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Child Day-Labourers in Agriculture : Evidence from Farm Accounts, 1740-1850

Burnette, Joyce LU (2012) In Economic History Review 65(3). p.1077-1099
Abstract
While child labour has always been an important part of the industrial revolutionstory, there is little quantitative evidence about the number of child workers in the1740–1850 period. This article estimates trends in the percentage of the agriculturalday-labouring workforce that were children. By using the wage level to identify childworkers, it is possible to estimate child labour for a large sample of English farms. Itis found that girls were rarely employed as day-labourers, while boys were employedabout as frequently as women. The percentage of boys in the day-labour workforceincreased until the 1820s and then declined.
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
child labor, agricultural labor, English agriculture
in
Economic History Review
volume
65
issue
3
pages
23 pages
publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
external identifiers
  • scopus:84863475918
ISSN
1468-0289
DOI
10.1111/j.1468-0289.2011.00616.x
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
491d95e0-0447-46ef-baf2-c2da8f1c4e95
date added to LUP
2017-09-18 15:54:38
date last changed
2022-01-30 22:47:02
@article{491d95e0-0447-46ef-baf2-c2da8f1c4e95,
  abstract     = {{While child labour has always been an important part of the industrial revolutionstory, there is little quantitative evidence about the number of child workers in the1740–1850 period. This article estimates trends in the percentage of the agriculturalday-labouring workforce that were children. By using the wage level to identify childworkers, it is possible to estimate child labour for a large sample of English farms. Itis found that girls were rarely employed as day-labourers, while boys were employedabout as frequently as women. The percentage of boys in the day-labour workforceincreased until the 1820s and then declined.}},
  author       = {{Burnette, Joyce}},
  issn         = {{1468-0289}},
  keywords     = {{child labor; agricultural labor; English agriculture}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{3}},
  pages        = {{1077--1099}},
  publisher    = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
  series       = {{Economic History Review}},
  title        = {{Child Day-Labourers in Agriculture : Evidence from Farm Accounts, 1740-1850}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0289.2011.00616.x}},
  doi          = {{10.1111/j.1468-0289.2011.00616.x}},
  volume       = {{65}},
  year         = {{2012}},
}