“How are those men, thus thrown out of employ to provide for their families?” wondered the late eighteenth-century clothworkers of Leeds. “Some say, Begin and learn some other business. Suppose we do; who will maintain our families, whilst we undertake the arduous task; and when we have learned it, how do we know we shall be any better for all our pains; for… another machine may arise, which may take away that business also.”32
