during our late difference or dispute; and we the said weavers on behalf of the whole trade consider every workman at full liberty to take work for any of the said employers without exception.” Apparently these proposals were not altogether satisfactory to the weavers, who replied that it had been unanimously determined by the whole trade that no other notice except one that they transmitted should be published: “By mutual agreement betwixt the Smallware Manufacturers and their Weavers the differences respecting prices subsisting between them are amicably settled to the satisfaction of both parties.”[180] The masters seem to have been equally reluctant to accept this notice, but as no others appear we may assume that the dispute was near its end. [Footnote 175: _History of Trade Unionism_ (1911), p. 44.] [Footnote 176: _Ibid._, p. 28. The first instances given by Mr. and Mrs. Webb from _The Journals of the House of Commons_ of combinations in this district are in 1717. Earlier instances appear in 1706 from Taunton and Bristol. In the Taunton petition it is stated “that within 4 or 5 years” weavers in most towns where woollen manufactures are made have formed themselves into clubs (_J.H.C._, xv., p. 312).] [Footnote 177: _Industrial Organisation in the XVIth and the XVIIth Centuries_, pp. 51, 58-61, 123, 135, 198-199, 208-210, 229-234.] [Footnote 178: _Manchester Mercury_, 7th August 1781.] [Footnote 179: _Ibid._, 11th September 1781.] [Footnote 180: _Manchester Mercury_, 2nd October 1781. In addition to the smallware weavers there is evidence of organisation in the following trades before 1790: silk weavers, hatters, calico and fustian printers, cotton-spinners, and paper-makers. The hatters were presented with the “document” as early as 11th February 1777 (_Manchester Mercury_).]