1. The Commercial Department is the real remains of the original Board of Trade, as it combines the charge of the trade statistics with the general consultative duties with which King Charles II.’s board was originally entrusted. The statistical work includes compiling the abstracts relating to the United Kingdom, the colonies, and foreign countries, the supervision of the trade accounts, and the preparation of shipping, railway, emigration, and fishery statistics. A record of the prices of corn has been obtained from actual sales in the chief market towns for about a hundred years, the original object being the sliding scale of corn duties, but these are now continued to govern the tithe payments, and form an unbroken series of prices based on actual transactions, and not mere market quotations. Foreign and colonial customs tariffs and regulations are also matters on which information is published, and labour statistics are for the future to have special attention. In 1872 one of the most important functions of the commercial department, viz., the negotiation of commercial treaties, was transferred to the Foreign Office, but the Board of Trade is still consulted on these matters by the Foreign Office, as well as by the Colonial Office on colonial commercial matters, and by the other public departments. The Bankruptcy Act of 1883 added a new branch of work, but for this there is now a separate establishment under an inspector-general. The last new work undertaken by the department is the publication (begun August 1886) of a Monthly Journal of commercial information, chiefly from official sources.

2. The Railway Department was originally constituted in 1840, and performs multifarious duties under various Railway Acts, including the inspection of railways before they are open, inquiries into accidents, reports on proposed railways, approval of bye-laws, appointment of arbitrators in disputes, as well as many duties under private Railway Acts. The inspection of tramways, their bye-laws and “provisional orders,” are all dealt with here, as are similar orders relating to gas and water schemes and to electric lighting. Patents, designs, and trade marks are now dealt with by the Patent Office, which is subordinate to the railway department, and copyright, art unions, and industrial exhibitions are also among the matters dealt with by the department.

3. The Marine Department was created a separate branch of the Board of Trade in 1850, about which time many new and important marine questions came under the Board of Trade, such, for example, as the survey of passenger steamers, the compulsory examination of masters and mates, the establishment of snipping offices for the engagement and discharge of seamen. Further work fell to the marine department by the Act of 1853, which gave it the control of lighthouse funds, and to a certain extent of pilotage. The consolidating Merchant Shipping Act of 1854 and subsequent legislation so much increased the department that in 1866 it was divided into three, viz., the present marine department, which deals with ships and seamen, the harbour department, and the finance department.

4. The Harbour Department was, as stated above, a branch of the marine department until 1866, so far as it is connected with the physical adjuncts of navigation, but various other matters have since been added, e.g., the charge of the foreshores belonging to the crown, formerly managed by the commissioners of woods and forests, and the protection of navigable harbours and channels, long under the control of the Admiralty. Lighthouse funds, provisional orders for oyster and mussel fisheries, the management of Holyhead and Ramsgate harbours and of Dover pier, wreck, and quarantine are all among the matters dealt with by this department, which also has charge of the standards department for weights and measures.

5. The Finance Department was, like the harbour department, separated in 1866 from the marine department. The accounts of all the branches of the Board of Trade are in its charge, including the subordinate offices. It also deals with the accounts of harbours, lighthouses, and mercantile marine offices, and of the merchant seamen’s fund, and with the consuls’ accounts for disabled seamen abroad. Savings banks and seamen’s money orders are also among the accounts and payments with which it is charged, and outside these marine matters it has to prepare for parliament the life insurance companies’ accounts and to take charge of the bankruptcy estate accounts.

6. The Fisheries Department.— By a recent Act the powers of the Home Office over salmon and other fisheries have been transferred to the Board of Trade, and a small department has consequently been created charged with the care of those industries.

By these statutes, construed with the Conspiracy an Protection of Property Act, 1875, the 38 and 39 Vict. cap. 86, the law relating to combinations, whether of workmen or of masters, assumed the shape in which it exists at the present time. In connexion with trade disputes no person can now be prosecuted for conspiracy to commit an act which would not be criminal if committed by him singly, and consequently employers and employed alike may lawfully do in combination all that they would be entitled to do as individuals. The purposes of a trade union are not to be deemed illegal merely because they are in restraint of trade, and the circumstance that they are in restraint of trade is not to render any member of it liable to prosecution, nor is it to avoid or make voidable any agreement or trust relating to it. No court, however, can entertain legal proceedings with the object of directly enforcing or recovering damages for the breach of an agreement between the members of a trade union as such, concerning the conditions on which the members for the time being shall or shall not sell their goods, transact their business, employ or be employed, or the payment by any person of any subscription or penalty to a trade union, or for the application of the funds of a trade union to provide benefits or to furnish contributions to any employer or workman not a member of such trade union in consideration of such employer or workman acting in conformity with the rules or resolutions of such trade union, or to discharge any fine imposed upon any person by any court of justice or any agreement made between one trade union and another, or any bond to secure such agreements. But such incapacity to sue on such agreements is not to be taken as constituting any of them illegal. Every person, however, commits a misdemeanour, and on conviction is liable to a maximum fine of £20, or to a maximum imprisonment of three months with hard labour, who wilfully and maliciously breaks a contract of service or hiring, knowing, or having reasonable cause to believe, that the probable consequence of his so doing, either alone or in combination with others, will be to endanger human life or cause serious bodily injury, or to expose valuable property, whether real or personal, to destruction or serious injury; or who, being employed by a municipal authority or by any company or contractor on whom is imposed by Act of Parliament, or who have otherwise assumed, the duty of supplying any place with gas or water, wilfully and maliciously breaks a contract of service or hiring, knowing, or having reasonable cause to believe, that the probable consequence of his so doing, alone or in combination with others, will be to deprive the inhabitants of that place, wholly or in part, of their supply of gas or water; or who, with a view to compel any other person to do or to abstain from doing any act which such other person has a right to abstain from doing or to do, wrongfully and without legal authority uses violence to or intimidates such other person or his wife or children, or injures his property; or who persistently follows such person about from place to place; or who hides any tools, clothes, or other property owned or used by such other person, or deprives him of or hinders him in the use thereof; or who watches or besets the house or other place where such person resides or works or carries on business or happens to be, or the approach to such house or place; or who follows such other person with two or more other persons in a disorderly manner in or through any street or road. But attending at or near the house or place where a person resides or works or carries on business in order merely to obtain or communicate information is not watching or besetting within the statute. In regard to registration, trade unions are placed on a similar footing with friendly and provident and industrial societies, and they enjoy all the privileges, advantages, and facilities which those associations possess and command. On their side, however, they have to comply with the same conditions, are subject to the same liabilities, and are compelled to make the same periodical returns.

Although there are several large and influential societies among the employers of labour which come within the legal definition of trade unions, what are commonly as well as more accurately meant by trade unions are societies exclusively composed of the employed, —the suppliers of labour whether skilled or unskilled. Of trade unions in this sense,—those of which the members are all artisans or labourers,—the organization is everywhere pretty much the same, although the rules and regulations of various associations differ in detail more or less distinctly and widely from one another. Their ordinary constitution is that of a society divided into districts, and again into smaller local bodies. The seat of the governing authority —the general or executive council—is usually fixed at some large centre of industry or commerce, as London, Manchester, or Birmingham, and it is often changed at stated intervals by a vote of the society at large. It is the policy of the trade unions, by this method of organization, to extend the area of their influence, and so to increase their power in dealing with the masters or in controlling their own members in any emergency. Each of the branches has a separate government for special purposes. But for general purposes all the branches are under the command of the executive council or central committee, which is constituted of members or officers who are elected by the whole society. The terms on which members are admitted are different in different associations. But in all of them there are certain limits as to age and the number of years during which the candidate has been apprenticed to or has worked in the trade. The revenue and reserve of all the societies are derived from admission fees and weekly or monthly subscriptions, together with the amount of the fines which are imposed for neglect of duty and breaches of the rules and regulations. These sources of income are sufficient for ordinary purposes; and extraordinary charges, such as are entailed by a “strike” or a “lock-out,” are nearly always, if not invariably, met by means of “levies” made on the members by order of the executive council or central committee. The following account of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers may be accepted as furnishing a typical example of the organization and management of a large and flourishing trade union.

According to the thirty-third annual Report of that society, it appears that in 1883 the union consisted of 424 branches, chiefly in towns in the British Isles, but with a fair sprinkling in Canada, the United States, Australia, India, and other parts of the globe. The number of members was 50,418. A branch must consist of not fewer than seven members or more than three hundred. The constitution is pre-eminently democratic. Each branch is itself a completely organized body. It selects and elects its own officers; it collects, holds, and spends its own funds; and it manages the whole of the business which affects itself alone. The officers of the branch are elected at general meetings at which every member must be present under the penalty of a fine. Members who refuse to be nominated for office, or who refuse to serve if elected, are also subject to fines, and officers who neglect their business either by coming late to meetings or absenting themselves altogether are similarly punished. A meeting of the members of each branch is held every fortnight for the transaction of ordinary business, such as receiving subscriptions and deciding upon propositions for new members. These meetings begin at half-past 7 in the evening, and close at half-past 9 or 10 o’clock, but the hours are altered when it is convenient to alter them. The duties of the secretary are onerous, and his responsibility is great. No one therefore is eligible who has not been in the society two years successively, and “no member shall be elected as secretary who keeps a public or beer house.” He has charge of the accounts of his branch, and conducts its correspondence. He has to see to the payment of members who are entitled to travelling relief donation, sick, superannuation, or funeral benefit. He has to summon meetings, keep minutes, report to the general secretary as to the state of trade in the district, the number of men out of work, or on the other hand he has to state what men are wanted, and he has also “to transact any other business that belongs to his office.” The president, vice-president, and assistant secretary of a branch are elected quarterly, while the secretary and referee are elected annually. Members are exempt if they are fifty years of age, or if they reside more than 3 miles from the club house; and they are disqualified if they are 10s. in arrear with their contributions. There are also bookkeepers, money stewards, doorkeepers, treasurers, and auditors, the nature of whose work is evident from their titles. There are also sick stewards, whose duties are to visit the sick twice a week, to report their visits to the meetings of the branch, and to carry the invalid his sick benefit. None of the offices are honorary. In branches numbering fewer than fifty members every officer is allowed 4d., and in branches numbering fifty and upwards 6d., for his attendance on branch meeting nights. The secretary is paid annually and according to the size of the branch. The lowest amount is £1, 5s. for a branch of ten members, the highest £10, 4s. for a branch of three hundred. The auditors are paid at a lower rate, which varies from 9d. to 4s. 8d., while the treasurer is paid 10 per cent. on the sum set apart for use. Each branch has also a committee, which has power to determine anything whereon the society’s rules are silent. The books of the branch are open to their inspection; they can summon meetings, and they have various other duties. Each member of this committee receives 6d. for each meeting he attends, and is fined 6d. for each meeting from which he is absent. In any district in which there are more branches than one, a local district committee must be formed, consisting of seven members, each branch as nearly as practicable selecting an equal number. Where there are seven branches, each one sends a representative. The duties of this committee are to “watch over the interests of the trade, and transact such business as affects the district generally.” It must not, however, interfere with the business of any particular branch of the society. The central authority is vested in a general or executive council, consisting of thirty-seven members, of whom eleven represent metropolitan branches, the others being from the provinces, including Scotland and Ireland. As the country councillors cannot conveniently attend frequent meetings in London, the ordinary management is entrusted to the eleven London members, who are called the local council, and the council is also further broken up into various committees for managing the details of the society. This council hears appeals from branches, advises, forbids, initiates, and terminates strikes. The general secretary receives a salary of £4 a week and lives rent free. He also receives 1s. 6d. each time he attends...

In 1875 the Trade Marks Registration Act established for the first time a registry of trade-marks in Britain, greatly facilitating the proof of title. A more precise definition of a trade-mark was also provided. In 1883 this Act was repealed by the Patents, Designs, and Trade Marks Act, in which its principal provisions were incorporated. All proceedings for the registration of trade-marks are now regulated by the Patents Act. A trade-mark may be a name printed or otherwise delineated in some particular or distinctive manner, or a signature, or a device, mark, brand, &c. Registration is compulsory, at least in the sense that the owner cannot prevent infringement or sue for damages for infringement unless he has registered, though it would appear that this disability exists only in the case of a mark capable of being registered under the Act. There are certain indicia which cannot be registered because they do not fall within the definition of a trade-mark, but which may yet be protected at equity. Registration is deemed equivalent to public use of the mark, and, after the expiration of five years, is conclusive evidence of right to exclusive use. Applications for registration have to be addressed to the comptroller of patents; should he refuse to register, there is an appeal to the Board of Trade. If there is opposition, the matter goes to the High Court of Justice. Registration holds good for fourteen years, at the end of which time it has to be renewed. Special provision is made in the Act for the retention of certain of the ancient privileges of the Cutlers Company of Sheffield. The total number of marks now upon the register is nearly 50,000.

The Customs Consolidation Act, 1876, forbids the importation of articles of foreign manufacture bearing any mark purporting to be the mark of manufacturers resident in the United Kingdom, or stating or implying that such articles were manufactured in the United Kingdom. The Merchandise Marks Act, 1887, consolidated and amended the law of offences relating to trade-marks and trade descriptions. It repealed the Act of 1862 and replaced it by fuller provisions. It is now an offence to forge a trade-mark, to falsely apply to goods any trade-mark or any mark so nearly resembling a trade-mark as to deceive, to make any die, &c., for the purpose of forging or for being used for forging a trade-mark, to apply any false trade description to goods, to dispose of or have in possession any die, &c., for the purpose of forging a trade-mark, or to cause any of the above-mentioned things to be done. There are special sections in the Act dealing with its application to watches and watch-cases. Where a watch-case is of foreign manufacture it must, if stamped at an assay office in the United Kingdom, bear a mark differing from the mark placed upon watches manufactured in the United Kingdom. A warranty is implied in the sale of goods bearing a trade-mark or trade description. See Warranty.

In most foreign countries provisions have long existed for the registration of trade-marks; and they also form one of the classes of” “industrial property” for the protection of which an international convention was formed in 1883. This convention now includes sixteen states,—the more important being Belgium, France, Great Britain, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States. The subjects of all the contracting states enjoy in each state the same rights and privileges as that state grants to its own subjects for the protection of trade-marks. Registration also in one of the states confers certain rights of priority in the others.

United States.— The legislation of the different States and Territories varies considerably, some providing for the registration of trade-marks either with or without protection for unregistered trade-marks, while others provide only for protection without registration. On March 3, 1881, Congress passed an Act “to authorize the registration of trade-marks and to protect the same,” which provides that owners of trade-marks used in commerce with foreign nations or with the Indian tribes, provided such owners be domiciled in the United States or located in any foreign country or tribe which affords similar privileges to citizens of the United States, may obtain registration of trade-marks under the Act. Registration is not compulsory; failure to register a trade-mark, or to renew registration, does not deprive the owner of any remedy he might have at law or in equity; and the courts will, generally speaking, protect the unregistered equally with the registered.

For fuller information see L. B. Sebastian’s Law of Trade Marks, or R. W. Wallace's edition of the Patents, Designs, and Trade Marks Act; and in America Rowland Cox's American Trade-Mark Cases, Cox’s Manual of Trade-Mark Cases, and William Henry Brown's Treatise on the Law of Trade Marks.