Free Trade Union
{{Short description|British trade organisation}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2016}}
The Free Trade Union, later known as the Free Trade League, was a British trade organisation extant between July 1903 and the 1970s. It was founded in opposition to the campaign for Imperial Preference which had been launched by Board of Trade chairman Joseph Chamberlain in May 1903. This scheme was intended to promote trade preferentially with British imperial possessions by imposing tariffs on certain classes of goods imported from outside the "preference" zone.{{Cite book |first=Peter |last=Barberis |title=Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations |publisher=Continuum |year=2005 |page=306 |isbn=0-8264-5814-9 }}
The Union's president between 1948 and 1959 was Andrew McFadyean, and it had close links with the right-wing of the Liberal Party.John Meadowcroft and Jaime Edwards, "[http://www.arthurseldon.org/content/newspaper/liberaljournal.asp Liberals and the New Right] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131021075959/http://www.arthurseldon.org/content/newspaper/liberaljournal.asp |date=2013-10-21 }}", Journal of Liberal History (2005) By 1959 the organisation had a membership of between one and two thousand, but struggled financially. It was taken over by Oliver Smedley and Stanley Walter Alexander"Free Trade Union 'Saved'", The Times, 15 September 1959 prompting the resignation of several prominent Liberal Party members. Bertrand Russell was a speaker on behalf of the group.The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell, page 153
The organisation was renamed the "Free Trade League" in 1962, in an effort to prevent confusion with trade unions,Anthony Howe, "Free Trade and Liberal England, 1846-1946", p.275 and was finally wound up in about 1972, although some members around David Wedgwood established a new organisation of the same name."[http://hackneycitizen.co.uk/2010/04/25/dr-jack-pope-de-locksley-magna-carta-candidate-for-hackney-north/ Dr Jack Pope-de-Locksley: Magna Carta candidate for Hackney North]", Hackney Citizen, 25 April 2010"[http://www.freetradeleague.org.uk/aboutus.html About Us]", Free Trade League