ABSTRACT
The Union Committee took the bold step of recommending an amalgamation of the three compositors’ societies, and the creation of a fund ‘from which men might be immediately remunerated when compelled to quit their situations’. All legal ‘printers’ were therefore eligible for membership of the local typographical society. The common error in the optimistic calculations of the advantage of more extensive unionism was to stress the increased income without making a proper estimate of the probable commitments in which the union would be involved. The annual or biennial meeting of delegates from the member societies controlled the general policy of the union, altered the constitution, and selected the Seat of Government for the following period. During the widespread depression of 1842-43 various plans for the rehabilitation of the printing profession were put forward in the columns of the Compositors’ Chronicle. The history of the bookbinders’ union in this period is remarkably similar to that of the letterpress printers.
