England 1812-32: How Close Was It to Revolution?

In the first decade of the 19th century Britain had been under genuine threat of invasion from Napoleonic France. In many respects, the surge of patriotism that followed in the wake of this threat helped assuage dissent at a time of growing social tension. As the conflict with Napoleon edged towards its conclusion, however, the cracks began to appear.

In 1812, unrest among the weavers of the East Midlands and West Riding of Yorkshire led to a series of disorders and acts of machine breaking. This soon became known as “Luddism” after the mythical “King Lud” whom the weavers took as their leader and under who’s name they signed their letters of intimidation. Luddism was a protest against the rising unemployment, lower wages, and reduced circumstances caused by the growing use of machine technology. It was not a radical movement, it had no political platform and espoused no particular ideology. But it was also not the blind, ignorant protest it has been so often portrayed. It had only begun after attempts by the weavers at collective bargaining with their employers had broken down, and warnings had been issued. They were organised, formed Unions, and worked in secret. Some of the machine breaking bands were subsidised out of Union funds. Though their propensity for wearing women’s clothes when carrying out their raids has never been fully explained, it is fair to assume it was a matter of disguise. Though the Luddites never sought revolution (it was a movement driven by the fear of unemployment, poverty, and hunger) it indicated that a crisis point had been reached in the social and productive relationships of the country. It heralded the beginning of a period in British history that has become known as the “Heroic age of popular radicalism.”

The end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, plunged Britain into a period of great economic distress and social discontent. The sudden drop in Government spending depressed foreign markets, and the return of thousands of demobilised troops, and a series of failed harvests, led to widespread unemployment. For example, in the Essex town of Halstead 2,012 people were in receipt of poor relief out of a population of 3,279. The passing of the Corn Laws in 1815, added to the sense of discontent. In the wake of the agricultural depression that ensued at the end of the Napoeonic Wars the landed interest had used their influence in Parliament to pass the Corn Laws that prohibited the importation of wheat until the the price of British grain rose above £4 a quarter. This kept the price of bread artificially high and often out of the reach of the British worker. There was a large-scale agricultural revolt in the Summer of 1816, caused by the shortage and high cost of bread. So widespread was this, and so serious were the series of riots in a number of major towns that followed, it struck terror into the heart of the Authorities. At the Spa Field Riots in London in 1816, the organisers had called upon the crowd to attack the Bank of England and the Tower of London. The agricultural uprising, however, was purely spontaneous and entirely economically motivated. Even so slogans, such as that adopted by agricultural labourers in Suffolk, demanding “bread or blood” was of great concern to the Authorities.