Chapter 5- Strike!

The chapters of this book are incredibly long and detailed, with much consideration, I decided to tell you about the great year of 1888, which is included in this chapter. 1888, the British Empire included a third of the world's population; Victoria was Queen Empress and Marquess of Salisbury was her Conservative Prime Minister; Leo XIII was Pope; and Grover Cleveland, a democrat, was President of the United States; Jack the Ripper was stalking the streets of London, murdering and mutilating; and in July of 1888, a threatening event occurred in the same city, the girls who worked at Bryant and May match factory came out on a strike, and won.
The strike at Bryant and May's was actually rather unexpected. Bryant and May had been motivated by the highest ideals, and other than the set backs mentioned last chapter, there business seemed to flourish thoroughly. What caused the strike was the horid economic depression of the late 19th century, which had driven down the price of lucifers.
Bryant and May, had become a public company in the year of 1884. It employed roughly 3,000 people, majority working at home making match boxes and about 1,300 working in Bow factory itself. The employers were actually extremely worker loyal. When a tax was imposed and they fought for it to be levied. Unfortunately Bryant and May and other nanufacturers were furious, and began a public campaign to stop it. We can take it as them being against the tax, and as the campaigns and riots increased authoritative powere tried to stop it. Eventually the unliked tax on matches was lifted, when Queen Victoria expresses her non-amusement of the tax.  As loyal as they were to their workers, it wasn't enough and when wages and hours were cut, the strike began.