A hidden contribution to industrialization? The male occupational structure of London 1817-1871 Part of an E.S.R.C. funded project: Male occupational change and economic growth in England 1750-1850 (original) (raw)
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2017
© Robert J. Bennett, Harry Smith, and Dragana Radicic, University of Cambridge, members of the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure assert their legal and moral rights to be identified as the authors of this paper; it may be referenced provided full acknowledgement is made: Cite (Harvard format): Bennett, Robert J., Smith, Harry, and Radicic, Dragana (2017) Classification of occupations for economically active: Factor analysis of Registration Sub-Districts (RSDs) in 1891. Working Paper 8: ESRC project ES/M010953: ‘Drivers of Entrepreneurship and Small Businesses’, University of Cambridge, Department of Geography and Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure.
The Occupational Structure of England c.1750-1871 A Preliminary Report
2006
It is widely supposed that the industrializing regions of north-west England (Lancashire and the West Riding) experienced a rapid increase in the relative importance of secondary sector employment between 1760 and 1830. However a large-scale analysis of occupational data for the period 1750-1871 shows that in fact the rise in the relative importance of secondary sector employment in the north-west took place during the early modern period and actually declined slightly over the classic 'industrial revolution' period. After 1815, some other parts of the country experienced the rapid increase in secondary sector employment usually assumed to have characterised the industrial districts between 1760 and 1830. In contrast, the growth of service sector employment (especially transport) was dramatic and continuous in all regions of England from the late eighteenth century onwards. Nationally there was more growth in the secondary sector between 1500 and 1750 than there was between 1750 and 1850. These findings necessitate some rethinking of the first industrial revolution, its causes and its consequences. Not least, these findings finally resolve the long-standing controversy as to whether the first industrial revolution was a relatively short dramatic event or a more protracted process. The evidence in favour of the latter view is now overwhelming.
The occupational structure of England c.1710 to c.1871 Work in progress
2010
This paper presents new evidence on the male occupational structure of England c.1710 deriving from c.1000 baptism registers and provides a preliminary analysis of the implications of the data. The key finding is that the secondary sector was perhaps twice as large, in terms of male employment, at the beginning of the eighteenth century as historians have been suggested in recent years. One implication of this is that most of the growth in the relative importance of secondary sector employment, normally associated with the post 1750 period, in fact preceded the eighteenth century. A further implication is that the increase in the productivity of the secondary sector was much larger than has been argued in the national accounts literature. The paper also explores regional differences and documents the scale of deindustrialisation in southern England over the eighteenth century. It also provides a more speculative discussion of likely trends in female employment.
Trade directories as a data source on occupational structure: evidence from England in 1851
3 In the absence of occupational census data before 1851, recent research utilizes baptism registers to infer occupational structure in England in 1817. As an alternative source, we propose using trade directories as these seem to be unaffected by many of the fundamental issues stemming from baptism registers. We outline the history of trade directories and detail their construction. Using the 1851 occupational census and contemporary trade directories, we show that it is possible to infer local occupational structure from trade directories with reasonable accuracy. A suitably stratified sample could generate a national occupational distribution. This technique could likely be employed back to 1770.
The Occupational Structure of England and Wales: the 1939 National Register
Research Data Journal for the Humanities and Social Sciences
A gap in the census surveys for England and Wales between 1921 and 1951 hinders the analysis of their labour structure for the interwar years. The present article uses a dataset containing occupational titles from the National Register – a census-like enumeration of 1939, recently digitised by the genealogy service ‘Find My Past’ – which was previously assigned numerical codes (the pst system). The study expands the existing data analysis on the occupational structure of England and Wales by introducing three further variables: the gender of the surveyed individuals, their age, and the shares of the inactive population per gender and age groups.
Explorations in Economic History, 2013
Britain's labour force industrialised early. The industrial and service sectors already accounted for 40 per cent of the labour force in 1381, and a substantial further shift of labour out of agriculture occurred between 1522 and 1700. From the early seventeenth century rising agricultural labour productivity underpinned steadily increasing employment in industry and services, so that by 1759 agriculture's share of the labour force had shrunk to 37 per cent and industry's grown to 34 per cent. Thereafter, industry's output acceleration during the Industrial Revolution owed more to gains in labour productivity consequent upon mechanisation than the expansion of employment.
Occupational Censuses and the Agricultural Workforce in Victorian England and Wales
The Economic History Review, 1995
he occupational data collected and analysed in the Victorian Census T reports for England and Wales are of fundamental importance for all macroeconomic studies of that period.* The numbers of people recorded as following particular occupations in the decennial enumerations are used to establish time series for changing sectoral labour inputs into the Victorian e~o n o m y .~ Estimates of the size of the workforce in various industries and trades in earlier periods are often extrapolated backwards from these figures, or fitted into hypothetical trends anchored in the seemingly trustworthy data of the Victorian period. Any evidence that the occupational tables derived from the processes of census taking are seriously inaccurate would thus have important implications for economic history. Similarly, changes to our current estimates of such factors as the relative size of the rural economy, the economic participation rates of women, and the numbers in professional occupations, would have repercussions for many of the debates within the field of social history.
Regional Specialization in England and Wales in 1801 and 1851
Regional census tables for each of the 45 English and Welsh counties are estimated for 1801 with a structure identical to 1851, allowing detailed analysis of regional change. Regional dynamics and the interplay between transport, emerging and declining sectors and professions are quantified and discussed. Lancashire and surrounding counties, as well as Birmingham and connecting areas, experienced strong growth in manufacturing and associated occupations. Counties around London and in the north specialised in farming. Weaving and woollen cloth manufacturing diminished strongly and became more concentrated. I observe Marshallian growth with industrial concentration levels in sectors central to the industrial revolution rising considerably over the period.