Liverpool's legislations - Reactionary or Reformist?

Question 1

Reactionary

Answer 1

1816 Tightening of Game Laws - penalised poor resorting to poaching - repression rather than addressing underlying poverty.
1817 Suspension of Habeus Corpus - allowed Detention without trial.
1819 Six Acts - repressive
1825 Amending Act on Strikes introduced legal barriers to strikes, restricting worker’s rights to protest. + organise following a period of economic hardship.

Question 2

Reformist

Answer 2

1816 Abolition of income tax - seen only as wartime measure - replaced by indirect taxes which burdened the poor.

Early 1800s relief acts for dissenters + Toleration act expanded religious, freedoms, especially for Unitarians and dissenters.

Truck Act Early 1800s - Prohibited paying workers in goods instead of money.

1819 Factory Acts - Addressed child labour.

1824 Repeal of Combination Acts - Allowed trade unions legal status , responding to pressure from skilled artisans, fostering greater working organisation.

1822 Recodification of Criminal Law (PEEL) Simplified criminal law, reduced hard penalties, and improved treatment of Female prisoners.

Question 3

CHANGES

Answer 3

Enclosure acts - by 1830 90% farmland was enclosed - farmers make change individually.
Threshing machine Developed in 1780s
Formation of Royal Agricultural Society- spread farming techniques and advancements.