Escape from the Market
Negotiating Work in Lancashire

This book describes how wages were set in post-industrial revolution Lancashire.

Michael Huberman (Author)

9780521561518, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 12 September 1996

242 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.53 kg

Review of the hardback: '… an important book and an eloquent argument to be reckoned with by all historians of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Western economies'. Pat Hudson, English Historical Review

At the outset of the industrial revolution the Lancashire labour market was a model of thoroughgoing competition. Wages adjusted quickly and smoothly to changes in the demand for and supply of labour. Within two generations, however, workers and firms had retreated from the market. Instead of busting wages, firms paid fixed rates; instead of breaking ties on short notice, workers sought longer-term associations. Social norms - doing the right thing - protected and preserved the fresh labour market arrangements. This book explains the causes and effects of changes in the labour market in the context of developments in labour economics and fresh research in social and economic history.

List of figures
List of tables
Preface
Glossary
List of abbreviations
1. Introduction: the myth of the Lancashire labour market
Part I. Labour Market Failure?: 2. Custom against the market: the early labour market
3. Principals and agents: the labour market into the second generation
4. Who's minding the mill? The supervision problem
Part II. The Economics of Piece-Rate Bargaining: 5. The fair wage model
Part III. How Did Labour Markets Really Work?: 6. Fair and unfair wages: 1825–50
7. Short hours and seniority in the 'hungry 'forties'
8. Rules and standards: wage lists in Lancashire
Part IV. Conclusion: 9. More lessons from the cotton mills
Notes
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Economic history [KCZ]