ABSTRACT
during the heyday of laisser-faire in Britain in the nineteenth century there was little intervention by the State in industrial relations. The general policy was to leave the regulation of working conditions for direct negotiation by employers and workpeople. Historically, laisser-faire in labour relations as in other fields was quite exceptional, and even in Britain, where this policy was practicable in the nineteenth century because of the special economic and industrial circumstances of the period, it was applied for only a short time, while in other countries where conditions were less clearly favourable it had less application. In the period in Britain when laisser-faire was most strongly supported there was some intervention, while in previous centuries intervention had been widespread. The feudal system was a form of intervention, while in times of labour scarcity caused by the Black Death and other pestilences special laws were passed, for example the Statutes of Labourers, requiring the old customary wages to be paid or providing for the fixing of maximum wages. For long periods wages were fixed by the Justices of the Peace in many localities. There were also such measures as the Sumptuary Laws, and the Elizabethan Poor Law and the Statute of Apprentices.
