Pessimism Perpetuated: Real Wages and the Standard of Living in Britain during and after the Industrial Revolution
- 1 September 1998
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in The Journal of Economic History
- Vol. 58 (3), 625-658
- https://doi.org/10.1017/s0022050700021100
Abstract
New estimates of nominal earnings and the cost of living are presented and used to make a fresh assessment of changes in the real earnings of male and female manual workers in Britain from 1770 to 1870. Workers' average real earnings are then adjusted for factors such as unemployment, the number of their dependants, and the costs of urbanization. The main finding is that the standard of living of the average working-class family improved by less than 15 percent between the 1780s and 1850s. This long plateau is shown to be consistent with other economic, political, and demographic indicators.This publication has 47 references indexed in Scilit:
- Wage-earnings in Great Britain during the Industrial RevolutionPublished by Cambridge University Press (CUP) ,1998
- Some Dimensions of the ‘Quality of Life’ During the British Industrial RevolutionThe Economic History Review, 1997
- A new look at the cost of living 1870-1914Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) ,1991
- THE DECLINE OF SAINT MONDAY 1766–1876Past & Present, 1976
- Economic Development with Unlimited Supplies of LabourThe Manchester School, 1954
- English Prices and Public Finance, 1660-1822The Review of Economics and Statistics, 1938
- The Cost of Living and Real Wages in Eighteenth Century EnglandThe Review of Economics and Statistics, 1936
- Real Wages of Artisans in London, 1729-1935Journal of the American Statistical Association, 1936
- Rural Unemployment, 1815-34The Economic History Review, 1935
- Changes in the Standard of Living in the United Kingdom, 1860-1914Economica, 1921