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Industrialization and Regional Inequality: Wages in Britain, 1760–1914

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2009

E. H. Hunt
E. H. Hunt
Affiliation:
The author is a member of the Department of Economic History at the London School of Economics, Houghton St., London, WC2A 2AE.
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Abstract

This paper describes the geographical pattern of wages in Britain between 1760 and 1914. It then draws out some of the implications of the wages pattern and considers, in particular, the implications for the “growth pole” debate on the likely effect of industrialization upon regional income inequalities. The market forces responsible for creating and maintaining these differentials are then described, followed by a final section which discsusses the significance of changing regional wage differentials to the standar-of-living debate. It concludes that from a regional perspective the overall effects of industrialization upon living standards are indisputably favorable.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 46 , Issue 4 , December 1986 , pp. 935 - 966
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1986

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References

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4 Purdy, F., Bowley, A. L., Wood, G. H., and contributors to official inquiries all noticed this mid-century relative improvement in Scottish wages.Google ScholarHunt, E. H., Regional Wage Variations in Britain, 1850–1914 (Oxford, 1973), p. 48.Google Scholar

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6 For 1833–1845 there are again no worthwhile figures of farm wages in separate Welsh counties, although some rural Welsh counties were almost certainly among the lowest-paid British counties (Hunt, Regional Wage Variations, pp. 21–2, 25). Bowley (J.R.S.S., Dec. 1898) estimated average farm wages in Wales as a whole at 8s.2d. to 8s.8d. in 1833 and 7s.6d. in 1837. Welsh figures are available for 1867–1870, when four Welsh counties appear among the 18 counties where wages were lowest (Figure 8).Google Scholar

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