Study title

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

In the years before World War One, Free Trade was a crucial part of British culture. Yet we know little about it as a form of political communication. This has been partly because the records of the Free Trade Union did not survive, partly because until recently most historians were more interested in political leaders than political culture. The so-called Free Trade Lectures organisation, which was active throughout 1910, was a self-conscious exercise in modernising how political economy was communicated to different sections of the population.
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This study maps the activities of the Free Trade Lectures organisation, which was active throughout 1910. These included well over a thousand lectures, exhibitions, and lantern slides. Activities are listed separately by town and village as well as by type, distinguishing activities for women, general audiences, rural audiences, and special trades. The list of voluntary and paid speakers gives names separately. All maps and tables are based on the reported activities by the National Free Trade Lectures organisation only and do not include the work of other organisations, such as the Free Trade Union, where detailed information has not survived.

Please note: this study does not include information on named individuals and would therefore not be useful for personal family history research.