London in the Age of Industrialisation: Entrepreneurs, Labour Force and Living Conditions, 1700–1850

Abstract

This book is the first full-length analysis of the London working population and the effects of the industrial revolution in London to appear for over sixty years. Prior to the mid nineteenth century London may not have experienced the direct effects of the industrial revolution to any great extent, but the indirect effects were felt strongly. L. D. Schwarz disagrees with the view that 'the industrial revolution was a storm that passed over London and broke elsewhere', and seeks to judge the effect of industrialisation on what was the country's largest manufacturing city. Its size and role as national capital meant that London was in certain important respects unique, but it was nonetheless susceptible to many of the wider economic transformations that occurred during the period 1700–1850, and Dr Schwarz offers a detailed analysis of the changes to the economy and social structure of London that these wrought. He analyses middle-class wealth, the incomes of the working classes, living standards (defined very broadly to include the impact of the seasons and of the trade cycle), the fall in the death rate, the changing nature of the labour force in general and of artisans in particular, money wages and perquisites and the economic role of women.