The fear that innovation destroys jobs has a long history, dating back to General Ludd and Captain Swing in the early 1800s. In 1812 the Luddites went about smashing stocking frames in protest at the introduction of new machinery into the textile industry, taking their inspiration and their name from a probably apocryphal story of one Ned Ludd who had supposedly done the same back in 1779. In 1830, in a protest at conditions in the farming industry, rioting labourers began burning hay ricks and smashing threshing machines, under a mythical leader named Captain Swing.
