Employment

The 1841 Census was the first to enable us to study individuals in detail, and draw reasonably reliable conclusions about the population as a whole.

‘Reasonably’ because those responsible for this Census were unsystematic in compiling occupational data, and were themselves astonished at the diversity of job titles (over 3,000) they collected.

From a 21st-century perspective, it’s astonishing how different the economy was. In Westminster, a staggering 17 per cent of the population were domestic servants. Indeed, across Britain as a whole, more people worked as servants than in any other sector of the economy, except agriculture. The 1.25 million domestic servants and 1.5 million farm workers dwarfed the next largest occupational category, the textiles industry, which employed some 883,000.

A further 558,000 were employed in clothing and shoe manufacture. A majority of the population still lived in rural areas, though the balance was shifting steadily towards the towns. However, you could not draw a firm line between agricultural and rural areas.

Even Manchester borough boasted 18 pig dealers and 130 farmers. But there were solid manufacturing towns. In Blackburn, 75 per cent of all workers were employed in manufacturing and in Paisley 62 per cent.

Echoing the Third World today, a massive 45 per cent of Britain’s population were under 20 (less than 7 per cent were over 60). A society so youthful could not afford for children to be economically inactive. The Census was erratic in recording child labour, but at least a third of under-15s worked full-time. Children as young as three were put to tedious, repetitive jobs like bird-scaring and stone-picking.

In Britain’s coalmines, 5,000 boys and girls aged five to 10 worked underground. Most were ‘trappers’, opening and closing ventilation doors with just a cheap candle for company through a 10 or 12-hour shift.

By contrast, the working week for the 100,000 child factory workers (all over nine) was limited to 48 hours. Male factory workers typically worked a 69-hour, six-day week.

One pound a week was a typical wage for a skilled man like a tailor (equivalent to £65 at present-day purchasing prices). Coalminers and adult male factory workers could expect to earn five shillings (25p) more.