Styles of Life, the “Labour Aristocracy” and Class Relations in Later Nineteenth Century Edinburgh*

R. Q. Gray

doi:10.1017/S0020859000004405

Styles of Life, the “Labour Aristocracy” and Class Relations in Later Nineteenth Century Edinburgh*

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2008

R. Q. Gray

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The idea of a “labour aristocracy” pervades writing about the British working class of the second half, and especially the third quarter of the nineteenth century. This emphasis is, in my view, correct: the behaviour and consciousness of working people cannot be explained without some such concept of divisions within the working class. But this proposition has too often been allowed to conclude, rather than to commence the enquiry. The fragmentation of the manual working class into different strata and sub-cultures may take several forms, and is bound to have local and industrial variations. In approaching the problem it is necessary to draw a clear distinction between differences in the class situation of various groups of workers, and the formation of separate working class strata – a cultural and political process. Three main levels of analysis are relevant to this problem: the stratification within the working class, in terms of class situations (relative earnings, security, prospects and opportunities, position of subordination or autonomy in the workplace, and so on); the extent to which various strata of manual workers were distinguished by the cultivation of particular styles of life, and by commitment to particular sets of norms and values; and the consequences of these for institutions embodying the interest of manual workers as a class (unions, parties, etc.) and for the patterning of conflict and consensus in the society.

Type: Research Article
Information: International Review of Social History , Volume 18 , Issue 3 , December 1973 , pp. 428 - 452

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020859000004405 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis 1973

References

^{page 428 note 1} For example, Harrison, R., Before the Socialists (London, 1965)Google Scholar, especially ch. 1; Hobsbawm, E. J., Labouring Men (London, 1964), ch. 15.Google Scholar

^{page 428 note 2} Cf. Weselowski, W. and Slomczynski, K., “Social Stratification in Polish Cities”, in: Jackson, J. A. (ed.), Social Stratification (Cambridge, 1968), pp. 178–9.Google Scholar

^{page 429 note 1} This evidence is discussed in my thesis on “Class Structure and the Class Formation of Skilled Workers in Edinburgh, c 1850 – c 1900” (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Edinburgh University, 1972).Google Scholar All statements relating to Edinburgh during the period not otherwise substantiated are based on material in this thesis.

^{page 429 note 2} For the ambivalence of these values, see Harrison, R., “Afterword”, in Smiles, S., Self Help (London, 1968, Sphere Books edition), pp. 268–9.Google Scholar

^{page 429 note 3} Gramsci, A., Selections from the Prison Notebooks, ed. and transl. by Hoare, Q. and Smith, G. Nowell (London, 1971), pp. 181, 327.Google Scholar

^{page 430 note 1} For the economic and social characteristics of the city see MacDougall, I. (ed.), The Minutes of Edinburgh Trades Council, 1859–73 (Edinburgh, 1968)Google Scholar, “Introduction”, pp. xvi-xviii. Editorial matter in this edition will in future be cited as MacDougall by page number; but all references to the text of the minutes themselves will be cited by date, regardless of whether they fall within the period covered by this edition.

^{page 430 note 2} Returns Relating to the Population of Counties, Cities, etc. [Parliamentary Papers, 1852–3, LXXXIII]; Census of Scotland, 1901, Vol. I [PP, 1902, CXXIX]. These figures are for the Parliamentary Burgh.

^{page 430 note 3} Census of Scotland, 1901, Vol. III [PP, 1904, CVIII], p. xl.

^{page 431 note 1} Calculated from occupation tables in Census of Scotland, 1881, Vol. II [PP, 1883, LXXXI]. Details of the procedures used in this calculation will be found in my thesis, ch. 2 and appendix.

^{page 431 note 2} This is indicated by an examination of the growth-rates of different occupations: see ch. 2 of my thesis.

^{page 431 note 3} See MacDougall, op. cit. Much of this material has become readily accessible through the work of Mr MacDougall and the Scottish Labour History Society.

^{page 431 note 4} Bechhofer, F. and Elliot, B., “An Approach to a Study of Small Shopkeepers in the Class Structure”, in: European Journal of Sociology, IX (1968), p. 190.Google Scholar

^{page 431 note 5} Symington, J., “The Working Man's Home”, prize essay in J. Begg, DD, Happy Homes for Working Men and How to Get Them (London, 1866), p. 161.Google Scholar This work is hereafter cited as Symington; Begg's own text is cited as Begg.

^{page 432 note 1} For instances in other cities, see: Allan, C. M., “The Genesis of British Urban Redevelopment with special reference to Glasgow”, in: Economic History Review, Second Series, XVIII (1965);Google ScholarBest, G., Mid-Victorian Britain, 1851–75 (London, 1971), pp. 60–1Google Scholar; Jones, G. Stedman, Outcast London (Oxford, 1971), pp. 160–78.Google Scholar

^{page 432 note 2} Royal Commission on the Housing of the Working Classes (Scotland) [PP, 1884–5, XXXI], q. 18738, Clerk to the City Improvement Trustees.

^{page 432 note 3} Ibid., q. 19250, President of Edinburgh Trades Council.

^{page 432 note 4} Ibid., q. 18688, City Valuator and Assessor.

^{page 432 note 5} Ibid., q. 19071.

^{page 432 note 6} Ibid., q. 19185.

^{page 433 note 1} See ch. 3 of my thesis for evidence regarding occupational differences in economic conditions.

^{page 434 note 1} For the masons' condition in the 1900's, see Royal Commission on the Poor Laws, Appendix Vol. IX [PP, 1910, XLVIII], q. 97181, Law Agent to Edinburgh Distress Committee.

^{page 434 note 2} North Briton, 27 April, 1861.

^{page 434 note 3} Symington, op. cit., p. 162.

^{page 434 note 4} Royal Commission on Housing, op. cit., q. 19154, J. R. Findlay.

^{page 434 note 5} North Briton, 25 May, 1859.

^{page 435 note 1} Royal Commission on Housing, op. cit., q. 19273.

^{page 435 note 2} Ibid., q. 19167.

^{page 436 note 1} Begg, op. cit., p. iv.

^{page 436 note 2} Royal Commission on Housing, op. cit., q. 19198.

^{page 436 note 3} Symington, op. cit., p. 178.

^{page 436 note 4} Best, op. cit., p. 199.

^{page 437 note 1} Blackie, J. S., Notes of a Life, ed. by Walker, A. S. (Edinburgh, 1908), p. 228.Google Scholar

^{page 437 note 2} Wilson, D., William Nelson (Edinburgh, 1889; privately printed), p. 82.Google Scholar

^{page 437 note 3} Quoted by Wilson, loc. cit.

^{page 437 note 4} Scottish Typographical Circular, October, 1864, according to which the committee were “principally printers”.

^{page 438 note 1} Smiles, op. cit., p. 206.

^{page 438 note 2} The Reformer, 13 August, 1870.

^{page 438 note 3} Reid, F., “Keir Hardie's Conversion to Socialism”, in: Briggs, A. and Saville, J. (eds), Essays in Labour History, 1886–1923 (London, 1971), p. 22.Google Scholar

^{page 439 note 1} North Briton, 30 April, 1862; see also Jamieson, D. A., Powderhall and Pe-destrianism (Edinburgh, 1943), p. 13.Google Scholar

^{page 439 note 2} Dr H. Cunningham, who is currently working on a book on the Volunteers, made many helpful comments and suggestions, on which I have drawn in the following discussion.

^{page 439 note 3} Macdonald, J. H. A., Fifty Years of It: the experiences and struggles of a Volunteer of 1859 (Edinburgh, 1909), p. 3.Google Scholar

^{page 439 note 4} Ibid., p. 24.

^{page 439 note 5} Stephen, W., History of the Queen's City of Edinburgh Rifle Volunteer Brigade (Edinburgh, 1881), p. 61.Google Scholar

^{page 439 note 6} Based on information about the various companies in Stephen, op. cit., passim.

^{page 439 note 7} Macdonald, op. cit., p. 92.

^{page 440 note 1} Calculated from membership figures in Stephen, op. cit. Highland companies were excluded because of the special effects on recruitment of the clan associations, to which many Highlanders resident in the city belonged (Stephen, p. 336). The proportion of effective strength in artisan companies did not recover after the Franco-Prussian war (perhaps because of the slump of the later 1870's), while middle class recruitment rose again with the Balkan crises: the figures do not, however, cover a long enough time span to establish fully the effect of slumps or other factors on artisan participation.

^{page 440 note 2} Scottish Typographical Circular, May, 1868.

^{page 440 note 3} See, A. G. Docherty, “Urban Working Class Recreation before 1914” (unpublished undergraduate dissertation, Edinburgh University, Department of Economic History) for a valuable survey of recreational facilities in Edinburgh.

^{page 441 note 1} This is apparent from the columns of the Edinburgh Athletic Times (1895–6).

^{page 441 note 2} Cf. Taylor, I. R., “Soccer Consciousness and Soccer Hooliganism”, in: Cohen, S. (ed.), Images of Deviance (Harmondsworth, 1971), p. 141.Google Scholar

^{page 442 note 1} In Table 3, Professions include: professions of well established status (law, medicine, Churches, etc.); professions of less established status (e.g. teachers) are in White collar II. Business includes: all types and sizes of business; White collar I: clerks, book-keepers, etc.; White collar II: managerial and supervisory (above foreman level), lesser officials (e.g., poor law officers, rail inspectors, etc.), teachers, and all other non-manual employees in posts with responsibility, or technical or educational qualifications other than the “three R's” needed for clerical work; Miscellaneous services: personal or public services not elsewhere classified (e.g. hairdressers, telegraphists); Other, miscellaneous: seamen, prison warder, cowfeeder, music seller, index maker, “stalker” (sic), “number-man” (sic). Wives and children among Flower Show Prizewinners classified by occupation of head of household (six of the untraced cases are households headed by widows, etc.); families with several prizes are counted only once, as are Bowling Club committeemen serving for more than one of the three years. Some skilled manual occupations with “several” (sic) Oddfellows' members have been counted as five each. The Oddfellows' list of occupations is apparently for the “1850's to 70's” (sic) but precise dates are not given. I am indebted to the Registrar General for Scotland for permission to consult census schedules, and to Mr T. Donoghue, secretary of the Lodge, for allowing me to consult the list of members' occupations on which the Oddfellows' figures are based.

^{page 444 note 1} It may, of course, be misleading to compare committee composition with total membership composition, but the only available membership details for an individual Bowling Club show a similar pattern, with only one skilled worker among 18 new members: Minutes of Edinburgh Bowling Club, 1890–1 (manuscript notebook in Edinburgh Public Library).

^{page 444 note 2} Unlike the other trades mentioned, the shoemakers did not enjoy an advantageous economic position. On the other hand, they were by far the most numerous of the skilled trades at this period – and there is anyway some evidence of a division within the trade between a favoured minority and the remainder.

^{page 444 note 3} Aitchison, T. S. and Lorimer, G., Reminiscences of the Old Bruntsfield Links Golf Club (n.p., 1904; privately printed).Google Scholar

^{page 444 note 4} Reminiscences of the Grange Cricket Club, Edinburgh (Edinburgh, 1891); Minutes of Edinburgh Trades Council, 9 February, 1886; I am indebted to Mr J. Henry, secretary of the Council, for allowing me to consult the manuscript minutes for this period.

^{page 445 note 1} Similarly, Hobsbawm refers to the “shading over of the aristocracy of labour into other strata” (op. cit., p. 274).

^{page 445 note 2} Cf. Lockwood, D., The Blackcoated Worker (London, 1958), pp. 29–32.Google Scholar

^{page 445 note 3} For example, Hobsbawm, loc. cit.

^{page 445 note 4} Vincent's stimulating comments on mid-Victorian popular Liberalism may be relevant here: Vincent, J. R., The Formation of the Liberal Party (London, 1966), pp. 79–80.Google Scholar

^{page 446 note 1} Begg, op. cit., pp. 46–7.

^{page 447 note 1} Scottish Typographical Circular, May, 1858.

^{page 447 note 2} “The Journeyman Engineer”, The Great Unwashed (London, 1868), p. 160.Google Scholar

^{page 447 note 3} For the problematic nature of “social status”, see Frankenberg, R., Communities in Britain (Harmondsworth, 1966), pp. 262–3Google Scholar; Neuwirth, G., “A Weberian Outline of a Theory of Community”, in: British Journal of Sociology, XX (1969)Google Scholar; Rex, J., Key Problems of Sociological Theory (London, 1963), pp. 144–55;Google ScholarSmyth, J. H., “Utility and the Social Order”, in: British Journal of Sociology, XXII (1971).Google Scholar

^{page 448 note 1} “Journeyman Engineer”, op. cit., p. viii.

^{page 448 note 2} Macdonald, op. cit., p. 31.

^{page 448 note 3} North Briton, 1 December, 1858.

^{page 449 note 1} Trades Council Minutes, 11 August, 1874, 2 August and 25 October, 1881.

^{page 449 note 2} Scottish Typographical Circular, January, 1860. See Price, R., “The Working Men's Club Movement and Victorian Social Reform Ideology”, in: Victorian Studies, XV (1971)Google Scholar, for a stimulating analysis of middle class “patronage” and working class attitudes.

^{page 449 note 3} North Briton, 13 April, 1864; the speaker, Wilkie, James, is mentioned as secretary of the Typographical Society in the Trades Council Minutes, 9 October, 1860.Google Scholar

^{page 449 note 4} Stephen, op. cit., p. 62.

^{page 450 note 1} See, MacLaren, A. A., “Presbyterianism and the Working Class in a Mid-nineteenth Century City”, in: Scottish Historical Review, XLVI (1967)Google Scholar; Pelling, H., Popular Politics and Society in Late Victorian Britain (London, 1968), pp. 30–1.Google Scholar

^{page 450 note 2} MacDougall, op, cit., pp. xxviii-xxx, p. 235, footnote. There are many similar references in the Trades Council Minutes and in the press for the 1860's and 70's.

^{page 450 note 3} Dictionary of National Biography.

^{page 451 note 1} For Gorrie: Stephen, op. cit., p. 221; MacDougall, op. cit., p. 72, footnote; Trades Council Minutes, 30 November, 1861; Reformer, 13 August, 1870. For the other officers mentioned: Trades Council Minutes, 20 February and 26 March, 1861; Scotsman, 19 November, 1866.

^{page 451 note 2} Reformer, 13 August, 1870.

^{page 451 note 3} “Journeyman Engineer”, op. cit., p. 126.

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