Wiley - Rehabilitating The Industrial Revolution

Rehabilitating the Industrial Revolution Author(s): Maxine Berg and Pat Hudson Reviewed work(s): Source: The Economic
History Review, New Series, Vol. 45, No. 1 (Feb., 1992), pp. 24-50 Published by: Wiley on behalf of the Economic History Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2598327 . Accessed: 11/02/2013 12:10
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Economic Review, XLV, History
I(I992),
pp.
24-50
Rehabilitating industrial the

revolution'
By MAXINE BERG and PAT HUDSON
the and nineteenth centuries as awayfrom viewing lateeighteenth early in a uniqueturning and The of point economic socialdevelopment.2 notion in radical change industry society and over occurring a specific period was in effectively challenged the I920s and I930s by Clapham and others who of stressed long taproots development the incomplete the of and nature economic socialtransformation.' thisit was no longer and After possible to claimthatindustrial de society emerged novoat anytimebetween I750 c. and i85o, buttheidea ofindustrial revolution survived the i960s and into I970s. In i968 Hobsbawmcould state unequivocally that the British revolution themost was in the industrial fundamental transformation history in oftheworld recorded written documents.4 Rostow's work still was widely of influential the socialhistory whatwas seen as a new typeof class and was onlystarting be written. idea thatthelate eighteenth to The society and early nineteenth centuries witnessed significant a socioeconomic remained entrenched.' well discontinuity In thelastdecadethegradualist has In to perspective appeared triumph. it economic becauseof a preoccupation with history has done so largely at of basedconceptualizations growth accounting theexpense morebroadly have ofeconomic New statistics beenproduced which illustrate the change. of slowgrowth industrial and output grossdomestic product. Productivity fixed and grew slowly; capital proportions, savings, investment changed only standards their emained workers' and gradually; living personal consumption
I Some of the arguments this articleappear in Berg, 'Revisionsand revolutions'; in and in Hudson, We to for of and industries. are verygrateful N. F. R. Crafts detaileddiscussion thesubstance ed., Regions and to seminar of Research,London, theNorthern of an earlier version, groupsat theInstitute Historical of of of Economic HistoriansGroup, University Manchester,the University Glasgow, the University in of Paris viii at St Denis, and the Universities Oslo and Bergen.Although manyof the arguments the discussionin thispaper to the paper apply as much to Scotlandand Wales as to England, we confine in wherethe existing literature discussed. is industrial revolution England in orderto avoid confusion 2 For a broad surveyof this and othertrendsin the historiography the industrial of revolution see Cannadine,'The past and the present'. morecataclysmic associatedwithinitiating trend the awayfrom interpretations 3Clapham is mostoften in in Economic history modern of Britain,but the shift emphasisis obviousin otherworksof the interwar revolution; Heaton, 'Industrialrevolution';Redford, period and earlier,e.g. Mantoux, The industrial and revolutions; George,Englandin transition. Economic history England;Knowles,Industrial commercial of 4 Hobsbawm, Industry and empire, I3. p. period as class identified industrial the revolution 5Thompson in his Making of theEnglishworking Rostow's Stages of economic growth, thoughchallengedover the greatturning point in class formation. was a powerful voice in favourof significant the precisefitbetweenthe model and Britishexperience, picture economicdiscontinuity. Landes in Unbound Prometheus drew a convincing and unprecedented of the transformations initiated technical innovation. by
T he historiography the industrial of revolution Englandhas moved in
24
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25
largely unaffectedbefore I 830 and were certainlynot squeezed. The of macroeconomic indicators industrial and social transformation were not present and so the notionof industrial revolution been dethroned has almost instead of entirely leaving onlya longprocess structural changein employment fromagrarian non-agrarian to occupations.6 At the same time,and oftentakinga strong lead fromthe gradualism of economichistory the of interpretations, social history the periodhas shifted away fromanalysisof new class formations consciousness.7 and The postMarxian perspective stressesthe continuity betweeneighteenth- nineand social protest and radicalism. for teenth-century Chartism, example,is seen of as a chronological extension the eighteenth-century constitutional attack on Old Corruption.8 Late eighteenth-century depressions theNapoleonic and of Wars are seen as the majorprecipitators social tensions whichare viewed fromtemporary selective and economichardship rather as arising thanfrom or 'The ancienregime anynewradicalcritique alternative political economy.9 oftheconfessional state'survived eighteenth early the and nineteenth centuries the dominantexplanationof substantially unchanged.'0 In demography, the late eighteenth-century its populationexplosionstresses continuity with a much earlier-established intactuntil demographic regimewhichremained at least the I840s.11 And an influential tendencyin the socio-cultural of historiography the last few yearshas argued that the English industrial revolution was veryincomplete(if it existedat all) because the industrial failedto gainpolitical Thus England and economicascendancy.'2 bourgeoisie neverexperienced periodofcommitment industrial a to the growth: industrial in revolutionwas a brief interruption a great arch of continuity whose in economic and politicalbase remainedfirmly the hands of the landed in and finance. aristocracy its offshoots metropolitan Gentlemanly capitalism in of and industrialists the prevailedand the power and influence industry and limited.'3 Englisheconomyand societywere ephemeral
6 Crafts, Britisheconomic growth. See also Harley, 'Britishindustrialization'; McCloskey,'Industrial in revolution'; Feinstein,'Capital formation GreatBritain';Lindertand Williamson,'English workers' livingstandards'.More radical social and culturalchange is implied in some of the recentliterature discussingincreasesin internal consumption. See Brewer,McKendrick,and Plumb, Birthof consumer But society. we concentrate hereon thegradualism supplyside approaches economichistory of in because supplyside changesare vitalin underpinning changein aggregate any demand. The so-calledconsumer revolution these years can only be understoodas part of a dynamicinterplay of betweenchanging consumption patterns and the transformation employment production. of and 7 Characterized by Thompson,Makingof theEnglishworking class, and emphasizedby Foster,Class struggle. Chartism'. 8 StedmanJones,'Rethinking 9 Williams, 'Morals'; Stevenson,Popular disturbances, ii8, I52; Thomis, Luddites,ch. 2. For pp. of see and critiques thisliterature Charlesworth Randall, 'Comment';Randall, 'Philosophy Luddism'. of For a balanced surveyof the debate on the 'moraleconomy',see Stevenson, 'Moral economy'. 10The phraseis fromClark,Englishsociety whichis heavilycritical the social history the I970S of of and i98os. For a critiqueof his position,see Innes, 'Jonathan Clark'. 11 Wrigleyand Schofield, The argument summarized Wrigley,'Growthof is in Populationhistory. and economy'. population'and in Smith,'Fertility 12 See Wiener, English culture; Anderson,'Figures of descent'; Cain and Hopkins, 'Gentlemanly of thatthe capitalism';Ingham,Capitalism divided?; Leys, 'Formation British capital'. For the argument landed aristocracy an eliteclosed to new wealthsee Stone and Stone,Open elite?;Rubinstein, was 'New men'. 13 Ibid. The term'great arch' is fromCorrigan and Sayer, The greatarch althoughthis work itself does not place exclusivestresson continuity.
26
MAXINE BERG
and PAT HUDSON
favourscontinuity and gradualism, Though currentconsensus strongly appear to have had littledoubt about the magnitudeand contemporaries industrial change. In i8I4 of importance changein the period,particularly PatrickColquhoun wrote: in to the of It is impossible contemplate progress manufactures GreatBritain Its wonderand astonishment. rapidity, within the last thirty yearswithout war, revolutionary exceeds of since particularly thecommencementtheFrench The of but all credibility. improvement steamengines, aboveall thefacilities of manufactories by to afforded the greatbranches the woollenand cotton all and are by machinery, invigorated capital skill, beyond calculation ingenious and are applicable silk,linen,hosiery various to . . . thesemachines rendered other branches.14 a point: RobertOwen in i820 identified key turning Great Britain, the in It is wellknown that, during lasthalfcentury particular, has its of increased powers production, nation, progressively beyond other any introduced in and improvements arrangements, by rapidadvancement scientific of moreor less, intoall the departments productive throughout the industry 15 empire. of And in i833 Peter Gaskellwroteof the social and politicalrepercussions an forming imperiumum economicchange,seeingworking-class organizations of In in imperio" the mostobnoxiousdescription'.'6 i85I the OweniteJames Hole wrotethat: havemenbecome pursue to Class stands opposedto class,and so accustomed and of thatit their interests apartfrom regardless thatof others, ownisolated his an that has become acknowledged maxim, whena manpursues owninterest every alonehe is mostbenefitting society-amaxim. . . whichwouldjustify has and demand been extended crime 'and folly.... The principle supply of but to thereby moreliberty, less from commodities men.These haveobtained with of that they bread.Theyfind in parting thethraldom Feudalism havetaken in has on that Capital;that of slavery ceasedin namebutsurvived fact.17 but Radical change was obvious to contemporaries it has been obscured in has in recenthistoriography, industrial and performance particular been traditional viewed as an extensionof a pre-industrial past. We argue here The nationalaccounts revolution shouldbe rehabilitated. thatthe industrial change is not a good approach to economic growth and productivity The economicdiscontinuity. starting point forthe analysisof fundamental errors of of measurement growth using thisapproachis proneto significant of which arise fromthe restricted definition economicactivity, estimation fromthe incompletenature of the available data, and fromassumptions and productivity embodiedin the analysis.We arguethatgrowth changein we underestimated. the period are currently But, much more importantly, own are inadequateto thetaskofidentifying rateson their stress thatgrowth and comprehendingthe industrial revolution. The current orthodoxy
14 15 16 17
on Colquhoun, Treatise wealth,p. 68. of Owen, Reportto thecounty Lanark, pp. 246-7. of population England,pp. 6-7. Gaskell,Manufacturing cities, I40. p. on quoted in Briggs,Victorian Hole, J., Lectures social science,
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27
underplays economicand social transformation because such development is not amenable to studywithinthe frameof reference nationalaccounts of and aggregate statistics. We examinefourareas in whichfundamental and unique change occurred during the industrialrevolution:technical and outsidethefactory organizational innovation sector, deployment female the of and childlabour,regional and specialization, demographic development. For each area we identifyboth problems of underestimation and of the measurement fundamental of change. We conclude by consideringthe for of of importance social and politicalhistory our reassessment the extent in and natureof transformation theseyears.
of Unlike the earliernationalaccountsestimates Deane and Cole, recent show veryslow growth calculations ratesbeforethe i83os and particularly in the last fourdecades of the eighteenth for century. Explanations thisslow but growth varyconsiderably the workof Crafts has been the most widely in influential current about the industrial revolution.'8 assumptions Crafts calculatedthatchangein investment proportions verygradualuntilthe was early nineteenthcentury and that total factor productivity growth in was manufacturing onlyaround0.2 per cent per annumbetweenI760 and i8oi and 0.4 per centbetweeni8oi and i83I. Even totalfactor productivity growthacross the entire economy, inflatedin Crafts's opinion by the of performance agriculture, grewveryslowly:0.2 per centper annum I760i8oi, 0.7 per cent i80i-3I, reachingi.o per cent onlyin the period I83Iratescould be made. Perhapsthe most Severalpointsabout thesegrowth is important that,although productivity growth appearsgradual,it was high whichunderearlier economic enoughto sustaina muchincreased population would have perished.Crafts, circumstances however,chooses to emphasize the poor showingof manufacturing, arguingthat one small and atypical in whichgrowth accelerated accountedforas much sector,cotton, sharply, in manufacturing. was a modernsector It as half of all productivity gains too overallimpact. in floating a sea of tradition, small to have a significant of For mostof industry, concluded,'not onlywas the triumph ingenuity he slow to come to fruitionbut it does not seem appropriateto regard 20 as innovativeness pervasive'. We believe that this opinion rests on two sector false assumptions.First, it is assumed that the innovative factory functioned independently and owed littleto, changesin the restof the of, and manufacturing service economy. Secondly,innovationis assumed to
18. Williamson,'Why was Britisheconomic growth; Crafts, growth; Deane and Cole, Britisheconomic the revolution'. WhereasCraftsstresses so British economicgrowth slow?'; McCloskey,'The industrial Williamson of investment opportunities, of becauseofa shortage highreturn lowproductivity theeconomy was of revolution crowdedout by theeffect war debtson civilianaccumulation. arguesthatthe industrial economicgrowth'; Williamson, 'Debating'; thesetwoviewssee Crafts, 'British For recent debatebetween 'Englishfactor markets'; been crowdedout?'. See also Williamson, revolution Mokyr,'Has theindustrial Heim and Morowski,'Interestrates'. 19 Crafts, pp. British economic growth, 3I, 8i, 84. 20 Ibid., p. 87.
I86o.19
28
MAXINE BERG
and PAT HUDSON
which of plantand equipment concern onlytheintroduction capital-intensive has an immediatemeasurableimpact on productivity. returnto these We below but first important pointsabout economicdualism and productivity deal withmeasurement problemsof the nationalaccountsapproach briefly revolution to the periodwhichalonearesufficient undermine during industrial confidence the current in orthodoxy. gradualist II Industrialoutput and GDP are aggregateestimatesderived from the weightedaverages of theircomponentswhich, as Craftshimselfadmits, of involves 'a classic index numberproblem'.2' The difficulties assigning to and othersectors the economy, of allowingforchanges weights industrial in weightsover time and for the effects differential of price changes and value-addedchangesin thefinal are and product, insurmountable willalways involvewide margins potential of error.Errorsin turnbecomemagnified in residualcalculations like thatof productivity growth.22 the of At the root of problemsconcerning composition the economyby are the new social and sector in the national accounting framework tablesof Lindertand Williamson and others upon whichCrafts occupational to sectorthan the earlier These give a higherprofile the industrial rely.23 of estimates King, Massie, and Colquhounand fitwell with social structure of But workon the importance proto-industrialization. the latitude current for potentialerrorin these tables is great. Lindert himselfhas cautioned and that for the large occupational groupingsof industry,agriculture, for errormargins could be as highas 6o per centwhileestimates commerce and shoemakers, carpenters, othersare 'littlemorethanguesses'.24Lindert mainsource of and Williamson relyon theburialrecords adultmalesas their of occupationalinformation. Yet women and childrenwere a vital and workforce duringthe proto-industrial growing pillar of the manufacturing of for difficulties allowing dual and and earlyindustrial periods.The further like 'labourer',which and of dealing with descriptions tripleoccupations, for of give no indication sector,suggestthatno reliablesectoralbreakdown the labourinputscan be made. Beforethe 1831 census,and without benefit of much more research,not only are sectoraldistributions likely to be the likely to underestimate role of erroneous,but they are particularly often growingsections of the labour force and of the vitallyimportant, and industrial occupations. innovative, overlapsbetweenagrarian robust. Many of Crafts's macrodataparticularly Nor are the industrial derivedfrom estimates sectoroutputsand inputsrelyon usingmultipliers of is a handfulof examplesand only a sample of industries used. This omits
21 Ibid., p. I7.
22 23 24
Lindertand Williamson,'RevisingEngland's social tables'; Lindert,'English occupations'. from rural ruralnon-agricultural and distinguishes also uses theseestimates, Ibid., p. 70I; Wrigley of agricultural population.Note, however,that he emphasizesthe fallibility estimatesforagricultural and agricultural change',p. i69. populationbeforei8oo. See Wrigley,'Urban growth
p. 306.
revolution been crowded out?', expenditure';Mokyr, 'Has the industrial Jackson,'Government
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29
increasein the economy: potentially vitalsourcesof outputand productivity for example, food processing,metal wares, distilling,lead, furniture, The coachmaking,and new industrieslike chemicals and engineering.25 of as sectorswhichare includedshould be representative industry a whole ratherthan but in fact the sample is heavilybiased in favourof finished and uses ofrawand semi-processed goods. Changein thenature intermediate material inputsprobablyresultsin bias because majorsourcesof innovation in the economyare neglected.26 to In attempting measure the size and natureof the servicesectorthe framework encounters virtually a impossibletask. Crafts macro accounting in thatproductivity the servicesector is forcedto relyon the assumption increased no more than in industry.Behind this lies the even more thatthe servicesectorexpandedat the same rateas assumption problematic in we beforei8oi and thereafter line withwhatlittle knowabout population expenditure,and the growth of the legal rents, (central) government of Crafts'streatment the servicesectorexcludesdirectevidence profession. financial services,retailand wholesale of what was happeningin transport, otherthanthe law (iinotherwords,whatwas happening trades,professions of And to transactions costs), to say nothing personaland leisureservices.27 surroundsCrafts's estimatesof agriculturaloutput furthercontroversy fromquestionableestimatesof population because he relies on inferences incomes,prices,and incomeelasticities.28 growth, agricultural have of courseleftno availablesourceof Large areas of economicactivity centurynational income quantitativedata at all. Even in the twentieth of economicactivity, involves whenused as an indicator national accounting, but these are magnifiedin earlier major problems of underestimation, because so mucheconomicactivity embeddedin unquantifiwas applications The of non-market able and unrecorded relationships.29 problems thenational compoundedfor periods of fundamental approach are further accounting of and commercial economicchangebecause the proportion totalindustrial is over time. showingup in the estimates likelyto changeradically activity in were low, industrial thresholds mostindustries If, as seems likely,entry and foremost among a myriadsmall firms expansionmighttake place first who is whichhave leftfewrecordsand whosecontribution lost to historians to confinethemselves easily available indices. Finally, price data for the
pp. growth, I7-27; Hoppit, 'Counting',p. i82. Crafts, British economic chs. II, I2; Rowlands, Mastersand men; Hudson, Genesis,ch. 6; Berg, Age of manufactures, Black DykeMills, ch. I. Sigsworth, 27 'Government expenditure'; do?'; Jackson, pp. I82-3; Price,'Whatdo merchants Hoppit, 'Counting', of idem,'Structure pay'. 28 revolution been crowded pp. growth, 38-44; Mokyr, 'Has the industrial Crafts,Britisheconomic was however, and deceleration'; Hoppit, 'Counting',p. i83. Crafts, 'Growth out?'.,pp. 305-I2; Jackson, of to certainenoughof theseand of his otherestimates writein i989 'The dimensions economicchange . in Britainduringthe IndustrialRevolutionare now reliablymeasured.A numberof features . . are industrialization 'British research';Crafts, as likelyto be subjectto onlyminorrevision a resultof further context',p. 4i6. in an international pp. 29 For discussionsof the problemsof nationalincomeaccounting see Hawke, Economics, 27-36; see passim. For discussionof the embeddednessof economicactivity of Usher, Measurement growth, Polanyi, ed., Trade and market,pp. 239-306; Douglas and Isherwood, World of goods; Beneria, the 'Conceptualising labour force'.
25 26
30
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and
PAT HUDSON
eighteenth centuryare sparse and highlypartial. This creates a problem because the nationalaccountsframework across requiresprice information the board to calculatevalue added in each sector. firm These considerations the conclusions from together precludedrawing availableand suggestthatthe bias theycontainis likely estimates currently of and in to resultin underestimation production productivity the secondary sectorsof the economy. and tertiary it thatCrafts's recentstatistical In thisconnection is worth analysis noting of industrial output series for Britain,Italy, Hungary,Germany,France, and Hungary werethe onlycountries Russia, and AustriashowsthatBritain a rateofgrowth industrial in to exhibit prolonged periodof increaseof trend In productionduring the process of industrialization.30 the light of the qualitativeevidence of the extentand speed of change in Germanyand Russia in particular, this finding suggestseitherthat the macro estimates thatpayingundue attention changesin the to are farfromaccurateand/or pointfor at trendratesof growth the nationallevel is not a helpfulstarting or economictransformation. identifying understanding III in Aggregative studiesare dogged by an inbuiltproblemof identification of As revolution. Mokyr posingquestionsabout the existence an industrial has pointedout in the Englishcase: which and to Someindustries weremechanising switching factories grew slowly i like while construction after8oi, woolandchemicals soapandcandles) (e.g.paper in manual ruled with exceptions few and coal mining which supreme techniques at untildeepin thenineteenth rates.31 century, grew respectable is and does noteverywhere technical Clearly progress notgrowth rapidgrowth of imply the revolutionizing productionfunctions.Can we justifyusing manufacturing ratios, high factorproductivity high aggregateinvestment on GDP indicators as and theirimmediate influence the formal techniques, of innovation transformation? answering and In this our yardstick industrial question, we need to look more closely at the model of industrialization much current whichunderpins analysis. of The new interpretations the industrial revolution relyon an analytical divide between the traditionaland modern sectors: mechanized factory traditional withhighproductivity theone hand,and a widespread on industry on and servicesectorbackwater the other. It is argued that the industrial technology, sector, combined with primitive large size of the traditional in But it made it a drag on productivity growth the economyas a whole.32 structure is notclearhowhelpful divideis in understanding economic this the
30 and to to This analysisemploysthe Kalman filter eliminatethe problemof false periodization and Mills, betweentrendchangesand the effect cyclesof activity. Crafts, of See Leybourne, distinguish 'Britain'; idem,'Trends and cycles'. 31 Mokyr,'Has the industrial been crowdedout?', p. 3I4. revolution 32 pp. revolution, 5-6; Crafts, of economic growth, 2; Mokyr,Economics theindustrial ch. Crafts, British 'Britishindustrialization'.
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In of and England.33 or the dynamism eighteenth- earlynineteenth-century divisionsbetweenthe traditional reality, is impossibleto make clear-cut it and the modern as there were rarely separate organizationalforms, to and technologies, locations,or firms be ascribedto either.Eighteenthcottonmanufacturers, serving domestic well as foreign as nineteenth-century combinedsteam-powered spinning factories in withlargemarkets, typically of scale employment domestichandloomweaversand oftenkept a mix of powered and domestichand weaving long afterthe powered technology becameavailable.This pattern a function riskspreading, problems was of the in of earlytechnology, the cheap labour supplyof womenand children and Thus fordecades the 'modern'sectorwas actually bolstered by, particular.34 and derivedfromthe 'traditional' sector,and not the reverse. Artisans in the metal-working sectors of Birminghamand Sheffield combinedoccupationsor changedthem over theirlife cycle in frequently such a way that they too could be classifiedin both the traditional and modern sectors.35Artisan woollen workersin West Yorkshireclubbed to together build millsforcertain processesand thushad a footin both the modernand traditional mills'underpinned camps. These so-called'company Thus the traditional the success of the artisanstructure.36 and the modern Firms primarily were most often inseparable and mutuallyreinforcing. diversified into metal processing ventures as concernedwith metalworking a way of generating steadyraw materialsupplies. This and othercases of vertical wagging integration providemore examplesof the tail of 'tradition' the dog of 'modernity'.37 The non-factory, for sector,oftenworking primarily supposedlystagnant and extensive radicaltechnical organizational and domestic markets, pioneered The classic textileinnovations change not recognizedby the revisionists. the artisanmetal were all developed withina rural and artisanindustry; hand handtools,and newmalleable trades developedskill-intensive processes, alloys. The wool textile sector moved to new products which reduced New formsof putting-out, times and revolutionized marketing. finishing weredevised creditand debt,and artisan co-operation wholesaling, retailing, in of the as ways of retaining essentials older structures the face of the new evolved morecompetitive innovative and environment. Customary practices The result and market-orientated to matchtheneeds ofdynamic production.
33 The use of a two-sector of changeis reminiscent development modelofindustrial traditional/modern economics during the I950s and i96os which looked to a policy of accelerated and large-scale of through promotion the modernsectoras a spearheadforthe restof the economy. industrialization was abandonedin the I970S withrecognition thediverseand dependent of linkages between This division and betweenthe 'traditional' and 'modern'sectors, it has gainedrenewed yet the 'formal'and 'informal' in See Moser, 'Informal sector',p. I052; Toye, Dilemmas development. in prominence economichistory. economics,see Berg, 'Revisionsand revolutions', For fullerdiscussionof parallelideas in development of sectorsee Sabel and Zeitlin, of pp. 5i-6. For a particular interpretation the dynamism the smallfirm 'Historicalalternatives', I42-56; also Berg, 'On the origins'. pp. 34 See, forexample, Lyons, 'Lancashirecottonindustry'. 35 Berg, 'Revisions and revolutions', chs. pp. 56, 59; idem,Age of manufactures, II I2; Sabel and Zeitlin, 'Historical alternatives',pp. I46-50; Lyons, 'Vertical integration';Berg, 'Commerce and
capital,pp. 70-80; idem,'From manorto mill'. Hudson, Genesisof industrial Wadsworthand Mann, Cottontrade; Hamilton, woollenand worsted Heaton, Yorkshire industry; of development southWales. industries; John,Industrial Englishbrassand copper
36 37
creativity', I90-5. pp.
32
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and
PAT HUDSON
was considerable transformation within framework the so-called even the of traditional sector. The revisionists arguethatmostindustrial labourwas to be foundin those occupations which experiencedlittle change.38But the food and drink trades,shoemaking, tailoring, blacksmithing, tradescatering luxury and for consumptionsuccessfully expanded and adapted to provide the essential urbanserviceson whichtownlife,and hence much of centralized industry, was dependent. Furthermore, early industrial capitalformation enterprise and in typically combinedactivity the food and drinkor agricultural processing trades withmoreobviously industrial innumerable activities, creating external in economies.39This was true in metal manufacture Birminghamand whereinnkeepers and victuallers were commonly Sheffield and mortgagees In joint ownersof metal workingenterprises.40 the south Lancashiretool tradesPeter Stubs was not untypical when he first appeared in I788 as a tenantof the WhiteBear Inn in Warrington. Here he combinedthe activity and brewerwiththatof filemaker of innkeeper, maltster, using the carbon in barm bottoms(barrel dregs) to strengthen files.41There are many the and examplesof thiskind of overlapbetweenservices, agriculture, industry. These were the norm in business practiceat a time when entrepreneurs' to of riskswere difficult spreadthrough diversification portfolios where and so much could be gained fromthe externaleconomiescreated by these overlaps. at We do not suggesthere thatproductivity growth the rate experienced in cottontextiles was achievedelsewhere, thatthe successof cottonand but was other related and dependent to majorexports intimately uponinnovations in and radical transformations otherbranchesof the primary, secondary, the sectorsis and tertiary sectors.Dividingoffthe modernfrom traditional to an analyticaldevice which hides more than it reveals in attempting the of revolution. understand dynamics changein the industrial
IV
and depenMore questionablethan theirassumption the separateness of evaluationof productivity sectoris the revisionists' dence of the traditional the of changein the economyat this time. Throughout historiography the measures industrial revolution have seldombeen clearly productivity defined, and figures limited been explained, of thelimitations measureshave rarely of have been produced and widely accepted on trust. Total meaningfulness factorproductivity (TFP) is the measuremost used by Craftsand others was and its use has led themto concludethatproductivity slow to growin the period. TFP is usuallycalculatedas a residualafterthe rate of growth of of factor fromthe rate of growth GDP. inputshas been subtracted
38 Crafts, and pp. I33-57; idem, Continuity, p. People,cities wealth, British economic growth, 69; Wrigley, chanceand change, 84. p. 39 Jones,'Environment'; capital'; Mathias,'Agriculture Chapman,'Industrial Burley,'Essex clothier'; and brewing'. 40 p. Berg, 'Commerceand creativity', i83. pp. industrialist, 4-5. 41 Ashton,Eighteenth century
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There are severalmajor problemswiththe TFP measure.First,TFP as a residualcalculationis heavilyaffected any mistakesin the estimation by of sectoraloutputsand factor inputs.If the originalsectorweightings were distorted. differences TFP may wrong,TFP estimates in maybe highly Big also arise fromvariationsin the estimatedgrowthof GDP. Secondly,if fromsectorswith low marginalproductivities those factorreallocation to of withhighones was an important feature theperiod,it will notbe possible to derive reliable economy-wide rates of TFP growthsimplyby takinga of weightedaverageacross sectors.The effects factorreallocation must be incorporated.42 Thirdly,TFP embodiesa numberof restrictive assumptions rarelyacknowledgedby those who use the measure. These are perfect of mobility factors, neutral perfect competition, technical progress, constant to returns scale, and parametric The eighteenth-century prices.43 economy did not matchthese assumptions. For example,the assumption neutral of technicalprogressis suspect in view of the evidenceof long-term labourof savingtechnical returns scale change. So too are assumptions constant to when set against evidence of increasing returns;TFP calculationsshould and allow forimperfect elasticities productdemand of competition changing and factor of of inputs.44 Assumptions fullemployment labour and capital are Movement population and of perfect of was mobility also inappropriate. often not a response to shortagesof labour in industry;indeed many industrialsectors came to be characterized flooded labour markets, by for particularly the less skilled tasks. These were paralleled by massive immobile labourin manysouthern midland and pools ofagricultural counties. was Structural under-utilization both of unemployment endemicand chronic labour and capitalwas aggravated seasonal and cyclicalswings.45 by TFP takesno accountofinnovation thenature outputs in Furthermore, of or of changein the qualityof inputs,yetwe know thatboth were marked of features the period. On the input side, labour needs to be adjusted in TFP calculations changesin age, sex, education,skill, and intensity for of work. Output per workeris also affected changesin the relative by power of employersto extractwork effort and in the power of employeesto withhold it.46Similarly, material as inputswerechanging constantly product innovation affected natureof raw materials the and intermediate goods as wellas final products.The smallmetaltradeswerea case in point:innovation entailednot poweredmechanization the introduction niewproducts of but of and the substitution cheap alloys forpreciousmetalsas raw material.47
42 I2.
43
Williamson, 'Debating', p.
270;
revolution been crowdedout?', pp. Mokyr,'Has theindustrial
305-
Link, Technological change, pp. I5-20. Eichengreen, 'What have we learned?',pp. 29-30; Link, Technological change, I4. For discussion p. ch. of evidenceof labour-saving technicalchange,see Rosenberg,Perspectives technology, 6; David, on ch. Technical choice, I; Field, 'Land abundance,interest/profit p. 4I I; Stoneman, rates', Economic analysis of see oftechnological change, pp. I 56-67.For evidenceand discussion increasing returns, David, Technical choice, chs. 2, 6. 45 Eichengreen, 'Causes of Britishbusinesscycles'; Allen, Enclosure, I2; Hunt, 'Industrialisation ch. and regionalinequality'. 46 Link, Technological change, 24; Eichengreen, p. 'What have we learned?',pp. 29-30; Elbaum and p. Lazonick, Declineof theBritish economy, I-I7; Lazonick, 'Social organisation', 74. pp. 47 Berg,Age of manufactures, chs. II, I2; Rowlands,Masters and men.
44
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PAT HUDSON
in patterns habits.48 and Productinnovation fuelled revolution consumption a measuresthe replication of But because the nationalaccountsframework eitherthe appearance of goods and services,it cannot easily incorporate at entirely new goods not present the startof a timeseriesor improvements further frustrate overtimein the qualityof goods or services.New products efforts productivity estimation because the initialprices of new goods at as wereusuallyveryhighbut declinedrapidly innovation proceeded,making the calculationof both weightsand value-addeda majorproblem.49 and productivity calculations Finally, the national accounts framework in cannot measure that qualitativeimprovement the means of production hoursor less arduousor monotonous work whichcan yieldshorter working routines.50 Clearly, a broader concept of technologicalchange and of innovationis required than can be accommodatedby national income If accounting. the mostsensibleway to view the courseof economicchange it is through timingand impactof innovation, is arguablethatthe use the of nationalaccounting frustrated has progress. Emphasishas been placed on at organization, savingand capitalformation theexpenseofscience,economic the skills,dexterity, knacks new productsand processes,market creativity, of and and workpractices manufacture, otheraspectsof economiclifewhich but have no place in the accounting categories.5' may be innovative The problemsinvolvedin measuring productivity growth, economy-wide it of and in regarding as a reflection the extentof fundamental economic change,are compoundedwhen one considersthe natureboth of industrial of capital and of industriallabour in the period. Redeployment labour and domesticsectorsto urban and more centralized fromagrarian-based manufacturing activitymay well have been accompaniedby diminishing in labour productivity the shortrun. Green labour had to learn industrial skillsas well as new forms disciplinewhile,withinsectors,labour often of shifted into processeswhich were more ratherthan less labour-intensive. in The same tendency low returns the shorttermcan be seen in capital to in investment theperiod.Earlysteamenginesand machinery wereimperfect and subjectto breakdowns and rapidobsolescence.Grosscapitalinvestment and replacements), whenfed figures (whichincludefundsspenton renewals into productivity of and measures,are not a good reflection the importance of change potential technological changein the period. Rapid technological as soonbecomesobsolescent is replaced. and is capitalhungry newequipment measuresof productivity Shiftsin the aggregate growthare thus actually less likelyto showup as significant during periodsof rapidand fundamental economic transition thanin periodsofslower and morepiecemeal adjustment. This pointwas stressed Hicks who notedthatthelonggestation period by of technologicalinnovationmight yield Ricardo's machineryeffect:the frommajor shifts technology in returns would not be apparentforseveral innovation wouldonlyincrease decadesand, in theshort unemployment term,
48 49
Brewer,McKendrick,and Plumb, Birthof a consumer society; Breen, 'Baubles of Britain'. Usher,Measurement, 8-io. pp. 50 Ibid., p. 9. 51Ibid., p. io.
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35
and put downwardpressure on wages.52There was such a disjuncture betweenthe wave of innovations surrounding electric the dynamoin thelate nineteenth centuryand an acceleration the growthof GNP. And the in revolution whichis transforming current computer production, services, and workinglives across a broad frontis not accompaniedby rapidlyrising withinnationaleconomies.Resolvingthis income,output,or productivity the apparent'productivity paradox' involvesrecognizing limitednatureof TFP as a measureof economicperformance the longtime-frame and needed to connect fundamental technological change with productivity growth.53 withlittlechange,it is possible Thus, just as it is possible to have growth to have radicalchangewithlimitedgrowth.In factthe more revolutionary the the changetechnologically, socially,and culturally, longerthismaytake measuresof economicperformance. to workout in termsof conventional
V
feature the new orthodoxy its restricted of is Anotherstriking definition for oftheworkforce; in turnhas implications theanalysis productivity this of change as well as the standard of living debate. Wrigleyassessed key productivity growthonly throughthe IO per cent of adult male labour distant markets. Williamson's which,in i83I, workedin industries serving of documentation inequalityand Lindert and Williamson'ssurveyof the standard of living considered only adult male incomes while Lindert's for reliedon adult burialrecordswhichare estimates industrial occupations almost exclusivelymale. But the role of women and childrenin both market-orientated capital and labour intensive manufacturing both the (in 'traditional'and the 'modern' sectors) probably reached a peak in the industrial revolution, makingit a unique periodin this respect.54 to the It is extremely difficult quantify extentof femaleand child labour statistics and even fromwage as both were largelyexcluded fromofficial books. But analyses based only on adult male labour forcesare clearly for inadequateand peculiarly distorting thisperiod. On the supplyside the was a vitalpillarof householdincomes,made labourof womenand children more so by the populationgrowth and hence the age structure the later of which substantially reducedthe proportion males of of eighteenth century
52 can question, 4. If patenting be taken ch. p. history, I53; Berg,Machinery of Hicks, Theory economic of of thenwe have some evidencethatgrowth TFP in nineteenthas a roughindication inventiveness, patentableactivity.See of century England took place some 40 years afterthe acceleration inventive revolution. the Sullivan,'England's "age of invention"',p. 444; Macleod, Inventing industrial 53 David, 'The computer and the dynamo'. 54 Wrigley,Continuity, chance and change,pp. 83-7; Williamson,Did Britishcapitalism?, passim; pp. growth, 4-5. In British economic livingstandards';Crafts, Lindertand Williamson,'Englishworkers' and women's and children'slabour accountedfor 75 per cent of the workforce, the woollenindustry also predominated the cotton in child labourexceededthatof womenand of men. Women and children in workforce i8i6; thoseunder childrenunder I3 made up 20 per cent of the cottonfactory industry; were also predominantly industries female,and i8, 5I.2 per cent. The silk, lace making,and knitting such in of proportions womenand children metalmanufactures as theBirmingham there wereevenhigher p. trades. See Randall, BeforetheLuddites, 6o; Nardinelli,'Child labour'; Berg, 'Women's work', pp. workers, 70-3; Pinchbeck,Women passim; Saito, 'Otherfaces',p. i83; idem,'Labour supplybehaviour', see pp. 636 and 646. For a recentcriticaldiscussionof child labour and unemployment Cunningham, and unemployment', passim. 'Employment
36
MAXINE
BERG
and
PAT HUDSON
The impactof the high dependency ratio working age in the population.55 in theirway at an earlyage, particularly earning was cushionedby children On domesticmanufacturing.56 the demand side the need for hand skills, and the of dexterity, workdisciplineencouraged absorption moreand more femaleand juvenilelabour into commercial production.This was further in encouragedby sex differentials wages which may have been increasing in were Employers underthe impactof demographic pressure theseyears.57 much attracted low wages and long hours at a time when no attention by or effects payment results shorter of hours.58 by was yetpaid to theincentive Thus factorsboth on the supply and on the demand side of the labour with high proportions child of marketresultedin a labour forcestructure and femaleworkers.They were the key elementsin the labour intensity, and costsfoundin late eighteentheconomicdifferentiation, low production centuryindustries.And this in turn influencedand was influencedby new forms subcontracting puttinginnovation. New workdisciplines, of and new factory were out networks, organization, and even new technologies on triedout initially womenand children.59 is The peculiar importance youthlabour in the industrial of revolution of and in machinery beingdesigned highlighted severalinstances textile other The spinning case; and builtto suitthe childworker. jennywas a celebrated wheel requiring posturemost a the originalcountry jennyhad a horizontal for comfortable children aged nineto twelve.Indeed, fora time,in the very and factory in organization the woollen and earlyphases of mechanization it believedthatchildlabour silkindustries well as in cotton, was generally as was integralto textilemachine design.60This associationbetween child briefperiodof technological was confined a fairly to labour and machinery United States it appears to have lasted from change. In the north-eastern of c. i8I2 until the i83os, duringwhich time the proportion women and labour forcerose fromIO to 40 per childrenin the entiremanufacturing and cent. This was associatedwithnew large-scale technologies divisionsof labour specifically designedto dispensewithmoreexpensiveand restrictive of skilled adult male labour.6' Similarly,the employment an increasing of was also encouragedby proportion femalelabour in English industries of the readyreserves cheap and skilledfemalelabour whichhad long been a featureof domesticand workshopproduction.In addition,in England, the many agricultural regionsshed femaleworkersfirst--during process of
55 Children aged 5-I4 probablyaccountedforbetween23 and 25 per cent of the totalpopulationin Population the early nineteenth century, comparedwith 6 per cent in I95I. Wrigleyand Schofield, history, A3.I, PP. 528-9. tab. 56 Berg, ch. Levine,'Industrialisation family economy'; Ageofmanufactures, 6; Medick,'Proto-industrial and the proletarian family', I77. p. 57 Saito, 'Other faces', p. i83; idem,'Labour supplybehaviour', p. 634. 58 Hobsbawm, 'Custom, wages and workload',pp. 353, 355. 59 Berg, 'Women's work', pp. 76-88; Pinchbeck,Women workers. modernThird World parallels For and foreign see Elson and Pearson, 'Nimble fingers investments', 2-3; Pearson, 'Female workers'. pp. 60 Report. . . on thestate the on (P.P. i8i6, III), pp. 279, 343; Report from Committee the of children in (P.P. i83I-2, XV), P. 254. The issue is bill to regulate labourof children the millsand factories the exploredin greater depth in Berg, 'Women's work'. 61 Goldin and Sokoloff, p. and industrialization', 747; Goldin,'Economic statusof 'Women, children women'.
REHABILITATING
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37
withinruralareas and fromrural change,and much migration agricultural to urban areas consistedof youngwomenin searchof work.62 By mid centuryfemale and child labour was decliningin importance and of of the through mixture legislation, activities male tradeunionists, a and of fitand pervasiveideologyof the male breadwinner the increasingly A proper female activities.63 patriarchalstance was by this time also compatiblewith the economic aims of a broad spectrumof employers. (as Accordingto Hobsbawm, largerscale employers well as male labour) (by payments results), the werelearning 'rules of the game' in whichhigher could of terrain commoninterests hours,and a negotiated working shorter on withbeneficial effects low-wageexploitation for be substituted extensive
productivity.
The use of low-costchild and femalelabour was not, of course, new: it to sectorand had been integral the had always been vital in the primary in spread of manufacture the earlymodernperiod. What was new in the was of revolution the extent its incorporation periodof the classicindustrial and its into rapidly expanding factoryand workshop manufacturing of associationwith low wages, increasedintensification work, and labour had an impact The femaleand juvenileworkforce undoubtedly discipline.65 but this per unit of input costs in manyindustries, on the outputfigures in because some be productivity would not necessarily reflected aggregate for femalelabour was a substitute male: it increasedat timesand in sectors The social costs high.66 wheremale wages werelow or male unemployment .poor through male labour (feltin high transfer payments of underutilized in of relief)as well as the difficulties allowing for male unemployment gains in the measurableeconomic are sectoralweightings likely to offset of economic of performance theeconomy indicators theperiod.The potential to capital limitedby the lack of incentive substitute as a whole was further was so abundant,cheap, forlabourwhenthe labourof womenand children workgroupsand in theabsenceof traditions and disciplined family through of solidarity.67 of The full effects this expandedrole of femaleand juvenilelabour can
62 ch. Berg, 'Women's work'; Allen,Enclosure, I2; Sweatedtrades; Pollard,'Labour', p. I33; Bythell, Snell, Annals, chs. I and 4; Souden, 'East, west-home's best?', p. 307; cf. Williamson,Copingwith growth. city ch. 63 Lown, Women and industrialization, 6; Seccombe, 'Emergenceof male breadwinner';Rose, Harrison,'Class and gender',pp. I22-38, I45; fortunes; Davidoff and Hall, Family 'Genderantagonism'; work. Roberts,Women's 64 Hobsbawm, 'Custom, wages and workload',p. 36i. 65 families, and the proletarianfamily',pp. I75-9; Levine, Reproducing Levine, 'Industrialisation regionsis economiesof the industrializing of pp. II2-5. The low wage character the export-orientated pp. pp. economy, I3I, I36-4I. See also Hunt, 'Industrialisation', 937-45. by highlighted Lee, TheBritish of behindthegrowth modern thatlow wagesmayhave been a keyfactor Mokyr,echoingMarx, suggests hours, been crowdedout?', p. 3i8. See also Bienefeld,Working revolution 'Has the industrial industry: p. 4I. For parallelswiththe Third World see Pearson, 'Female workers'. hypothesis'. 'Relativeproductivity 66 Saito,'Labour supply pp. behaviour', 645-6;Goldinand Sokoloff, and of and treatment thissee Mincer,'Labour forceparticipation', For a standardtheoretical empirical Greenhalgh,'A labour supply function'.The male occupationalstatisticsupon which productivity take no accountof unemployment. estimates rely,necessarily ch. I2; Boyer, 'Old poor law'; Lyons, p. 67 Lewis, 'Economic development', 404; Allen, Enclosure, Berg, 'Women's work'. 'The Lancashirecottonindustry';
38
MAXINE
BERG
and
PAT HUDSON
level by analysingits only be completelyunderstoodat a disaggregated A impact upon sectorsand in regionswhere it was cruciallyimportant. is regionalperspective also uniquely valuable in assessingthe extentand natureof economicand social changein the period. VI in The industrial revolution was a periodof greatdisparity regionalrates regionswere of change and economicfortunes. Expandingindustrializing of matchedby regionsof decliningindustry, and chronicunderutilization agriculture was similarly labour and capital. The storyof commercializing fail indicators to capturethesedevelopments, patchy.Slow-moving aggregate of and drive yetthe interactions self-reinforcing createdby the development in industry markedregionalconcentrations gave rise to major innovations. For example,an increasein the outputof the British wool textile sectorby seems verymodest but century I50 per cent duringthe entireeighteenth this conceals the dramaticrelocation takingplace in favourof Yorkshire, rose from around20 per centto around whose sharein nationalproduction If 6o per cent in the course of the century. the increasehad been uniform in all regions,it could have been achievedsimplyby the gradualextension commercial methods and production functions. Yorkshire's But oftraditional embodieda revolution organizational in intensive patterns, growth necessarily the commerciallinks, credit relationships, sorts of cloths produced, and production techniques.The externaleconomiesachievedwhen one region of took over more than halfof the production an entiresectorwere also of key importance.68 and early All the expanding industrialregions of the late eighteenth centurieswere, like the West Riding, dominatedby particular nineteenth beforenor to be experienced again after sectorsin a way neverexperienced of the growth intra-sectoral duringthe twentieth century. spatialhierarchies sectoralspecialization and regionalintegrity together help to Furthermore, distinctive social and class relations explain the emergenceof regionally which set a patternin English political life for over a century.These considerations promptthe view thatregionalstudiesmay be of more value in understanding processof industrialization studiesof the national the than economyas a whole.69 The main justification which Craftsuses for employing aggregative an the of approachto identify nature,causes, and corollaries industrialization in Britainis that the nationaleconomyrepresented, manyproducts,a for well integrated national goods marketby the early nineteenth century. Althoughthe spread of fashionableconsumergoods was increasingand for before nationalmarkets muchbulk agricultural producewereestablished it the mid eighteenth century, cannotbe shownbeforethe second quarter thatthe economyhad a 'fairly well integrated set of the nineteenth century
68
69 Fuller discussionof this can be found in Hudson, Regions,ch. i. For anotherexample of this The making, the earliertransformation Tyneside. on of approachsee Levine and Wrightson,
ch. I.
by this sectionis much influenced Pollard,Peacefulconquest, The argument here and throughout
REHABILITATING
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INDUSTRIAL
REVOLUTION
39
of factor 70 markets'. The reallyimportant spatialunitforproduction factors, especially capitaland labour,and forinformation flow,commercial contacts, and credit networksin the pre-railway period was the economic region, which was oftenclearlyidentifiable.7' Construction the improvedriver of on and canal systems whicheconomic growth dependeddid muchto endorse the existence regionaleconomies, a timeincreasing of for theirinsularity (in relation the nationaleconomy).72 Nor werethe railways to quick to destroy regionally orientated transport systems.Most companiesfound it in their best interests structure to rates so as to encouragethe trade of the freight regionsthey served, to favourshorthauls, and thus to cementregional 73 resourcegroupings. Industrialization accentuatedthe differences betweenregionsby making themmore functionally distinct and specialized.Economicand commercial circumstances werethusincreasingly experienced and regionally socialprotest movements withtheirregional fragmentation onlybe understood that can at level and in relation regionalemployment social structures. to and Issues of nationalpoliticalreform also came to be identified withparticular regions, forexamplefactory reform withYorkshire, anti-poor campaignwith the law Lancashireand Manchester, currency or reform withBirmingham. Regional was encouragedby the links createdaround the great provincial identity cities,by theintra-regional natureofthebulk ofmigration, theformation by ofregionally based clubs and societies, tradeunions,employers' associations, and newspapers.74 In short, dynamicindustrialregionsgenerateda social and economic interaction whichwould have been absentif theircomponent industries had not been spatially concentrated specialized.Intensive and local competition combined with regionalintelligence and information networkshelped to stimulateregion-wide advances in industrialtechnology and commercial And thegrowth specializedfinancial mercantile organization. of and services withinthe dominant regionsservedto increasethe external economiesand reduced both intra-regional and extra-regional transactions costs significantly.75 Macroeconomic indicators to pick up thisregional fail specialization and dynamismwhich was unique to the period and revolutionary its in
impact.
British Crafts, economic p. growth, 3. Hunt, 'Industrialisation regionalinequality';idem,'Wages', pp. 6o-8; Allen,Enclosure, I2; and ch. Williamson,'English factormarkets';Clark and Souden, eds., Migration and society, chs. 7, io. On capital and credit marketssee Hudson, Genesis.See also Pollard, Peaceful conquest, 37; Presnell, p. Country banking, pp. 284-343; Anderson,'Attorney and the early capital market'; Hoppit, Risk and failure, ch. I5. 72 Freeman, 'Transport', p. 86; Langton, 'Industrialrevolution and regional geography',p. i62; Turnbull,'Canals', pp. 537-60. 73 Freeman,'Transport', p. 92; see also Hawke, Railways. 74 Langtonprovidesa stimulating surveyof the regionalfragmentation tradeunions,of Chartism of and othermovements, and of regionaldifferences work practicesand work customs,in 'Industrial in revolution',pp. I50-5. See also Read, Englishprovinces; and Southall, 'Towards a geography'which concentrates the artisantrades. on 75 See Pollard,Peacefulconquest, pp. I9, 28-9.
70
7I
40
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VII The work of Wrigleyand Schofieldrightly dominatesthe population of some of history this period but theiroriginalcausal analysisillustrates of studiesof economicand social transformation. the difficulties aggregative in and the disappearThey arguethat,despiteconsiderable growth numbers therewas no significant in ance of major crises of mortality, discontinuity in demographicbehaviour England between the sixteenthand the mid There was no sexual, social, medical,or nutritional nineteenth centuries.76 revolution.The population regime was and remained marriagedriven: and hence fertility the three centuriesvaried as a nuptiality throughout delayed responseto changesin livingstandardsas indicatedby real wage But variablesto analyse trends.77 the dangerin usingnationaldemographic is patternsof individualmotivation that national estimatesmay conflate and social opposing tendenciesin different regions,sectors of industry, of of demographic groups.Accurateidentification themainsprings aggregate and class breakdowns trends will onlycome withregional, because sectoral, or sortsof workers social groupswithin different different regionalcultures stimulior reacted differently the same to probablyexperienceddifferent a economictrends,thus creating rangeof demographic regimes.78 variablessuch as illegitimacy The factthatdemographic ratesand age of exhibitenduring in economic marriage spatialpatterns the face of changing Parish reconstitution fortunesis suggestive.79 studies indicate that local behaviour did not parallel the movementof the aggregateseries. Such casts doubt upon the use of the nationalvital rates for causal diversity behaviour.The mostimportant causal variablesin analysisof demographic of local reconstitution studiesappear to range well outside the movement real wages. The local economic and social setting,broadlydefined,was crucial. It included such thingsas proletarianization, price movements, and of economicinsecurity, the natureof parishadministration, particularly the poor laws.80 Despite this, a national culturalnorm continuesto be thatregionsand localitiestendedtowardsit. withthe assumption stressed, The result,as with the macroeconomic work of Craftsand others,is an excessivepreoccupation withnationalcomparisons ('the French versusthe Englishpattern')and withthe idea thatlowerclasses and backwardregions but eventually followthemon the nationalroad lag behindtheirsuperiors, and to modernity progress.8'
76 Wrigley of and Schofield, chs. Populationhistory, I0, i i. For summaries theircausal analysissee Wrigley, 'Growthof population'. Smith,'Fertility, economyand householdformation'; 77 There has been considerable the method underlying analysis. debateoverthisviewand thestatistical Mokyr,'Three Anderson, 'Historical demography'; See Gaunt,Levine, and Moodie, 'Populationhistory'; centuriesof populationchange'; Olney, 'Fertility';Lindert, 'English livingstandards';Lee, 'Inverse projection';idem,'Populationhomeostatis'. 78 See Levine, in Gaunt, Levine, and Moodie, 'Populationhistory', p. I55. 79 See for example, Levine and Wrightson, pp. i6o-i; Wilson, 'Social contextof illegitimacy', 'Proximate determinants'. 80 Wrightson of and Levine, Poverty and piety.For the importance the local economicsettingsee ch. Levine and Wrightson, The making, 3; Sharpe, 'Literallyspinsters'.For Levine, Familyformation; 'Englishpopulationhistory'. and Schofield, family reconstitution resultssee Wrigley 81 Seccombe, 'Marxismand demography', 35. p.
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4I
the of and Recently, effects proto-industrialization, proletarianization, the of changingcomposition the workforce have receivedattention relation in This opensthedoorfor moreradicalinterpretation todemographic a change.82 causes of fertility of the structural change. The need to look more closely and institutional at those structural changeswhichresultedin the marked in declinein age of marriage the second halfof the eighteenth has century been emphasized, as has the importanceof a growinggroup of 'young barriers' in the populationwhose actionsappear unaffected the general by pressureson real wages.83Evidence of radical discontinuity reappearing is at all levels of analysis.84 The influence theWrigley/Schofield of approach mayalso haveunjustifiably divertedattention and its significant discontinuities. away frommortality The CambridgeGroup aggregate data suggestthatrisingfertility twowas and-a-half times more important than fallingmortality producingthe in accelerationin population growthin the eighteenth century. But the markedincreasein theproportion thepopulation of livingin townstogether urbanmortality withthe substantial makesdiachronic studiesof the penalty national aggregate population particularlylikely to underestimatethe of A importance mortality changesin relationto fertility. centralrole for in in improvements urbanlifeexpectancy fuelling population growth during theindustrial is revolution perfectly withsignificant compatible contemporary shifts fertility even withsuch shifts in and being apparently more significant at the nationallevel.86 of The significance radicalstructural in shifts thecomposition location and in of the population,as well as of improvement mortality rates,tendsto be if overlooked causal explanations based on aggregate data are used. This has literature resultedin the current being dominatedby discussionof fertility rather and than of mortality of continuity rather thanof discontinuity. VIII The evolutionof social class and of class consciousnesshas long been of integral to popular understanding what was new in the industrial revolution. loss Growingoccupationalconcentration, proletarianization, of and urbanization have been central independence, exploitation, deskilling, of of culture and consciousness, to mostanalyses theformation working-class while the ascendancy of Whig laissez-faire political economy has been of as associatedwiththe new importance industrialists a class.87But recent
family', pp. i8i-8. chs. 2, 3; idem,'Proletarian families, See Levine, Reproducing age of century, Schofield,'English marriagepatterns'.This studyfindsthat, in the eighteenth and in for than variation celibacyin accounting changesin fertility, marriage became more important see to was relatively thatage of marriage unresponsive real wage indicesafterI700. On youngmarriers Goldstone,'Demographicrevolution'. 84 For a recentexamplesee Jackson,'Populationchangein Somerset-Wiltshire'. 85 pp. I26-33. 'Growthof populationin the eighteenth century', Wrigley, 86 This pointis made in Kearns, 'Urban penalty';cf. Thompson, Woods, 'Populationredistribution'. pp. The making, 356-66; Perkin,Origins. 87 and politics;Morris, Class and class Prothero, Artisans See, for example, Foster, Class struggle; Seed, 'Unitarianism'. consciousness;
82 83
42
MAXINE
BERG
and
PAT HUDSON
has rightly economichistory of emphasizedthe complexity combinedand and unevendevelopment. Putting-out, workshops, sweating existed alongside and werecomplementary a diversefactory to sector.It is no longerpossible and loss of workplacecontrol. to speak of a unilinear processof deskilling The diversityof organizational forms of industry,of work experience of and irregular accordingto genderand ethnicity, composite incomes,and of shifts employment of over the lifecycle and through seasons meant the of class were varied that workers'perceptions work and of an employing and contradictory.88 can one speakofa homogeneous Nor groupofindustrial There weremarkeddifferences betweenthe attitude and outlook employers. of small workshop masters and factory And within employers. thesegroups therewere variationsof responseto competitive conditionsrangingfrom withmanymixtures the two. There of outright exploitation paternalism, to fromagentsdown to foremen was also a wide rangeof intermediaries and leaders of familywork groups to deflectoppositionand tension in the And we now have a much more sophisticated workplace.89 understanding of the complexinterplay customary market of and relationships. Any simple is notionof the latterreplacingthe former to be discarded.90 addition, In recentwriting, includingpost-structuralist approaches,has questionedany suggestionof deterministic relationships between socioeconomic position and politicalconsciousness.9' of should not be Despite the significance thiswork,theseinterpretations allowed to edge out all idea thatthe industrial revolution period witnessed radical shiftsin social relationsand in social consciousness.Much recent social history has been based on an unquestioning acceptanceof the new viewoftheeconomichistory theperiodwhich,we have argued, of gradualist the extentof radical economicchange and of parallel severelyunderplays the developments affecting mass of the population.Balanced analysesof the combinedand uneven natureof development withinindustrial capitalism should not obscure the fact that the industrial world of I850 was vastly for different most workersfrom that of I750. There were more large more poweredmachines,and along withthesetherewas more workplaces, involvement the organization planningof work. A in and directmanagerial clearernotionof the separationof work and non-work time was evolving out workunitsand ofproduction thehome. in partly of thedeclineoffamily had acceleratedand the life chances of a much larger Proletarianization of proportion the populationwere determined the marketand affected by class and by urbanmortality disease. Capitalist wage labourand theworking
88 Joyce,'Work'; idem,'Introduction' in idem,Historical meanings; Samuel, 'Workshop'; Sabel and Reid, 'Politicsand economics';Hobsbawm, 'Marx and history'. Zeitlin,'Historicalalternatives'; 89 and politics;Rodger, 'Mid Victorian Behagg, Production Davidoff and Hall, Family fortunes; of Rose, Taylor,and Winstanley, 'Work'; Huberman,'Economicorigins paternalism'; employers'; Joyce, 'Economic origins. . . objections';Huberman,'Reply'. 90 Williams,'Custom'; Bushaway,By rite;Randall, 'Industrial moral economy';Berg, ed., Markets and manufacture. Workin France; Sonenscher, 91 StedmanJones,'Rethinking Chartism';Sewell, Workand revolution; class'; idem,'Language of Foster, 'Declassing of language'; Gray,'Deconstruction the Englishworking chs. I-3; Patterson,'PostScott, Genderand history, of factory reform';Reddy, Money and liberty; structuralism'.
REHABILITATING
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INDUSTRIAL
REVOLUTION
43
but speed thanin earlier and developedirregularly incompletely withgreater of of And the regionalconcentration similarities workexperience centuries. to sufficiently producesocial and of the tradecycleadvancedclass formation an scale, involving arrayof antion protestand conflict an unprecedented capitalist critiques.92 neverdominated or nationally, production employment While the factory of in it did so sufficiently certainregionsto create widespreadidentities interestand political cohesion. And where it did not exist it exercised enormous influencenot only in spawning dispersed production, subof of and but also as a majorfeature the imagery the contracting, sweating, of and age. The factory the machineas hallmarks the periodmayhave been mythbut they were symbolicof many other changes attendanton the market environment and the greater emergenceof a more competitive of a and provided focusofprotest disciplining alienation labour.This symbol of and opposition and was a powerfulelement in the formation social consciousness.93 recently givento the economic Finally,we mustconsiderthe prominence power and political influenceof the landed aristocracy,rentiers,and This prominenceis, in part, a merchantsin the nineteenth century.94 of response to the new gradualistinterpretations industrialchange and accumulation.The major divisionin the social and politicallife industrial of nineteenth-century England is argued to have been that between the and of classes and dominant capitalism the aristocratic rentier gentlemanly a subordinate industrial capitalism.But how valid is this?Is it yetanother us which(whilealerting to thecomplexity historiography aspectofthecurrent diverts attention of industrialization) undulyfromthe impactof changesin and industrial powerin the period? industry The gentlemanly thesishas been shownto have overestimated capitalism the dominance of rentierand mercantilecapital in elite wealthholding the of and and patterns, to have overemphasized separation interests cultures The thesis also exaggerates the between these groups and industrialists. and on internal homogeneity cohesionof gentleman-capitalists the one hand on BeforeI830, or evenperhapsbefore and industrial capitalists theother.95 should not be the economic role of industryand industrialists I850, the The dynamism industrializing of and minimized. regions, pattern finance and changesin theirpowerin politicallobbying, of theiroverseastrading, The metropolitan theirlocal government economymay suggestotherwise. well have become the major locus of servicesectorgrowthand of wealth but in the century, accumulationby the thirdquarterof the nineteenth
92 of moraleconomy';idem,'Philosophy Luddism'; Behagg,'Democracyofwork'; Randall,'Industrial For similar views among small Gray, 'Languages of factoryreform'; Hilton, Age of atonement. Kirk, 'Defence Behagg, Politicsand production; see manufacturers Davidoffand Hall, Familyfortunes; of class'; Foster, 'Declassing of language'. 93 Berg,Machinery Randall, question; idem,'Progressand providence';Behagg,Politicsand production; moral economy';idem,'New languages'. 'Industrial 94 This interpretation seen in varying in works:Cain and Hopkins,'Gentlemanly forms thefollowing is divided. Ingham,Capitalism capitalism';Anderson,'Figures of descent'; Wiener,Englishculture; 95 Daunton, 'Gentlemanly capitalism';Gunn, 'Failure of middle class'; BarrattBrown, 'Away with greatarches'.
44
MAXINE BERG and PAT HUDSON
revolution industrial period itselfit is more likelythat regionalindustrial revolutions dictated courseof structural the changeand colonialexpansion.96 In short,althoughindustrialtransformation rise to a complicated gave in mass of differing experiences and social relations, manyinnovations the organization and use of labour if not in technology were commonto all industries and sectors. Furthermore,changes in markets and in the climatehad an impacton all English capitalists whether they competitive or were metropolitan provincialand whetherfinanciers, farmers,small masters, factory employers, involvedin the servicesector. or
Ix
The industrial revolution an economicand socialprocesswhichadded was up to much morethanthe sum of its measurable parts.The periodsaw the sectoralspecializationof regionsand the growthof regionally integrated an and social economiessome of whichwere clearlyexperiencing industrial how thisterm defined, is whileothers deindustrialized. revolution, matter no The movementof aggregatequantitative indicatorsignores this and, as shift presently calculated,failsto give an accurateaccountof the structural of in the natureand deployment theworkforce because the calculations rely and of industrial and social on adult male labour. The natureof innovation transformationalso currently is and Landes misrepresented underestimated. of has warnedof maskingthe significance discontinuities concentrating by on the absence of shifts quantitative in indicators:to him these were the in the historians' 'butterfly underglass or frog formaldehyde-without virtue for of wholenessto compensate theirlifelessness': in of and that numbers describe surface . . . society eventhen terms the merely of nomenclature. Beneath define awaychange usingcategories unchanging by and. that this the were transformed .. itwasthey determined surface, vital organs themetabolism theentire of system.97 It is timeto moveon from macroaccounting the and framework to rebuild the nationalpictureof economicand social change fromnew researchat regionaland local level. We need to adopt a broaderconceptof innovation, to insiston a greater awareness femaleand childlabour,and to recognize of foundations an industrial of thatthe economic,social, and cultural capitalist order rest on much more than conventionalmeasures of industrialor the If economicperformance. thisis done it shouldnotbe longbefore notion and in of an industrial revolution, occurring Englandin the late eighteenth is earlynineteenth centuries, fullyrehabilitated. University Warwick of University Liverpool of
96 Porter,'Capitalismand empire'; Allen, Enclosure, ch. I2; Hudson, Regions,ch. I; Saville, 'Notes Brown,'Away withgreatarches'. on PerryAnderson';Barratt 97 Landes, Unbound Prometheus, I22. p.
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Wiley - Rehabilitating The Industrial Revolution

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Rehabilitating the Industrial Revolution Author(s): Maxine Berg and Pat Hudson Reviewed work(s): Source: The Economic

Economic Review, XLV, History

Rehabilitating industrial the

T he historiography the industrial of revolution Englandhas moved in

and PAT HUDSON

and PAT HUDSON

revolution been crowded out?', expenditure';Mokyr, 'Has the industrial Jackson,'Government

creativity', I90-5. pp.

revolution been crowdedout?', pp. Mokyr,'Has theindustrial

MAXINE BERG and PAT HUDSON

REHABILITATING Footnote references

Soc. Hist., I4 (I989), pp. 89-99.

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