CONTENTS - ouroboros ponderosa

. Th" readiness for direct action infarm:'
INlllIS' I J{I:\I .ISr-.'1 1\NIJ 1 )( Il\tIl ...... dHA rI( J N
ialer the Cornish tinnccs assembled a 'ai ' "
exportation of corn and l'n th f' II
,
TIverton The f
'
'
f
g n at falmouth to prcYl'.nl 1Ill'
e .0 owmg season the '
. amme 0 1739,40 led t
Northumberland and Durham ' h' h
leading part: ships were board
guild at Newcastle was reduced t
corn dealers were reported from N h
, rc was notIng '11
0 a rebellIon ill
,
"
"
. ,, '
ses broken
.open, and the
,
w c woen seem to have taken a
. h
. ort and South Wales. The years
' t the same !Jme attacks on
1748 and 1753 saw similar h' appenmgs m sevcral parts of the country;
and in 1756 there was hardl
a
the
coun
Home Office
ty rom
of the / which no report
pullig reached
d
houses, or the rough handl i ng Of
drastic penalties the same thl'n d
o ::k rs r n m ! lIs or Quaker meeting,
nd gram dealers. In spite of
, 0 Occurre 10 ea h f th I
of the century: in 1762, 1765-7 1774 178
mdustry so important to England nd t
example, "discontent was the reva
in the wool industries far ceniurics ?,t a t ude
c a _ c, ater dearths
1789, 179), and 1800,
. the stnfc 10 textlics, the
0 capllallst evolution, whcre, for
l
ofthe operatives engaged
' i: urn ey m h,s HJStorys of Wool
and Woolcombing. Popular ballads
e s, who
1675, Lipson's History of the W. ;l
the case of rioting London weav '
many instances of the robustnes
including that of a 1728
.
paCIfied by a meeting of strike I ' d
weavers urst into the rOOm in which th
"b
d agged back the clothiers as the
wmdows, and forced them t
a lhonal accounts by Lipson:
dd' ,
The Wiltshire weavers were e uall
and the rude violence with ' h
which they smarted In
g ample eVIdence to this, as does
d
Panlcked the govcrnment in
o / an Worsted Industries provides
-,s 0, omestlc textlie workers' struggles
weavers stnke which was ' t d d
m en e to have been
ea ers and employers' a " b" t·
y
d
. , '
mo 0
e negotlatlons were taking place,
endeavored to escape from the
0 conce e all theIr dem' d " 0
.
an s. r these
173 : t ey proclaImed the wrongs under
Y oted for theIr turbulent character
manner from the vili ages round a ::::;b IC d together in a riotous
an attack upon the housc of a cloth .
weaving. Thcy smashed ope th
provisions in the cellar dran all
running and ended up b d t
and utesils In 'dd ' t'
c
th
h
and Trowbntlge, and made
er w 0 had reduced the price of
oors, consumed or spoiled the
e Wllle
'
they could, set the casks
Y es roymg great quantities of raw materials
. a I Ion to th,s explOlt they t t d
all the clothiers in Melksham that the w I
g
in 1752. Th;; weavers t
for weaving Another
ex or e a promise from
,
y ou d pay fI fteen pence a yard
umult occu!'red at Bradford (Wiltshire)
above a thousand weavers a s ::(;m 1l ted to prison; the next day
firearms, beat the guard brok "
armcd wJth bludgeons and
, e open thc pnson, and rescued their
'
("( 1III 1 'aIlIlIlIS.
j'l l·fvll·f'.j I'. ! t[ 1":1-1- 11'.;\1
Silililariy, ,I. i'. Kay was drive n from Leeds in 1745 and from Bury in
I h.l, as "ulhrc"ks of violence flared in many districts in response to his
",,'rlllion, Ihe flying shuttle for mechanizing weaving,
Wadsworth and Mann found the Manchester Constables Accounts to
"aVl' reported "great Riots, Tumults, and Disorders" in the late 1740s,
,Illd that "After 1750 food riots and industrial disputes grow more
I n:quent," with outbreaks in Lancashire (the area of their study) virtually
"very year. These historians further recount "unrest and violence in all
parts of the country" in the middle to late 1750s, with Manchester and
I ';vcrpool frequently in alarm and "panic among the propertied classes."
After sporadic risings, such as Manchester, 1762, the years 1764-68 saw
rioting in almost every county in the country; as the King put it in 1766,