Occupational Structure
Next Selection Previous Selection
We are fully alive to the difficulty of adopting any mode of scientific classification which would give general satisfaction. It is for this reason that in the counties and large towns, where we had to distinguish age and sex, we restricted ourselves to an alphabetical arrangement which would give to all, by very simple combinations, the opportunity of making for themselves any arrangement they might prefer. There is so much difference of opinion as to the strict bounds of productive and, unproductive labour, and upon every other element of scientific division, that, in almost any classification we could have adopted, we should have been considered by many to have gone on wrong principles, and to have committed errors of which the extent could not be either tested or corrected. Even for England and Wales, for Scotland, and for Great Britain generally, in the Classification (see Table facing p. 52) which we have thought it right to furnish, in order to give comparative results we have preferred keeping to the general terms used in ordinary parlance, giving the totals engaged in trade and manufacture, in agriculture, in military and naval pursuits, in the learned professions, in other employments of the educated of both sexes, in general manual labour, in the civil service of the Government, in parochial offices, and in domestic service. These, with the independent and the residue, both which latter terms have been already alluded to, and the accidental classes of paupers, lunatics, almspeople, and prisoners, exhaust the total population of this kingdom. We have supplied a key or Table (p.53), showing in detail the occupations of persons included under each head in this classification, so that any person by referring to it may deduct from the totals given the number contributed by any particular head of occupation which he thinks misplaced in the class to which we have assigned it. We would willingly have given a classification of the occupations of the occupations of the inhabitants of Great Britain into the various wants to which they respectively minister, but in attempting this we were stopped by the various anomalies and uncertainties to which such a classification seemed necessarily to lead, from the fact that many persons supply more than one want, though they can only be classed under one head. Thus, to give but a single instance,-the farmer and grazier may be deemed to minister quite as much to clothing by the fleece and hides as he does to food by the flesh of his sheep and cattle. One advantage in the classification we have here adopted, and which was not without its influence upon our decision, is, that by a combination of some of the classes which we have here kept distinct, we are enabled to present the; following comparative statement of the numbers included under each of the classes that were separately distinguished in the year 1831, and the same classes in 1841:- 1
See Note (3) at foot of p. 15. 2
This column includes (for the sake of comparison with 1831) Fishermen, Boatmen, and Watermen. 3
The total of Males in 1841 whose occupations are unaccounted for is, in fact, only 276,868 as it includes the following persons, who amount together to 115,343; viz. Males twenty years of age in the Government Civil Service 16,049, Parochial Police and Law Officers 22,942, Almspeople, Pensioners, Paupers, Lunatics, and Prisoners 73,539, and Army and Navy (Half-pay) 2,813. As we feel that for the purpose of comparing the state of facts exhibited by different districts, or that shown by the whole kingdom at different periods, a mere statement of the numbers comprehended under each head in our classification is insufficient, we have prepared tables which should exhibit the comparative numerical importance of each class upon the principle of per centages, the only convenient mode for such a purpose. We have made the calculation upon two principles;--first, upon the total occupations returned;. and, secondly, upon the whole population. The former shows the relative numerical importance of one industrial class as compared with all the others, the latter as compared with the whole population. Although we have in our general classification combined under one head trade and manufacture, yet in the following table we have attempted to separate them in order to show the numbers they respectively embrace. In going through every occupation contained in our list for this purpose, we have felt the great difficulty of making such a division satisfactorily; we have therefore given (at p. 58) the names of all occupations included under each division exhibited in the following Abstract, in order to leave the opportunity of correction to those who differ from the view taken by us.COMPARATIVE STATEMENT OF THE OCCUPATIONS OF MALES AGED 20 YEARS AND UPWARDS ENUMERATE IN GREAT BRITAIN IN THE YEARS 1831 AND 1841
GREAT BRITAIN
AGRICULTURE1
Persons engaged in Commerce Trade, and Manufacture, 20 Years of Age and upwards
Capitalists, Bankers Professional, and other Educated Men; 20 Years of Age and upwards
Labourers employed in labour not Agricultural; 20 Years of Age and upwards
Other Males 20 Years of Age, except Servants
Male Servants; 20 Years of Age and upwards
Total Male Population, 20 Years of Age and upwards (exclusive of Army, Navy, and Merchant Seamen)
Occupiers and Labourers, 20 Years of Age, and upwards
1831
1841
1831
1841
1831
1841
1831
18412
1831
18413
1831
1841
1831
1841
ENGLAND.
980,750
961,585
1,278,283
1,682,044
179,983
240,718
500,950
483,918
189,389
317,202
70,629
144,201
3,199,984
3,829,668
WALES.
95,162
80,395
49,444
68,084
5,204
9,714
31,571
43,673
11,180
22,588
2,145
5,804
194,706
230,258
SCOTLAND.
167,145
166,009
236,457
277,507
29,203
32,586
76,191
79,894
34,930
49,539
5,895
13,652
549,821
619,187
ISLES in the BRITISH SEAS.
8,694
7,275
8,108
11,774
1,873
3,157
3,032
2,672
1,838
2,882
1,068
727
24,613
28,487
TOTAL GREAT BRITAIN (exclusive of Army, Navy, and Merchant Seamen.
1,251,751
1,215,264
1,572,292
2,039,409
216,263
286,175
611,744
610,157
237,337
392,211
79,737
164,384
3,969,124
4,707,600
ABSTRACT DISTINGUISHING AS FAR AS POSSIBLE THE NUMBER (WITH THE AGE AND SEX) OF PERSONS ENGAGED IN COMMERCE AND TRADE FROM THOSE ENGAGED IN MANUFACTURE.
COMMERCE and TRADE
MANUFACTURE
COMMERCE and TRADE and MANUFACTURE
MALES
FEMALES
TOTAL
MALES
FEMALES
TOTAL
MALES
FEMALES
TOTAL
20 Years of Age and upwards
Under 20 Years of Age
20 Years of Age and upwards
Under 20 Years of Age
20 Years of Age and upwards
Under 20 Years of Age
20 Years of Age and upwards
Under 20 Years of Age
20 Years of Age and upwards
Under 20 Years of Age
20 Years of Age and upwards
Under 20 Years of Age
ENGLAND AND WALES AND ISLES IN THE BRITISH SEAS.
1,282,128
190,489
201,860
38,272
1,712,699
479,774
130,443
191,968
121,911
934,096
1,761,902
320,882
393,828
160,183
2,636,795
SCOTLAND.
177,835
37,075
35,295
6,566
256,771
99,672
31,983
53,894
31,261
216,810
277,507
69,058
89,189
37,827
473,531
GREAT BRITAIN.
1,459,963
227,514
237,155
44,888
1,969,470
579,446
162,426
245,862
153,172
1,140,906
2,039,409
389,940
483,017
198,010
3,110,376