Sir Keir Starmer’s government isn’t the first to engage the farming industry in battle. Chancellor Rachel Reeves can expect a rural backlash to her budget even more effective than the last one.
In 1834, six farm labourers from Tolpuddle in Dorset formed a secret society, aimed at improving agricultural wages and countering exploitation by landowners. They swore an oath: ‘If any master reduces wages, all members of the Society would walk out.’
The Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers
During the Napoleonic Wars, providing the forces with food at inflated prices had made farm owners wealthy and allowed them to invest in labour-saving machinery. When the conflict ended in 1815, demand fell drastically, as did prices; labourers were sacked and wages reduced for those remaining. The highest paid labourers earned nine shillings a week (less than £20 in today’s money). A married labourer with children over the age of six could put the family to work and add perhaps another
