ABSTRACT
The years between 1812 and 1816, brightened as they were by a brief period of prosperity in 1814, proved to be relatively quiet for the workers of Stockport and its district. When employment fell off, as it did from the summer of 1818 through the summer of 1819, the weavers were again ready to mingle industrial grievances with the radical politics advocated by various periodicals and nurtured in secret local clubs. Fearing the worst nevertheless, leading citizens in various urban centres began to hold anti-reform meetings Bagguley and Drummond were the orators of the day, proposing a Blanketeers' petition critical of: excessive government spending and high taxes, the latter allegedly having quadrupled during the war; high rents which were said to have doubled during the war; the Corn Law of 1815; the Libel Laws; the suspension of habeas corpus; and the Prince Regent's ministers, whose dismissals the petition demanded.
