These four districts, comprising nearly 21,000,000 inhabitants, or rather more than two-thirds of the population of England and Wales, possessed in 1892 twelve-thirteenths of its Trade Unionists. The total Trade Union membership in the remainder of the country, with its 8,000,000 of population, did not exceed 105,000, largely labourers. The only county in England in which in 1892 we found no trace of Trade Union organisation was Rutland, which did not, at this date, contain a single branch of any Union whatsoever. But Huntingdonshire, Herefordshire, and Dorsetshire, containing together over 350,000 inhabitants, included, according to our estimate, only about 710 Trade Unionists between them. Scotland, with four millions of population, had 147,000 Trade Unionists, nearly all aggregated in the narrow industrial belt between the Clyde and the Forth, two-thirds of the total, indeed, belonging to Glasgow and the neighbouring industrial centres. Ireland, with three-quarters of a million more population, counted but 40,000, nine-tenths of whom belonged to Dublin, Belfast, Cork, and Limerick.

Of particular counties, Northumberland and Durham at that date took the lead, closely followed by Lancashire. The table on following page supplies particulars of this date for the strongest Trade Union counties in England and Wales.

This superficial investigation shows us at once that Trade Unionism coincided in 1892, as it does in 1920, in the main with density of population. The thinly peopled plains of Dorsetshire, the Highlands of Scotland, the West of Ireland, the Cumberland and Westmorland Hills, were practically devoid of Trade Unionism; the valleys of the Tyne and Tees, Lancashire and London, and the busy industrial villages of the Midlands showed a comparatively high percentage. But the correspondence of Trade Unionism with density of population is by no means exact. Oldham, for instance, with a population of 201,153, had 25,000 male Unionists,[579] or 12.43 per cent, whereas Birmingham (including the suburbs of Aston, Handsworth, and Solihull), with 621,253, had only 26,000, or 4.19 per cent. Newcastle (including Gateshead), with 328,066 inhabitants, had 26,500 Trade Unionists, or 8.08 per cent, whilst Leeds (including Wortley, Hunslet, and Burley) had but 16,000 to a population of 415,243, or 3.85 per cent. And, most striking exception of all, the crowded five and a half millions of the Metropolitan area had but 194,000 Trade Unionists, or only 3.52 per cent of its population, whilst Lancashire, even including its northern moorlands and its wide agricultural districts, had 332,000 for less than four millions of people, or 8.63 per cent of its population. Reckoning that 18 out of every 100 of the population are adult male workmen, Trade Unionism thus counted among its adherents in some counties over 50 per cent of the total number of working men.

Table showing, for certain counties in England, and for South Wales, the total population in 1891, the ascertained number of Trade Unionists in 1892, and the percentage to population in each case. (In the first edition of this book the student will find a coloured map of England and Wales, showing, in five tints, the percentage of Trade Union membership to Census population in 1891 in the several counties, as estimated in this table.)

County.Total Population in 1891.Ascertained Number of Members of Trade Societies in 1892.Percentage of Trade Unionists to Population.
Northumberland506,03056,81511.23
Durham1,024,369114,81011.21
Lancashire3,957,906[580] 331,5358.63
Yorkshire, E. Riding318,57023,6307.42
Leicestershire379,28627,8457.34
Derbyshire432,41429,5106.82
South Wales and Monmouthshire1,325,31588,8106.70
Nottinghamshire505,31131,0506.14
Yorkshire, W. Riding2,464,415141,1405.73
Gloucestershire548,88626,0304.74
Cheshire707,97832,0004.52
Staffordshire1,103,45249,5454.49
Suffolk353,75814,8854.21
Warwickshire801,73833,6004.19
Northampton308,07212,2103.96
Cumberland266,54910,2803.86
London District (including Middlesex, Croydon, West Ham, Richmond, Kingston, and Bromley)5,517,583194,0833.52
Yorkshire, N. Riding with York City435,89715,2153.49
————————————
Totals20,957,5291,232,9935.89

No other county had 15,000 Trade Unionists, nor as much as 3 per cent of its population in trade societies.

But this percentage itself fails to give an adequate idea of the extent to which Trade Unionism, even in 1892, dominated the industrial centres in which it was strongest. Within the concentration by localities, there was a further concentration by trades—a fact which to a large extent explains the geographical distribution. The following table shows in what proportion the leading industries contributed to the total Trade Union forces:

Table showing the approximate number of members of trade societies in 1892 according to industries, in the different parts of the United Kingdom.

Trade.England
and Wales.[581]		Scotland.Ireland.Total.
Engineering and Metal Trades233,45045,3008,250287,000
Building Trades114,50024,9508,550148,000
Mining325,75021,250...347,000
Textile Manufactures184,27012,3303,400200,000
Clothing and Leather Trades78,6508,4002,95090,000
Printing Trades37,9505,6502,40046,000
Miscellaneous Crafts46,5507,4504,00058,000
Labourers and Transport Workers302,88021,67010,450335,900
—————————————————
Totals1,324,000147,00040,000[582]1,511,000

For the general reader, this table, together with the foregoing one showing the geographical distribution of Trade Unionism, completes our statistical survey of the Trade Union world of 1892. To the student of Trade Union statistics a more particular enumeration may be useful. Before we attempt to picture Trade Union life, we shall therefore devote a dozen pages (which the general reader may with a clear conscience skip) to the dry facts of organisation in each of the eight great divisions into which we distributed the Trade Union membership of 1892.