¹ For a view which does emphasise the role of private and voluntary organisations in the promotion of public welfare see Whiteside, N., “Private Agencies for Public Purposes: Some New Perspectives on Policy Making in Health Insurance Between the Wars”, in: Journal of Social Policy, XII (1983).Google Scholar

² The economic and social position of clerks in nineteenth-century Britain is now well-documented; see Lockwood, D., The Blackcoated Worker (1958), ch. 1;Google Scholar Anderson, G., Victorian Clerks (Manchester, 1976);Google Scholar The Lower Middle Class in Britain 1870–1914, ed. by Crossick, G. (1977). Place of publication is London unless otherwise stated.Google Scholar

³ Figures derived from Bain, G. S., The Growth of White-Collar Unionism (Oxford, 1970), p. 12.Google Scholar

⁴ Ibid., p. 68

⁵ Von Tunzelman, N., “Britain 1900–1945: A Survey”, in: The Economic History of Britain since 1700, ed. by Floud, R. and McCloskey, D. (2 vols; Cambridge, 1981), II, p. 247.Google Scholar

⁶ Pollard, S., The Development of the British Economy, 1914–1980 (1983), p. 185.Google Scholar

⁷ See Klingender, F. D., The Condition of Clerical Labour in Britain (1935), p. 92Google Scholar; Lockwood, , The Blackcoated Worker, op. cit., p. 56Google Scholar; Bain, , The Growth of White-Collar Unionism, op. cit., p. 68.Google Scholar

⁸ Ibid.

¹⁰ Klingender, , The Condition of Clerical Labour, op. cit., p. 98.Google Scholar

¹¹ An observation made by Lawton, R. and Pooley, C. G., The Social Geography of Merseyside in the Nineteenth Century (Final Report to the Social Science Research Council, 1976).Google Scholar

¹² The data and background on Liverpool's employment structure and economic decline between the wars are derived from Stoney, P. J. M., “The Port of Liverpool and the Regional Economy in the Twentieth Century”, and P. W. Daniels, “Merseyside's Service and Office Economy”, in: Commerce, Industry and Transport. Studies in Economic Change on Merseyside, ed. by Anderson, B. L. and Stoney, P. J. M. (Liverpool, 1983).Google Scholar

¹³ See The Social Survey of Merseyside, ed. by Jones, D. C., with the assistance of J. E. McCrindell et al. (3 vols; 1934), II, p. 324, for the number of clerks employed on Merseyside in 1921. The Merseyside region was defined as the four county boroughs of Liverpool, Bootle, Birkenhead and Wallasey plus the urban districts of Waterloo, Litherland, Great Crosby, Little Crosby, Bebington and Bromborough. Jones divided clerks into two categories: public administration and commerce. In 1931 the occupational classification was altered. Whereas in 1921 clerks in local government and civil service were enumerated together with the higher officials in those categories, by 1931 all clerks, whether in the public or private sectors, were enumerated together in a separate category. In 1931 typists were also enumerated separately for the first time.Google Scholar

¹⁴ On the shrinkage of export trade and shipping see Stoney, , “The Port of Liverpool and the Regional Economy”, loc. cit., p. 124.Google Scholar

¹⁵ The figures for brokers and steamship companies are derived from the trade directories for Liverpool for 1919 and 1939.

¹⁶ The Social Survey of Merseyside, op. cit., II, p. 327.

¹⁷ Jones derived his estimates of the rate of unemployment among the various occupations of Liverpool from a variety of sources, including officials of the Employment Exchange, trade unions and benefit societies (including the LCA), and a survey household sample. However, households in which the head of the family was earning above £5 a week were excluded. The national figures for the rates of unemployment among male and female clerks are from the 1931 census and were cited by Lockwood, , The Blackcoated Worker, p. 55.Google Scholar

¹⁸ For the nineteenth-century background of the LCA see Anderson, G., “Victorian Clerks and Voluntary Associations in Liverpool and Manchester”, in: Northern History, XII (1976); Victorian Clerks, op. cit., ch. 5.Google Scholar

¹⁹ LCA, Annual Report, 1920. The minute books, annual reports, membership-subscription lists and three volumes of newscutting form the LCA Records, Liverpool Central Library, Acc. 3235.

²⁰ Hennock, E. P., “The Origins of British National Insurance and the German Precedent 1880–1914”, in: The Emergence of the Welfare State in Britain and Germany, ed. by Mommsen, W. J. (1981), p. 98.Google Scholar

²¹ See Ogus, A. I., “The Evolution of Social Insurance in Britain”, in: The Evolution of Social Insurance 1881–1981, ed. by Kohler, P. and Zacker, H. (1982).Google Scholar

²² Whiteside, “Private Agencies for Public Purposes”, loc. cit.

²³ Figures for the approved membership were derived from the LCA annual reports.

²⁴ See Table 1, derived from Miscellaneous Papers 1908–37, LCA Records. These rates of unemployment pay were subject to limitations according to the number of contributions made, and in any case could not exceed fifteen weeks in any year. The charge for the benefits was a 1/– application fee and a subscription fee of 4/– per year.

²⁵ Figures for the total membership (i.e., limited and ordinary members) were derived from the LCA annual reports.

²⁶ Fred Hughes in his official history of the NUC, By Ibid.

³⁰ See LCA minute books, 1919.

³¹ Ibid.

³² The extent to which the LCA could engage in trade-union-style activities was restricted by its registration under the Friendly Societies Act. Clerks' benefit societies could not “engage in operations appropriate to a trade union” because if they did so then their members would be deprived of the legal protection afforded by the Friendly Societies Act, including the guarantees provided with respect to payment of benefits. In 1918 the LCA Directorate, under pressure from clerks hurt by the cost-of-living increases, debated whether the Association “should forbid the registration or placing before members of the particulars of any vacant situation which is notified to the Association unless the remuneration offered equals the rates appropriate to the ages of eligible candidate members according to a scale to be hereafter determined”. The LCA directors doubted whether the fixing of a minimum salary (of £180 a year for members of 21 years and upwards) was possible under the Friendly Societies Act, but in fact the Registrar of Friendly Societies saw no objection to the LCA changing its rules. However, he warned that “it is conceivable that a man would prefer to obtain employment at £150 a year rather than be out of work altogether.” Following this advice the motion to change the LCA's rules was narrowly lost. Details from LCA minute books, 1919.

³³ Daily Post (Liverpool), December 12, 1921.

³⁴ The membership figures are available from Bain, , The Growth of White-Collar Unionism, op. cit., p. 215. Even as it was making its major bid to represent Liverpool's unemployed clerks, the NUC was in rapid decline. Press reports in Liverpool indicated that there had been 36,000 lapses from the union, its unemployment payments had increased from £200 to £600 monthly, its overdraft was £1,300, and its liabilities were £2,000. See Daily Post, 05 17, 1921.Google Scholar

³⁵ A brief survey of the reasons for the decline of the NUC can be found in Lockwood, , The Blackcoated Worker, pp. 165–66.Google Scholar

³⁶ LCA, Annual Report, 1922.

³⁷ Ibid., 1927.

³⁸ Ibid., 1932. Details of membership claims in Table 2 are derived from the annual reports.

³⁹ Ibid., 1931.

⁴⁰ See Anderson, , Victorian Clerks, p. 85.Google Scholar

⁴¹ The figure and Table 3 were constructed from details in the annual reports.

⁴² LCA Annual Report, 1926.

⁴³ Ibid.

⁴⁴ The discussion of the plight of unemployed mature clerks at the annual conference of clerks' associations in 1926 received extensive press coverage. See Daily Express, September 16, 1926; Daily Mail, September11; Daily Telegraph, September 10; Westminster Gazette, September 16. At the annual conference in Southport the following year this was still the most pressing issue. See Southport Guardian, September 17, 1927; Liverpool Echo. September 14.

⁴⁵ Journal of Commerce, March 29, 1933.

⁴⁶ By the late summer of 1933 there were “indications in Liverpool that trade is a little better than for a long time and office workers were finding demand for their services. [Yet] there was still not much increase for experienced clerks.” Daily Post, August 3. In contrast the LCA by 1940 was finding work even for old, retired clerks to cover for those of military age. Liverpool Echo, November 10, 1940.

⁴⁷ Evidence given by the Secretary of the LCA at the conference of clerks' associations in 1926. Daily Mail, September 11.

⁴⁸ The Liverpool Chamber of Commerce observed that while “the younger man could change employment the middle-aged man could not.” Journal of Commerce, March 29, 1933. Alfred Marshall, the economist, understood the strengths and weaknesses of the male clerk's specialised training. “Thus the head clerk”, he wrote, “in a business has an acquaintance with men and things, the use of which he could in some cases sell at a high price to rival firms. But in other cases it is of a kind to be of no value save to the business in which he already is; and then his departure would perhaps injure it by several times the value of his salary, while probably he could not get half that salary elsewhere.” Marshall, A., Principles of Economics, 8th ed. (New York, 1949), p. 626,Google Scholar quoted by Becker, G. S., Human Capital, 2nd ed. (New York, 1975), p. 30. Becker has developed the theoretical distinction between skills which are specific to one firm or general between firms.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ The estimate of 300,000 appears to have originated with the National Federation of Professional Workers in 1934 and is cited by Klingender, , The Condition of Clerical Labour, p. 92Google Scholar, Lockwood, , The Blackcoated Worker, p. 56Google Scholar, and Bain, , The Growth of White-Collar Unionism, p. 68.Google Scholar The estimate also appears in Lord Elton's “Plight of the Blackcoats” and Hodgson's, J. L. “England's Army of Middle-Class Unemployed”, two features in The News Chronicle, April 10 and 11, 1934.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Evening Express, July 3, 1934.

⁵¹ Ibid.

⁵² Quoted by the Secretary of the LCA in Daily Post, November 29, 1935.

⁵³ By the mid 1930's the LCA was campaigning for the inclusion of higher-paid clerks earning up to £500 a year under compulsory state insurance along the lines followed in 1911 and 1920. The Secretary of the LCA gave evidence to the Unemployed Insurance Statutory Committee. “We think it well”, he said, “to express the definite opinion that a voluntary arrangement for the more highly-paid non-manual workers under the National Unemployment Insurance Scheme would not be effective. Those who have experienced unemployment and are excluded from national benefit by the present salary limit will welcome compulsory unemployment insurance.” Echo, Liverpool, 11 28, 1935.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ The Social Survey of Merseyside, II, p. 329.

⁵⁵ Ibid.

⁵⁶ Branson, N. and Heinemann, M., Britain in the Nineteen Thirties (1971), p. 150.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ The Social Survey of Merseyside, II, pp. 328–29.

⁵⁸ See Echo, Liverpool, 09 14, 1927.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ See LCA, Annual Report, 1932.

⁶⁰ The Social Survey of Merseyside, II, p. 326.

⁶¹ In the 1921 census typists were presumably included with “other clerks”, but by 1931 they were categorised separately. In view of Jones's findings it is likely that many of the 8,191 other female clerks in Liverpool in 1931 were clerk-typists or, at least, clerks of the most rudimentary type.Google Scholar

⁶² Although 60% of the female clerks in Jones's survey household sample described themselves as ordinary clerks rather than typists, he believed that most of them “probably did some typing when required in addition to their other work”. The Social Survey of Merseyside, II, p. 326.

⁶³ Echo, Liverpool, 11 22, 1933.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ 1931 census.

⁶⁵ LCA annual reports.

⁶⁶ This attraction of clerical work for women, allowing them intermittent labour-force participation and involving less specific human capital than for men, has been more widely explored in the American context than in the British one. See, for example, Goldin, C., “The Historical Evolution of Female Earnings Functions and Occupations”, in: Explorations in Economic History, XXI (1984);Google Scholar Rotella, E. J., “The Transformation of the American Office: Changes in Employment and Technology”, in: Journal of Economic History, XLI (1981).Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Klingender, , The Condition of Clerical Labour, pp. 95–96.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ The Social Survey of Merseyside, II, pp. 327–28.

⁶⁹ Reported in Daily Post, October 13, 1931.

⁷⁰ LCA, minute books and Annual Report, 1928.

⁷¹ LCA annual general meeting, 1929.

⁷² Benjamin, D. K. and Kochin, L. A., “What Went Right with Juvenile Unemployment Policy Between the Wars: A Comment”, in: Economic History Review, Second Series, XXXII (1979). It is worth noting that the LCA reports do suggest that the rise in the level and extension of benefits to adult members was in response to their declining employment.Google Scholar

⁷³ During the slump of 1931 the Liverpool Juvenile Employment Organisation argued that there had been no diminution in the number of office boys because their work “is largely taking letters by hand to other offices – a job which a machine could not do – occasionally addressing envelopes or keeping the petty cash book”. Daily Post. March 31, 1931.

⁷⁴ Echo, Liverpool, 06 12, 1935.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ Birkenhead Advertiser, August 22, 1936.

⁷⁶ Ibid.

⁷⁷ LCA minute books, 1938.

⁷⁸ Hodson, J. L., “England's Army of Middle-Class Unemployed”, in: The News Chronicle, 04 11, 1934.Google Scholar

⁷⁹ Daily Post, November 29, 1935.

⁸⁰ Evidence provided by the Secretary of the LCA to the Unemployed Insurance Statutory Committee, quoted in Echo, Liverpool, 11 28, 1935.Google Scholar

⁸¹ The National Federation of Associations of Clerks and Warehousemen had a combined membership of 90,000 and funds of £1,500,000. See Southport Guardian, September 17, 1927. Membership figures for the NUC are from Bain, , The Growth of White-Collar Unionism, p. 214.Google Scholar

⁸² The regret at the removal of state support is mentioned in the short history of the LCA published as a booklet in its centenary year, 1961.