Chapter XXXI: Appendix

ON THE ASSUMED CONNECTION BETWEEN THE TRADE UNIONS AND THE GILDS IN
DUBLIN--SLIDING SCALES--THE SUMMONS TO THE FIRST TRADE UNION
CONGRESS--DISTRIBUTION OF TRADE UNIONISTS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM--THE
PROGRESS IN MEMBERSHIP OF PARTICULAR TRADE UNIONS--LIST OF
PUBLICATIONS ON TRADE UNIONS AND COMBINATIONS OF WORKMEN.

"A masterly piece of work."--_Times_.

"To the politician ... an invaluable guide."--_Observer_.

"An admirably lucid presentation of a great mass of complicated facts. Its very footnotes display a wealth of material such as would have amply sufficed to turn each note into an article of considerable length. In the learning they exhibit, and the concise and decisive way in which they settle important subsidiary questions and side-issues, they remind us of the notes in such monuments of German industry and erudition as Zeller's _Griechische Philosophie_.... The result is a full, clear, and condensed history such as can have few parallels.... We may fairly repeat that the book is a masterpiece of lucidity of knowledge. Every page is of value, and nearly every sentence contains a fact."--_Speaker_.

"Readable every word of it. There is plenty of excitement and plenty of romance in the book."--_Queen_.

"As fascinating reading as a well-written novel."--_Cotton Factory Times_.

"Infinitely painstaking, comprehensive, clear and acute, the first correct and scholarly history of Trade Unionism in England.... Marked by immense research.... The book must find a permanent place upon the shelf of every student of Economics.... Undeniably marked by the qualities of true history--fulness, accuracy, and clear connection in the presentation of facts."--_Newcastle Chronicle_.

"It would not be easy to overestimate the value and importance of their admirable and masterly work ... not likely to be superseded for some time to come."--_Economic Review_.

LONGMANS, GREEN & CO.
LONDON, NEW YORK, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA

WORKS BY SIDNEY AND BEATRICE WEBB

INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY

Demy 8vo; Tenth Thousand; New Edition in 1 vol., with New Introductory
Chapter; lxi and 929 pp. (1907), with Two Diagrams.

=Price 12s. net.=

ADVERTISEMENT

In this work the authors of _The History of Trade Unionism_ deal, not with the past, but with the present. They describe, with the systematic detail of the scientific observer, and in the same objective spirit, all the forms of Trade Unionism, Factory Legislation, and other regulation of industry to be found within the British Isles. The whole structure and function of Labour Organisations and Restrictive Legislation in every industry is analysed and criticised in a manner never before attempted. The employer in difficulties with his workmen, the Trade Unionist confronted with a new assault upon his Standard Rate, the politician troubled about a new project for Factory Legislation, the public-spirited citizen concerned as to the real issues of a labour dispute, will find elucidated in this work the very problems about which they are thinking. It is a storehouse of authenticated facts about every branch of "the Labour Question," gathered from six years' personal investigation into every industry in all parts of the Kingdom; systematically classified; and made accessible by an unusually elaborate Index. But the book is more than an Encyclopedia on the Labour Question. Scientific examination of Trade Union structure reveals, in these thousand self governing republics, a remarkable evolution in Democratic constitutions, which throws light on political problems in a larger sphere. The century-long experience of these working-class organisations affords unique evidence as to the actual working of such expedients as the Referendum, the Initiative, Government by Mass Meeting, Annual Elections, Proportional Representation, Payment of Members, and, generally, the relation between the citizen-elector, the chosen representative, and the executive officer. The intricate relations of trade with trade have an interesting bearing upon such problems as Local Government, Federation, and Home Rule. Those who regard the participation of a working-class electorate in the affairs of Government as the distinctive, if not the dangerous feature in modern politics, will here find the phenomenon isolated, and may learn how the British workman actually deals with similar issues in his own sphere. The intricate constitutions and interesting political experiments of the thousand self-governing Trade Union republics are dissected and criticised by the authors in such a way as to make the work a contribution to Political Science, as to the scope and method of which the authors, in describing their investigations, propound a new view.

The analysis of the working of Trade Unionism and Factory Legislation in the various industries of the United Kingdom has involved a reconsideration of the conclusions of Political Economy. The authors give a new and original description of the working of industrial competition in the business world of to-day; and they are led to important modifications of the views currently held upon Capital, Interest, Profits, Wages, Women's Labour, the Population Question, Foreign Competition, Free Trade, etc. The latter part of the work is, in fact, a treatise upon Economics.

A new Introductory Chapter deals at length with Compulsory Courts of Arbitration and Wages-Boards in New Zealand and Australia.

CONTENTS

PREFACE.

INTRODUCTION TO THE NEW EDITION.