The concept of ‘freedom of contract’ developed by academic economists and the legal profession in the ninteenth century assumed an equality of circumstance between master and servant. The divergence between this concept and the experience was revealed in the dock and general labourers’ disputes of 1889–90 and in the Plymouth dock strike of 1890 in particular. There casual dock labourers faced wealthy organised coal merchants and a hostile bench of magistrates. The issues raised in the 1890 dispute illuminate the current debates on picketing, intimidation and the ‘right to manage’.
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