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SUMMARY:Wage labour and living standards in early modern England: evidence
  from Lancashire\, 1580-1620 - Li Jiang (Exeter)
DTSTART:20230202T170000Z
DTEND:20230202T190000Z
UID:TALK195121@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Martin Andersson
DESCRIPTION:Based on the Shuttleworth accounts\, 1582-1621\, probate inven
 tories and other supporting documents\, this paper discusses life-cycle ch
 anges of Lancashire wage workers’ living standards during the late sixte
 enth and early seventeenth centuries. The discussion is divided into three
  sections: cost of living\, annual wage income and levels of wealth. The a
 ccounts record the cost of ‘tabling’ workers\, which involved providin
 g food and drink. Using this evidence\, it is argued that instead of follo
 wing a stable basket of consumables\, the costs of feeding wage workers ra
 nged widely and were influenced by diverse factors\, such as the prices of
  food\, the demand for labour strength and the skills applied in tasks. Lo
 w annual wage incomes and high turnover rates of workers do not suggest a 
 high-pressure labour market where workers were desperate for employment\, 
 but rather an economy where waged work was a supplement to other activitie
 s. This is further supported by the comparison between monetary wages reco
 rded in the Shuttleworth accounts and the material wealth recorded in the 
 Shuttleworth employees’ probate inventories. The findings show that mone
 tary wages could only be used to measure the purchasing power of wage work
 ers during a specific period of their life cycle and did not have a positi
 ve correlation with wage workers’ living standards measured using invent
 ories. In conclusion\, it is argued that current research on living standa
 rds of early modern period presents an incomplete picture of the real live
 s of wage workers.
LOCATION:History Faculty Room 12
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