Pessimism Perpetuated: Real Wages and the Standard of living in Britain during and after the industrial revolution

• 成果类型: Review
• 署名作者: University of Oxford
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC HISTORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0507
• DOI: 10.1017/S0022050700021100
• 发表日期: 1998
• 页码: 625-658
• 关键词: english workers; united-kingdom; england; wales; heights; records; GROWTH; TRENDS; crafts; women

摘要

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.