Work and society in Newcastle upon Tyne, c. 1600-1710
This study examines the social context of work in seventeenth-century England through a case study of Newcastle upon Tyne, based on a relational database of tens of thousands of linked parish, tax and probate records. Newcastle was a boom town at the start of the seventeenth century, and while the surge in the coal industry produced great wealth for some, it brought flocks of migrant workers that made Newcastle perhaps the fastest-growing provincial town in England. Newcastleâs experience was by no means typical, but it is an example of an early modern town changing under economic opportunity and demographic pressure. As well as coal, the town sustained a variety of older trades throughout, although there was a decisive and important structural shift towards wage labour over the century. However, there was no artificial separation between these industrial and âtraditionalâ workers, nor were the new migrants as universally poor as has sometimes been suggested; the âhierarchy of occupationsâ was more an overlapping series of loose categories rather than a rigid structure. The availability and regularity of work is shown to be the critically important factor in making a living in the town even when,
Burn, Andrew James
Work and society in Newcastle upon Tyne, c. 1600-1710. This study examines the social context of work in seventeenth-century England through a case study of Newcastle upon Tyne, based on a relational database of tens of thousands of linked parish, tax and probate records. Newcastle was a boom town at the start of the seventeenth century, and while the surge in the coal industry produced great wealth for some, it brought flocks of migrant workers that made Newcastle perhaps the fastest-growing provincial town in England. Newcastleâs experience was by no means typical, but it is an example of an early modern town changing under economic opportunity and demographic pressure. As well as coal, the town sustained a variety of older trades throughout, although there was a decisive and important structural shift towards wage labour over the century. However, there was no artificial separation between these industrial and âtraditionalâ workers, nor were the new migrants as universally poor as has sometimes been suggested; the âhierarchy of occupationsâ was more an overlapping series of loose categories rather than a rigid structure. The availability and regularity of work is shown to be the critically important factor in making a living in the town even when,
work society newcastle_upon tyne study_examines social_context work seventeenth_century_england case_study newcastle_upon tyne base relational_database link parish tax probate record newcastle boom town start surge coal_industry produce great wealth bring flock migrant worker make newcastle perhaps growing provincial_town england newcastle experience mean typical example early_modern town change economic_opportunity demographic pressure well coal town sustain variety older trade throughout although decisive important structural shift_towards wage labour century however artificial separation industrial traditional worker new migrant universally poor sometimes suggest hierarchy occupation overlap series loose category rather rigid structure availability regularity work show critically important_factor make live town even