Although it was not until 1831 that any detailed return of the occupations of the people was attempted, there had been in the earliest censuses a rough and ready method adopted of dividing the population into three or four large groups, with a view of distinguishing those who obtained their support directly from the land from those engaged in manufacture, trade or the learned professions. Thus in 1801 we find returns under three headings: (1) persons chiefly employed in agriculture; (2) persons chiefly employed in trade, manufacture, or handicraft; and (3) all other persons not employed in the two preceding classes. This return, it will be noted, is of individuals, but in 1811 and 1821 the number of families is substituted for individuals. The occupations are given in the same form, but it is the number of families chiefly employed in agriculture, or otherwise, that are stated. The principle on which the returns are based is, however, the same, and it is one on which I should wish to lay stress, viz., to ascertain the total number supported by each of the great branches of industry.
Booth surveyed the re-creation of the Britain of his day and was well satisfied. Seventeen million additional people had been provided for, while the numbers engaged in agriculture had remained comparatively constant. But, he asked a little anxiously, could the process continue? We are now in a position to see whether his satisfaction was well based, and his anxiety unnecessary.
In 1911, as has been noted, a first attempt was made to produce separate tables for distributions by occupation and by industry. Inspired by the British Empire Statistical Conference of 1920, the Registrar General and his Officials repeated this endeavour in a more determined way in 1921, so that the ambiguity that bedevilled previous reports was largely removed. So it is that it becomes possible to mobilise workers into occupational classes defined by characteristics inherent in their occupations. This is what I have done with the census data from 1911 to 1981, in an endeavour to measure the quality of the labour force. The occupational classes used here are related to, and generally derived from, the social classes and socioeconomic groups used in the census (see Census 1951: Classifiation of Occupations, HMSO, 1956; and Routh, 1965, Appendix A).
Those who believe in an innate tendency to social improvement might expect population censuses to get better and better as time goes by. This did indeed happen until 1951, though there were a few lapses along the way. In 1901, the authorities presented a single table aggregating the occupational data for the United Kingdom, while including separate columns for England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland. After that those who wished to combine the data for Great Britain or the United Kingdom had to do it for themselves. In 1931, tricks were played with the status categories, managers and employers being combined under the title ‘managerial’. This was repeated in 1961, while in the semi-decennial census of 1966, employers and selfemployed were combined as ‘self-employed with and without employees’. Happily, in 1971 there was a return to the style of 1951, and occupational tables were published for the whole of Great Britain.
In the winter of 1801 a small army went out into the English and Welsh countryside to count the inhabitants. The Scots, very sensibly, postponed their count until the following summer. For each parish, an enumerator was designated: in England and Wales the local rector, vicar, curate or minister; in Scotland, the schoolmaster. Their task was to determine the number of males and females in the parish; the number of persons chiefly employed in agriculture; the number employed in trade, manufactures or handicraft; the number of soldiers, sailors and merchant seamen; and of convicts awaiting transportation on board the hulks. The results are shown in Table 5.1.
We have compared Great Britain with itself at various points of time, and witnessed the great enrichment of job options open to its inhabitants. The descendants of the agricultural labourers, mill workers and domestic servants of the last century have advanced and diversified into jobs that spare the muscles and exercise the mind. Of course, as I write, over three million would-be workers have no jobs at all, and are condemned to a life of boredom and frustration, while a majority of the rest still have jobs that use little of their intellectual potential. None the less, generation by generation advances have been and are being made, with sons and daughters entering fields beyond the reach of their parents. To conclude our investigation we should examine data from some other countries against which Britain’s achievements may be assessed. I refer to ‘partners and competitors’, for the world is today much more of an economic entity than in earlier times. The establishments of the multinationals support one another across national boundaries, while their subsidiaries abroad may compete with their rivals at home. Scientists, technicians and managers move to and fro about the world to extend their training. Ideas and techniques cross and re-cross national frontiers.
Guy Routh
Backmatter
Metadaten
Titel
Occupations of the People of Great Britain, 1801–1981
