Puncturing the Malthus delusion: structural change in the British economy before the industrial revolution, 1500-1800

摘要

Accounts of structural change in the pre-modern British economy vary substantially. We present theudfirst time series of male labour sectoral shares before 1800, using a large sample of probate andudapprenticeship data to produce national and county-level estimates. England experienced a rapid declineudin the agricultural share between the early seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth centuries,udassociated with rising agricultural and especially industrial productivity; Wales saw only limited changes.udOur results provide further evidence of early structural change, highlighting the significance of the mid-seventeenthudcentury as a turning point in English economic development.