Tens years into the new century things had begun to change. The English economy was suffering due to the war in Europe with the French. France's military leader, Napoleon, enacted the Continental System, which prohibited English goods from entering the continent. The blockade led to a drop in England's exports of some 33 1/3 percent by 1811(20). In due course, the decline in exports induced a widespread financial panic which ended in many bankruptcies and bank failures. These two events had the net effect of lowering wages about 50 percent in 1811. While on the average the prices of goods, which had been continuously rising from 1790, were 87 percent higher.

Another contributing factor was that for some time the working classes had been aware that if business was allowed to progress the way it was there would be terrible inequalities between them and the wealthier classes.

By 1811 The frameknitters of the Midlands were being forced to rent the frames they worked on by the manufactures, hosiers. A year later mass production was being introduced by the use of wide knitting frames. These frames made the work less labor intensive, because the stockings were made of a one cut piece of material, which was called a "cut-up." Consequently, stockings were cheaper to manufacture. The knitters felt that these methods of manufacturing were displacing skilled labor and that the deterioration in quality, due to the cheaper production practices, was producing the decline in the purchase of stockings. There were many manufactures who agreed with the knitters but the practice was becoming so common that the only way for them to compete was to follow their competitors lead.

The manufacturers, having found profit saving methods, began to employ various methods to either lower or to defraud the knitters, weavers, and croppers of their earnings. They were able to do this because there were no laws in place to control the amount or method of payment for wages. Many manufacturers would just simply not display schedules of prices for work, this way they could pay their workers whatever they felt like paying them. In some instances workers were paid with store credit, which was only good for purchasing items at a company store. This was tough on the workers because most of the items were over priced. If a manufacture did not use either one or both of these methods to cheat their workers he would pay them in "truck" payments. By adopting this practice they could pay the workers with goods instead of money.

At that time petitions, from the cotton districts, began to pour into Parliament for relief of the unjust practices of the manufacturers. But Parliament dismissed their pleas and the workers knew that any continued political outcry would be met either with death or with banishment to one of the colonies. As Duvall noted in his text:

"Most people in 1811 and 1812 found it difficult to appreciate the value of new machinery economizing labour at a time when goods were a glut upon the market and when there was, in any case, a surplus of labour available."

With such thoughts in their minds the working classes were becoming very discontent during 1811.

On March 11th a crowd of framework knitters gathered in the market place at Nottingham. The crowd was so large and volatile that town officials called in the militia to disperse them. That same day during the evening some 60 knitting frames were broken in Arnold. The frames which were broken were only those that belonged to hated manufacturers.

The initial success of the Luds led E. P. Thompson to write, "'[w]e have an impression of active moral sanction given by the community to all Luddite activities short of actual assassination.'"

However, one of the most poignant examples of one of the reasons that may have motivated these people to revolt is from an anonymous man from Manchester speaking of his plight:

"I have five children and a wife. The children all under 8 years of age, I get 9d. clear(per week)... I work sixteen hours a day to get that.... It will take 2d. per week coals, 1d. per week candles. My family live on potatoes chiefly and we have one pint of milk per day."