Center for Liberal Strategies (CLS): ‘The Future through the Culture of the Past: Bulgarian Economic and Social History’ Seminar presents:

The Occupational Structure in England (1755-1881)

lecture by Leigh Shaw-Taylor (University of Cambridge, UK)

It is widely supposed that the industrializing regions of north-west England (Lancashire and the West Riding) experienced a rapid increase in the relative importance of secondary sector employment between 1760 and 1830. However a large-scale analysis of occupational data for the period 1750-1871 shows that in fact the rise in the relative importance of secondary sector employment in the north-west took place during the early modern period and actually declined slightly over the classic 'industrial revolution' period. After 1815, some other parts of the country, not normally associated with the industrial revolution, experienced the relatively rapid increase in secondary sector employment usually assumed to have characterised the industrial districts between 1760 and 1830. In contrast, the growth of service sector employment (especially transport) was dramatic and continuous in all regions of England from the late eighteenth century onwards. Nationally there was more growth in the secondary sector between 1500 and 1750 than there was between 1750 and 1850. These findings necessitate some rethinking of the first industrial revolution, its causes and its consequences. Not least, these findings finally resolve the long standing controversy as to whether the first industrial revolution was a relatively short dramatic event or a more protracted process. The evidence in favour of the latter view is now overwhelming. On the other hand they also suggest that productivity increases in manufacturing between 1750 and 1850 were more dramatic than has been suggested in recent accounts.

The seminar is led by Roumen Avramov (Center for Liberal Strategies) and Martin Ivanov (Institute of History, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences).

June 2 (Monday) 2008, 5.00 p.m.
Pesha Nikolova hall
In English, no interpretation provided.
Free entrance

back to Lectures