1, September 1971. The majority of manufacturers agreed to restore half of the cuts, but some, including Horrocks, Miller and Company refused. The region’s mills were shuttered and thousands lost their jobs across the country. The Cotton Weavers' Strike The Lancashire Weavers' Amalgamation was slow to order a general strike, but there can be no doubt that it has been obeyed by the.great majority, outside South Lancashire. In 1853 cotton workers in Lancashire began to demand that the 10-20% cut from their wages during the 1840s was restored. XV, No. The workers went on strike. 28, No. Wage Increase. Lancashire, which had imported three quarters of all cotton grown on southern plantations (1.3 billion lbs), found that 60% of it spindles and looms lay … ; Lancashire Workers Get 48-Hour Week and 30 P.C. See the … Richter, Donald C. "The Role of the Mob Riot in Victorian Elections, 1865-1885", Victorian Studies Vol. The New York Times Archives. The Lancashire cotton industry was already experiencing problems of overproduction, but the banning of exports by the Confederate states followed by the blockading of the southern ports by the northern states created a crisis that was a painful reminder of just how much its economy depended on American cotton. Popular violence in the North Lancashire Cotton Strike of 1878", Victorian Studies Vol. Times were so tough that the period came to be known as the 'cotton famine'. In 1818, attempts to fix a minimum wage for textile workers failed and there was a strike of handloom weavers. Strikes and Riots. 3, Spring 1985. Between September - November, over £58,000 were collected at union meetings, football matches and by … In the early 1860s the Lancashire cotton famine badly affected Accrington, although less so than the wider area due to its more diverse economy, with as many as half of the town's mill employees out of work at one time. The Co-op, anti-slavery and the Lancashire cotton famine ... is a strong historical continuity between Chartism the development of trade unions and the roots of co-operation in the strike committees formed in the 1840s to help members of artisan traders during industrial disputes. Workers faced poverty, starvation, lack … The strike was associated with the Chartist movement but eventually proved unsuccessful in its aims. COTTON STRIKE ENDS. Lancashire was gripped by the cotton famine. Following an appeal made at the 1932 TUC Congress by the Amalgamated Weavers Association for support for the Lancashire Cotton Strike, the TUC established a Cotton Fund. In the first half of the 19th Century, wages fluctuated a great deal bringing unrest from the workforce. The period of the American Civil War (1861-65) and the subsequent shortage of cotton produced was a tremendously difficult time for the economy of Lancashire and for its workers. 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