Revising England's Social Tables Once Again

Jul 2016 | 146

Authors: Robert Allen

In the 1980s, Lindert and Williamson famously revised the social tables of King, Massie,

Colquhoun, Smee, and Baxter that traverse the British industrial revolution. This paper

extends their work in three directions: Servants are removed from middle and upper class

households in the tables of King, Massie, and Colquhoun and tallied separately, estimates are

made for the same tables of the number and incomes of women and children employed in the

various occupations, income estimates are broken down into rents, profits, and employment

income. These extensions to the tables allow variables to be computed that can be checked

against independent estimates as a validation exercise. The tables are retabulated in a

standard format to highlight the changing social structure of Britain during the industrial

revolution. Changes in the social structure, the evolution of incomes by classes, and the pace

of structural transformation are revealed.

Keywords: social table, industrial revolution, national income, income distribution