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

Judy Stephenson

No _162, Oxford Economic and Social History Working Papers from University of Oxford, Department of Economics

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: England; industrial revolution; industrious revolution; labour input; living standards; wages, building craftsmen (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J3 J4 J6 N33 N63 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-02-22
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his and nep-knm
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Working Paper: Looking for work? Or looking for workers? Days and hours of work in London construction in the eighteenth century (2018)
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