machine technique and a capitalist ownership of the tools of production.
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