Looking for work? Or looking for workers? Days and hours of work in London construction in the eighteenth century.

Stephenson, Judy Z. (2018): Looking for work? Or looking for workers? Days and hours of work in London construction in the eighteenth century.

Abstract

This paper provides new information and data on how work and pay actually operated for skilled and semi-skilled men on large London construction projects in the early 1700s, and for the first time, offers detailed firm level evidence on the number of days per year worked by men. Construction workers' working days were bounded by structural factors of both supply and demand, men worked a far lower number of days than has been assumed until now. This has implications for our understanding of the 'industrious revolution', and industrialisation.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: England 18C; industrial revolution; industrious revolution; labour input; living standards; wages, building craftsmen.
• Subjects: J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J3 - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J4 - Particular Labor Markets; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J6 - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers; N - Economic History > N3 - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy > N33 - Europe: Pre-1913; N - Economic History > N6 - Manufacturing and Construction > N63 - Europe: Pre-1913

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Archival resources:

The National Archives: Work 5/1-74. C106/145. ADM 67/2.

London Metropolitan Archive: Bridge House Estates CLA/007/FIN/004. CLC 313/I/B/25473 no's 34 - 46.

Middle Temple Archives: ACCVOUBI MT.2/TUT