The primary aim of this paper is to re‒evaluate female labourers' participation in the Preston strike of 1853. This paper also explores how and why those female labourers came to demand the withdrawal of married women from the labour market, despite the fact that they had been obvious participants in labour movements. Much of the research on the Preston strike of 1853 has not give sufficient attention to women’s roles in the strike, so this study seeks to compensate for that neglect through an examination of local newspapers such as the Preston Chronicle and contemporary pamphlets. The investigation shows that women were important supporters of the strike through their attendance at operatives’ meetings, subscription to strike funds, and criticism of blacklegs.

This paper discusses the fact that the demand by females that married women leave the factories was the result of the influence of the Chartist and factory reform movements of the 1830s. Female labourers actively participated in the 1853 strike having already forged their identity as wage labourers, but they were affected by the shared perspective of the two movements regarding female wage labour, and especially the view that married women’s wage labor constituted a social problem and that women’s duty as wives and mothers should be emphaslzed. The evidence suggests that by expressing sympathy with the resolution calling on all married women to withdraw from the labour market, female labourers expected the following results : first, an increase in wages

(especially for males) due to the restricted supply of labour ; second, the alleviation of the double burden on married women who were responsible for both wage labour and housework ; and finally, maintenance of the economic independence of single women labourers.

The agreement with the prohibition of married women's wage labour shows that married and unmarried women had different identities, and that they differed not only in social status but also in their own awareness of themselves. This paper concludes that this divergence in identities was a product of the gap between the working‒class ideal of family‒wage/male breadwinner ideology and the reality of English society, which relied on a female labour force. Nevertheless, though confronted with opposition to women’s wage labour, female labourers maintained their position as wage‒earners and did not cease to support labour movements in the nineteenth century. And their experiences as important actors in labour agitations can be understood as a pard of the prehistory of the female labour movements that flourished after the 1870s.

This paper reconsiders the importance of river transport, which is generally regarded as only a subsidiary means of transport in the expansion of industrialization. The study then clarifies how Main river shipping affected industrialization in Frankfurt am Main through a comparative analysis of ships and railways. The material in this paper is derived mainly from acts of city council in the collection of the Frankfurt History Institute.

With Frankfurt’s establishment as a large market and center of trade, shipping on the Main became important. The west harbour and Main canal began operations in 1886 to keep up with the demand. Shipment volumes grew to such an extent that the west harbor was no longer sufficient to handle it, and in 1912 an east harbor was opened as well.

Railways, on the other hand, were significant because Frankfurt was at the center of Europe. Until the end of the free‒city era, there were seven railways. The volume of rail transport increased in the 1860s along with the expansion of the railway network in Germany as a whole. However, any given station was unable to manage the increase in traffic, and the railways bureau concluded that a consolidated central cargo station was needed, and it opened one in 1887. In the 20th century, a new east cargo station began operation along with east harbour.

The volume of Main shipping decreased after 1914. However the volume of coal shipments held steady from 1913 to 1919. Coal was a highly important good during World War I, serving as fuel for the diverse needs of the war regime. It follows that the Main river had an important role in shipping during these years. In short, river transport changed in terms of the content of cargo, taking advantage of the outbreak of war, whereas railway shipments held steady relative to the prewar years.

Moreover Frankfurt did not neglect the maintenance and extension of east harbor despite the war then in progress. The city took a positive attitude toward the introduction of industry from WWI on. Coal and building materials were important for industry as fuel and raw materials and shipping conveyed these vital goods. Thus Main shipping was essential to industry.

Previous studies of river transport in Frankfurt mainly share the view that river transport went into decline with the start of the First World War. A strict examinationof the cargo, the extension plans for the harbor, and comparisons with railway cargo reveal a different pattern, however. This research goes on to consider how river transport affected industrialization in Frankfurt.