ABSTRACT
In January 1851 a landmark in trade union history was reached with the establishment of a new amalgamated trade union, the Amalgamated Societies of Engineers, based upon the Journeyman Steam Engine and Machine Makers and Millwrights Society. One noticeable new characteristic of the unions in the middle decades of the nineteenth century was certainly an increasing respectability, itself the consequence of a new emphasis on moderation and conciliation. Trades councils are another development of the period. At first sight, these local organizations of trade union officials might seem to represent a move away from conciliation and a strengthening of the trade union front against the employers. The traditional picture of trade union history after 1875 and during the Great Depression, therefore, has been one of setbacks in membership and in influence, and also of a sharp check to the spread of unionism among semi-skilled and unskilled workers.
