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
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