A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



announced by the Rt. Hon. Winston Churchill, Under-Secretary for the 

 Colonies, and Member of Parliament for North-West Manchester, at a 

 banquet given in his honour by the British Cotton Growing Association at 

 Manchester — a grant has been made by the government for the immediate 

 building of a railway connecting Northern Nigeria with the coast, and so 

 facilitating the transport of cotton from the vast area which has been opened 

 up in Northern Nigeria by the Cotton Growing Association. 



In looking back through the centuries even the casual observer may see 

 that Lancashire has continuously fought the battle of political, religious, and 

 economic freedom. It struggled for it against the Normans ; its great 

 mediaeval overlords, Thomas of Lancaster and John of Gaunt, died protest- 

 ing against tyranny ; it wrested freedom by force of arms in the middle of 

 the seventeenth century, and it has founded labour unions and upheld the 

 standard of free trade throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth and even 

 into the twentieth century. 



The inconsistency which has been pointed out between the ideals of the 

 Manchester School and the protectionist lines on which the great textile 

 labour unions of Lancashire are founded is more apparent than real. Each 

 in its own way has aimed at the goal of freedom, at social progress, and at 

 the development of industry. The Manchester School, while advocating free 

 trade in labour as in everything else, did not see as clearly as one would have 

 expected that they were harking back to the old mediaeval conditions from 

 which the Lancashire artisan was struggling to free himself ; that capital in 

 fact was merely the old dragon monopoly in a new guise, and could only be 

 fought by the bringing up of an army, or of another giant, who should 

 parley with him on equal terms. The issue with both parties, Cobdenites 

 and Trade Unions respectively, was confessedly the happiness of the greatest 

 number ; but the admitted interest of capital is the financial dominance of a 

 few operators at the expense of the many. Labour was merely taking a leaf 

 out of the handbook of capital in desiring to buy in the cheapest market 

 and sell in the dearest. But since the working man has nothing to offer in 

 exchange for the commodities he desires other than the labour of his hands, 

 it is imperative he should put such a price upon that labour as will buy him 

 the amount of food, light, fuel, clothing, shelter, and recreation that is abso- 

 lutely necessary to keep him in a condition of health and comfort. This is 

 the justification of the so-called protection policy of the trade unions. 



A study of the more recent relations (1905-6) between the textile 

 labour unions of Lancashire and the Employers' Federation goes to prove 

 that in a happy compromise between the demands of both parties lies the 

 real welfare, not merely of the people, but of industry. 



Enough has doubtless been written to show how fully the social and 

 economic history of Lancashire lends colour to the happy phrase of an eigh- 

 teenth-century traveller who, halting upon the borders, observed that now they 

 were about to enter the county of industry and spirit. How great a part this 

 last quality has played in achieving Lancashire's supremacy in the former 

 respect is almost beyond calculation. It is indeed no exaggeration to affirm 

 that, wealthy as it is in material resources, by no means the least of its im- 

 perishable commercial assets has been the strong and sterling character of 

 its people. 



326 



