Escape from the Market: Negotiating Work in Lancashire

by Michael Huberman

• ISBN13: 9780521561518
• ISBN10: 0521561515
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1996-09-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

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 new labour market arrangements. This book explains the causes and effects of changes in the labour market in the context of new developments in labour economics and new research in social and economic history.

Table of Contents

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: 1825-1850

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.