Abstract
ABSTRACTIn his classic works on the industrious revolution, Jan de Vries argues that demand for new consumer goods trigged eighteenth century Europeans to work more. This implies that industrious behaviour and new consumption patterns were two parallel and interdependent processes that preceded the industrial revolution. However, there is an alternative explanation for any increase in labour output on household level, namely that the labourers were forced to work more to meet ends. An indication of this could be that day labourers’ relative wages decreased over time. In this article, we investigate this by studying wages from annual and casual labour in southern Sweden and compare their levels with consumption baskets.
Highlights
A change in consumer behaviour is the foundation of the industrious revolution hypothesis, which posits that workers increased their engagement in paid work after 1650 (de Vries, 1994, 2008)
There is an alternative explanation for any increase in labour output on household level, namely that the labourers were forced to work more to meet ends. An indication of this could be that day labourers’ relative wages decreased over time. We investigate this by studying wages from annual and casual labour in southern Sweden and compare their levels with consumption baskets
An increase in labour supply can basically come in two forms, the individual(s) working more or more family members being involved in work
Summary
A change in consumer behaviour is the foundation of the industrious revolution hypothesis, which posits that workers increased their engagement in paid work after 1650 (de Vries, 1994, 2008). An increase in labour supply can basically come in two forms, the individual(s) working more or more family members being involved in work This increased industriousness per se has been supported in some famous studies, using court witness material that indicate what people were doing during different parts of the day and year in England (Voth, 2000, 2001). We will show that this institutional framework is only partly accurate as a general characteristic of the early modern labour market: changes in demand and supply due to population development or external shocks caused by events such as wars or local disasters affected wages – both for annually and casually hired workers
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