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2020 | OriginalPaper | Buchkapitel

1. A Short History of Builders’ Wages in Economic History

verfasst von : Judy Z. Stephenson

Erschienen in: Contracts and Pay

Verlag: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

Throughout history, construction workers not only built many of the landmarks of modern day London but, unknowingly, gave us the building blocks for the methods most widely used to evaluate the economic performance of the past. Economic historians have a long studied the pay of construction workers, but their sources and methods are not well understood. This chapter gives a concise history of early modern and pre-industrial builder’s wage sources and their conversion to wage series. It introduces the idea that there has been a serious misapprehension of those sources which has influenced our understanding of early modern wages.

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Nächstes Kapitel The Market for Building

By way of current example see; Van Zanden, ‘The Skill Premium and the Great Divergence’, pp. 121–153; Allen, ‘The Great Divergence in European Wages and Prices’, pp. 411–447; Clark, ‘The Condition of the Working Class in England, 1209–2004’, pp. 1307–1340.

Broadberry et al., British Economic Growth 1270–1870 is the first output based (as opposed to real wage based) study of long-run economic growth in England.

Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England.

Rogers, Six Centuries of Work and Wages: The History of English Labour, pp. 159–197, 326–357 discusses labour and wages in the long run in context.

Ibid., p. 398.

Bowley, Wages in the United Kingdom in the Nineteenth Century, pp. 21–23.

Ibid., p. 18.

Ibid., pp. 59–63. Bowley cautioned that rates in building trades had been steady where other trades were rising in 1877–1891, but still felt that bricklayers and other building trades were indicative in the long run, p. 63.

See also Eden, The State of the Poor; McCulloch, A Dictionary, Practical, Theoretical and Historical of Commerce and Commercial Navigation.

Phelps Brown and Hopkins, ‘Seven Centuries of the Prices of Consumables, Compared with Builders’ Wage-Rates’, pp. 296–314, based on ‘Seven Centuries of Building Wages’, pp. 195–206. They credit the work of Gustav Steffen (1901) in identifying long run trends, although did not draw on his work for the eighteenth century, Ueber die Kaufkraft der Löhne erwachsener männlicher Arbeiter in England während des Durchbruches des Fabriksystemes (1760–1830).

Ibid., p. 296.

Allen, ‘The Great Divergence in European Wages and Prices’, pp. 411–147; Clark, ‘The Long March of History’, pp. 33–38; ‘The Condition of the Working Class’, pp. 1307–1340.

Hutchins, ‘Notes Towards the History of London Wages’ (1899), pp. 599–605; ‘Notes Towards the History of London Wages’ (1900), pp. 103–104; Gilboy, Wages in Eighteenth Century England; Schwarz, ‘The Standard of Living in the Long Run’, pp. 23–41; Boulton, ‘Wage Labour in Seventeenth-Century London’, pp. 268–290.

See Allen’s compiled data set at https://www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/people/sites/allen-research-pages/, http://www.iisg.nl/hpw/data.php#europe.

Rappaport, Worlds Within Worlds: The Structures of Life in Sixteenth-Century London, pp. 123–160.

Allen, ‘The Great Divergence in European Wages and Prices’, Appendix 1, p. 345.

Phelps Brown and Hopkins, ‘Seven Centuries of Building Wages’, pp. 195–206.

Deane and Cole, British Economic Growth, 1688–1959: Trends and Structure; Feinstein, ‘Pessimism Perpetuated: Real Wages and the Standard of Living in Britain’, pp. 625–658; Botham and Hunt, ‘Wages in Britain During the Industrial Revolution’, pp. 380–399.

Lindert and Williamson, ‘English Workers’ Living Standards during the Industrial Revolution’, pp. 1–25; Van Zanden, ‘Wages and the Standard of Living in Europe, 1500–1800’, pp. 175–197; Chartres, ‘Food Consumption and Internal Trade’, pp. 168–195.

Broadberry and Gupta, ‘The Early Modern Great Divergence’, p. 12.

Gilboy, ‘The Propensity to Consume’, pp. 120–140; ‘Demand as a Factor in the Industrial Revolution’.

Gilboy, Wages in Eighteenth Century England, p. 239. See the discussion pp. 236–243.

Ibid., pp. 8, 254–292.

Ibid., p. 250.

Ibid.

Ibid. Also see pp. 10–11, and pp. 18–19, 250, and note p. 13, “There can be little error in the assumption that the rates remained the same when the data are missing. The stability of the rates is evident from the Abbey Figures”.

Ibid., p. 9.

Ibid., p. 9 and see whole of discussion pp. 9–13.

Ibid., pp. 16–17.

Ibid., p. 19.

Ibid., pp. 15–17.

Schwarz, ‘The Standard of Living in the Long Run’, pp. 26, n. 14, 15.

Campbell, ‘The London Tradesman’.

Schwarz, ‘The Standard of Living in London’, pp. 27–28.

Ibid., p. 33; Woodward, ‘Wage Rates and Living Standards in Pre-industrial England’.

McCulloch, A Dictionary, Practical, Theoretical and Historical of Commerce and Commercial Navigation.

Schwarz, ‘Standard of Living’, p. 26, I surmise they are modal figures from the following—which is all that is given on methodology; “Even for the years before 1820 bills could not always be found, necessitating careful judgement when filling the gaps. Figures for these years have been interpolated, using previous trends and builders’ price books as a basis for estimation and are incorporated in the series presented”.

Ibid., p. 26.

Ibid., n. 10, 11, 12.

Boulton, ‘Wage Labour in Seventeenth-century London’, pp. 268–290.

Ibid., pp. 276, 277.

Ibid., p. 275.

Ibid., p. 271.

Ibid., p. 275.

Ibid., p. 271, n. 23.

Ibid., p. 274.

Rappaport, Worlds Within Worlds, pp. 123–161.

Ibid., pp. 123–161. Rappaport only provided nominal data in index form.

Ibid., p. 129.

Ibid., p. 110.

Blonde and Hanus, ‘Beyond Building Craftsmen’, pp. 179–207.

Rappaport, Worlds Within Worlds, p. 129.

Ibid., p. 128.

Woodward, Men at Work, p. 3, and Introduction generally. Chapter 4 describes the work of labourers outside of the building industry, pp. 116–167.

At https://www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/people/sites/allen-research-pages/; http://www.iisg.nl/hpw/data.php#europe.

Phelps Brown and Hopkins, ‘Seven Centuries of Building Wages’, pp. 196–197.

Ibid., p. 200.

Gilboy, Wages in Eighteenth Century England, p. 55 and Appendix II, Tables V and VII.

Phelps Brown and Hopkins, ‘Seven Centuries of the Prices of Consumables’, p. 296.

Data gathered for areas outside London by Gilboy frequently included labourers rates for municipal work such as road maintenance, but the figures are far more sparse, and the contractual basis for the work unclear.

Lindert and Williamson, ‘English Workers’ Living Standards during the Industrial Revolution’, p. 17; Allen, ‘Why the Industrial Revolution Was British’, p. 363; Allen, The British Industrial Revolution, pp. 44–45.

Phelps Brown and Hopkins, ‘Seven Centuries of Building Wages’, pp. 196–197.

De Vries, ‘An Inquiry into the Behaviour of Wages in the Dutch Republic’, pp. 79–93; Van der Wee, ‘Prices and Wages as Development Variables’, pp. 58–78 (both later compiled in J. Jan de Vries, and Woude, The First Modern Economy, pp. 607–664); Hanauer, Études économiques sur l’Alsace ancienne et moderne (denrées et salaires); Mocarelli, ‘Wages and the Labour Market in the Building Trade in 18th Century Milan’, pp. 61–82.

https://www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/people/sites/allen-research-pages/.

Without making any changes for the differences in skill and sources. The sources and treatments are similar to that of Clark, ‘The Long March of History’, pp. 33–38, and ‘The condition of the working class’, p. 1334, although Clark makes an allowance of 10% for mark up before 1800.

For the high price of labour in the 1690s see Hatcher, ‘Labour, Leisure and Economic Thought Before the Nineteenth Century’, pp. 64–115.

Van Zanden, ‘The Skill Premium and the Great Divergence’, p. 121.

Snell, Annals of the Labouring Poor, pp. 3–6; Schwarz, ‘The Formation of the Wage: Some Problems’.

Humphries, ‘The Lure of Aggregates and the Pitfalls of the Patriarchal Perspective’, pp. 693–710.

Broadberry et al., British Economic Growth 1270–1870, is the first output based (as opposed to real wage based) approach to long run economic growth. Also see Broadberry, Custodis and Gupta, ‘India and the Great Divergence’, pp. 58–75.

See Schwarz’s discussion of the relative price indices in ‘The Standard of Living in London’, pp. 26–28; Feinstein, ‘Pessimism Perpetuated’, pp. 625–658, Allen’s basket is the most advanced and takes into account all this work on price levels, https://www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/people/sites/allen-research-pages/; http://www.iisg.nl/hpw/data.php#europe.

Van Zanden, ‘Wages and the Standard of Living in Europe’, pp. 175–197.

Parthasarathai, ‘Rethinking Wages and Competitiveness in the Eighteenth Century’, pp. 82–85; Broadberry and Gupta, ‘The Early Modern Great Divergence’, pp. 2–31.

See Mayhew, ‘Money in England from the Middle Ages to the Nineteenth Century’.

Pomeranz, The Great Divergence, pp. 84–100.

De Vries, ‘An Inquiry into the Behaviour of Wages in the Dutch Republic’, pp. 79–93; Van der Wee, ‘Prices and Wages as Development Variables’, pp. 58–78.

Baulant Micheline, Le salaire des ouvriers du bâtiment à Paris, de 1400 à 1726, Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations. 26e année, N. 2, 1971. pp. 463–483, especially 464, 470.

Mocarelli, ‘Wages and the Labour Market in the Building Trade in 18th Century Milan’, pp. 61–82.

Boulton, ‘Wage Labour’, pp. 283–284; Lindert and Williamson, ‘The Structure of Pay in Britain’, pp. 1–54; Schwarz, ‘Custom Wage and Workload’, pp. 143–176.

Woodward, ‘The Determination of Wage Rates in the Early Modern North of England’, p. 23.

Knoop and Jones, ‘The Impressment of Masons in the Middle Ages’, pp. 57–67, see note 4 page 62 on contracting masons.

Saltmarsh, Kings College Chapel: A History and Commentary, Chap. 7, ‘The Input of Labour’.

Knoop and Jones, The London Mason, p. 47.

Knoop and Jones, ‘Masons and Apprenticeship’, p. 351; Woodward, Men at Work, pp. 64–72.

Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of English Architects, pp. 4–11; History of the King’s Works, Vol. V, pp. 42–46.

Summerson, Georgian London, pp. 50–64.

McKellar, The Birth of Modern London.

Ayres, Building the Georgian City; Guillery, The Small House.

Campbell, ‘Seventeenth-Century Bricklayers’ Contracts: Wren’s City Churches’; ‘The Finances of the Carpenter in England 1660–1710’, pp. 313–346; ‘Building a Fortune: The Finances of the Stonemasons Working on the Rebuilding of St Paul’s Cathedral 1675–1720’.

Satoh, Building in Britain: The Origins of a Modern Industry, Ch 1; Cooney, ‘The Origins of the Victorian Master Builders’, pp. 167–176.

Clarke, Building Capitalism, pp. 53–79, 241–244.

See Wallis, ‘Labour Markets and Training’, pp. 178–210; Kelsall, Wage Regulation Under the Statute of Artificers.

See Allen, ‘The High Wage Economy and the Industrial Revolution: A Restatement’, p. 14.

Stigler, ‘The Economics of Information’, pp. 213–225; ‘Information in the Labour Market’, pp. 94–105.

Phelps, Microeconomic Foundations of Employment and Inflation Theory, also most notably Burdett, ‘A Theory of Employee Job Search and Quit Rates’, pp. 212–220; Burdett and Mortensen, ‘Labor Supply Under Uncertainty’. For a fuller accessible description of these developments, see http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economic-sciences/laureates/2010/pissarides-lecture.pdf, and Manning, ‘Monopsony in Motion’, pp. 1–20.

Burdett and Mortensen, ‘Wage Differentials, Employer Size, and Unemployment’; Manning, Monopsony in Motion, pp. 12, 132–134.

Titel: A Short History of Builders’ Wages in Economic History
verfasst von: Judy Z. Stephenson
Verlag: Springer International Publishing
Buch: Contracts and Pay
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-57507-0

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-57508-7

Copyright-Jahr: 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57508-7_1

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