ABSTRACT
The Borough of Liverpool was created by a charter authorized by King John in 1207. This charter meant that, for many centuries before other great cities of the Industrial Revolution. The Corporation controlled large estates and members of the Council defined their duties narrowly as the management of the corporate property. The ‘freeman borough’ status of Liverpool had originally amounted to household suffrage. The Reformers actively supported a parliamentary bill to disenfranchise the freemen of Liverpool. The polarization of Liverpool politics is reflected in the reaction to this use of the royal prerogative. The Liverpool Conservative Association had been in existence since 1832 when, ironically, the Reform Union had been dissolved. In 1835 Liverpool’s boundary was the same for both municipal and parliamentary purposes. Liverpool was not a notable centre of manufacture, though in 1835 the city was situated close to the most intensive manufacturing districts in the world.
