The Coalition Wars, or the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, were a series of conflicts that had a major impact on Britain’s economy. During this state of turmoil Great Britain, in the midst of their Industrial Revolution, would “finance a large military establishment in excess of 500,000 men compared with 75,000 in 1792” (O’Brien). Taxes increased, class gaps widened, and inflation expanded. Meanwhile, the British elite did little to curb, and even encouraged, their growing reliance on the exploitative practice of child labor to shoulder the economic burden. 

Why children? Because they were readily available and, according to historian Mark Cartwright, “a child worker was about 80% cheaper than a man and 50% cheaper than a woman” (Cartwright). The gap between wages and living expenses was growing for the working class too, as evidenced by liberal MP Samuel Whitbread’s proposed minimum wage bill in 1796. He argued to the House of Commons that living costs had doubled in comparison to the growth of agricultural wages. He sought to aid laborers, explaining men were turning to the military as a means of reliable employment. But his fellow MP William Pitt encouraged “the labour and industry of children should be particularly called forth” (“Sunday and Tuesday’s Posts”). This use of cheap, readily available labor was unfortunately already quite common. Historian Jane Humphries explains “sending children to work became normal and widely adopted by other desperate families” and this effectively “triggered a vicious circle, with adult wages [lowering and] increasing the need for children to work to maintain subsistence” (Humphries). Whitbread’s bill died and “Pitt’s speech was received by the house with an uncommon degree of attention and approbation” (“Sunday and Tuesday’s Posts”). Following the failure of the bill, historian Patrick Karl O’Brien explains “for most groups of workers (skilled and unskilled) wages lagged behind rising prices between 1797-1810” (O’Brien). Families were forced to enlist the help of their children. Child laborers “could also be bullied and threatened by supervisors much more easily than an adult, and they could not fight back”, making them ideal for exploitation (Cartwright). 

The first big bill set to improve the conditions of child laborers was the Cotton Apprentice Bill, known as The Health and Morals of Apprentices Act, pushed by Sir Robert Peele in 1802. The bill was created because of a report blaming the spread of diseases on “the filthy and crowded condition of the factories, where the children are kept at excessive labour, with out proper food, cloathing, air or recreation” (“Friday’s and Saturday’s Posts”). But it focused more on providing standard mealtimes, working hours, and religious instruction for child apprentices. When fellow members of the House of Commons suggested expanding on these regulations, Peele replied “the bill [goes] quite far enough as an experiment” (“Friday’s and Saturday’s Posts”).

The bill, or experiment, wasn’t taken seriously nor enforced with the backdrop of the Coalition Wars. Economist Stanley Engerman adds that justifications for “discrimination or coercion might be considered to be either necessary or desired (as in wartime)” (Engerman). Two years after the bill had passed, a correspondent for the Lancaster Gazette reported on a large religious confirmation of working class children in the industrial town of Preston. They finished the article by stating “indeed to the credit of the Backbarrow Cotton Company it ought to be mentioned that no gentlemen of the united kingdom have paid more attention to the health, morals, and education, of their apprentices’” (“On Saturday last”). This quote provides a firsthand account of how the bill’s effects depended less on enforcement and more on the consideration of factory owners. Therefore having little to no real legal impact. 

Due to the growing exploitation of child workers, Great Britain would enter a child labor boom at the beginning of the 19th century. It wasn’t until the “1830s, the situation for workers in factories and mines, including for children, began to slowly improve” due to enforced legislation (Cartwright). The exploitation of workers, specifically children, during the Coalition Wars shows the ways in which the elite made excuses for forced labor. This continues today, with companies like Shein offering cheap products on the basis of outsourcing labor to countries with less laws protecting their workers and paying significantly lower wages. The end of the Coalition Wars, and the legislation that followed, had little impact as the lists of exploitative labor practices and justifications continue growing two hundred years later. 

Primary Sources: 

"Friday's & Saturday's Posts." Manchester Mercury, 25 May 1802, p. 2. British Library Newspapers, link-gale-com.proxy.ulib.uits.iu.edu/apps/doc/CL3241475424/BNCN?u=iulib_iupui&sid=bookmark-BNCN&xid=b1a67d94. Accessed 29 Apr. 2024. 

"On Saturday last, the Hon. Sir Robert Graham, Knight, arrived in this town, and the sam evening opened the commission for holding the Assizes, at the Castle." Lancaster Gazetter, 18 Aug. 1804. British Library Newspapers, link-gale-com.proxy.ulib.uits.iu.edu/apps/doc/R3208731151/BNCN?u=iulib_iupui&sid=bookmark-BNCN&xid=f7498c12. Accessed 29 Apr. 2024. 

"Sunday and Tuesday's Posts." Northampton Mercury, 20 Feb. 1796, p. 1. British Library Newspapers, link-gale-com.proxy.ulib.uits.iu.edu/apps/doc/GR3218885101/BNCN?u=iulib_iupui&sid=bookmark-BNCN&xid=611645db. Accessed 29 Apr. 2024.

Wilson, Robert. “Chartist Demonstration on Kennington Common”. 1900. Image. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/place/United-Kingdom/18th-century-Britain-1714-1815#/media/1/615557/109246. Accessed April 29, 2024.

Secondary Sources: 

Cartwright, Mark. “Child Labour in the British Industrial Revolution.” World History Encyclopedia, https://www.worldhistory.org#organization, 18 Mar. 2024, www.worldhistory.org/article/2216/child-labour-in-the-british-industrial...

Engerman, Stanley. 2003. “The History and Political Economy of International Labor Standards.” In Kaushik Basu, Henrik Horn, Judith Shapiro, and Lisa Roman, eds., International Labor Standards: History, Theory and Policy Options. Oxford: Blackwell. 

Humphries, Jane. “Child Labor: Lessons from the Historical Experience of Today’s Industrial Economies.” The World Bank Economic Review, vol. 17, no. 2, 2003, pp. 175–96. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3990135. Accessed 29 Apr. 2024.

O’Brien, Patrick Karl. “The Impact of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, 1793-1815, on the Long-Run Growth of the British Economy.” Review (Fernand Braudel Center), vol. 12, no. 3, 1989, pp. 335–95. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40241130. Accessed 29 Apr. 2024.

Extra:

Kollbrunner, Timo. “Toiling Away for Shein.” 19 Nov. 2021, stories.publiceye.ch/en/shein/.