¹ Williams, Karel, From Pauperism to Poverty (London, 1981), pp. 68–75.Google Scholar

² MacKinnon, Mary, “English Poor Law Policy and the Crusade against Outrelief,” this JOURNAL, 47 (09 1987), pp. 603–25.Google Scholar

³ Board of Trade, “Statistical Tables and Report on Trade Unions (1887),” Parliamentary Papers, 1887, vol. 89, p. 7.Google Scholar

⁴ Webb, Sidney and Webb, Beatrice, Industrial Democracy (London, 1897), p. 158.Google Scholar

⁵ Data for 1893 from Board of Trade, “Seventh Annual Report on Trade Unions,” Parliamentary Papers, 1895, vol. 107, p. 3. The numbers for unemployment and sickness benefits were adjusted to make them consistent with the 1908 data.Google Scholar

⁶ Board of Trade, “Report on Trade Unions in 1908–1910,” Parliamentary Papers, 1912–13, vol. 47, p. xxxv.Google Scholar

⁷ Johnson, Paul, Saving and Spending (Oxford, 1985), p. 57.Google Scholar

⁸ Gilbert, Bentley B., “The Decay of Nineteenth-Century Provident Institutions and the Coming of Old Age Pensions in Great Britain,” Economic History Review, 2nd ser., 17 (12 1964), pp. 556–57.Google Scholar

⁹ Harris, Jose, Unemployment and Politics (Oxford, 1972), p. 295.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Board of Trade, “Agencies and Methods for Dealing with the Unemployed,” Parliamentary Papers, 1893–1894, vol. 82, pp. 42–43.Google Scholar

¹¹ From 1891 to 1911, nominal (real) annual earnings of engineers increased by 17 percent (10 percent), while nominal (real) earnings of skilled workers in the building trades increased by 15 percent (8 percent). The cost of living increased by 5.8 percent from 1892 to 1908. Williamson, Jeffrey G., Did British Capitalism Breed Inequality? (Boston, 1985), pp. 29, 220.Google Scholar

¹² Board of Trade, “Trade Unions in 1908–10,” p. xxxvi.Google Scholar

¹³ Rowntree, Benjamin Seebohm, Poverty: A Study of Town Life (2nd edn., London, 1902), p. 110. The cost of living in 1899 was 4.3 percent below the cost of living in 1892, and 9.5 percent below the cost of living in 1908. Williamson, Did British Capitalism Breed Inequality?, p. 220.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Beveridge, William H., Unemployment: A Problem of Industry (London, 1909), p. 225.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Board of Trade, “Agencies and Methods,” pp. 22–24.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Beveridge, Unemployment, p. 227. Similar conclusions were reached by the Webbs (Industrial Democracy, pp. 160–61) and by the minority report of the Royal Commission on Trades Unions (Parliamentary Papers, 1868–69, vol. 31, p. xliii).Google Scholar

¹⁷ Beveridge, Unemployment, pp. 220–21.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Porter, J. H., “Wage Bargaining under Conciliation Agreements, 1860–1914,” Economic History Review, 2nd ser., 23 (12 1970), pp. 466–75.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Ibid., p. 473.

²⁰ Members of the Yorkshire Miners' Association were entitled to benefits only if 25 percent of the workers at the seam had been unemployed for three weeks. This suggests that work sharing was used during all but the most severe recessions. Including the Yorkshire Miners increases to 25 percent the share of miners eligible for unemployment benefits only when the mine was shut down.Google Scholar

²¹ Webb, Sidney and Webb, Beatrice, The History of Trade Unionism (London, 1894), p. 415.Google Scholar

²² Cole, G.D.H., A Short History of the British Working Class Movement (New York, 1927), vol. 2, p. 162.Google Scholar

²³ Wage data for gas stokers from Popplewell, Frank, “The Gas Industry,” in Webb, Sidney and Freeman, Arnold, eds., Seasonal Trades (London, 1912), p. 191.Google Scholar Wage data for laborers in the building trades from Board of Trade, “Report into the Earnings and Hours of Labour. III— Building and Woodworking Trades,” Parliamentary Papers, 1910, vol. 84, p. 25.Google Scholar

²⁴ Rowntree Poverty, p. 244;Google ScholarReeves, Maud Pember, Round About a Pound a Week (London, 1913), pp. 80–88.Google Scholar

²⁵ Popplewell, “Gas Industry,” p. 196.Google Scholar

²⁶ Monthly unemployment data for builders' laborers from Webb, Augustus, “The Building Trade,” in Webb and Freeman, eds., Seasonal Trades, p. 334.Google Scholar Unemployment data for workers from Royal Commission on the Poor Laws, “Appendix, Vol. IX, Unemployment,” Parliamentary Papers, 1910, vol. 49, p. 647.Google Scholar

²⁷ Seasonality also was a problem for skilled workers in the building trades. The fact that these workers commanded occupation-specific human capital explains why their unions were able to provide unemployment insurance while unions of low-skilled workers were not. Still, the high cost of unemployment insurance restricted the provision of benefits. Only one union in the building trades, the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners, allowed members to collect benefits for more than 13 weeks per year.Google Scholar

²⁸ Webb, Sidney and Webb, Beatrice, The Minority Report of the Poor Law Commission Part II (London, 1909), p. 196.Google Scholar

²⁹ Hobsbawm, Eric, Labouring Men (London, 1964), p. 187.Google Scholar

³⁰ Webb and Webb, Industrial Democracy, p. 158.Google Scholar

³¹ Benefits were not vested. A union member expelled for any reason “forfeit[ed] all claim” to benefits (Webb and Webb, Industrial Democracy, p. 154).Google Scholar

³² Ibid., pp. 161–63.

³³ Ibid., p. 158.

³⁴ The prospect of losing sickness and funeral benefits had a much smaller impact on workers' decisions, since such benefits could be obtained from friendly societies.Google Scholar

³⁵ Data on the size of balances of Post Office Savings Bank accounts are given in Johnson, Saving and Spending, p. 101. Assuming that no working-class households had balances larger than £50, the data suggest that the median household balance was less than £4. If balances increased with age, the typical young worker's balance must have been no more than £2–3.Google Scholar

³⁶ Several miners' unions paid an additional ls. per week for each child under 13. Several branches of the Amalgamated Association of Operative Cotton Spinners also paid additional benefits to workers with young children.Google Scholar

³⁷ Royal Commission on Trades Unions, “Eleventh and Final Report,” Parliamentary Papers, 1868–69, vol. 31, p. 218.Google Scholar

³⁸ Rowntree, Poverty, p. 357.Google Scholar

³⁹ The existence of such rules is discussed in Webb and Webb, Industrial Democracy, pp. 164–65.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Royal Commission on Trades Unions, “Eleventh Report,” p. 217.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Royal Commission on Trades Unions, “Minority Report,” Parliamentary Papers, 1868–69, vol. 31, p. xlix.Google Scholar

⁴² Quoted in Webb and Webb, Industrial Democracy, p. 160.Google Scholar

⁴³ The adoption of mutual insurance policies by many “new” unions in the 1890s is not evidence that union leaders changed their opinion on this issue. New unions adopted insurance policies in order to attract and retain members (Hyman, Richard, The Workers' Union [Oxford, 1971], pp. 14–16, 34).Google Scholar

⁴⁴ The average male aged 20 to 29 lost less than one week of work per year due to sickness (Money, L. G. Chiozza, Insurance versus Poverty [London, 1912], p. 169). Young workers mainly needed insurance against unemployment, and strikes generally did not threaten unemployment benefits. According to the Webbs, “[a] Trade Union… gives a preference, in effect, to its Out of Work payments, usually continuing them at the full rate, even when its funds are being rapidly exhausted …”(Industrial Democracy, p. 161). Thus, the expected cost of strikes (in terms of benefits lost) was low for young workers.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Ibid., p. 160.

⁴⁶ It is not possible to determine the proportion of unions in which benefit funds were controlled by the central leadership. In the Amalgamated Engineers, a model for many unions, branches retained their own funds (Webb and Webb, History of Trade Unionism, pp. 220–21).Google Scholar