Welsh Journals

DRINK AND WORK-DISCIPLINE IN INDUSTRIAL SOUTH WALES, c. 1800-1870* IN the early-nineteenth century drink was thought to impart physical stamina and was closely associated with strenuous trades., The stimulating effects of drink could temporarily dull the fatigue resulting from long hours and hard labour. Yet the effects of industrialization on drinking habits are complex. It is not an easy task to judge whether it worsened the drink problem. In many ways, the process of industrialization in south Wales increased the attractions of drink. It curbed voluntary unemploy- ment but accentuated cyclical and technological unemployment; and unexpected idleness was the gateway to sin. Industrialization created new occupations, such as iron smelting, which exposed employees to new extremes of heat and cold. Contemporaries firmly believed that life in industrial south Wales was inimical to sobriety. They pointed primarily to degradation caused by heavy and dangerous labour, overcrowding and insanitation. In the iron industry, in particular, the burden of work placed on men was held to be detrimental to health. Relief was sought in stimulants: 'the man spent with labour and cut off by his condition from higher pleasures, is impelled to seek a deceitful solace in sensual excess.'2 The new industrial regime led to an increase in psychological strain together with an increase in the monotony of work: We are caged up like so many birds until night comes, and when we are liberated from our tedious engagements, we are let out into the streets like 'birds of prey', for by the time we finish it is time to go to bed, we must either perambulate the streets or go to the Public Houses, where it is that much amusement can be got in the least possible time, to forget the annoyance of the day. We have a Young Men's Improvement Society and a Mechanics Institute, but we cannot avail ourselves of them.3 The industrialization of south Wales fostered drunkenness by I am grateful to Professor I. G. Jones for his helpful comments on this article. 1 See Thomas Jones, Rhymney Memories (2nd ed., 1970), p. 101. I Monmouthshire Merlin, 16 September 1837. See also Cardiff Central Library MS. 3.386, Aurelius, 'The Dignity of Labour': Prize Essay, National Eisteddfod, Aberdare, 1885, p. 9; Edward Miall, The British Churches in Relation to the British People (1849), pp. 327, 353-54. 11 A letter to the press (n.d.), quoted in N[ational] L[ibrary] of W[ales] MS. 14,696D: D. T. Eaton, 'The Mechanics Institutes of South Wales' (1946).