Conclusion

Abstract

Despite the severe limitations of the surviving evidence of child labour, some general conclusions may be drawn. First, the employment of very young children was never widespread in British society. Child labour below the age of 10 invariably formed part of the survival strategies of the poor. The demographic structure of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Britain led to an increased burden of dependency among poor families and early employment might be explained as a rational response by households to structural dependency and endemic poverty. Child labour at abnormally young ages was associated especially with lone-parent households, orphans, and children formally in the care of parish authorities. Such children were often victims of a failure of local welfare arrangements to provide adequate care to the destitute.