ABSTRACT
It was the Tory (forerunner to Conservative) administration of William Pitt the Younger which passed the Combination Acts of 1799 and 1800, thereby instigating Britain’s only period of comprehensive legal prohibition of trade unions. Workers were expressly forbidden to combine for the purpose of exerting pressure, or pursuing industrial action, in order to alter wages, working hours, conditions of work, etc. At the same time, the Acts provided for swift recourse to the law for employers whose workers sought to form a trade union.
