PART III: 1660-1846

SECTION I

INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATION AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS

1. Defoe's account of the West Riding Cloth Industry, 1724 482

2. Defoe's account of the Woollen Trade (_temp._ George II) 483

3. Defoe's account of the Corn Trade (_temp._ George II) 487

4. Defoe's account of the Coal Trade (_temp._ George II) 491

5. A description of Middlemen in the Woollen Industry, 1739 492

6. Report on the Condition of Children in Lancashire Cotton Factories, 1796 495

7. Newcastle Coal Vend, 1771-1830 497

8. The Old Apprenticeship System in the Woollen Industry, 1806 499

9. A Petition of Cotton Weavers, 1807 500

10. Depression of Wages and its Causes in the Cotton Industry, 1812 501

11. Evidence of the Condition of Children in Factories, 1816 502

12. Change in the Cotton Industry and the Introduction of Power Loom Weaving, 1785-1807 505

13. Evidence by Factory Workers of the Condition of Children, 1832 510

14. Women's and Children's Labour in Mines, 1842 516

15. Description of the Condition of Manchester by John Robertson, Surgeon, 1840 519

SECTION II

AGRICULTURE AND ENCLOSURE

1. Enclosure Proceedings in the Court of Chancery, 1671 525

2. Advice to the Stewards of Estates, 1731 526

3. Procedure for Enclosure by Private Act, 1766 528

4. Farming in Norfolk, 1771 530

5. A Petition against Enclosure, 1797 531

6. Extracts on Enclosure from the Surveys of the Board of Agriculture, 1798-1809 532

7. Arthur Young's Criticism of Enclosure, 1801 536

8. Enclosure Consolidating Act, 1801 537

9. General Enclosure Act, 1845 541

SECTION III

GOVERNMENT REGULATION OF WAGES, CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT, AND PUBLIC HEALTH

1. An Act against Truck, 1701 545

2. A Wages Assessment at a Warwickshire Quarter Sessions, 1738 546

3. Spitalfields Weavers Act, 1773 547

4. A Middlesex Wages Assessment under the Spitalfields Act, 1773 551

5. Agricultural Labourers' Proposals for a Sliding Scale of Wages, 1795 552

6. Debates on Whitbread's Minimum Wage Bill, 1795-6 554

7. Arbitration Act for the Cotton Industry, 1800 568

8. Amendment of the Arbitration Act, 1804 570

9. The First Factory Act, 1802 571

9 A. Minutes of Committee on Children in Factories 573

10. Calico Printers' Petition for Regulation, 1804 573

11. Report on Calico Printers' Petition, 1806 574

12. Cotton Weavers' Petition against the Repeal of 5 Elizabeth, _c._ 4, 1813 576

13. Debates on the Regulation of Apprentices, 1813-14 577

14. Resolutions of the Watchmakers on Apprenticeship, 1817 588

15. Report of the Committee on the Ribbon Weavers, 1818 590

16. The Cotton Factory Act of 1819 591

17. Oastler's First Letter on Yorkshire Slavery, 1830 592

18. Factory Act, 1833 594

19. Proposals for a Wages Board for Hand-Loom Weavers, 1834 596

20. Coal Mines Regulation Act, 1842 598

21. Debate on Factory Legislation, 1844 599

22. Factory Act, 1844 612

23. Recommendations of the Commission on the Health of Towns, 1845 614

SECTION IV

COMBINATIONS OF WORKMEN

1. A Strike of the Journeymen Feltmakers, 1696-99 619

2. A Petition of Master Tailors against Combination among the Journeymen, 1721 622

3. A Dispute in the Northumberland and Durham Coal Industry, 1765 625

4. Sickness and Unemployment Benefit Clubs among the Woolcombers, 1794 626

5. Combination Act, 1799 626

6. Combination Act, 1800 627

7. The Scottish Weavers' Strike, 1812 631

8. The Repeal of the Combination Acts, 1824 633

9. A Prosecution of Strikers under the Common Law of Conspiracy, 1810 635

10. An Act Revising the Law affecting Combinations, 1825 636

11. The Conviction of the Dorchester Labourers, 1834 638

12. An Address of the Working Men's Association to Queen Victoria, 1837 641

13. A Chartist Manifesto on the Sacred Month, 1839 642

14. The Rochdale Pioneers, 1844 643

SECTION V

THE RELIEF OF THE POOR

1. Settlement Law, 1662 647

2. Defoe's Pamphlet "Giving Alms no Charity," 1704 649

3. The Workhouse Test Act, 1722 650

4. Gilbert's Act, 1782 652

5. Speenhamland "Act of Parliament," 1795 655

6. The Workhouse System, 1797 657

7. Two Varieties of the Roundsman System of Relief, 1797 660

8. Another Example of the Roundsman System, 1808 660

9. A Report of the Poor Law Commission, 1834 661

10. The Poor Law Amendment Act, 1834 663

11. Outdoor Relief Prohibitory Order, 1844 664

SECTION VI

FINANCE AND FOREIGN TRADE

1. Act abolishing Tenure by Knight Service, etc., 1660 670

2. Navigation Act, 1660 670

3. Proposals for Free Exportation of Gold and Silver, 1660 671

4. An Attack on the Navigation Act, _c._ 1663 672

5. Free Coinage at the Mint Proclaimed, 1666 674

6. The East India Company and the Interlopers, 1684 675

7. Foundation of the Bank of England, 1694 676

8. The Need for the Recoinage of 1696 677

9. Speech by Sir Robert Walpole on the Salt Duties, 1732 678

10. Pitt's Sinking Fund Act, 1786 679

11. The Suspension of Cash Payments, 1797 681

12. Pitt's Speech on the Income Tax, 1798 683

13. Foreign Trade in the early Nineteenth Century, 1812 689

14. Debate on the Corn Laws, 1815 692

15. The Corn Law of 1815 697

16. Free Trade Petition, 1820 698

17. The Foundation of the Anti-Corn-Law League, 1839 701

18. The Bank Charter Act, 1844 702

19. Debate on the Corn Laws, 1846 705