Towards the end of the nineteenth century, British trade unions reached a condition in which they could write a contract concerning wages and conditions of employment and also have equal recourse with employers to the law in enforcing such a contract. The route to this state of affairs had been long and tortuous. The acts of 1799 and 1800 made combination illegal and made provision for legally binding arbitration. They were intended to operate in the spirit of laissez faire, by ensuring the enforceability of a contract between an individual employee and his employer, and by providing a quick and cheap method of resolving disputes between these parties as to the interpretation of their contract. The experience of the operation of this system of law indicated that it imparted an advantage to the employers, who could combine with impunity to enforce low wage rates, and a disadvantage to the employees, who were apparently forbidden even to claim protection under the law by means of a large number of individually brought suits. Such actions were regarded as evidence in themselves of combination or conspiracy and were therefore deemed illegitimate.

In 1824 the system underwent a complete reform, the Combination Acts were repealed, the Arbitration Acts were repealed. Simultaneously, new arbitration machinery was set up using the existing system of justices of the peace. There ensued a surge in the level of strike activity which resulted in a reimposition of anti-combination legislation in the following year. The new circumstances are not easy to assess. In some respects the trade unions' position was improved.