‘Real’ wages? Contractors, workers, and pay in London building trades, 1650–1800

2017/05/13 by Judy Z. Stephenson · 3 citations
Arts and Humanities · Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Social Sciences · #Business #Context (archaeology) #Economics #Efficiency wage #Geography #Historical Economic and Legal Thought #Historical Economic and Social Studies #History #Labour economics #Scale (ratio) #Scottish History and National Identity #Wage

paper · doi:10.1111/ehr.12491

openalex publication_date 2017/05/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21

Abstract

Abstract Existing series suggest wages in London were higher than in other European cities from 1650 to 1800. This article presents new evidence from the construction sites that supplied the underlying wage data, and uncovers the contractual and organizational context in which they were recorded. Institutional records of wages were profoundly affected by structural changes in the seventeenth century, particularly the emergence of large‐scale building contractors. The actual wages paid to London building workers were substantially below current estimates.

Citations

• Pessimism Perpetuated: Real Wages and the Standard of Living in Britain during and after the Industrial Revolution
• The lure of aggregates and the pitfalls of the patriarchal perspective: a critique of the high wage economy interpretation of the British industrial revolution
• Economic Development with Unlimited Supplies of Labour
• The Great Divergence in European Wages and Prices from the Middle Ages to the First World War
• The early modern great divergence: wages, prices and economic development in Europe and Asia, 1500–18001
• The Industrial Revolution in Miniature: The Spinning Jenny in Britain, France, and India

Cited by

• A reassessment of the Great Divergence debate: towards a reconciliation of apparently distinct determinants
• Poverty or prosperity in northern India? New evidence on real wages, 1590s–1870s†
• Industrial Revolution [wikipedia]

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