Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: The year 2023 saw many publications in the fields of early modern economic and social history.The articles discussed in this round-up cover topics which have been a mainstay over recent years, including histories of labour (especially women's work), colonialism, and slavery.Agrarian history has lately gained renewed attention, and once again featured in this year's scholarship.A notable cluster of articles focused on what petitions -of which large collections survive -can tell us about the early modern economy, society, and the state.The gender split of authors was roughly equal this year, a testament to the rich and diverse topics that this year's articles cover.Labour history was the focus of several articles.The hiring of over 1000 unskilled workers for the rebuilding of St Paul's Cathedral in London between 1672 and 1748 is the subject of an article by Paker, Stephenson, and Wallis.Applying econometric analysis to records of labourers hired, the authors find that hiring practices 'encouraged retention and reduced turnover, giving a core group of laborers more work, priority in rehiring after slowdowns, and access to additional ways to earn.' (p.1101).Over time, the share of 'new' workers (i.e.those who had not previously worked on St Paul's) fell (p. 1110).Casual, transient work was not the pattern of hiring here at St Paul's; rather, the length of time a worker had been employed was rewarded with additional labour opportunities.A synthesis of recent publications on work and identity is offered in an article by Hailwood and Waddell.In particular, the article draws attention to recent scholarship on the breadth of working identities that moves beyond categorizing people into 'sorts'.The authors call for future scholarship which comparatively analyses types of sources (e.g.self-created versus indirect evidence) as well as how working identities might intersect with 'time, place, gender, forms of labour, and race' (p.158).An article by McVitty contributes to this growing scholarship on work and identity.She exposes a pre-modern culture of sexual misconduct and gendered violence in the legal profession through close study of a range of legal records (court records, internal records of Inns of Court,
Source: The Economic History Review
DOI: 10.1111/ehr.13402
Author: Charmian Mansell
Institution: University of Cambridge
Language: English
Subfield: Economics and Econometrics
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,900
OpenAlex ID: W4404834613