Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Dedication
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Maps
- Introduction
- I Context
- II Immigrants
- III Impacts on the Host Community
- Conclusion
- Appendix 1 Occupational sectors ranked by the relative levels of participation in them by Bailiwick males, censuses 1851–1901
- Appendix 2 Occupational sectors ranked by the relative levels of participation in them by Guernsey-based non-native males, censuses 1851–1901
- Appendix 3 Proportions of total insular non-native cohort residing in country parishes, 1841–1901
- Appendix 4 Non-natives as a percentage of country parish populations, 1841–1901
- Appendix 5 Summarised extracts from St Peter Port Register of Persons Sent out of the Island
- Appendix 6 St Peter Port Constables, 1814–1914
- Appendix 7 Jurats, 1814–1914, with period of tenure
- Bibliography
- Index
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Dedication
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Maps
- Introduction
- I Context
- II Immigrants
- III Impacts on the Host Community
- Conclusion
- Appendix 1 Occupational sectors ranked by the relative levels of participation in them by Bailiwick males, censuses 1851–1901
- Appendix 2 Occupational sectors ranked by the relative levels of participation in them by Guernsey-based non-native males, censuses 1851–1901
- Appendix 3 Proportions of total insular non-native cohort residing in country parishes, 1841–1901
- Appendix 4 Non-natives as a percentage of country parish populations, 1841–1901
- Appendix 5 Summarised extracts from St Peter Port Register of Persons Sent out of the Island
- Appendix 6 St Peter Port Constables, 1814–1914
- Appendix 7 Jurats, 1814–1914, with period of tenure
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
HOW, then, did Guernsey come to this pass? More specifically, to what extent were immigrants responsible for nineteenth-century cultural change, and to what extent was their contribution merely ‘a single facet of a deeper socioeconomic development’?
The Island had indeed come a long way since 1814, when William Berry had described a society where ‘the old Norman French’ was ‘generally spoken by all ranks’, and ‘economical’ urban merchants co-existed with country-dwellers ‘shut out from agricultural communication with the rest of the world’.
In the space of a century, the countryside had moved away from subsistence farming, and all ten of Guernsey’s parishes had become tied into the modern economy. St Peter Port, no longer the economic trail-blazer, had found a new raison d’être servicing the business and consumer needs of its hinterland. The other nine parishes, in a reversal of traditional roles, had become the primary source of insular revenue.
Within the 150 years since the 1760s, a large landless class dependent on wage labour had grown up within St Peter Port, spread to the quarrying parishes, and now played an increasingly important role in other parishes. Immigrants had formed the basis of this class. These immigrants had contributed to the economy in many ways. Artisans had provided craft skills in short supply locally. Retailers and small businessmen had provided commercial know-how and capital inputs. Unskilled workers had fulfilled a particular need in ensuring cheapness and continuity of labour supply at times when natives were loath to occupy this economic niche themselves.
Despite considerable emigration, Guernsey’s population had more than doubled in a century. Growth was maintained, in part, by a constant influx of youthful new immigrants, and it was given an additional fillip by the freedom of such migrants from the economic and social constraints which had traditionally held the local population in check. This demographic growth both mirrored and supported economic development.
Notwithstanding the benefits they brought, the reception immigrants met with was not one of unalloyed welcome. Insular legal and administrative structures were slow in responding to the need for labour mobility which came as part of the Island’s increasing integration with the wider world.
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- Guernsey, 1814-1914Migration and Modernisation, pp. 275 - 278Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2007