‘Wages will be low’

The Boston Manufacturing Company, shown in this engraving, made in 1813–1816, was based in Waltham, Mass. The company was an early developer of the New England textile industry by building water-powered textile mills along suitable rivers and developing mill towns around them. The building here was said to be the first integrated spinning and weaving factory in the world.

“But the time will come when New England will be as thickly peopled as old England. Wages will be as low, and will fluctuate as much with you as with us. You will have your Manchesters and Birminghams; and, in those Manchesters and Birminghams, hundreds of thousands of artisans will assuredly be sometimes out of work. Then your institutions will be fairly brought to the test.”

— Thomas B. Macaulay (1800-1859), English historian and politician.