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Graduate Workshop in Economic and Social History: archive

Return to the list of forthcoming seminars.

# Monday 11th March 2024, 1.00pm - Jan Altaner (Cambridge)
Sex and the City Centre: Prostitution, Urban Planning, and Sociological Research in 1960s Lebanon
Venue: Room 9, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 26th February 2024, 1.00pm - Michele Bolla (Cambridge)
Income Inequality around the Year Zero: Quantitative Insights from Chinese Literary Sources
Venue: Room 9, Faculty of History

Today long-run inequality trends are a well-established, central research topic of academic research. A truly long-run perspective, however, was only recently achieved, when late medieval and early modern times were added to the picture through intense archival research. Estimates for earlier periods are inherently “shakier”, with wider margins of error resulting from the reliance on archaeological proxies and mixed literary sources.

I construct estimates of income inequality for Han-dynasty China at its demographic peak (ca. 2 CE), which official sources described as severely unequal. In fact, those sources, when combined with comparative evidence, allow to infer that inequality extraction was unexceptional in late Former Han times – at least, by pre-industrial standards. The quantitative methods employed here are similar to those underlying the most recent estimates for the early Roman Empire. However, I take steps to account for regional variation within the Han Empire, which is absent in widely accepted figures for Rome and, I argue, is essential for long-run, comparative debates on inequality in human polities.

# Monday 12th February 2024, 1.00pm - Sandra Ujpetery
Who were the Hand-Spinners and Handloom Weavers When Industrialisation Struck? Findings from Silesia and the Swiss Canton of Glarus, First Half of the 19th Century.
Venue: Room 9, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 29th January 2024, 1.00pm - Lovansh Katiyar (Cambridge) and Saberi Mallick (Delhi)
Deconstructing Development Realities in India
Venue: Room 9, Faculty of History

This paper entails a critical analysis of the Indian developmental regime with specific emphasis on the prevalent developmental paradigm nurtured under predominant neoliberal global institutions, and the persistent utilisation of the didactic visuality of development through imagery, surveillance and technology to connote progress at the exclusion of the demographic majority. The subsequent deconstruction of developmental realities is an exercise in the illumination of the inherent limitations of contemporary developmental frameworks in accommodating the manifold dimensions of development subsuming social, cultural and political facets. The contemporary status quo presents ideas of development in India with idealised imagery so as to invisiblise the chasm between the realities of people at the periphery and the elites. The propaganda of development serves as a spectacle and, therefore, serves to unite the masses into the delusion of progress through the imposition of a hegemonic visuality shaped by the power elite while the realities of the lives of people present a stark opposition. The homogenisation of the Indian body politic as equal benefactors of the pursuit of national development is sustained through the invisibilisation of the diverse marginalities that account for the demographic majority (Bahujan) of the country. The disparity in experiences accentuates a necessity to adopt a developmental paradigm attuned to the actual cultural milieu, as opposed to an ideal, imperative to the construction of an equitable societal framework. This paper will utilise a socio-ethnographic approach to historicise the idea of development and deconstruct developmental realities through an intersectional analytical lens thereby elucidating how disenfranchisement along the vertices of caste and gender informs the persistent marginalisation of certain communities by keeping at the centre of the analysis the foundation of the Indian nation-state – the people of India.

# Monday 27th November 2023, 1.00pm - Magnus Neubert (Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies)
The Socialist Experiment of Yugoslavia: Exploring the Effect of Labour-Managed Socialism on Economic Development
Venue: Room 12, Faculty of History

This study challenges the consensus in the literature that socialism hampered growth. Most
of these studies neglect the pre-socialist backwardness or ignore the institutional heterogeneity
across time and space. Labour-managed socialism in Yugoslavia was the most decentralized and
most dynamic socialist economy and combined social ownership and workers’ management with
market coordination. Due to the divergent economic development before WWII, it is hard to
disentangle the economic effect of socialist institutions and the uneven economic preconditions.
Therefore, I zoom into the region of Friuli Venezia Giulia and exploit the historical event of
Trieste’s liberation by the Yugoslav partisans which allowed Yugoslavia to expand territorially
to the cost of Italy. The eastern part of the region was treated with socialist institutions, while
the western part remained under capitalist institutions. By introducing a novel micro-regional
panel dataset of decomposed GDP for 1938, 1951, 1961, 1971, 1981, and 1988, this historical
setting allows for estimating the effect of labour-managed socialism on economic development
for the first time. A spatial regression discontinuity design and additional evidence suggest that
differences in GDP levels occurred already before WWII and are amplified by the exodus of
Italian human capital and uneven market integration. Labour-managed socialism had no significant effect on economic development and let the Yugoslav part of the region even converge
to the Italian part until the period of crisis and austerity in the 1980s. These results shed new
light on the economic performance of labour-managed socialism and require new theoretical
explanations.

# Monday 27th November 2023, 1.00pm - Xavier Jou (University of Barcelona)
Gender Conflicts on the Shopfloor. Barcelona Women at Chocolates Amatller (1890-1914)
Venue: Room 12, Faculty of History

The cry of “Get married women out of the factories!” echoed within the Spanish industrial landscape at the turn of the 20th century, driven by two intertwined factors. From a societal perspective, the conviction that a married woman’s realm belonged at home rather than within factory walls prevailed. On an economic note, concerns arose that women, due to their lower wages, were displacing men from job opportunities.

This research examines this phenomenon through a compelling case study of a workers’ social claim specifically targeted towards women during the process of feminization in during the latter half of the 19th century. The fundamental aim of this article is to illuminate the intricate interplay of social demands and gender dynamics in the realm of labour and business operations. Through the vehicle of a case study methodology, this research endeavours to gain insights into the intricate complexities of gender dynamics during the industrialization phase, as well as the challenges women encountered when joining the workforce in the modern factories.

On 25 May 1890, the workforce (predominantly comprising men due to the nature of their claim) at the Amatller chocolate factory went a strike. They were protesting because certain job positions, previously occupied by men, had been assigned to women. This strike represents the sparkle to comprehend the casual nature of the stereotype that positioned women as procreators rather than contributors to production, expelling them from the productive sphere and relegating them to domestic roles as wives and mothers. While women were accepted as paid workers, their roles were confined to those undesirable or unwillingly shouldered by men, steering clear of direct competition.

Scrutinizing the role of female factory workers two decades post-strike, it becomes evident that women actively participated in the chocolate factory’s operations, defying the male contention. Nevertheless, the outcome of the 1890 strike cannot be framed as a victory or defeat for either men or women. The male factory workers vocalized their quest for enhanced working conditions, but regrettably, they directed their frustrations at women, swayed by the prevalent social discourse of that era. While women did step into the factory, portraying them as unequivocal victors would be an oversimplification. Their presence was restricted, with scarce avenues for professional advancement and task segregation primarily confining them to manual labour tasks. This gendered task partition perpetuated wage disparities and further marginalized women within the workspace.

The historical significance of the Chocolates Amatller’s case lies in its portrayal of one of Spain’s earliest documented labour gender conflicts, where workers aimed to obstruct the entry of female factory labour. Additionally, the unique archival revelation, detailing vast information about the factory employees, can be a valuable source for the study of labour and business history. The male-initiated strike and its aftermath offer a window into the intricate interplay between gender dynamics, social claims and labour practices during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

# Monday 13th November 2023, 1.00pm - Thomas Laver (Cambridge)
Wine Production and Exchange in Late Antique Egyptian Monasteries: A Micro-Economic Analysis’
Venue: Room 12, Faculty of History

This paper will examine the crucial role that wine played in the economy of Late Antique Egyptian monasteries. Not only did monks consume wine themselves, but so did their servants, with the large size of Egyptian monasteries – many had over 100 monks, and servants in addition – meaning that meeting this internal demand for wine needed to be a major concern for monastic institutions’ financial strategies. This paper will sketch out how monks met this internal need through credit, leases, and direct production (both through working vineland and by processing the grapes into wine), which allowed them to acquire large volumes of wine more efficiently (at low cost, and a guaranteed supply) than by simple purchase. In fact, it appears that monks acquired much more wine than they could consume, and so either used it to cost-effectively meet other expenditures to servants, suppliers, and the state, or sold it in regional markets.
Throughout this analysis, it will be stressed that the methods used to acquire (and later sell) wine are a product of the small size of the local markets for wine, labour, and other goods in which rural monasteries often operated, which made direct purchase of wine a less rational or viable method of acquisition than alternatives. However, these alternative methods were open only to those with more (financial or labour) capital than the average household, or who had different attitudes to risk, making monasteries almost unique in their ability to manipulate local microeconomic dynamics in their favour.
Wine was therefore a key element of monastic involvement in local microeconomies, presenting an economic need that needed sating, but also an opportunity for enrichment – an opportunity that was frequently taken – which was almost uniquely available to them due to their economic scale and possession of gold coin.

# Monday 30th October 2023, 1.00pm - Emma Diduch (University of Cambridge)
Factory families: textile work and women’s life courses in late nineteenth-century Derbyshire
Venue: Room 12, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 16th October 2023, 1.30pm - Maxence Castiello (Panthéon-Sorbonne)
Railroad Expansion, Local Shocks and Individual Opportunities: Evidence from Nineteenth Century America
Venue: Room 12, Faculty of History

We provide microeconomic evidence on the effect of railroad infrastructure driving local shocks and shaping individuals’ opportunities. We focus on the roll-out of the railway network between 1850 and 1880 in the United-States. Building on full-count census records and linkages crosswalks, we construct multiple sets of individual-level longitudinal datasets. Precisely, we track nearly four millions of working-age white men for which we observe their occupation and county of residence. In addition, we rely on historical transportation maps to derive time-varying measures of railroad proximity and market access. Exploiting time-variation in railroad connectivity in a DiD fashion, we document substantial shifts in the local economic activities at the county-level. Our set of baseline results shows a positive effect of railroad proximity on population concentration, as a popular proxy for economic growth. Breaking-down the railroad-induced compositional effects on the sectoral and occupational structures, we document that better-connected counties experience an increase in the secondary and tertiary sectors prevalence, and a consequential rise of the frequencies of high- and semi-skilled occupations. The second part of the paper delves into individuals’ trajectories in order to decompose the aggregate effects of railroad exposure. Precisely, we examine the relative contributions of the sectoral and occupational transitions, labor market entry and geographic mobility channels. Our results suggest that railroad proximity poorly affects individuals transitioning on average, with large levels of disparities among individuals. Railroad development primarily benefits young workers and those who relocate closer to railroads, but adversely impacts labor market outcomes of older individuals who stay put. Additionally, we show that changes in railroad access deeply shape initial career choices, especially for the eldest sons. Lastly, we implement a gravity framework underscoring the role of railroads in retaining skilled jobs locally and attracting external individuals.

# Monday 16th October 2023, 1.00pm - Heqi Cai (LSE)
The Capacity of Commerce: The Political Participation of Merchant Groups during the Taiping Rebellion
Venue: Room 12, Faculty of History

How could commercial groups and individual merchants participate in politics and influence the allocation of political resources? Using 253 prefectures from late Qing China as the historical context, this paper examines the effect of commercial development (as measured by the number of guilds) in reshaping the distribution of quota for shengyuan (this regulated fixed number of county-level exam passers experienced an unexpected increase during the shock of Taiping Rebellion (1851-1864)). By looking into this natural background, the study finds that one more commercial guild in the prefecture would lead to a 0.833 increase in the quota for shengyuan during Taiping time, indicating the more commercially developed areas would earn more opportunities for examination candidates to participate in political bureaucrats. The positive relationship between commercial guilds and the increase in quota can be attributed to a reward mechanism: the indirect taxation (lijin), which was initially established to collect militaryexpenditures for Taiping during this war period, simultaneously provided merchants with a channel through which they could make monetary donations. It demonstrates that prefectures with one more lijin station raised the quota for shengyuan by 0.2 in Taiping-affected prefectures, indicating that when driving the quota for shengyuan reallocation, the capacity of commerce occurred through the indirect taxation system. However, the efforts made by merchants pursuing political upward mobility did not work as expected: this paper uses a difference-in-difference model to test how the increase in quota for shengyuan was related to the change in actual number of jinshi within the same prefecture from1850to the abolishment of civil service exam in 1905. It shows that in the prefecture where the quota for shengyuan increased noticeably, successful passers at the final stage did not exhibit a matching increase. So merchants’ capacity truly stopped at the first stage while attempting to engage in the examination selection procedure, showing a failure to obtain upward mobility for continued political participation in late Qing China.

# Monday 13th March 2023, 12.30pm - Elif Yumru (Cambridge)
Ottoman Women in Cartoons (1870-1911)
Venue: Room 12, Faculty of History

This paper examines the representations of women living in the Ottoman Empire in the masculine-dominated satirical press of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. It focuses on two satirical journals: Diyojen, the first journal of its kind, issued between 1870 and 1873; and Kalem, a prominent publication in the empire between 1908 and 1911. This was a significant moment in the political and social life of the empire, with the emergence of nationalist ideas within the public sphere in the aftermath of the Young Turk Revolution (1908) and the implementation of the Ottoman constitution. Further, women writers and publishers took on more prominent positions within the national press, representing a shift in the social position of women. The paper demonstrates this socio-political change in the visual representation of women during this period through a comparative study of these two journals. Ultimately, the paper reveals several strategies used by the masculine-dominated press to influence public opinion regarding the changing place of women within the society.

# Monday 30th November 2020, 12.30pm - Ella Sbaraini (Clare College, Cambridge)
Embodying Suicidal Emotions, 1700-1850
Venue: Delivered online via Zoom

Abstract not available

# Monday 16th November 2020, 12.30pm - Benjamin Schneider (Merton College, Oxford)
Technological Change and the Inequality of Jobs: American Transport, 1750–1860
Venue: Delivered online via Zoom

Abstract not available

# Monday 2nd November 2020, 12.30pm - Tyler Rainford (University of Bristol)
Pro Bono Publico: James Ashley, Punch, and the Alcoholic Drinks Trade in Eighteenth-Century London
Venue: Delivered online via Zoom

Abstract not available

# Monday 19th October 2020, 12.30pm - Cameron Coventry (Federation University)
A Social History of Keynesian Full Employment in Australia, 1936-75
Venue: Delivered online via Zoom

Abstract not available

# Monday 11th March 2019, 12.30pm - Mustafe, TBD, University of Cambridge
MPhil Presentations
Venue: Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 4th March 2019, 12.30pm - Eliska, Udayan, and Merel, University of Cambridge
MPhil Presentations
Venue: Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 25th February 2019, 12.30pm - Moritz Kaiser, University of Aberdeen
The Origins of ‘Penitents’: The Socio-Economic Backgrounds of the Inmates in an English Anglican Magdalen Home, 1848-1914
Venue: Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 18th February 2019, 12.30pm - Felix Schaff, London School of Economics
Conflicts, State Growth and Economic Inequality in Pre-Industrial Germany, c. 1400-1618
Venue: Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 11th February 2019, 12.30pm - Yitong Qiu, London School of Economics
Consumption Change in the Early and Mid-Qing: A Case Study of the Lower Yangze Delta
Venue: Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 4th February 2019, 12.30pm - Christopher Whittel, University of Cambridge
The Crisis of the Monetary System in Cromwellian Ireland
Venue: Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 28th January 2019, 12.30pm - Andrea Ramazzotti, London School of Economics
The spatial distribution of Italy's population and the emergence of Zipf's Law, 1861-1991
Venue: Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 21st January 2019, 12.30pm - Ying Dai (University of Cambridge)
The occupational structure of Chongqing in the Upper Yangzi Valley, China, 19th and 20th centuries
Venue: Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 26th November 2018, 12.30pm - Alex Tertzakian (University of Cambridge)
The diffusion of mechanised technologies in the West Riding of Yorkshire textile industry c.1780­‐1911 and its impact on employment and wages
Venue: Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 19th November 2018, 12.30pm - Mostafa Abdelaal (University of Cambridge)
Years of Turbulence, Years of Hope: Central African Copperbelt and the Industrial Development in Congo-Léopoldville and Zambia, from the Political Independence to the Economic Nationalization
Venue: Room 5, Faculty of History

The economic nationalization occurred in Congo-Léopoldville and Zambia roughly after five years of their independence, in 1966 and 1969 respectively.  During the political clouts and the economic vicissitudes that took place in both countries, the Central African Copperbelt (CAC) contributed to a far extent in shaping the historical events. However, these fateful years lie between the political independence to the nationalization of mining companies have been received little attention from historians.  The quest for Africanization the economy and from the European domination became extremely fiercer than the political independence. A group of factors explain the challenges faced by national governments in dirigisme their national economy such as; the global economic relationships, capital flight and foreign direct investment, global copper prices, Africa’s lacking to the technical experience and management of mining companies. This paper will investigate the colonial/national perceptions of industrial development in late colonial/ the immediate post-colonial years, more specifically the weight of the CAC in the colonial/national contexts, from development planning to implementation. A part of this perception could be traced since the colonial authorities Belgians/British set up decennial developmental plans in the 1940s and 50s which extended to another long-term plan but was curtailed by the advent of independence. On the other hand, the national authorities replaced these plans with the transnational and first development plans in Zambia and a chaotic political situation in Congo. Significantly, there were high expectations by African in both countries for reaping the benefits of independence, higher wages and advancement of labour, and this might explain the crucial role of mining areas. Such a role need to be examined from comparative contexts, not limited to the mining industry, but significantly to the CAC role in the question of industrial development in the early years of independence.

# Monday 12th November 2018, 12.30pm - Michalis Bardanis (University of Ioannina, Greece)
Brick and tile making in Athens, Greece, during 20th century
Venue: Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 5th November 2018, 12.30pm - Yasmin Shearmur (University of Cambridge)
European integration and immigration policy, French and British experiences, 1976-1992
Venue: Room 5, Faculty of History

This paper examines the making of immigration policy in France and Britain during the 1980s. More  specifically, it examines whether and how European developments fed back into domestic immigration policy. Beginning in the late 1970s and carrying throughout the 1980s, there was a burst of activity at the European level, from the informal, intergovernmental cooperation between interior ministers of the TREVI group; to the Schengen agreements, which abolished internal borders for participating countries; to Maastricht, which incorporated developments of the previous decade into expanded and formalized EU structures.  What, historically, have France and Britain’s priorities regarding immigration been? How is immigration policy made, given that it must respond to contrary imperatives, even within government? Does modern immigration policy reflect Europe’s democratic deficit? How well have states ever been able to implement immigration policy? If poorly, what function does declaring an immigration policy serve? 

# Monday 29th October 2018, 12.30pm - Yushu Geng (University of Cambridge)
Obscenity and the Politics of Moral Regulation in China and Singapore, 1919-1937
Venue: Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 22nd October 2018, 12.30pm - Yiwen Qiu (University of Cambridge)
Industrial development paths from an evolutionary perspective: the Chinese case, 1998-2013
Venue: Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 15th October 2018, 12.30pm - Eleanor Russell (University of Cambridge)
The Spinelli Family: A mid-sized Florentine firm’s response to the opening of the Americas and Cape Route trade, 1450-1520
Venue: Room 6, Faculty of History

This paper will ask how much trade and finance changed for smaller companies between the later fifteenth and the mid-sixteenth centuries. Extensive research has been performed upon the activities of the great companies, but the lesser ones remain neglected. To address this deficit, this paper will examine the activities of the Spinelli family, a mid-size Florentine company that has left extensive records but has received fairly little attention in the literature. To what degree did they trade in overseas goods? How involved were they with the great companies, particularly the non-Italian ones? Did they become more engaged in European trade beyond Italy, and did their European trade items change? Regarding finance, the paper will question how much the smaller companies mimicked the great firms’ increased lending to rulers and diplomats beyond Italy, and whether any such loans suggest long-term financial involvement.[new para]This paper will largely rely upon an analysis of the mid-fifteenth to mid-sixteenth century inventories, correspondence, tax records and account books in the Spinelli archive at Yale University. The scanty and inconsistent nature of the sources makes it risky to rely upon statistical analyses. The tax and census records are more complete than the account books, but since merchants sought to conceal their wealth to lower taxes they are also not reliable. Thus, while the paper will seek to provide statistics where possible, this will be done with a great deal of caution and it will largely make more general conclusions, noting if new items of trade occur, if places of trade and banking change, and if new companies and borrowers are involved. In tracking the Spinelli’s locations of trade and the people with whom it traded and dealt in banking, this paper will also draw upon the methods of network theory.[new para]I anticipate that this paper will demonstrate that the Spinelli changed to having far more involvement in the trade of non-Italian goods, especially Flemish cloth, in the sixteenth century, and had long-term involvement with companies directly engaged in large-scale colonial trade. I believe that the paper will also show that they had extensive trade and financial dealings with Spain and Portugal, a point that is rarely addressed in analyses of the mid-tier Florentine companies, and that, like the great Florentine companies, they worked closely with German firms and also the court surrounding Charles V.

# Monday 8th October 2018, 12.30pm - Auriane Terki-Mignot (University of Cambridge)
Patterns of female employment in the Pays de Caux and the Perche, 1792-1901
Venue: Room 5, Faculty of History

The paper begins by exploring the sources available for full reconstructions of the female and male occupational structures of proto-industrial textile regions of France, and makes a case for the use of revolutionary population listings and nineteenth-century population censuses. Data on female and male labour force participation rates and sectoral distributions then enables an exploration of patterns of women’s work and their determinants, in relation with broader debates on the ‘French path’ to industrialisation. Comparison with the British case suggests that data on women’s work could be integral to our understanding of processes of modern economic growth, and force us to redefine current understandings of ‘industrialisation’ and its chronology.

# Monday 27th November 2017, 12.30pm - Sara Caputo (University of Cambridge)
Building a Demographic Profile of Foreign Seamen in the British Navy, 1793-1815
Venue: Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 20th November 2017, 12.30pm - Sabine Schneider (University of Cambridge)
Imperial Germany, Pax Britannica, and the Political Economy of the Gold Standard, 1871-1914
Venue: Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 13th November 2017, 12.30pm - Damilola A. Adebayo (University of Cambridge)
Between Economic Pragmatism and the 'Civilising Mission': Making a Case for the Domestic Electrification of Southern Nigeria, 1930 to 1960
Venue: Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 6th November 2017, 12.30pm - Callum Easton (University of Cambridge)
Crime, Punishment, and Body Snatching: Contested Memories of the 1797 Naval Mutinies
Venue: Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 30th October 2017, 12.30pm - Kayt Button (University of Cambridge)
The Central Electricity Board - Accidental Conservationists?
Venue: Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 23rd October 2017, 12.30pm - Jonah Miller (King's College London)
The patriarchal republic: local officeholding in early modern England
Venue: Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 6th March 2017, 12.30pm - Speaker to be confirmed
MPhil Presentations Part II
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 27th February 2017, 12.30pm - Speaker to be confirmed
MPhil Presentations Part I
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 13th February 2017, 12.30pm - Francisco Beltrán Tapia (Cambridge)
Where are the missing girls? Gender discrimination in 19th-century Spain
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 30th January 2017, 12.30pm - Ana Avino-de-Pablo (Ghent)
The Treaty of Westminster: a turning point for the Anglo Iberian trade in the late 15th century?
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 28th November 2016, 12.30pm - Kathryn Gary (Lund University)
Men's daily and annual wages in early modern Sweden
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 21st November 2016, 12.30pm - Walter Jansson (University of Cambridge)
Finance and regional growth in Britain, 1870-1913
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 14th November 2016, 12.30pm - Simon Gallagher (University of Cambridge)
Family structure and the admission of children to the workhouse in post-famine Ireland
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 7th November 2016, 12.30pm - Niccolò Serri (University of Cambridge)
Welfare and industrial conflict in the Italian automobile industry, 1968-1975
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 31st October 2016, 12.30pm - Luis Almenar (University of Valencia)
Eating and drinking as a medieval peasant. Innovations in table manners in late medieval rural Valencia
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 24th October 2016, 12.30pm - Cheng Yang (University of Cambridge)
Occupational structure of late Imperial China, 1738-1899
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 17th October 2016, 12.30pm - Alain Naef (University of Cambridge)
Does sterilised central bank intervention have long term effects on exchange rate? The case of the British Exchange Equalisation Account, 1952-1972
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 10th October 2016, 12.30pm - Spike Gibbs (University of Cambridge)
Patterns of manorial office holding at late medieval and early modern Little Downham, 1300-1600
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 29th February 2016, 12.30pm - Leslie Chang, Jacapo Satori, Ryan Ripamonti, Emiliano Travieso, and Aditya Basrur (University of Cambridge)
M. Phil Presentations II. Financial and Business History
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 22nd February 2016, 12.30pm - Daniel Allemann, Stephanie Ternullo, Rosa Hodgkin, Connor Lempriere, and Callum Easton (University of Cambridge)
M.Phil Presentations I. Economics, Politics and Policy
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 25th January 2016, 12.30pm - Sebastian Keibek (University of Cambridge)
The male occupational structure of England and Wales, 1700-1850
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 18th January 2016, 12.30pm - Paco Ruzzante (University of Cambridge)
Beveridge calling: The social insurance and allied services and the Mediterranean welfare model, 1942-1950s
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 30th November 2015, 12.30pm - Alice Dolan (Institute of Historical Research)
What was linen? Flax and hemp at home and work in 18th-century England
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 23rd November 2015, 12.30pm - Josh Ivinson (Cambridge)
The local and transnational organisation of the nascent Newfoundland dry cod trade, 1550-1650
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 16th November 2015, 12.30pm - Nikita Dmtriev (Pantheon-Sorbonne)
Land market and the long 12th century transformation in Foligno county
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 9th November 2015, 12.30pm - Craig McMahon (Cambridge)
A comparative analysis of payday lending in America and Britain, 1900-1930s
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 2nd November 2015, 12.30pm - Partha Shil (Cambridge)
Recruitment of constabulary labour in colonial Bengal 1861-1900
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 26th October 2015, 12.30pm - Toby Salisbury (Cambridge)
Poaching and sedition in thirteenth century England
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 19th October 2015, 12.30pm - Miguel Morin (Cambridge)
Adapting to workplace technological change over the long run: Evidence from US longitudinal data
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 12th October 2015, 12.30pm - Mike Schraer (Cambridge)
Land and credit in the asset allocations of the Jews in late 14th-century Zaragoza
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 9th March 2015, 12.30pm - Alexandra Digby/Neil Gandhi (Cambridge)
MPhil Presentations
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 2nd March 2015, 12.30pm - Ellen Nye/Tim Rudnicki/Cheng Yang (Cambridge)
MPhil Presentations
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 26th January 2015, 12.30pm - Marta Musso (Cambridge)
The Oil Industry in the Algerian Decolonisation Process
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 1st December 2014, 12.30pm - Hillary Taylor (Yale)
The Affective Economy of Social Relations in Early Modern England
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 24th November 2014, 12.30pm - Stephen Pierpoint (Cambridge)
The Fiscal-Military State and the Land Tax - Observations from Kent and London
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 17th November 2014, 12.30pm - Corinne Boter (Wageningen)
Ideal vs Reality? The Ideal of the Breadwinner-Homemaker Household in Industrializing Regions in the Netherlands, ca. 1890
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 3rd November 2014, 12.30pm - Mingjie Xu (Cambridge)
Disorder and Rebellion in Cambridgeshire in 1381
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 27th October 2014, 12.30pm - Imogen Wedd (Cambridge)
Reconstructing Yeoman Communities in Early Modern Kent
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 20th October 2014, 12.30pm - Keith Sugden (Cambridge)
Note change of speaker
The impact of mechanization upon female and male employment in the English textile industry, circa 1780-1851
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 13th October 2014, 12.30pm - Carolyn Dougherty (York)
Note change of start time: 12.30pm
Carrying Trade
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 10th March 2014, 1.00pm - Sophie McGeevor (Cambridge)
What can autobiographies tell us about women's time-use in 19th century England?
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 17th February 2014, 1.00pm - Vellore Arti (Oxford)
"The Dust Was Long in Settling": Human Capital and the Lasting Impact of the American Dust Bowl
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 3rd February 2014, 1.00pm - Caroline Rusterholtz (University of Fribourg)
The transformation of the costs of children and its impact on reproductive behaviour: a comparative analysis of the second demographic transition in Switzerland
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 27th January 2014, 1.00pm - Sebastian Keibek (Cambridge)
Probate records as a source of occupational information
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 2nd December 2013, 1.00pm - Lyn Boothman (Cambridge)
Office holding, social status and stability in a small town, 1661-1861
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 25th November 2013, 1.00pm - Simon Abernethy (Cambridge)
Deceptive data? The New Survey of London Life and Labour, 1928-31
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 18th November 2013, 1.00pm - Edmond Smith (Cambridge)
The multiplicitous networks of the East India Company, 1599-1603
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 11th November 2013, 1.00pm - Adam Crymble (Cambridge)
Measuring Immigrant Crime in London: The Irish 1801-1820
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 4th November 2013, 1.00pm - Stephen Pierpoint (Cambridge)
17th & 18th century land taxes in England; 'hardly changed since the middle ages' or cutting edge technology. A Kent case study
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 28th October 2013, 1.00pm - Ellen Potter (Cambridge)
Female employment in the nineteenth century censuses: Methods, pitfalls, and prostitutes
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 21st October 2013, 1.00pm - Xuesheng You (Cambridge)
'Kin-servant' in 1881 British Census Enumerators' Books: Actual Work or Random Enumeration
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 14th October 2013, 1.00pm - Anne Hanley (Cambridge)
Venereology at the Polyclinic, 1899-1914
Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Monday 17th June 2013, 1.00pm - Keith Sugden, Cambridge
The Male Occupational Structure of Norwich, circa 1720-1841: Evidence from Quarter Session and Other Records
Venue: Room 101, Sir William Hardy Building, Downing Site

The timing of the decline of the Norwich stuffs industry remains the subject of debate. Some believed it occurred during the eighteenth century, some think it held on until well into the nineteenth, post mechanization of worsted manufacture. This paper utilizes a number of occupational sources to pin down the date in an attempt to throw some light onto the discussion.

# Monday 25th February 2013, 1.00pm - Atiyab Sultan
Impoverishing development? Institution-building in Colonial Punjab (1849-1947)
Venue: Room 101, Sir William Hardy Building, Downing Site

Available Soon

# Monday 19th November 2012, 1.00pm - Xuesheng You (Cambridge Group)
Widows' Work: Some Evidence from the 1881 Census Enumerators' Books
Venue: Seminar room, Departement of Geography main building, Downing Site

Available Soon

# Monday 29th October 2012, 1.00pm - Charles Read (Cambridge)
The Irish Famine: Britain’s Biggest Economic Policy Failure?
Venue: Room 101, Sir William Hardy Building, Downing Site

“The Almighty, indeed, sent the potato blight, but the English created the Famine”. (John Mitchel) Nationalist and revisionist historians have furiously debated British culpability for the famine, instead of examining modern Britain’s worst social and economic disaster in terms of economic policy. This paper takes this new approach to topic, arguing that instead of the British running a “laissez-faire” policy towards the famine, there was a consistent relief policy based on supply-side ideas popular at the time. But these policies misunderstood the underlying cause of the famine, a collapse in monetary incomes, which instead accidentally made Ireland’s problems in the 1840s much worse.

# Monday 22nd October 2012, 1.00pm - Kate Boehme (Cambridge)
Linking Business and Philanthropy: The Social Concerns and Philanthropic Behaviours of Bombay's Mercantile Elite, 1845-1870
Venue: Room 101, Sir William Hardy Building, Downing Site

In the nineteenth century, Bombay became a hub for the export of raw Indian goods such as opium and cotton to overseas locations across the Indian Ocean and to as far away as China. In particular, the dramatic increase in commercial activities brought about by the trade with China facilitated the emergence of a powerful Indian merchant class that possessed great wealth and exerted considerable influence in local political and social matters. This group has been credited by some historians as engaging in some of the earliest coordinated public activity in India and, later in the century, developed coherent economically nationalist discourse. In this paper I will explore the development of this group’s civic mindedness and emerging focus on “Indian” issues through the lens of their philanthropic activities. Through an analysis of their patterns of giving it is possible to gain a greater understanding of how such donations were made through the cooperative efforts of Indian mercantilists from a number of different caste backgrounds, as well as how such giving indicated a growing concern with the general welfare of the Indian community in Bombay.

# Monday 28th May 2012, 12.45pm - Sandra de la Torre Gonzalo (University of Zaragoza)
Business and politics in late medieval Iberia: mercantile elites in the Kingdom of Aragon (1380-1430)
Venue: Room 101, Sir William Hardy Building, Downing Site

Recent works on late-medieval commerce in the Crown of Aragon have made clear the importance of a group of businessmen settled in Zaragoza, the capital of the kingdom of Aragon. At the end of the fourteenth century and beginning of the fifteenth, this small group of businessmen intervened on a large scale in the financing of the state, principally through the market of the institutional public debt and hiring the commercial taxes of the kingdom. Their important businesses suppose the mobilization of very high sums of money and the formation of leading commercial companies that promote mercantile and family connections that spread over the whole kingdom and the Crown from the interior of the Peninsula and the south of France towards the Mediterranean Sea.
The aim of this paper is to provide an overview and an analysis of the political role of this financial and commercial elite. Therefore, we are interested in the targets and the strategies of these people, and their capacity for political performance, expressed in their patrimonies (financial, mercantile, territorial), professional activities, family behaviors and the construction of social networks.
My prosopographical research offers an intermediate approach between the studies on the individual protagonists and the large social groups, and has proved its efficiency in analyzing dispersed and fragmentary sources like the ones we have at our disposal.

# Monday 21st May 2012, 12.45pm - Irene Haycock (University of Cambridge)
Aspects of Agrarian Change in South Staffordshire: A Case Study of Kingswinford, 1650 to 1750
Venue: Room 101, Sir William Hardy Building, Downing Site

This paper examines the nature and extent of agrarian change and early industrial change in the parish of Kingswinford, south Staffordshire (now the West Midlands) in the early modern period. It addresses the dearth of work on pastoral regions as opposed to the much studied arable eastern and southern areas of England. Staffordshire is a county renowned for its precocious early population growth, and early industrial development in minerals such as coal, iron, metal-wares, and glass. It is a classic area of by-employment where, according to Thirsk, farming households took up domestic manufacture when work was slack. Using probate documents (and parish registers for a wider context) a quantitative analysis finds that the wealth of the whole sample of the parish and that of farmers and of the by-employed significantly decreased over time; the wealth-gap between the farmers and industrialists increasingly narrowed. The incentive to become by-employed must lie with the industrialists rather than with farming households, since the farmers were the richer of the two according to gross inventory wealth. However, there were proportionately less of the inventoried population practising by-employment as time progressed.
With regard to changing farming patterns in a predominately pastoral region, the proportions of those involved in mixed farming and keeping livestock significantly decreased over time, particularly in sheep husbandry. The proportion of those farming, in terms of both those with an appropriate occupational designator or with the accoutrements of husbandry appraised in an inventory, appeared to be decreasing in the area with reasons for this decline difficult to determine.

# Monday 5th March 2012, 12.45pm - Richard Jones (University of Cambridge)
The Curious Case of Yorkshire Luddism
Venue: Room 101, Sir William Hardy Building, Downing Site

This argument-driven paper will probe the industrial precedents and
cultural legacy of machine breaking in the West Riding of Yorkshire during
the spring of 1812. The central analysis will characterise Luddism as a
conservative economic and social phenomenon with a provenance in the sense
of entitlement found in earlier trade societies, and argue against seeing
the movement as part of the broader sweep of nineteenth-century political
development.

Although the paper will focus on Luddism in Yorkshire, it will be argued
that the analysis and conclusions can be (substantively) extended to the
other industrial regions in which unrest occurred. A range of evidential
classes will be harnessed in support of this argument, including Luddite
letters, prosecution papers from the Home Office and Treasury Solicitor
deposits at Kew, judicial records from Yorkshire, and a corpus of regional
fiction.

# Monday 27th February 2012, 12.45pm - David Filtness (University of Cambridge)
Schools of Industry and Habits of Industriousness: Making childhood pay in the early Nineteenth Century
Venue: Room 101, Sir William Hardy Building, Downing Site

Amid the wars and economic distress of the late Eighteenth and
early Nineteenth centuries, an influential paradigm shift was occurring
whereby a governing ethic of paternalistic moral economy transitioned into
one of political economy, entailing a discursive re-imagining of the poor
as those who existed in a condition of poverty rather than as individuals
who were poor. This subtle recalibration of the terms of the poor-law
debate drew on recent trends casting the poor as the subject of statistics;
constituting a quantifiable and aggregated morass that could be tamed by
the application of macro-economic principles and the realisation of
self-responsibility on the part of the poor. Nowhere was this discourse
more evidenced or more influential than as it pertained to the experience
of childhood and the agency of children. Particular emphasis was placed on
the economic contribution of youngsters when as children and as future
adults, with a raft of literature detailing policies and institutions for
putting them to work. Children should be bred up into habits of industry’
appropriate to their station, placed into workhouses or ‘schools of
industry’ so as to contribute to their upkeep, and at all times supervised
and molded into ‘useful’ citizens. Impassioned rhetoric espousing the
economic exploitation of children was homologous to that exhorting that the
poor be put to work; such discourse was obsessed with economy and
cost-effectiveness, and there was no space for idle or relaxed youths in
such a schema. By examining the school of industry movement and its
contextualising literature we can understand better the social effects of
industrialisation and the Victorian moralities of self-help and charity
that did so much to pattern subsequent notions of Britishness.

# Monday 6th February 2012, 12.45pm - Lyn Boothman (University of Cambridge)
Studying the Stayers: occupation, kin links and stability
Venue: Room 101, Sir William Hardy Building, Downing Site

my PhD research examines the stable population of one Suffolk parish, Long Melford, from 1661-1861. This presentation will consider the relationship between occupation, social status, kin links and stability in the 1831-61 period and, if there’s time, relate this to evidence of social status and kin links in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

# Monday 28th November 2011, 1.00pm - Mingjie Xu (University of Cambridge)
The Revolt in Rural Cambridgeshire in 1381
Venue: Room 101, Sir William Hardy Building, Downing Site

The events of June in 1381 confronted the English government with a big scale in London. At the same time other areas similarly witnessed outbursts of concerted violent protest against authority. This paper offers an account of the events in rural Cambridgeshire. The account considers the violent incidents in the county, including their chronological and geographical distribution and various forms of violence, which establishes that the scale of the revolt in this region is limited. It also explores the rebels involved in the rebellion, including their social composition, organisation and aims, which show local peculiarities of the revolt in this county. This study, together with recent local studies on the revolt, reveals the complexities of the 1381 Revolt, which is further utilized to demonstrate the limitations of the extant two conflicting interpretations of the revolt.

# Monday 7th November 2011, 1.00pm - Simon Abernethy (University of Cambridge)
Women and Children First: A Brief Look at Working Class Women and Children Commuters in London in the 1890s and 1900s
Venue: Room 101, Sir William Hardy Building, Downing Site

When H.J. Dyos wrote his article ‘Workmen’s fares in south London 1860 – 1914’ he noted that a key problem for working class suburbanisation was the lack of subsidiary employment for women in the suburbs. This he claimed retarded working class migration from the centre. However, an examination of records from the London County Council and the Court of the Railway and Canal Commission show a small but significant number of working class women and children living in the suburbs and using workmen’s trains to get to employment in the centre. This paper examines how prevalent this practise was, the difficulty involved, and uses the limited sources available to give an indication of pay and employment.

# Monday 17th October 2011, 1.00pm - Joe Day (Cambridge Group, University of Cambridge)
"Go --West-- North-East Young Man!" Male & Female Migration in 1881
Venue: Room 101, Sir William Hardy Building, Downing Site

Abstract not available

Please note that this archive is not yet complete.