ABSTRACT
The distinctive feature of the new Trade Societies which distinguished them from the sick or benefit societies was that they were formed to conduct collective bargaining on behalf of their members. In 1794, however, when the journeymen asked for the second Hour, the masters formed an Association, and were rumoured to be taking out surety bonds of fifty pounds against capitulation to the men. The compositors developed the technique of concentrating on one firm at a time, a method particularly effective against newspaper firms owing to the fierceness of commercial competition in that branch of the industry. The objections of the journeymen went deeper than mere indignation at the corruption of youths by the temptations of city life; in the break-up of the indoor system they sensed that another blow was being struck, however unconsciously, for the objective of reducing labour to a market commodity.
