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Persistence and Change: the petite bourgeoisie in industrial society

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Frank Bechhofer  and
Brian Elliott
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Extract

The Petite Bourgeoisie is a stratum that has attrated little academic study. Historians have given it short shrift, the radical scholars dismissing it as the petty bourgeoisie and the aristocratic historians discounting its members as small fry of no significance! And historians are not alone in their neglect, for in economics, political science and sociology there is a similar disdain for those who cannot be cast in the hero's role in any of the major developments of western capitalism. The petite bourgeoisie remains in the wings because to writers of diverse opinions and academic specialisms it has appeared as essentially trivial.

Type
Structure and Interest
Information
European Journal of Sociology / Archives Européennes de Sociologie , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , May 1976 , pp. 74 - 99
Copyright
Copyright © Archives Européenes de Sociology 1976

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References

(1) See Nossiter's remark about one section of the stratum. Nossiter, T. J., Shopkeeper radicalism in the nineteenth century, in Nossiter, T.J., Hanson, A.H. and Rokkan, S. (eds.), Imagination and Precision in the Social Sciences (London, Faber and Faber, 1972), p. 407Google Scholar.

(2) Among the neo-Marxian writing we find concern with the place of the petite bourgeoisie in contemporary capitalism. See Poulantzas, N., Classes in Contemporary Capitalism, translated by Fernbach, D. (London, New Left Books, 1975)Google Scholar; and Baudelot, C., Establet, R. and Malemort, J., La petite bourgeoisie en France (Paris, Maspero, 1974)Google Scholar. For historical perspective see Nossiter, T.J., Influence, Opinion and Political Idiom in Reformed England (Harvester Press, 1975)Google Scholar; and Gellately, R., The Politics of Economic Despair (London, Sage Publications, 1974)Google Scholar. More generally: Stanworth, M. J. K. and Curran, J., Management, Motivation and the Smaller Business (Epping, Gower Press Ltd., 1973)Google Scholar; Boswell, J., The Rise and Decline of Small Firms (London, Allen and Unwin, 1972)Google Scholar; Report of the Committee on Small Firms (Bolton Report) Cmnd. 4811 (London, H.M.S.O., 1971)Google Scholar; Bunzel, J., The American Small Business (New York, Knopf, 1962)Google Scholar; Mayer, C. and Goldstein, S., The First Two Years (Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, Small Business Research Studies, 1961)Google Scholar; Phillips, J.D., Little Business in the American Economy (Illinois Studies in the Social Sciences), vol. XLII (Urbana, University of Illinois Press, 1957–1959)Google Scholar.

(3) Hennock, E.P., Fit and Proper Persons: ideal and reality in nineteenth-century urban government (London, Edward Arnold, 1973)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

(4) Some of the more general works from which, directly or indirectly, we have developed this view, are: Best, G., Mid Victorian Britain 1851–75 (London, Wei-denfeld and Nicolson, 1971)Google Scholar; Gray, R., Class Structure and Class Formation of Skilled Workers in Edinburgh c.1850-c. 1900 (University of Edinburgh, University Ph.D. thesis, 1975)Google Scholar; ID. The Labour Aristocracy in the Victorian Class Structure, F. Parkin (ed.), The Social Analysis of Class Structure (London, Tavistock Press, 1974); Harrison, J.F.C., The Early Victorians, 1832–51 (London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1971)Google Scholar; Hobsbawm, E.J., Labouring Men (London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1964) (especially on the labour aris-tocracy)Google Scholar; Neale, R.S., Class and Ideology in the Nineteenth Century (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1972)Google Scholar; Perkin, Harold, The Origins of Modern English Society, 1780–1880 (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1960)Google Scholar; Thompson, E.P., The Making of the English Working Class (London, Gollancz, 1963)Google Scholar.

(5) Hennock, op. cit. On property and power, see Gauldie, E., Cruel Habitations (London, Allen and Unwin, 1974)Google Scholar; Kellet, J., The Impact of Railways on Victorian Cities (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1969)Google Scholar; Dyos, H., The Speculative Builders and Developers of Victorian London, Victorian Studies, XI (1968), 641–90Google Scholar; Elliot, B. and McCrone, D., Property, Relations and Social Structure; an examination of two working class streets in Edinburgh, mimeo (Edinburgh 1975)Google Scholar.

(6) See Marx's comments on this matter, The Manifesto of the Communist Party in Marx, K. and Engels, F., Selected Works, Vol. I, (Moscow, Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1951)Google Scholar; and the well-known work by Mills, C. W., White Collar (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1951)Google Scholar. Recent comment which seems to us to assess the and situation shrewdly is found in Miller, S. Michael, Notes on Neo-Capitalism, Theory Society, II (1975), p. 15Google Scholar.

(7) For a more extended discussion, see our earlier paper, Bechhofer, F. and ELLiot, B., An approach to a Study of Small Shopkeepers and the Class Structure, European Journal of Sociology, IX (1968), 180–202CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For essentially the same view in a recent Government report, see Report of the Committee of Inquiry on Small Firms, op. cit. p. xv.

(8) Touraine, A., The Post-Industrial Society (London, Wildwood House, 1974)Google Scholar. For an excellent discussion, see Giddens, A., The Class Structure of the Advanced Societies (London, Hutchinson, 1973)Google Scholar, chapter xiv.

(9) Burns, T., The Sociology of Industry, in Welford, A.T. et al. (eds.), Society, Problems and Methods of Study (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1965)Google Scholar.

(10) The ‘marginality thesis’ is considered in our 1968 paper: Bechhofer and Elliot, op. cit. passim.

(11) The matter attracts comment from most writers who have considered the stra-tum but an interesting piece of work done for the Bolton Report deserves particular mention: C.W. Golby and G. Johns, Attitude and Motivation, Research Report No. 7, Report of the Committee on Small Firms, op. cit. See also F. Bechhofer, B. Elliott, M. Rushforth and R. Bland, The Petits Bourgeois in the Class Struc-ture: the case of the small shopkeepers, in Parkin (ed.), op. cit.; Boswall, op. cit.; Bunzel, op. cit.; Hyde, P.J., unpublished M.Sc. thesis (on publicans) (University of Kent 1974)Google Scholar; Hoffman, St., Le Mouvement Poujade (Paris, Armand Colin, 1956)Google Scholar; Mayer and Goldstein, op. cit.; Stan Worth and Curran, op. cit.

(12) Our view is at odds with that some neo-Marxists who insist that technicians, office workers and many other ‘non-productive’ workers be treated as part of the petite bourgeoisie. Though they distinguish these ‘new’ members from the ‘traditional’ small business fractions of the class they claim an overall unity for these diverse occupational groups which we find unconvincing. See Poulantzas, op. cit., and Baudelot et at., op. cit.

(13) As the society became urbanised so agrarian capitalism gave way to bourgeois capitalism. By the end of the XlXth century Britain was thoroughly urbanised. Seventy percent of her population lived in towns, the influence of the city was pervaaive and it is possible to claim that even small farmers—essentially rural capitalists—could be counted as petits bourgeois. Interestingly, the work currently being carried out by Colin Bell, Howard Newby and their colleagues at the University of Essex sugtury gests some similarities of structural position and of attitude between small agricultural ists and members of groups more convensive tionally regarded as petits bourgeois.

(14) Thompson, , op. cit. p. 509Google Scholar.

(15) Lukes, St., Individualism (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1973), p. 48Google Scholar.

(16) The process is well described in the famous survey made in 1849 by the Morning Chronicle. See Razzell, P., and Wainwright, R., The Victorian Working Class (London, Frank Cass, 1973)Google Scholar.

(17) Foster, J., Class Struggle and the Industrial Revolution (London, Weidenfeld Nicolson, 1974)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

(18) The changing occupational structure certainly altered both the opportuniand ties for self-employment in some sectors of the economy and the position of some groups of workers in the class structure. A particularly complex problem is that of the artisans. As the nineteenth century continued, fewer artisans could become employers. Whether this affects the market situation of the petite bourgeoisie however, is a moot point as the class and status situation of skilled workers deteriorated at the same time, making the artisans' claim to petit bourgeois status even more ambiguous than before. It is important to realise that we are not claiming there was no change in the structure; as the mobility chances of artisans worsened, other petit bourgeois occupations were created in different niches of the capitalist system. It is the work and market situations of this collectivity of occupations which show a comparative at the stability.

(19) Neale, op. cit.

(20) Ibid. p. 52.

(21) Hennock, op. cit.

(22) Hennock, op. cit.

(23) Lukes, op. cit.

(24) Forsyth, Murray, Property and Property Distribution Policy (P.E.P. Broadsheet 528, 07 1971)Google Scholar; Schlatter, Richard, Private Property: the history of an idea (London, Allen and Unwin, 1951)Google Scholar.

(25) Chapman, S. (ed.), The History of Working Class Housing (Newton Abbot, David and Charles, 1971)Google Scholar, especially Butt, J., Working Class Housing in Glasgow, 1851–1914Google Scholar; Gauldie, op. cit.; Dyos, op. cit.; Elliot, B. and Mccrone, D., Landlords in Edinburgh; some preliminary findings, Sociological Review (1975)Google Scholar; Lenman, B. et al. , Dundee and its Textile Industry 1850–1914 (Dundee, Abertay Historical Society Publication, 1969), n° 14, p. 85Google Scholar.

(26) Report of the Committee to enquire into the circumstances connected with the alleged recent increases in the Rental of Small Dwelling Houses in Industrial Districts in Scotland (Hunter Committee) (London, H.M.S.O., 1915), para. 1888Google Scholar.

(27) Gauldie, , op. cit. p. 182Google Scholar.

(28) Vincent has a neat statement about this: Vincent, J., The Formation of the British Liberal Party, 1857–1868 (Harmondsworth, Penguin Books, 1972), p. 23, n. 18Google Scholar; more conventional sources are Dyos, H., Victorian Suburb (Leicester, Leicester Uni versity Press, 1961)Google Scholar, and Reeder, D.A., A Theatre of Suburbs: London 1801–1911, in Dyos, H., The Study of Urban History (London, Edward Arnold, 1968)Google Scholar.

(29) See Cullingworth, J., Town and Country Planning in Britain (London, Allen and Unwin, 1972), ch. 1Google Scholar; Ashworth, W., The Genesis of Modern British Town Planning (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1954)Google Scholar; Read, D., Edwardian England (London, Harrap, 1972), pp. 38–39Google Scholar.

(30) In the interview in the Observer Review, 5 October 1975, p. 17.

(31) The political ‘marginality’ of this stratum has, of course, been frequently discussed in the context of European political movements, from fascism to Poujadism.

(32) Smith, H., Retail Distribution (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1948)Google Scholar; Parker, H.J., The Independent Worker and the Small Family Business, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society (1932), p. 539Google Scholar; Jackson, A.A., Semi-Detached London (London, Allen and Unwin, 1973)Google Scholar.

(33) See our discussion in Bechhofer, F., Elliott, B. and Rushforth, M., The Market Situation of Small Shopkeepers, Scottish Journal of Political Economy, XVIII (1971), p. 163Google Scholar.

(34) Bolton Report, op. cit. tables 5·1, 5·2 and 5·3.

(35) For some indication that the number of self-employed persons and the income from such work has shown some increase in recent years, see the Royal Commission on the Distribution of Income and Wealth, Report No. 1 (Cmnd. 6171), para. 98–99.

(36) Interestingly though, the rate of decline in this sector of the housing market is easily exaggerated. See Eversley, D., Landlords' Slow Goodbye, New Society, 01 16, 1975Google Scholar.

(37) See for instance the discussion in Giddens, op. cit., especially chapters n and X; Lockwood, D., The Blackcoated Worker (London, Allen and Unwin, 1958)Google Scholar; Mills, op. cit.; Crozier, M., The World of the Office Worker (Chicago 1971)Google Scholar.

(38) From a vast literature, see for instance: Galbraith, J.K., The New Industrial State (London, Hamish Hamilton, 1967)Google Scholar; Baran, Paul A. and Sweezy, Paul M., Monopoly Capital (Harmondsworth, Penguin Books, 1968)Google Scholar; Miliband, R., The State in Capitalist Society (London, Weiden-feld and Nicolson, 1969)Google Scholar; Sweezy, Paul M., Modern Capitalism and Other Essays (New York, Monthly Review Press, 1972)Google Scholar.

(39) See for example, Soldon, N., Laissezfaire as Dogma: The Liberty and Property Defence League, 1882–1914Google Scholar, and Brown, Kenneth D., The Anti-Socialist Union, 1908–49, both in Brown, K.D. (ed.), Essays State in Capitalist Society (London, Macmilan 1974)Google Scholar.

(40) Many have noted the high failure rate but curiously little attention has been paid to the processes of replacement which this implies. See Mayer and Goldstein, op. cit.; Bunzel, op. cit.; Bolton Report, op. cit.

(41) See our discussion in Bechhofer, F., Elliott, B., Rushforth, M. and Bland, R., Small Shopkeepers: matters of money and meaning, Sociological Review, XXII (1974), 465–482CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

(42) Referred to in Bell, D., The Coming of Post Industrial Society (New York, Basic Books, 1975), p. 35Google Scholar.

(43) Hennock, op. cit.

(44) Bolton Report, op. cit. p. 68, Table 6. Although the Report makes it clear that these comparative figures must be used cautiously, the authors feel reasonably confident that Britain has the greatest degree of concentration among the countries studied.

(45) Baran, op. cit., chapter I.

(46) Boswell, op. cit., chapter I.

(47) This is most plainly seen in the policies of the cigarette companies and the confectionery firms.

(48) Bolton Report, op. cit. p. xix.

(49) In Germany the political mobilisation of the small businessmen, particularly the retailers, had already taken place in the early years of this century. See Gellately, op. cit.

(50) See the report of the speech in The Observer, March 16th, 1975.

(51) Our own study of one sector of this stratum in a single town certainly does support this belief. Our respondents were overwhelmingly and consistently Conservative voters. See Bechhofer, Elliott, Rushforth, and Bland, op. cit. in Parkin, op. cit. The Bolton Report, without citing any evidence, supports this view, op. cit. p. 93.

(52) Phillips, op. cit., in one of the few studies to examine the matter carefully, suggests that in the U.S. most of the sosupport called small business legislation has bene fitted only the larger concerns and failed to assist the great majority of those included in the category ‘small business’.

(53) Bolton, Committee, Research Report No. 7, p. 5Google Scholar.

(54) Hamilton, R. and Eberts, P., The Myth of Business Conservatism, mimeo (1964)Google Scholar.

(55) For a discussion of this in the case of small retailers, see our papers in Parkin, , op. cit. and Sociological Review (1974)Google Scholar, op. cit.

(56) Gouldner, A. makes the point nicely: The Coming Crisis of Western Sociology (London, Heinemann, 1971), pp. 304–326passimGoogle Scholar.

(57) Papers cited in Brown (ed.), op. cit.

(58) See, for example, Morrison, A., A Child of the Jago (1896)Google Scholar, reprinted (London, MacGibbon and Kee, 1969).

(59) See Roberts, R., The Classic Slum (Harmondsworth, Penguin Books, 1973)Google Scholar; and Jones, G.S., Outcast London (London, Oxford University Press, 1971)Google Scholar.

* We wish to acknowledge the help and criticism provided by David McCrone with whom the ideas in this paper have been discussed extensively, by the comments of those who listened to an earlier version of this paper in seminars at the Universities of Essex and Warsaw, and by several colleagues who read it at our request, notably Daniel Bertaux, Bob Morris, Christopher Smout and Gian Poggi. We fear that some of these will be disappointed by the results of their efforts, but we are, nevertheless, genuinely grateful.

(60) See Lukes, St., Political Ritual and Social Integration, Sociology, XIX (1975). 289–308CrossRefGoogle Scholar, where the cognitive role of political rituals and the ‘mobilisation of bias’ is discussed.