class="pginternal" tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">Social Conditions at the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century

CHAPTER IX

The Extension of Government Control

Factory Laws, the Modification of Land Ownership, Sanitary Regulations, and New Public Services

• National Affairs from 1830 to 1900
• The Beginning of Factory Legislation
• Arguments for and against Factory Legislation
• Factory Legislation to 1847
• The Extension of Factory Legislation
• Employers' Liability Acts
• Preservation of Remaining Open Lands
• Allotments
• Small Holdings
• Government Sanitary Control
• Industries Carried on by Government
• Bibliography

CHAPTER X

The Extension of Voluntary Association

Trade Unions, Trusts, and Coöperation

• The Rise of Trade Unions
• Opposition of the Law and of Public Opinion. The Combination Acts
• Legalization and Popular Acceptance of Trade Unions
• The Growth of Trade Unions
• Federation of Trade Unions
• Employers' Organizations
• Trusts and Trade Combinations
• Coöperation in Distribution
• Coöperation in Production
• Coöperation in Farming
• Coöperation in Credit
• Profit Sharing
• Socialism
• Bibliography

An Introduction to the Industrial and Social History of England

INDUSTRIAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND

CHAPTER I

GROWTH OF THE NATION

To the Middle of the Fourteenth Century

1. The Geography of England.—The British Isles lie northwest of the Continent of Europe. They are separated from it by the Channel and the North Sea, at the narrowest only twenty miles wide, and at the broadest not more than three hundred.

The greatest length of England from north to south is three hundred and sixty-five miles, and its greatest breadth some two hundred and eighty miles. Its area, with Wales, is 58,320 square miles, being somewhat more than one-quarter the size of France or of Germany, just one-half the size of Italy, and somewhat larger than either Pennsylvania or New York.

The backbone of the island is near the western coast, and consists of a body of hard granitic and volcanic rock rising into mountains of two or three thousand feet in height. These do not form one continuous chain but are in several detached groups. On the eastern flank of these mountains and underlying all the rest of the island is a series of stratified rocks. The harder portions of these strata still stand up as long ridges,—the "wolds," "wealds," "moors," and "downs" of the more eastern and south-eastern parts of England. The softer strata have been worn away into great broad valleys, furnishing the central and eastern plains or lowlands of the country.

The rivers of the south and of the far north run for the most part by short and direct courses to the sea. The rivers of the midlands are much longer and larger. As a result of the gradual sinking of the island, in recent geological periods the sea has extended some distance up the course of these rivers, making an almost unbroken series of estuaries along the whole coast.

The climate of England is milder and more equable than is indicated by the latitude, which is that of Labrador in the western hemisphere and of Prussia and central Russia on the Continent of Europe. This is due to the fact that the Gulf Stream flows around its southern and western shores, bringing warmth and a superabundance of moisture from the southern Atlantic.

These physical