The Webbs' International Minimum and the National Minimum

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the Webbs' involvement in the international labour movement between the time of their publication of The History of Trade Unionism (1894) and Industrial Democracy (1897). I point out that a change in the evaluation of trade unionism occurred between these two works, and that it influenced their notion of the National Minimum. The conclusions of this paper are as follows. Firstly, Sidney Webb served as chairman of the Technical Education Board of the London County Council after 1893 and developed the so-called "scholarship ladder". This was a system for fostering "brainworkers" essential to the realization of the National Minimum. Secondly, he chaired the Commission on Education and Physical Development and presented a report on it at the London Congress of the Second International on 31st July 1896. The report was proposed as a result of his tenure on the Technical Education Board. It was, however, rejected in the plenary meeting owing to the opposition of J. Keir Hardie, leader of the British Independent Labour Party. Finally, in this way the Webbs had already conceived of the International Minimum before the London Congress. Nevertheless they experienced disappointment with the international labour movement due to the rejection of the report of the Commission. They concluded, therefore, that the International Minimum as "utopian" in Industrial Democracy