The National Typographical Association was an early British

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....

 trade union

Trade union

A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...

, operating on a national basis.

The union was founded in 1830 as the Northern Typographical Union, a federation of small, local societies in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 and the Isle of Man

Isle of Man

The Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is...

, including the well-established Manchester Typographical Society. Led by John Backhouse, the Association aimed to co-ordinate the activities of its member organisations. By 1840, the union had 44 member societies, representing more than 1,000 members.

During the early 1840s, the union began organising typographers in southern towns, but suffered setbacks due to a recession

Recession

In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction, a general slowdown in economic activity. During recessions, many macroeconomic indicators vary in a similar way...

. As a result, it reconstituted itself as the "National Typographical Association" in 1844. By 1846, the organisation had 74 branches and 5,418 members. The London Union of Compositors had reconstituted itself as the South East Region, and the General Typographical Association of Scotland as the Northern Region. However, the organisation had insufficient income to cover disputes, and following a major strike in Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

 during 1848, it was forced to dissolve.

The Association's South East Region re-established itself as the London Society of Compositors, while several societies in the north of England formed the Provincial Typographical Association. It was not until 1853 that the surviving Scottish societies formed the Scottish Typographical Association.