Bob Bennett
It is often assumed that industrial Britain, with its large factories and mines employing thousands of people, left little space for individuals running their own businesses. But not everyone was employed as a worker for others. Some exercised a level of agency operating on their own as business proprietors, even if they were also often very constrained.
Judy Stephenson
The concept of an ‘industrious revolution’—a period when household productivity and consumer demand increased before industrialization, generating surplus for investment in new technology—has been influential since the late 1990s. For economic historians, the measure of industriousness is the number of days people worked per year. For anybody who was paid by the day, annual income was a function of the portion of the day rate that they received, and the number of days that they received it for. How many days people worked per year is therefore of profound importance to understanding preindustrial living standards, as well as economic growth.
Paul Warde
In the 19th century , no-one doubted the significance of Britain’s use of coal in underpinning its economic and political power – foreign neighbours envied Britain’s resources and mining industry long before the term ‘Industrial Revolution’ came into widespread use. In more recent decades, understanding about how burning fossil fuels has led to climate change puts a new complexion on this epochal shift. It is not only associated with bursting the constraints of the organic economy, but also bringing new hazards on a global scale. What happened in Britain takes on a new significance.
Amy Erickson
In the spring of 2020, when the government asked anyone who could conduct their paid employment ‘remotely’ to do so for fear of a novel coronavirus, working from home – or WFH as it came to be known – was a novel concept. It seemed strange because since the 20th century we think of paid work as taking place outside the home – in a factory, an office, a shop, a hospital, a school or university. But in historical terms, working outside a home (not necessarily one’s own, but someone’s home) is a relatively recent phenomenon.
Leigh Shaw-Taylor
The service sector, also known as the tertiary sector, comprises all workers not making a physical product. This includes shopkeepers, wholesalers, publicans, hotel workers, people working in financial services, health and social care workers, professional services, and transport workers.
The UK economy today, like that of all rich countries, is dominated by the service or tertiary sector. According to the 2021 census, fully 76 percent of the labour force is now in the tertiary sector. But when did the service sector become dominant, and when did it begin to grow? Many people think the growth of the service sector is a recent phenomenon, starting perhaps in the 1950s and picking up speed as Britain de-industrialised from the 1970s. However, new long-run data on male occupations collected by the Occupational Structure of Britain c.1379-1911 project tell a different story.
Leigh Shaw-Taylor
The secondary sector, as discussed in a previous blog, consists of anyone who makes a physical product. It includes manufacturing, construction, and utilities. Manufacturing includes village artisans like carpenters or blacksmiths, and weavers working at home, as well as any industrial workers employed in factories.
What proportion of the male labour force would you think worked in the secondary sector at the beginning of the 18th century? 10 percent? 20 percent? 30 percent? The Occupational Structure of Britain c.1379-1911 project has established that as early as 1701 the figure was already remarkably high, at 43 percent.
Leigh Shaw-Taylor
What proportion of the male labour force do you think worked in agriculture at the beginning of the 18th century? Was it around 80 percent? Or 60 percent? Or 40 percent? The Occupational Structure of Britain c.1379-1911 project has shown that for England and Wales the correct figure is around 47 percent. This makes the English and Welsh economy much less agricultural (and much more industrial) than historians have previously believed.
Leigh Shaw-Taylor
It is widely assumed that before the Industrial Revolution most people worked in agriculture, and that the economy was underdeveloped or backward. But was this really so? The first of these assumptions will be taken up in next week’s blog, while today’s blog will focus primarily on the second.
Kevin Schürer
“When you go to the industrial North you are conscious, quite apart from the unfamiliar scenery, of entering a strange country. This is partly because of the North-South antithesis which has been rubbed into us for such a long time past... The Northerner has ‘grit’, he is grim, ‘dour’, plucky, warm-hearted and democratic; the Southerner is snobbish, effeminate and lazy – that at any rate is the theory.”
Thus wrote the Eton-educated George Orwell (real name Eric Blair) in The Road to Wigan Pier, published in 1937.
Romola Davenport
In 2007 the United Nations announced an historic milestone: the world had become decisively urban, with half the global population living in towns and cities. This represented a dramatic reversal of historic norms, when 80-90 percent of people worked and lived in the countryside. And this unprecedented shift from rural to urban areas shows no sign of abating – indeed, the UN predicts that all future population growth will be urban.
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The Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure