IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/jechis/v46y1986i04p935-966_05.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

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

Author

Listed:
  • Hunt, E. H.

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Hunt, E. H., 1986. "Industrialization and Regional Inequality: Wages in Britain, 1760–1914," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 46(4), pages 935-966, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jechis:v:46:y:1986:i:04:p:935-966_05
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022050700050658/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bottomley, Sean, 2014. "Patenting in England, Scotland and Ireland during the Industrial Revolution, 1700–1852," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 48-63.
    2. Morgan Kelly & Cormac Ó Gráda, 2014. "Living standards and mortality since the middle ages," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 67(2), pages 358-381, May.
    3. Humphries, Jane & Leunig, Timothy, 2009. "Was Dick Whittington taller than those he left behind? Anthropometric measures, migration and the quality of life in early nineteenth century London?," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 120-131, January.
    4. Alex Trew, 2014. "Spatial Takeoff in the First Industrial Revolution," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 17(4), pages 707-725, October.
    5. James Foreman-Peck & Peng Zhou, 2021. "Fertility versus productivity: a model of growth with evolutionary equilibria," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(3), pages 1073-1104, July.
    6. Nina Boberg-Fazlić & Paul Sharp, 2018. "North and south: long-run social mobility in England and attitudes toward welfare," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 12(2), pages 251-276, May.
    7. Carol Scott Leonard & Leonid Borodkin & Lomonossov State University & Moscow & Russia, 2000. "The Rural Urban Wage Gap in the Industrialization of Russia, 1885-1913," Economics Series Working Papers 14, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    8. Lindert, Peter H., 2000. "Three centuries of inequality in Britain and America," Handbook of Income Distribution, in: A.B. Atkinson & F. Bourguignon (ed.), Handbook of Income Distribution, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 3, pages 167-216, Elsevier.
    9. Morgan Kelly & Joel Mokyr & Cormac Ó Gráda, 2023. "The Mechanics of the Industrial Revolution," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 131(1), pages 59-94.
    10. Adam Crymble & Adam Dennett & Tim Hitchcock, 2018. "Modelling regional imbalances in English plebeian migration to late eighteenth‐century London†," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 71(3), pages 747-771, August.
    11. Samantha Williams, 2005. "Poor relief, labourers’ households and living standards in rural England c.1770–1834: a Bedfordshire case study," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 58(3), pages 485-519, August.
    12. Gazeley, Ian & Verdon, Nicola, 2014. "The first poverty line? Davies' and Eden's investigation of rural poverty in the late 18th-century England," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 94-108.
    13. Nina Boberg‐Fazlić & Paul Sharp, 2017. "Does Welfare Spending Crowd Out Charitable Activity? Evidence from Historical England Under the Poor Laws," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 127(599), pages 50-83, February.
    14. C. Simon Fan, 2011. "The Luxury Axiom, The Wealth Paradox, And Child Labor," Journal of Economic Development, Chung-Ang Unviersity, Department of Economics, vol. 36(3), pages 25-45, September.
    15. Ian Gazeley & Sara Horrell, 2013. "Nutrition in the English agricultural labourer's household over the course of the long nineteenth century," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 66(3), pages 757-784, August.
    16. Missbach, Leonard & Steckel, Jan Christoph & Renner, Sebastian & Kraus, Sebastian, 2024. "Coal-fired power plants and industrial development," EconStor Preprints 300209, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    17. Federica Di Battista, 2016. "Scared to be poor: Vulnerability and poverty in Great Britain at the beginning of the 20th century," HHB Working Papers Series 5, The Historical Household Budgets Project.
    18. Fernando Collantes, 2009. "Rural Europe reshaped: the economic transformation of upland regions, 1850–20001," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 62(2), pages 306-323, May.
    19. Joyce Burnette, 2004. "The wages and employment of female day‐labourers in English agriculture, 1740–1850," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 57(4), pages 664-690, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:jechis:v:46:y:1986:i:04:p:935-966_05. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/jeh .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.