History of Labour Law: From Ancient Codes to the 19th Century
Ancient Foundations of Labour Regulation
The Code of Hammurabi (circa 1754 BCE)
The Code of Hammurabi is neither a civil code nor an employment code in the modern sense. However, it contains several ideas that foreshadow later employment regulation:
- Recognition of paid labour as a legal relationship.
- Standardised wages for particular occupations.
- Differentiation between skilled and unskilled workers.
- Rules governing temporary and seasonal labour.
- Legal accountability for negligent performance.
- State intervention in labour markets, rather than leaving wages entirely to private bargaining.
Roman Law: Gaius’ Institutes (c. 160 AD)
In Roman law, the contract of locatio conductio comprised three forms: the lease or hire of a thing (locatio conductio rei), the hire of services (locatio conductio operarum), and the hire of a piece of work (locatio conductio operis).
Locatio conductio operarum was a consensual contract, and the parties had to agree on two essentialia negotii: the services to be rendered (operae) and the amount to be paid (merces). It implied:
- Freedom of contract: Freedom to decide whether to contract and to determine the terms.
- Ordinary private contract: Governed by the general law of contracts, not by specialised labour law (which was nonexistent).
- Contractual equality: Employer and worker were regarded as legally equal.
- No mandatory protection: No minimum employment standards or statutory protections for workers.
- Remedies based on ordinary contract law: No specialised labour law mechanisms existed.
Para que existiera este contrato, las partes debían acordar dos cosas:
Operae: qué servicios iba a realizar el trabajador.
Merces: cuánto dinero iba a recibir por esos servicios.
Medieval and Early Modern Labour Measures
The Black Death (1347–1351)
The Black Death created severe labour shortages, increasing workers’ required wages. In response, authorities enacted:
- England – Ordinance of Labourers (1349): Attempted to control the labour market by limiting wage increases and restricting workers’ movement between employers.
- England – Statute of Labourers (1351): Strengthened these measures by enforcing wage controls, penalising refusal of work, and regulating employer–worker relations.
The Statute of Artificers (1563)
The Statute of Artificers was an English law that regulated skilled trades and labour. It required workers to complete apprenticeships before practising certain trades, controlled access to occupations, and allowed local authorities to set wages and supervise working conditions. It was one of the earliest comprehensive systems of labour regulation and influenced English employment law for more than 200 years.
The First Industrial Revolution (1760–1840)
Socioeconomic Conditions in the UK
Britain led the world in industrial production, especially textiles, coal, and iron. Important consequences included:
- Urbanization: Migration to cities like Manchester, Birmingham, and London grew rapidly, creating overcrowding, pollution, and poor sanitation which led to outbreaks of disease (e.g., cholera).
- Working hardship: Long factory hours, child labour, and an absence of safety standards triggered widespread social discomfort.
- Social mobility: An increase in social mobility emerged for factory owners, bankers, and professionals.
- Capital funding: Growth and funding of banking institutions and joint-stock companies expanded to finance growth.
Impact of the First Industrial Revolution
The era marked a fundamental shift from traditional agrarian and handcraft-based economies to machine-based production. Beginning in Britain in the late 18th century, it gradually spread to continental Europe and beyond, standing as a major turning point in human history. Key technological innovations included:
- Spinning jenny (1764)
- Water frame (1769)
- Power loom (1785)
- Steam engines, notably improved to drive powered machinery and early locomotives
Labour Law Milestones in the UK (1760–1840)
The Factory Acts established the foundational principle that the state could regulate industrial workplaces and protect vulnerable workers from exploitation.
- Health and Morals of Apprentices Act (1802): Often considered the first British factory act; it regulated basic working and living conditions for apprentices in textile mills.
- Factory Act (1819): The first attempt to regulate general factory labour; it restricted the employment of children under 9 years in cotton mills and limited working hours for young workers.
- Factory Act (1831): Restricted child labour by reducing working hours and banning night work in textile production.
- Factory Act (1833): Created the first professional factory inspectorate, banned the employment of children under 9, and introduced compulsory education requirements for young workers.
Labour Law Milestones in the USA (1776–1840)
Unlike Britain, the United States had no equivalent national Factory Acts before 1840. Early American labour law focused primarily on contract enforcement, slavery, and maintaining social order; workplace safety regulation only emerged later in the 19th century.
Commonwealth v. Pullis (Pennsylvania, 1806):
- Actors: A group of journeymen shoemakers.
- Action: They stopped working to demand higher rates and better wages.
- Judicial Decision: The court found the workers guilty of a “criminal conspiracy.”
Latin American Colonial Labour (1760–1810)
Prior to the Wars of Independence, commercial and labour relations still retained deep colonial roots. Spanish and Portuguese colonies regulated labour through systems of forced indigenous labour, chattel slavery, and rural dependency, rather than voluntary employment contracts. Institutions such as the mita and various forms of compulsory community labour continued to shape work relations, regulated largely through the Leyes de Indias.
Labour Law Milestones and Society (1840–1870)
Socioeconomic Conditions in the UK
- Industrialization: Rapid industrial growth cemented Britain’s status as a global industrial leader.
- Urbanization: Accelerated migration to cities for factory work exacerbated overcrowded housing, poor sanitation, and urban poverty. Living conditions for the working class remained harsh even as national wealth and trade expanded.
- Electoral Reform (1867): Extended the franchise to many urban working-class men, increasing eligible voters in Britain from about 1.2 million to over 2 million (though women and most rural labourers remained excluded).
UK Labour Law Enactments (1840–1870)
- Factory Act 1844: Limited the working hours of women and children, required mandatory fencing of dangerous machinery, and introduced stronger factory inspection and workplace safety rules.
- Factory Act 1847 (Ten Hours Act): Limited the work of women and young persons (aged 13–18) in textile mills to ten hours a day for five days a week and eight hours on Saturdays.
- Factory Act 1850: Standardized factory operating hours and restricted women and young persons to work strictly between prescribed daily hours, capped at a maximum of 10½ working hours excluding meal breaks.
- Workshop Regulation Act 1867: Extended labour regulations and compulsory education requirements to many smaller workshops and domestic workplaces previously exempt from factory legislation.
Socioeconomic Conditions in the USA (1840–1870)
- Westward migration: Accelerated following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848), through which the U.S. acquired California, Nevada, Utah, most of Arizona, and parts of Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming.
- The Industrial North: Transformed by rapid industrialization, factory production, railroads, and immigrant labour, which fueled urban and economic growth. Northern cities expanded rapidly, generating crowded housing and pollution. Long hours and child labour were standard, sparking labour protests.
- The Plantation South: Remained rural and agrarian, heavily dependent on cotton production and enslaved labour.
- Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857): The Supreme Court ruled that Congress lacked the constitutional authority to ban slavery in federal territories.
- Lincoln’s Election and the Civil War (1860–1865): Abraham Lincoln won the presidency in November 1860 without a single Southern electoral vote. Between December 1860 and February 1861, seven Southern states seceded from the Union, initiating the Civil War in April 1861. The war ended in 1865, resulting in the abolition of slavery and the reintegration of an increasingly industrialized United States.
US Labour Law Milestones (1840–1870)
During this era, comprehensive federal regulation of workplace safety, hours, and wages remained absent, and courts routinely treated strikes as conspiracies in restraint of trade.
Commonwealth v. Hunt (Massachusetts, 1842):
- Actors: A group of journeymen bootmakers from the Boston Journeymen Bootmakers’ Society.
- Action: Workers refused to work for any employer who hired non-union workers at below-rate wages.
- Judicial Decision: Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw held that labour unions were legal organisations and retained the right to strike and employ peaceful collective action.
Eight-Hour Act (1868): Established an eight-hour workday for federal government employees; although it had limited practical effect initially, it marked an early legislative precedent for working hour limits.
Peru and the Guano Era (1840–1870)
- Economic boom and decline: Guano exports generated massive national revenues, funding external debt repayment and public infrastructure; however, Peru became overly dependent on a single export commodity. By the late 1860s, guano reserves were depleted, international competition increased, debt mounted, and corruption limited sustained progress. Railways expanded, yet broader domestic industrialization remained weak and heavily dependent on imports.
- Politics: Frequent military coups and caudillo governance caused ongoing instability. President Ramón Castilla introduced relative political stability and pivotal reforms, including the abolition of slavery in 1854.
- Society: The majority of the population resided in rural regions engaged in low-productivity agriculture. Indigenous peoples, Afro-Peruvians, and Chinese indentured labourers experienced severe inequality and social marginalisation.
- Institutions: Fragile public institutions and entrenched post-colonial hierarchies triggered repeated political unrest and civil conflict.
Legal Milestones in Peru: Huancayo Constitution (1839)
By 1840, Peru had promulgated five constitutions (1823, 1826, 1828, 1834, and 1839—or six including the 1836 confederate constitution). The Huancayo Constitution of 1839 established key legal parameters:
- Article 155: Established that no person could be born into slavery (the “free womb” principle), though existing enslaved individuals remained unfree.
- Article 169: Formally recognized economic freedom, serving as a vital legal foundation for the later development of modern commercial and labour law.
- Article 167: Protected the right to private property, an ambivalent protection since enslaved persons continued to be treated as property within that legal framework.
Legal Milestones in Peru: The First Civil Code (1852)
- Enactment: In 1852, Peru promulgated its first Civil Code, modelled on the French Napoleonic Code and adapted to domestic Peruvian conditions.
- Hiring of services: Employment was categorized strictly under civil contract rules for the hire of services between individuals.
- Absence of protective standards: The code lacked modern statutory worker protections, leaving employment governed purely by formal contractual terms.