Labour Specialization and the Irish Economy in 1841

An Aggregate Occupational Analysis

Bibliographic Data

ID3475282
AuthorsEric Almquist (corresponding author), Eric L Almquist
Year1983
Volume36
Issue4
Pages506
Publication date1983-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Economic History Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0013-0117 • E-ISSN: 1468-0289
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/2597237
OpenAlexW4235750765
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited9

Ireland in the I 840s is usually remembered as the location of one of the western world's last great demographic catastrophes: the potato famine of I846-I850.1 Quite rightly, much of nineteenth-century Irish historical and economic scholarship has concentrated on the famine, its demographic antecedents, and its social consequences for Ireland, Great Britain, and the New World.2 By i850, Ireland emerged as an apparent victim of Malthusian processes and as a major exporter of human resources.3 From a less idiosyncratic perspective, however, Ireland in the early nineteenth century can be viewed as one of many pre-industrial regions of western Europe which shared common characteristics of increasing population, economic growth, mercantile expansion, urbanization, and a growing socioeconomic complexity.4 The present research examines an aspect of the Irish economy in i84I that was shared to some degree by all European countries at the time. A marked regional variation existed in the division of labour and in the specialization of the proto-industrial and agricultural labour force. This regional variation may be explored, with a good deal of rigour, through occupational data. When examined in empirical detail, regional variation and covariation of occupations (as enumerated in censuses) can illuminate some otherwise dim corners of economy and society, yielding information on specific crafts and occupations and on the sexual division of labour; such an approach can also assist in identifying economic sectors and regional specializations. Each of these topics is touched upon here, leading on to a consideration of Ireland's industrialization, or lack thereof, in the nineteenth century. The effort here is largely an empirical exploration of economic sectors of a pre-industrial economy, similar

Aggregate (composite) · Development economics · Division of labour · Economic geography · Economic growth · Economics · Economy · Famine · Geography · Industrialisation · Irish · Labour economics · Market economy · Population · Scholarship · Socioeconomic status · Sociology · Urbanization · Demography · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Irish and British Studies · Rural development and sustainability

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