Luddite

Background

“”Britain had been at war with France since 1793, following the revolution of 1789. The fear amongst the English ruling classes that something similar may occur here was reflected in their attempts to stiffle both political and industrial activity. The Combination Acts of 1799 and 1800 attempted to circumscribe workers' organisations by prohibiting trade unions and collective bargaining. But the effect of this repression was merely to drive activity largely undergound. E.P Thompson argued that repression helped to dissolve the remaining ties of loyalty between people and their masters, with illegal trade unionisms being the stock which Jacobinism had been grafted. Napoleon's dominance of continental Europe lead to economic warfare : a series of tit-for-tat measures resulted in the Orders in Council of 1807, whereby Britain effectively blockaded the ports of France and her allies, resulting in a severe depression of trade. This was made worse by the American Non-Intercourse Act of 1809, which closed American ports to British ships. In turn, this hit the cotton and woollen industry of the North of England particularly hard and affected the internal market as well. Unemployement rose and allied to the absence of imports, bad harvest in 1810 & 1811 increased the price of food, with the price of corn reaching a peak in 1812 that it never saw for over 100 years. Distress and starvation was all too common.

—The Luddite Bicentenary (March 10, 2011) "The Broad Context of Luddism"