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Employers' Organizations in Mid-Victorian England*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

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Despite the attention paid by economic and labour historians to mid-Victorian trade unionism, the development, organization and objectives of the employers' counter-organizations have been neglected. Research on this subject has tended to concentrate on the post-1880 period and has to a great extent overlooked the origins of the employers' offensive tactics. The two major lines of attack which were to be adopted by employers in the 'eighties were already taking shape in the mid century. Employers' industrial organizations had been formed to counter unionism, while employers' pressure groups attempted to resist what employers described as “grand-motherly” governmental interference. The aim of this article will be to conduct a preliminary investigation of the origins and strategy of employers' organizations, and to evaluate their impact in the industrial and legal fields.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis 1980

References

1 Information on employers' industrial organizations can be found in Richardson, J. H., Industrial Relations in Great Britain (London, 1933)Google Scholar, Smith, R., “A History of the Lancashire Cotton Industry between the Years 1873 and 1896” (Ph.D. thesis Birmingham, 1954)Google Scholar, Turner, H. A., Trade Union Growth, Structure and Policy (London, 1962)Google Scholar, Griffen, A. R. and Griffen, C. P., “The Role of Coal Owners' Associations in the East Midlands in the Nineteenth Century”, in: Renaissance and Modern Studies, XV (1973), pp. 95119CrossRefGoogle Scholar, Brown, E. H. Phelps, The Growth of British Industrial Relations (London, 1959)Google Scholar, and Gospel, H. F., “Employers' Organizations; Their Growth and Function in the British System of Industrial Relations in the Period 1918–1939” (Ph.D. thesis, London School of Economics, 1974)Google Scholar, but generally these deal with the post-1880 period. The most recent and useful study is Burgess, K., The Origins of British Industrial Relations (London, 1975).Google Scholar

2 Legislative associations have received even less attention than the industrial organizations. Recent research by Alderman, G., The Railway Interest (Leicester, 1973)Google Scholar, has provided useful information on the Railway Association, but other important interest groups such as the National Association of Factory Occupiers, the Mining Association, the National Federation of Associated Employers of Labour and the Association of British Chambers of Commerce have been overlooked.

3 The early history of trade associations is reviewed in Ashton, T. S., The Industrial Revolution, 1760–1830 (Oxford, 1964), pp. 8891.Google Scholar

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12 Jefferies, J. B., The Story of the Engineers 1800–1945 (London, 1945), pp. 37, 94.Google Scholar A degree of unity had been achieved in 1871 with the formation of the Iron Trades Employers' Association. Clegg, Fox and Thompson, British Trade Unions, op. cit., p. 12.

13 Turner, , Trade Union Growth, pp. 372–73.Google Scholar For further details on the development of cotton employers'p associations in the post-1870 period, see Smith, “The Lancashire Cotton Industry”, op. cit., pp. 262–310.

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20 Royal Commission, First Report, q. 2634.Google Scholar

21 W. Stewart to Earl Fitzwilliam, 4 June 1874, Wentworth Woodhouse Muniments T 29 d, Sheffield City Library.

22 See Royal Commission, Seventh Report [PP, 18671868, XXXIX, 3980-III], q. 14436Google Scholar; Tenth Report, qq. 18306–12; Ninth Report [PP, 18671868, XXXIX, 3980-V], q. 17247Google Scholar; Hopper, W. R., “An Iron-master's View of Strikes”, in: Fortnightly Review, Old Series, I (1865), p. 743.Google Scholar Evidence, however, indicates that industrialists were not always on the defensive, and in a number of districts they were the first to initiate combinations. For examples of cotton and coal masters' associations which preceded union development, see Howell, G., The Conflicts of Capital and Labour (London, 1878), p. 101Google Scholar; Ludlow, J. M. “Account of the West Yorkshire Coal-Strike and Lock-Out of 1858”, in: Trades' Societies and Strikes, pp. 2629.Google Scholar

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34 Eleventh Report, Vol. I, Dissent to Final Report, p. xlix.Google Scholar The Commission's Majority Report had concluded that the employers' organizations were defensive in nature and free of intimidation, see ibid., pp. xvi-xviii.

35 Hopper, “An Iron-master's View of Strikes”, loc. cit., p. 749. Not all members of masters' societies agreed with the policy of lock-outs. Lady C. Schreiber, proprietor of Dowlis Ironworks, argued that lock-outs threatened to destroy the good relations which had been created by the provision of welfare benefits. Schreiber, Lady Charlotte, Extracts from her journal, 1853–1891, ed. by the Earl of Bessborough (London, 1952), pp. 213.Google Scholar

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34 Eleventh Report, Vol. I, Dissent to Final Report, p. xlix.Google Scholar The Commission's Majority Report had concluded that the employers' organizations were defensive in nature and free of intimidation, see ibid., pp. xvi-xviii.

35 Hopper, “An Iron-master's View of Strikes”, loc. cit., p. 749. Not all members of masters' societies agreed with the policy of lock-outs. Lady C. Schreiber, proprietor of Dowlis Ironworks, argued that lock-outs threatened to destroy the good relations which had been created by the provision of welfare benefits. Lady Charlotte Schreiber, Extracts from her journal, 1853–1891, ed. by the Earl of Bessborough (London, 1952), pp. 213.Google Scholar

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38 E.g., the secretary of the Master Builders' Association toured Germany to obtain blackleg labour. “End of the Mason Strike”, in: Capital and Labour, 20 03 1878, p. 178.Google Scholar For information on the Free Labour Representation League, see Alderman, G., “The National Free Labour Association. A Case-Study of Organised Strike-Breaking in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries”, in: International Review of Social History, XXI (1976).Google Scholar

39 General Deputation from the Cotton, Woollen, Worsted, Silk and Linen Trades, 25 February 1854, Home Office Papers 45, Old Series 5209, Public Record Office.

40 National Association of Factory Occupiers, Special Report of the Executive Committee, 1855, pp. 45.Google Scholar See also Joint Report of Factory Inspectors, 31 10 [PP. 1856, XVIII, 2031].Google Scholar For Dickens's comment, see Hutchins, B. L. and Harrison, A., A History of Factory Legislation (London, 1903), p. 116.Google Scholar

41 NAFO, Special Report, op. cit., pp. 6, 9; Joint Report of Factory Inspectors, 1 06 1855 [PP, 18541855, XV, 1947], p. 49.Google Scholar

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45 Ibid., Ninth Annual Meeting, p. 96.

46 See “Prevention of Strikes”, ibid., Fifth Annual Meeting, pp. 90–93, and “Strikes”, ibid., Sixth Annual Meeting, 1866.

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49 See, e.g. the case prepared by the secretary in 1874 during the Labour Laws Commission. First Report of the Labour Laws Commission on the Working of the Master and Servant Act, 1867, and the Criminal Law Amendment Act 34 and 35 Vict. c. 32 [PP, 1875, XXIV, C. 1094], qq. 737–45.Google Scholar

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51 Minutes of the Leeds and District Association of Factory Occupiers, 24 11 1872, p. 4.Google Scholar

52 Ibid., pp. 5–7, 17–19,27.

53 Ibid., p. 32.

54 “The National Federation, Statement as to its formation and objects”, in: Capital and Labour, 31 12 1873, pp. 12.Google Scholar

55 Ibid., p. 1.

57 Ibid., p. 2.

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64 For the employers' representatives, see First Report of the Labour Laws Commission, op. cit.

65 Information on the members and witnesses of the Committee was derived from Report from the Select Committee on Employers' Liability for Injuries to their Servants [PP, 1877, X, 285].Google Scholar

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69 “The Late Employers' Federation”, loc. cit.

70 Opinions of this nature were expressed in “Master and Workmen”, in: Capital and Labour, 20 05 1874, pp. 266–67.Google Scholar