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The Pay of Labourers and Unskilled Men on London Building Sites, 1650–1770

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Seven Centuries of Unreal Wages

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Economic History ((PEHS))

Abstract

Economic historians have taken the pay of urban construction labourers as representative of the unskilled male wage for unskilled workers in long-run wage series and welfare calculations. This chapter argues that London labourers whose pay makes up these series were not unskilled, but semi-skilled, and brings new wage evidence to show that the unskilled nominal wage in London 1660–1800 was in many cases little more than half of what we currently use to calculate welfare and labour costs for the long eighteenth century in London.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Phelps Brown, Hopkins, ‘Seven Centuries of Building Wages’, pp. 195–206.

  2. 2.

    For a summary of the discussions of the significance of the money wage see Boulton ‘Wage earning in Seventeenth Century London’, pp. 269–71, Woodward, Men at Work.

  3. 3.

    Allen The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective, pp. 39–45.

  4. 4.

    Stephenson, “Real’ wages? Contractors work and pay’ pp. 106–132.

  5. 5.

    Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England.

  6. 6.

    Bowley, Wages in the United Kingdom, pp. 59–60.

  7. 7.

    Gilboy, Wages in Eighteenth Century England.

  8. 8.

    Schwarz, ‘The Standard of Living in the Long Run’, pp. 24–41.

  9. 9.

    Rappaport, Worlds within worlds, pp. 128–9.

  10. 10.

    Allen ‘the Great Divergence’ Table 1. For further information and data downloads, see https://www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/people/sites/allen-research-pages.

  11. 11.

    Boulton, Wage earning in Seventeenth Century London, p. 269.

  12. 12.

    Burnette, Gender Work & Wages p. 210.

  13. 13.

    Woodward, Men at Work, p. 94.

  14. 14.

    Ibid., p. 95.

  15. 15.

    Ibid., p. 100.

  16. 16.

    Ibid., p. 108.

  17. 17.

    See Select Committee Report on Labourer’s Wages, House of Commons, 1824. Evidence pp. 11–61, esp. 13, 15, 31, 54.

  18. 18.

    Clark, The Condition of the Working Class. pp. 1323, Allen, The British Industrial Revolution pp. 39–45, 45, Van Zanden, ‘The Skill Premium and the Great Divergence’. pp. 122, 128.

  19. 19.

    Clark, ‘The Condition of the Working Class’, pp. 1321, 1334–5.

  20. 20.

    Allen, ‘The Great Divergence’ pp. 411–47; Allen, The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective; Allen, ‘Prices and Wages in London & Southern England, 1259–1914’, S. Broadberry and B. Gupta, ‘The Early Modern Great Divergence’ pp. 2–31, Broadberry et al., British Economic Growth 1270–1870; Clark, ‘The Condition of the Working Class’, Clark, ‘England, Prices and Wages since 13th Century’ Van Zanden, ‘Wages and the Standard of Living’, pp. 175–97, Van Zanden, ‘The Skill Premium and the Great Divergence’.

  21. 21.

    Allen uses a 250-day work year, Clark a 300-day work year. For a full explanation of a day rate in the building trades see Campbell, ‘The Finances of the Carpenter in England’ pp. 313–46.

  22. 22.

    Allen, The British Industrial Revolution, pp. 45, 43.

  23. 23.

    For an explanation of types of work contract see Campbell, ‘The Finances of the Carpenter in England’ pp. 313–46.

  24. 24.

    LMA CLC/313/B/I/25473 10 – 42.

  25. 25.

    CLC/313/B/I /25473 33 p. 68.

  26. 26.

    LMA CLC/313/I/B/0034/25473/12.

  27. 27.

    Wren Society Vol. XV, Building accounts June 1719 to December 1722, p. 225.

  28. 28.

    Strangely the very low day rates show no change form winter to summer, unlike the set labourers wages.

  29. 29.

    Wren Society, Vol. XVI. part III ‘Frauds and Abuses’ pp. 109–113.

  30. 30.

    See TNA WORK 5/1.

  31. 31.

    TNA WORK 5/ 34, 35, 36 37.

  32. 32.

    TNA WORK 5/67.

  33. 33.

    A wooden Bridge at Putney was erected in 1729.

  34. 34.

    Full records at TNA WORK 6/46.

  35. 35.

    Work 6/46 pp. 39, 41.

  36. 36.

    For an account of the organization of Bridge House see Latham, ‘The London Bridge Improvement Act of 1756’.

  37. 37.

    Held at London Metropolitan Archives.

  38. 38.

    Shootsmen managed the dangerous task of getting boats through the piers of the Bridge.

  39. 39.

    “Rates by the hour, complicated calculations of overtime and Sunday working are all found in such official records”, Boulton ‘Wage Labour’ p. 274.

  40. 40.

    CLA/007/FN/03/019.

  41. 41.

    http://www.pla.co.uk/assets/towerq22015.pdf give tables for London Bridge Pier for 2015.

  42. 42.

    CLA/007/FN/04/019.

  43. 43.

    COL/CC/BHC/10/006.

  44. 44.

    See Van Zanden, ‘The Skill Premium and the Great Divergence’.

  45. 45.

    Ibid., pp. 121–122.

  46. 46.

    Boulton, ‘Wage Labour’, p. 271.

  47. 47.

    Nusteling, Welvaart En Werkgelegenheid in Amsterdam, 1540–1860. p. 252.

  48. 48.

    Schwarz, London in the Age of Industrialisation, pp. 11–30 Dobson, Masters and Journeymen, George, London Life in the XVIIIth Century.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wadham College, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Judy Z. Stephenson

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  1. Judy Z. Stephenson
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  1. University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    John Hatcher

  2. Wadham College, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Judy Z. Stephenson

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Stephenson, J.Z. (2018). The Pay of Labourers and Unskilled Men on London Building Sites, 1650–1770. In: Hatcher, J., Stephenson, J. (eds) Seven Centuries of Unreal Wages. Palgrave Studies in Economic History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96962-6_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96962-6_6

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