Trade Unions and Emigration, 1840-80

Abstract

It was long held that between 1845 and 1880 British trade union leaders were dominated by the dogmas of classical economists. This hypothesis has been challenged on the grounds that the “Junta” ruled but a part of the trade union movement, and that the rest had lost little of its militancy and class loyalty.1 It may be added that this was true, fundamentally, of trade unionism as a whole. The history of strikes and of restrictive practices, the expressed views of trade unionists, their animadversions on political economy, as well as the contemporary failure of other sections of society to recognise this supposed complaisance of the labour movement, further discredit the theory.2 However, the Webbs suggested that the provision of emigration facilities by unions was the purest example of the alleged new outlook, and after several writers had incorporated the idea in their works, recent research has attempted to substantiate it.3 Briefly this thesis claims that union leaders habitually favoured the emigration of their members, desiring to accommodate their policies to the teachings of economics regarding the rule of the “law” of supply and demand in the labour market.

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