Working people
still saw demonstrations and violence as the best way to achieve
their economic goals, since strikes didn't work. For example, the
silk workers used street violence to get protective legislation
against imports and mechanization in 1675. The manufacture of silk
material had been brought to England by French workers driven from
France. In 1697, three thousand London silk weavers demonstrated
outside the Commons and East India House against the importation
of raw silks by the East India Co., and a couple months later,
they attacked a house in the city owned by a gentleman of the
company. In 1701, heavy duties were imposed on the import of
Indian silks and wearing of Indian silks was prohibited by
statute. Sometimes mobs would break open the prisons to release
fellow rioters or take action against strike breakers or
informers. Parish constables elected by their neighbors could not
control the mobs and stayed within their parishes. Dueling was
still prevalent, even though against the law.
In London and Westminster, it was hard to enforce the requirement
that inhabitants keep the street in front of their house clean and
store the filth until the daily raker or scavenger came with cart
and dung pot. So a commission was made responsible for paving and
keeping clean the streets, making and repairing vaults, sewers,
drains, and gutters, and removing encroachments.
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