TRADE-UNIONISM. 539 



penal law. By the 39 and 40 George III, chap. 106, it was 

 enacted that any workman entering into combination to 

 advance wages or to shorten hours, should be liable to three 

 months imprisonment. That the causes of the rapid de 

 velopment which took place at this period were those above 

 named, is shown by the fact that in 1721 a trade-union was 

 formed by the fifteen thousand journeymen tailors in the 

 Metropolis: aggregation being in this case a conspicuous 

 antecedent. It is further shown by the contrast between 

 the state of the cloth-trade in the West of England and in 

 Yorkshire. Early in the 18th century there had arisen 

 wealthy clothiers in Somersetshire, Gloucestershire, and 

 Devon, who had water-mills in which part of the manufac 

 ture was carried on, and on which the hand-workers de 

 pended. Here the operatives combined and riotously en 

 forced their demands. 



This early development of trade combinations in the West of Eng 

 land stands in striking contrast with their absence in the same in 

 dustry where pursued, as in Yorkshire, on the so-called Domestic 

 System. The Yorkshire weaver was a small master craftsman of the 

 old type.&quot; 



But this contrast disappeared when there arose in Yorkshire, 

 as in the West of England, the Factory system 



&quot;Then journeymen and small masters struggled with one accord to 

 resist the new form of capitalist industry which was beginning to 

 deprive them of their control over the product of their labour.&quot; 



That is to say, they struggled against absorption into the 

 body of mere wage-earners which was growing up; and 

 trade-unions were among the results. 



827. Evils habitually produce counter evils, and those 

 arising from the Combination Laws were, after repeal of 

 those laws, followed by others consequent upon misuse of 

 freedom. &quot; Trade societies . . . sprang into existence on 

 all sides; &quot; and artisans became as tyrannical as their mas 

 ters had been. Cotton-operatives in Glasgow, seamen on 



