ABSTRACT
The most interesting feature, however, of the “Labour” opinion of 1848–9 was its industrial protectionism. Sheffield furnishes some particularly interesting examples of the relations between Chartism and Trade Unionism. There the pressure of the local Chartist leaders succeeded in bringing about a conference of trade societies in the summer of 1839 to consider the Chartist request for corporate trade society adhesions to the local Chartist organisation. Trade society office-bearers, indeed, must often have been engaged in work of direct immediate importance to their fellows beside which the wordy efforts of Chartist oratory could not altogether have avoided the appearance of singular inefficacy. The employment of the surplus labour of the country by the Government in useful public works. Sanitary regulations and the appointment of a Minister of Labour. The Labour Ministry of the trade delegates, it should be noted, was foreseen as an authority of central superintendence over local boards of trade, composed half of masters and half of men.
