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READING FOR QUESTIONS 1 AND 2
Title:
Author(s):
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English Workers' Living Standards during the Industrial
Revolution: A New Look
Lindert, Peter H.; Williamson, Jeffrey G.
The Economic History Review, New Series, Vol. 36, No. 1.
(Feb., 1983), pp. 1-25.
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Abstract:
This paper adds new evidence to the standard of living
debate. New wage data and new employment weights make it
possible to assess nominal earnings growth from 1755 to
1851 for various labouring classes: farm labourers,
unskilled urban, skilled urban, white collar, average blue
collar, and the average worker. New cost of living data
(augmented by rents) make it possible to assess real
earnings growth. The pessimists' position is rejected,
although the more skilled enjoyed the greater improvement.
The paper then expands the assessment to include issues of
unemployment, occupational mobility, regional migration,
longevity, and the quality of life. These extensions fail
to support the pessimists' position. We conclude that the
time has come to shift attention to inequality issues, as
well as to the counterfactual question "could Britain
have done better"?
Title:
English Workers' Living Standards during the Industrial
Revolution: A Comment
Flinn, M. W.
The Economic History Review, New Series, Vol. 37, No. 1.
(Feb., 1984), pp. 88-92.
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Title:
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Reply to Michael Flinn
Lindert, Peter H.; Williamson, Jeffrey G.
The Economic History Review, New Series, Vol. 37, No. 1.
(Feb., 1984), pp. 93-94.
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Title:
Author(s):
Source:
English Workers' Real Wages During the Industrial
Revolution: Some Remaining Problems
Crafts, N. F. R.
The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 45, No. 1. (Mar.,
1985), pp. 139-144.
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Title:
Author(s):
Source:
English Workers' Real Wages: Reply to Crafts
Lindert, Peter H.; Williamson, Jeffrey G.
The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 45, No. 1. (Mar.,
1985), pp. 145-153.
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Additional Reading
Title:
Author(s):
Source:
Unequal English Wealth since 1670
Lindert, Peter H.
The Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 94, No. 6. (Dec.,
1986), pp. 1127-1162.
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Abstract:
New data on probated wealth, landownership, debts, and
occupations extend our view of the distribution of English
wealth back from 1911 to 1670. There were widening gaps in
mean wealth between the top landed-plus-merchant classes
and the middle classes across the Industrial Revolution
century. Size distributions for individual assets also
widened. So did those for income or total wealth
(including human). But nonhuman net worth did not become
more unequal because of important shifts in the land
share. All inequality measures before 1914 exceeded all
those since 1950. The estimates illuminate classical
theories of distribution.
Title:
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English Population, Wages, and Prices: 1541--1913
Lindert, Peter H.
Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Vol. 15, No. 4,
Population and Economy: From the Traditional to the Modern
World. (Spring, 1985), pp. 609-634.
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Title:
Author(s):
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A British Food Puzzle, 1770-1850
Clark, Gregory; Huberman, Michael; Lindert, Peter H.
The Economic History Review, New Series, Vol. 48, No. 2.
(May, 1995), pp. 215-237.
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Abstract:
Conventional income estimates imply gains so large that
Britain's food consumption per caput should have risen by
between 35 and 62 per cent between 1770 and 1850. Yet
estimates of per caput foodstuff supplies show no rise.
Three insights partly reconcile the discrepancy. First,
the foodstuffs supplied by agriculture and net imports
take a falling share of the food value consumed. Secondly,
as incomes rise the income elasticity of food demand drops
below the levels usually gleaned from worker surveys.
Third, urbanization and industrialization depress food
demand.
Title:
Did English Factor Markets Fail during the Industrial
Revolution?
Williamson, Jeffrey G.
Oxford Economic Papers, Vol. 39, No. 4. (Dec., 1987), pp.
641-678.
Author(s):
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http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0030-7653%28198712%292%3A39%3A4%3C641%3ADEFMFD%3E2.0.CO%3B2-
E
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Author(s):
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Why Was British Growth So Slow During the Industrial
Revolution?
Williamson, Jeffrey G.
The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 44, No. 3. (Sep.,
1984), pp. 687-712.
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Abstract:
Although it has been labeled the "First Industrial
Revolution," British growth and industrialization was
slow between the 1760s and the 1820s. The explanation
seems to lie with low capital formation shares in national
income, low rates of accumulation, and thus little change
in the capital-labor ratio. What accounts for the modest
investment rates? Lack of thrift? Weak investment demand?
This paper argues that the answer is to be found in the
enormous debt issues used to finance the French Wars. The
war debt crowded out civilian accumulation, inhibited
growth, and contributed to the dismal performance in the
workers' standard of living. Mobilization and
war-distorted prices also played an important role. A
general equilibrium model is used to factor out the
quantitative impact of each of these three wartime forces
on British economic performance up to the 1820s.
Title:
Author(s):
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English Occupations, 1670-1811
Lindert, Peter H.
The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 40, No. 4. (Dec.,
1980), pp. 685-712.
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http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-0507%28198012%2940%3A4%3C685%3AEO1%3E2.0.CO%3B2-%23
Abstract:
Large new samples of parish data on occupations from
burial registers and lists of inhabitants between the late
seventeenth and the early nineteenth century yield major
clues on economic and social change in England and Wales
before and during the Industrial Revolution. The raw data
are transformed into aggregate occupational estimates for
England and Wales with wide ranges of error, using
regressions and re-weighting for sample bias. The results
cast renewed doubt on Gregory King's classic social table,
and pave the way for new interpretations of trends in
national product and income distribution.
Title:
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Earnings Inequality in Nineteenth-Century Britain
Williamson, Jeffrey G.
The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 40, No. 3. (Sep.,
1980), pp. 457-475.
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Abstract:
Although debate has raged ever since Marx and Engels
openly condemned British capitalism in the 1840s, little
hard evidence has been brought to bear on the issue of
economic inequality. This paper estimates British earnings
distributions for four years in the period 1827-1901. The
evidence supports the view of increasing inequality up to
mid-century and a leveling thereafter. Coupled with newly
available evidence on British eighteenth- and
nineteenth-century wealth and income distribution, these
estimates equip us to search for explanations. A strategy
for modeling British inequality history is suggested.
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Some Dimensions of the 'Quality of Life' during the
British Industrial Revolution
Crafts, N. F. R.
The Economic History Review, New Series, Vol. 50, No. 4.
(Nov., 1997), pp. 617-639.
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2-R
Abstract:
The article sets out estimates for various aspects of
well-being during British industrialization. Judgements
about changes in living standards are shown to be
sensitive to weighting procedures. It is argued that
recent participants in the famous standard of living
controversy have assigned undue importance to trends in
heights and that concern for quality of life rather than
real wages need not imply a pessimistic view of changes in
aggregate well-being during the industrial revolution.
Urban mortality experience is shown to be the least
satisfactory aspect of well-being and it is suggested that
this reflects difficulties of financing local public
goods.
Title:
English Workers' Real Wages During the Industrial
Revolution: Some Remaining Problems
Crafts, N. F. R.
The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 45, No. 1. (Mar.,
1985), pp. 139-144.
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-0507%28198503%2945%3A1%3C139%
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