Showing papers in "The Economic History Review in 1982"

The population history of England 1541-1871.

Abstract: An extensive review of the study by EA Wrigley and RS Schofield entitled "The Population History of England 1541-1871" is presented. The review includes a summary of the work of the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure as a whole. (ANNOTATION)

Science and Society in Restoration England.

Abstract: Book synopsis: Although much has been written on the intellectual achievements of the age of Newton, Boyle and Hooke, this book provided the first systematic assessment of the social relations of Restoration science when it was published in 1981. On the basis of a detailed analysis of the early history of the Royal Society, Professor Hunter examines the key issues concerning the role of science in late seventeenth-century England. The nature of the scientific community, the links between science and technology and science's political affiliations are all explored, while much light is cast on contemporary priorities in religion and learning through a reconsideration of attacks on science. At once wide-ranging and authoritative, this remains a work that no one concerned with science and its social integration in this formative period can afford to ignore.

"The monster nuisance of all": landowners, alkali manufacturers, and air pollution, 1828-64.

Abstract: A ir pollution has a long history Londoners have complained of the Smoke from sea coal from the thirteenth century onwards1 but the development of a steam-powered, coal-burning technology in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries created pollution problems of a new order of magnitude. Coal output rose from roughly ii million tons in i8oo to almost 50 million tons in i850 and its combustion in furnaces, steam engines, and domestic hearths created smoke palls which came to be regarded as the inevitable accompaniment to industrial activity. Wordsworth described the industrial town: "O'er which the smoke of unremitting fires/Hangs permanent ")2 The new chemical industries worsened the situation by adding new, noisome, and often toxic elements to the atmosphere; because of their impact, the eminent scientist Lyon Playfair argued that airborne emissions from alkali manufacture were "the monster nuisance of all".3 Industrial-pollution is perhaps the least studied consequence of the Industrial Revolution. Almost fifty years ago Lewis Mumford pointed out that the first mark of "paleotechnic industry" was pollution of the air and the second, pollution of waterways,4 but apart from noting the aesthetic and health implications of dirt and smoke, historians have not followed up his pioneering work. This neglect is unwarranted because many Victorians were affected by pollution, some seriously so. A few were in a position to protect themselves and in doing so they imposed significant restraints upon the freedom of manufacturers and also expanded the sphere of government involvement in the economy. This article looks at one such episode where the interests of alkali manufacturers came into conflict with those of neighbouring landowners. It traces attempts by landowners and others to win some redress for their grievances which began at the end of the i820s and culminated in i863 with the passage of the Alkali Act. This remarkable measure placed the property of manufacturers under the supervision of the state in order to protect the property of landowners, and most conspicuously the property of large, wealthy land-

The Mandarin-Capitalists from Nanyang: Overseas Chinese Enterprise in the Modernization of China, 1893-1911.

Abstract: Preface Note Map Introduction Part I. The Rise of the Overseas Chinese Capitalist: 1. The foreign experience 2. Environment and Chinese values 3. China's discovery of the Nanyang Chinese 4. The recruitment of Chang Pi-shih Part II. Overseas Chinese Enterprise in the Modernization of China: 5. A program for the development of industry and commerce 6. The search for overseas Chinese talent and wealth 7. South China's railroad offensive 1904-8 8. The overseas Chinese and economic change Epilogue Notes Select bibliography Glossary Index.

The Discount Policy of the Bank of England During the Suspension of Cash Payments, 1197–18211

Abstract: T he Bank of England played a key role in the supply of credit during the Suspension of Cash Payments. In London, the hub of the nation's commercial and financial affairs, the cessation of private issues in the I770s had given it a monopoly of the note circulation. Bank notes were used as the basis of all sizable transactions and increasingly, as gold coins disappeared after I797, for small payments.2 They formed most of the reserves of the private banks which financed the trading activities of the City. The Bank had no contact with country areas and the extent of its influence there is unclear. That provincial credit conditions tended to reflect those in the capital is suggested by various monetary links: the popularity of bills drawn on London, the dependence of country banks on metropolitan reserves (especially deposits with private banks), and the convertibility of country issues into Bank notes. However, as fixed reserve ratios were employed by neither London nor country banks, it seems likely that the latter could generate at least short-run monetary expansion independently of any action by the Bank.3 The Bank made advances principally through investments in government securities, the so-called "private loans", and discounts of commercial paper.4 For much of the period, the government advances were uncontrollable because the directors felt obliged to satisfy the urgent wartime demands of the Treasury. To some extent, the private loans can similarly be considered essential, designed as they were to assist subscribers to war loans and to tide solvent firms over temporary difficulties. They comprised a fluctuating but generally much smaller portion of Bank credit than the other two categories. Thus, the most effective method by which the Bank could control total advances was to regulate the discounts, which it gave to London traders and (from I 797) private bankers. Demand for discounts was closely influenced by the Bank's adherence to the legal maximum interest rate of five per cent. This ensured that most of the public's needs were normally met by other institutions

Small Books and Pleasant Histories: Popular Fiction and Its Readership in Seventeenth-Century England.

Abstract: Illustrations Abbreviations Acknowledgements Dedication Preface 1. The mental world of the peasant reader 2. Elementary education and the acquisition of reading skills 3. Direct and indirect evidence for readership of the chapbooks 4. The fortunes and the volume of stock of the chapbook publishers 5. The distributors: pedlars, hawkers and petty chapmen 6. The content of Samuel Pepys's collection and the bibliotheque bleue 7. Small merry books: courtship, sex and songs 8. Portraits of society: historical and chivalric novels 10. Conclusion Appendix Index.

Working Hours and Conditions during the Industrial Revolution: A Re‐Appraisal

Abstract: A though it is generally acknowledged that working conditions might be harsh and hours of work lengthy before the onset of industrial change in the second half of the eighteenth century, there is still general agreement that work discipline subsequently intensified. This is seen as occurring not only in textile factories but also in other places of work as industrial capitalism tightened its grip on the labour force. The classic statement of this belief is to be found in E. P. Thompson's article in Past & Present in i967,1 and other historians have expressed similar views, even though their approach in other respects is markedly different from Thompson's. Thus J. D. Chambers remarked that the labour force in the Industrial Revolution was not only very much larger, but was worked very much harder.2 M. I. Thomis has made the point that the Hammonds argued that the growth of the domestic industries in the half century after the introduction of steam power was accompanied by deteriorating conditions, and (says Thomis) 'few would quarrel with this view today'.3 In a recent work, Duncan Bythell clearly regards all out-workers throughout the nineteenth century as sweated labour, and suggests that the depressing story is almost unchanged from the handloom weaver and framework knitter of the i83os and 40s to the nailmaker and needlewoman of the i88os and i89os.4 It appears, then, that whether a worker was employed in a textile factory (the most extreme case) or in a small workshop, he suffered a marked deterioration in his life at work-the obvious consequence of the quickening pace of industrialization. Only in the second half of the nineteenth century was there any general reduction in the length of the working day and/or improvement in working conditions. Pollard seems to sum up this view of the earlier period when he observes in a colourful metaphor that the modern industrial proletariat was "not allowed to grow in a sunny garden: it was forged, over a fire, by the powerful blows of a hammer".5 Yet in spite of this weight of opinion, some doubts must remain. Even Thompson admits that the imposition of the new work routines was a slow process, sometimes taking several generations (as in the Potteries), and was perhaps never fully accomplished in all sectors of industry.6 Moreover, it is