ABSTRACT
Much has been written on labor history within recognized trades but very little when it comes to a vast alternative economy. The world of pilfering and perquisites were part of an alternative economy that was vast and absorbed much of the laboring poor. The alternative labor that had grown with the rise of Britain’s trading and industrial might had also become extremely entrepreneurial and industrious in evading the ordinances of such a vast state. Free trade in wool became a capital offense at the Restoration in 1660 but to little effect. The chapter looks at three areas of labor activity that defined this less-visible province, namely, smuggling, port work and the adulteration of commodities. Once the newly built warehouses appeared in London and were declared fit for the Warehousing Act of 1803, a public meeting was urgently held in Britain’s second leading port, Liverpool, under the chairmanship of the mayor, Thomas Bold.
