Editing Peterloo Massacre (section)

===Economic conditions===
{{Main|Post-Napoleonic depression}}
After the end of the [[Napoleonic Wars]] in 1815, a brief boom in [[Textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution|textile manufacture]] was followed by periods of chronic economic depression, particularly among cotton textile weavers and spinners. The cotton textile trade was concentrated in [[Lancashire]] and the wool textile trade was concentrated over the border in West and North Yorkshire.{{sfnp|Frangopulo|1977|p=30|ps=none}} Weavers who could have expected to earn 15&nbsp;shillings for a six-day week in 1803, saw their wages cut to 5&nbsp;shillings or even 4s&nbsp;6[[British one penny coin (pre-decimal)|d]] by 1818.{{sfnp|Hernon|2006|p=22|ps=none}} The industrialists, who were cutting wages without offering relief, blamed market forces generated by the aftershocks of the Napoleonic Wars.{{sfnp|Hernon|2006|p=22|ps=none}} Exacerbating matters were the [[Corn Laws]], the first of which was passed in 1815, imposing a [[tariff]] on foreign grain in an effort to [[Protectionism|protect]] English grain producers. The cost of food rose as people were forced to buy the more expensive and lower quality British grain, and periods of famine and chronic unemployment ensued, increasing the desire for political reform both in Lancashire and in the country at large.<ref name="County of Lancs: Manchester">{{cite book |last1=Farrer |first1=William |last2=Brownbill |first2=John |title=The Victoria history of the county of Lancaster. – Lancashire. Vol. 4 |chapter=The city and parish of Manchester: Introduction |orig-year=1911 |chapter-url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=41404 |access-date=27 March 2008 |year=2003–2006 |publisher=University of London & History of Parliament Trust |archive-date=1 December 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101201013147/http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=41404 |url-status=live }}</ref>{{sfnp|Glen|1984|pp=194–252|ps=none}}