[76] That such clubs were common in the handicraft trades in London as early as 1720 appears from the following extract from _The Case of the Master Taylors residing within the Cities of London and Westminster_, a petition which led to the Act of 1720: “This combination of the Journeymen Taylors ... is of very ill example to Journeymen in all other trades; as is sufficiently seen in the Journeymen Curriers, Smiths, Farriers, Sailmakers, Coachmakers, and artificers of divers other arts and mysteries, who have actually entered into Confederacies of the like nature; and the Journeymen Carpenters, Bricklayers, and Joyners have taken some steps for that purpose, and only wait to see the event of others.” And the Journeymen Tailors in their petition of 1745 allude to the large number of “Monthly Clubs” among the London handicraftsmen. With regard to the curriers at this date, see Place MSS, 27801--246, 247. It may be conveniently noticed here that, although strikes are, as we have seen, as old as the fourteenth century at least, the word “strike” was not commonly used in this sense until the latter part of the eighteenth century. The Oxford Dictionary gives the first instance of its use as in 1768, when the _Annual Register_ refers to the hatters having “struck” for a rise in wages. The derivation appears to be from the sailors’ term of “striking” the mast, thus bringing the movement to a stop. [77] So much is this the case that Dr. Brentano asserts that “Trade Unions originated with the non-observance of” the Elizabethan Statute of Apprentices (p. 104), and that their primary object was, in all cases, the enforcement of the law on the subject. [78] Preamble to “An Act touching Weavers” (2 and 3 Philip and Mary, c. xi.); see Froude’s _History of England_, vol. i. pp. 57-9; and W. C. Taylor’s _Modern Factory System_, pp. 53-5. [79] As expanded by 1 James I. c. 6 and 16 Car. I. c. 4; see R. _v._ Justices of Kent, 14 East, 395. [80] See on these points, Dr. Cunningham’s _History of English Industry and Commerce_, Mr. Hewins’ _English Trade and Finance chiefly in the 17th Century_, and Thorold Rogers’ _History of Agriculture and Prices_, vol. v. pp. 625-6, etc. Adam Smith observes that the fixing of wages had, in 1776, “gone entirely into disuse” (_Wealth of Nations_, bk. i. ch. x. p. 65), a statement broadly true, although formal determinations of wages are found in the MS. Minutes of Quarter Sessions for another half century. [81] This forms the constant refrain of the numerous broadsheets or _Tracts relating to Trade_ of 1688-1750, which are preserved in the British Museum, the Guildhall Library, and in the Goldsmith Company’s Library at the University of London. [82] Privy Council Minutes of 1726, p. 310 (unpublished); see also House of Commons Journals, vol. xx. p. 745 (February 20, 1726). [83] Privy Council Minutes, February 4, 1726. [84] House of Commons Journals, vol. xix. p. 181 (December 5, 1719).