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State Intervention in Mid-Nineteenth Century Britain: Fact or Fiction?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2014

P.W.J. Bartrip
P.W.J. Bartrip*
Affiliation:
Wolfson College, Oxford
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Extract

The question of the degree of state intervention in nineteenth-century Britain has interested generations of scholars since the beginning of the present century. Did mid-nineteenth century England constitute an “age of laissez-faire” which gave way to an “age of collectivism,” or did an “age of mercantalism” merge into one of state regulation during which process, even in the early and mid-Victorian period, the state exercised considerable control over the day-to-day lives of its citizens? These are two of the questions over which there has been extended debate.

The term laissez-faire has been employed in a variety of ways by different writers, by no means all of whom have troubled to define their understanding of the expression. Recently Professor Perkin has argued that during the nineteenth century two distinct meanings were attributed to it (and seven to the related, though antithetical, concept, collectivism!). For the purposes of this paper the term is taken to mean the philosophy, policy and, above all, the practice of minimal government interference in the economy.

The most influential case for an “age of laissez-faire” was presented by Dicey in Law and Public Opinion. In this Dicey identified three overlapping legislative phases: Quiescence (1800-1830), Individualism (1825-1870), and Collectivism (1865-1900). The first consisted of an absence of legislation, the second of “constant” parliamentary activity to abolish restraints on individual freedom and the third of state intervention “for the purpose of conferring benefit upon the mass of the people” at the expense of some loss of individual freedom.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of British Studies , Volume 23 , Issue 1 , Fall 1983 , pp. 63 - 83
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference of British Studies 1983

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References

1 See, for example, Corrigan, Philip, “State Formation and Moral Regulation in Nineteenth Century Britain. Sociological Investigations,” (Ph.D. thesis, Durham, 1977) p. 23Google Scholar; Taylor, A.J., Laissez-Faire and State Intervention in Nineteenth Century Britain (London, 1972), p. 12CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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3 Holmes, C.J., “Laissez-Faire in Theory and Practice: Britain, 1800-1875,” Journal of European Economic History, V (1976) 671Google Scholar gives the following definition: “the phrase ‘laissez-faire’ refers to the belief that an economy composed of self-seeking individuals and private business enterprises will function harmoniously so long as it is left alone by government.”

4 Dicey, A.V., Lectures on the Relation between Law and Public Opinion in England During the Nineteenth Century (London, 1905)Google Scholar.

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20 PP 1863, XVIII, First Report of the Royal Commission on Children's Employment, p. lxxxiii.

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22 PP 1865, XVI, Fifth Report of the Royal Commission on Children's Employment, p. xxi.

23 Chimney Sweepers Act, 1875, 38 and 39 Vict. c. 70.

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35 On the constraints affecting inspectors see Bartrip, “Safety”, Bartrip and Fenn, “The Administration”; Bartrip and Fenn, “The Conventionalization,”; Bartrip, “British Government.”

36 Factory Acts Extension Act, 1864, 27 and 28 Vict. c. 48; Factory Acts Extension Act, 1867, 30 and 31 Vict. c. 103; Workshop Regulation Act, 1867, 30 and 31 Vict. c. 146; PP 1859 (ii), XXVII, Copy of a Memorial … Complaining of Systematic Violations of the Factories Regulations Acts … and of Certain Suggestions … made by Mr. Leonard Horner, p. 367.

37 41 Vict. c. 16; see Factory and Workshop Act, 1883, 46 and 47 Vict. c. 53; Cotton Cloth Factories Act, 1889, 52 and 53 Vict. c. 62; Factory and Workshop Act, 1891, 54 and 55 Vict. c. 75; Factory and Workshop Act, 1895, 58 and 59 Vict. c. 37.

38 Public Record Office (hereafter PRO) HO 45 9771/B1137J; Asquith, H.H., Fifty Years of Parliament, (London, 1926), I 213–14Google Scholar; Pellew, Jill, The Home Office, 1848-1914 (London, 1982), pp. 155–57Google Scholar.

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41 PP 1889, XIV, Select Committee of the House of Lords on the Sweating System, Evidence, p. 540.

42 PP 1890, XVII, ibid., Fifth Report, p. 392.

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46 PRO HO 45, 9770/B1137, H.O. to T., 8 Aug. 1892.

47 PRO HO 45, 10553/164207, Report of the Departmental Committee on the Factory Inspectorate, 23 Dec. 1907; PRO LAB 14/182, Report of the Departmental Committee on the Factory Inspectorate, 16 Jan. 1913, pp. 6-7.

48 Mines Act, 1842, 5 and 6 Vict. c. 99; see Engels, Frederick, The Condition of the Working Class in England (London, 1969 edn.), p. 276Google Scholar; John, A. V., By the Sweat of their Brow. Women Workers at Victorian Coal Mines (London, 1980), pp. 55–60Google Scholar.

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52 27 Dec. 1850.

53 27 Jan. 1855.

54 PRO, HO 45, OS 5377, 22 July 1854.

55 Mining Journal, 27 July 1872.

56 Ibid., 12 Jan. 1867.

57 Mining Journal, 9 Feb. 1867; PRO HO 45, OS 8027.

58 PP 1866, XIV, Select Committee Appointed to Inquire into the Regulation and Inspection of Mines, Evidence, p. 22; see PRO HO 45, OS 6779, Inspector Longridge to Secretary of State, 2 Jan. 1860.

59 PP 1866, XIV, S.C. … into … Mines, Evidence, p. 97.

60 Ibid., p. 168.

61 PRO HO 45, OS 8027 date stamped 7 Feb. 1870; see Resolution of the Miners' Conference in Manchester 10-12 Jan. 1871.

62 PRO HO 45, OS 8407, Atkinson to Bruce 8 Feb. 1870.

63 PRO HO 45, OS 8027, Minute on the Manchester Conference, 10-12 Jan. 1871.

64 PP 1867, XIII, S.C into … Mines, Report, p. 7; see PP 1866, XIV, Evidence, p. 257.

65 PRO HO 45, OS 1490, Tremenheere to Sir G. Grey, 31 Dec. 1846.

66 PP 1867, XIII, S.C into … Mines, Report, p. 7.

67 Ibid., passim; see Evidence of Sir G. Grey, pp. 85-95.

68 PP 1881, XXVI, Evidence pp. 215, 286, 293, 296, 302, 453.

69 Ibid., p. 43.

70 Ibid., p. 42, see pp. 45-46, see evidence of T. Wynne, p. 59.

71 Ibid., p. 43.

72 PP 1884-5, XV, Report of Inspector Evans, pp. 418-9; PP 1886, XVI, Report of Inspector Wardell, p. 187; PP 1893-4, XX, Report of Inspector Hall, p. 367; PP 1894, XXIV, Report of Inspector Robson, p. 51; PP 1895, XXII, Report of Inspector Robson, p. 41; PP 1897, XX, Report of Inspector Robson, p. 83.

73 PP 1894, XXIV, Report of Inspector Robson, p. 51.

74 Ibid.; see PP 1896, XXII, Report of Inspector Robson, p. 47; PP 1896, XII, Report of Inspector Atkinson, p. 219.

75 PP 1895, XXII, Report of Inspector Robson, p. 41.

76 Ibid.

77 Ibid.

78 Alderman, Geoffrey, The Railway Interest (London, 1973), pp. 15 and 20Google Scholar.

79 Alkali Act, 1863, 26 and 27 Vict. c. 124; Explosives Act, 1875, 38 and 39 Vict. c. 17.

80 MacLeod, R.M., “The Alkali Acts Administration, 1863-1884: the Emergence of the Civil Scientist,” Victorian Studies, IX (1965) 85–112Google Scholar; Civil Service Estimates.

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82 The mere existence of a statute may produce some compliance with the law even if there is no active inspection or other enforcement strategy. However, compliance is not measurable. An alternative quantifiable guide is to measure a data series in the context of regulatory change. In the case of factories, mines, railways, and explosives it is possible to consider fatal accident statistics in relation to safety legislation controlling for business conditions. However, such statistics are subject to distortion associated with reporting practice. Furthermore, it is impossible to isolate the influence of legislation as distinct from other factors which may have affected accident trends (e.g. technological advances pertaining to safety, medical advance, and changing attitudes towards the value of human life). It has been noted, for example, that female employment in mines was declining before the act of 1842. See John, , By the Sweat, pp. 23–25Google Scholar.

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84 Bruce, Maurice, The Coming of the Welfare State (London, 1961)Google Scholar; Roberts, David, Victorian Origins of the British Welfare State (London, 1960)Google Scholar; Fraser, Derek, The Evolution of the British Welfare State (London, 1973)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; see the comment of Stefan Collini in his review of Taylor, , Laissez-faire, in History, 59 (1974)Google Scholar about “the prevailing tendency to find the ‘origins of the welfare state’ in the slightest twitch of the arm of Victorian government.”

85 Marx, , Capital, p. 284Google Scholar.

86 PRO HO 45, OS 1490, Tremenheere to Grey, 31 Dec. 1846.