London in the Age of Industrialisation: Entrepreneurs, Labour Force and Living Conditions, 1700–1850: 19 (Cambridge Studies in Population, Economy and Society in Past Time, Series Number 19)
Cambridge University Press
Edition: Illustrated, 10/29/1992
EAN 9780521403658, ISBN10: 0521403650
Hardcover, 304 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm
Language: English
This book is the first full-length analysis of the London working population and the effects of the industrial revolution in London to appear for over sixty years. Prior to the mid nineteenth century London may not have experienced the direct effects of the industrial revolution to any great extent, but the indirect effects were felt strongly. L. D. Schwarz disagrees with the view that 'the industrial revolution was a storm that passed over London and broke elsewhere', and seeks to judge the effect of industrialisation on what was the country's largest manufacturing city. Its size and role as national capital meant that London was in certain important respects unique, but it was nonetheless susceptible to many of the wider economic transformations that occurred during the period 1700–1850, and Dr Schwarz offers a detailed analysis of the changes to the economy and social structure of London that these wrought. He analyses middle-class wealth, the incomes of the working classes, living standards (defined very broadly to include the impact of the seasons and of the trade cycle), the fall in the death rate, the changing nature of the labour force in general and of artisans in particular, money wages and perquisites and the economic role of women.
Introduction
Part I. Wealth and Occupations in London
1. The structure of London's economy and labour force
2. Manufacturing, services and the London bourgeoisie
Part II. Fluctuations and Mortality in the Metropolis
3. Trends, cycles and wars
4. Seasonal fluctuations
5. The population of London
the ending of the old regime
Part III. The Standard of Living and the London Trades
6. The making of a wage rate
7. The challenge of sweated labour
a tale of four trades
8. The defences of the inferior artisans, conclusion
downstream from industrialisation
Appendices
1. Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century sources on occupations and incomes
2. Occupations insured with Sun Fire Office and Royal Exchange Assurance, 1775–87
3. 1851 census
Armstrong classification
4. 1851 census
summary tables.