Child Labour in Britain, 1750–1870

Kirby, Peter

doi:10.1007/978-0-230-80249-0

Cited by 42 publications

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“…During this period, an illiterate labour force could operate the existing technology, and economic growth was not impeded by educational retardation 13 . Workers developed skills primarily through on‐the‐job training, and child labour was highly valuable (Kirby, 2003).…”

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Das Human-Kapital: A Theory of the Demise of the Class Structure

Galor

Moav²

2006

Rev Econ Studies

368

241

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confidence: 99%

Das Human-Kapital: A Theory of the Demise of the Class Structure

Galor

Moav²

2006

Rev Econ Studies

368

241

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“…19 19 Tuttle, ‘Revival’; idem, Hard at work ; Horrell and Humphries, ‘Child labour; Humphries, ‘Child labour’; Kirby, ‘Causes of short stature’; idem, Child labour ; Lavalette, ed., Thing of the past? ; Honeyman, Child workers ; Levene, ‘Parish apprenticeship’; Rahikainen, Centuries.…”

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Childhood and child labour in the British industrial revolution¹

Humphries

2012

The Economic History Review

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Quantitative and qualitative analysis of a large number of autobiographies by working men who lived through the industrial revolution has demonstrated that there was an upsurge in child labour in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries with children's work entrenched in traditional sectors as well as spreading in newly mechanized factories and workshops. I have interpreted this rise in terms of the appearance of a new equilibrium in the early industrial economy with more and younger children at work. The new equilibrium, in turn, was related to a number of co‐incidental developments including: an increase in the relative productivity of children as a result of mechanization, new divisions of labour, and changes in the organization of work; the dynamics of competitive dependence linking labour market and families; high dependency ratios within families; stumbling male wages and pockets of poverty; family instability; and breadwinner frailty. The establishment of these links forges a new synchronization between revised views of the industrial revolution and a revisionist history of child labour.

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“…Tuttle, Hard at work , p. 31, uses the age of 18 as the beginning of adulthood. Data from the 1851 census group together children aged five to nine and children aged 10 to 14, so studies using census data find it convenient to define children as those younger than 15; Kirby, Child labour ; Nardinelli, Child labor , pp. 52–5.…”

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“…55 55 See Kirby, Child labour , p. 80. Note that boys were sometimes employed as child‐minders, though not as often as girls.…”

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Child day‐labourers in agriculture: evidence from farm accounts, 1740–1850¹

Burnette

2011

The Economic History Review

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While child labour has always been an important part of the industrial revolution story, there is little quantitative evidence about the number of child workers in the 1740–1850 period. This article estimates trends in the percentage of the agricultural day‐labouring workforce that were children. By using the wage level to identify child workers, it is possible to estimate child labour for a large sample of English farms. It is found that girls were rarely employed as day‐labourers, while boys were employed about as frequently as women. The percentage of boys in the day‐labour workforce increased until the 1820s and then declined.

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Child Labour in Britain, 1750–1870

Cited by 42 publications

References 0 publications

Das Human-Kapital: A Theory of the Demise of the Class Structure

Das Human-Kapital: A Theory of the Demise of the Class Structure

Childhood and child labour in the British industrial revolution¹

Child day‐labourers in agriculture: evidence from farm accounts, 1740–1850¹

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Child Labour in Britain, 1750–1870

Cited by 42 publications

References 0 publications

Das Human-Kapital: A Theory of the Demise of the Class Structure

Das Human-Kapital: A Theory of the Demise of the Class Structure

Childhood and child labour in the British industrial revolution1

Child day‐labourers in agriculture: evidence from farm accounts, 1740–18501

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Childhood and child labour in the British industrial revolution¹

Child day‐labourers in agriculture: evidence from farm accounts, 1740–1850¹