Was there an 'Industrious Revolution' before the Industrial Revolution? An Empirical Exercise for England, c. 1300-1830

TY - JOUR

T1 - Was there an 'Industrious Revolution' before the Industrial Revolution?

T2 - An Empirical Exercise for England, c. 1300-1830

AU - Allen, Robert C.

AU - Weisdorf, Jacob Louis

PY - 2011/8

Y1 - 2011/8

N2 - It is conventionally assumed that the pre-modern working year was fixed and that consumption varied with changes in wages and prices. This is challenged by the twin theories of the 'industrious' revolution and the consumer revolution, positing a longer working year as people earned surplus money to buy novel goods. In this study, we turn the conventional view on its head, fixing consumption rather than labour input. Specifically, we use a basket of basic consumption goods and compute the working year of rural and urban day labourers required to achieve that. By comparing with independent estimates of the actual working year, we find two 'industrious' revolutions among rural workers; both, however, are attributable to economic hardship, and we detect no signs of a consumer revolution. For urban labourers, by contrast, a growing gap between their actual working year and the work required to buy the basket provides great scope for a consumer revolution.

AB - It is conventionally assumed that the pre-modern working year was fixed and that consumption varied with changes in wages and prices. This is challenged by the twin theories of the 'industrious' revolution and the consumer revolution, positing a longer working year as people earned surplus money to buy novel goods. In this study, we turn the conventional view on its head, fixing consumption rather than labour input. Specifically, we use a basket of basic consumption goods and compute the working year of rural and urban day labourers required to achieve that. By comparing with independent estimates of the actual working year, we find two 'industrious' revolutions among rural workers; both, however, are attributable to economic hardship, and we detect no signs of a consumer revolution. For urban labourers, by contrast, a growing gap between their actual working year and the work required to buy the basket provides great scope for a consumer revolution.

U2 - 10.1111/j.1468-0289.2010.00566.x

DO - 10.1111/j.1468-0289.2010.00566.x

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0013-0117

VL - 64

SP - 715

EP - 729

JO - Economic History Review

JF - Economic History Review

IS - 3

ER -