- Title Pages
- Notes on Contributors
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Introduction Thinking Historically about Challenging Economic Issues
- Part One: Drivers of Long-term Economic Growth
- 1 The Industrious Revolution and Economic Growth, 1650–1830
- 2. English Apprenticeship: A Neglected Factor in the First Industrial Revolution
- 3. Human Capital and Productivity Performance: Britain, the United States and Germany, 1870–1990
- 4. General Purpose Technologies and Surges in Productivity: Historical Reflections on the Future of the ICT Revolution
- 5. Technological Systems and Comparative Systems of Innovation: From Historical Performance to Future Policy Guidelines
- Part Two: Changes in Economic Regimes and Ideologies
- 6. The East Asian Escape from Economic Backwardness: Retrospect and Prospect
- 7. The Russian Transition through the Historical Looking-glass: Gradual versus Abrupt Decontrol of Economic Systems in Britain and Russia
- 8. Rational Resistance to Land Privatization: The Behaviour of Russia’s Rural Producers in Response to Agrarian Reforms, 1861–2000
- 9. Understanding the Past to Reshape the Future: Problems of South Africa’s Transition
- 10. Lessons from Italy’s Monetary Unification (1862–1880) for the Euro and Europe’s Single Market
- 11. Ideology and the Shadow of History: A Perspective on the Great Depression
- Part Three: Welfare, Well-being and Individual Economic Security
- 12. Economic Welfare Measurements and Human Well-being
- 13. The Human Body in Britain: Past and Future
- 14. Height and the High Life: What Future for a Tall Story?
- 15. Producing Health in Past and Present: The Changing Roles of Scientific and Alternative Medicine
- 16. An Old Poor Law for the New Europe? Reconciling Local Solidarity with Labour Mobility in Early Modern England
- 17. Paying for Old Age: Past, Present, Future
- Name Index
- Subject Index
English Apprenticeship: A Neglected Factor in the First Industrial Revolution
English Apprenticeship: A Neglected Factor in the First Industrial Revolution
- Chapter:
- (p.72) (p.73) 2. English Apprenticeship: A Neglected Factor in the First Industrial Revolution
- Source:
- The Economic Future in Historical Perspective
- Author(s):
Jane Humphries
- Publisher:
- British Academy
This chapter examines the role of apprenticeship in the British Industrial Revolution. The apprenticeship system contributed in four ways. First, it provided training of necessary skills in the expanding area of employment and newer sectors. Second, it promoted efficient training among masters and men. Third, it reduced the transaction costs involved in transferring resources from agriculture to non-agriculture and facilitated the expansion of sectors which promoted trade and commerce. Finally, apprenticeship saved poor children from social exclusion and enabled them to become more productive adults. The chapter also suggests that the apprenticeship system also created a structure of contract enforcement which ensured that both masters and trainees would derive the benefits from human capital accumulation.
Keywords: apprenticeship, Industrial Revolution, employment, training, contract enforcement, human capital
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- Title Pages
- Notes on Contributors
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Introduction Thinking Historically about Challenging Economic Issues
- Part One: Drivers of Long-term Economic Growth
- 1 The Industrious Revolution and Economic Growth, 1650–1830
- 2. English Apprenticeship: A Neglected Factor in the First Industrial Revolution
- 3. Human Capital and Productivity Performance: Britain, the United States and Germany, 1870–1990
- 4. General Purpose Technologies and Surges in Productivity: Historical Reflections on the Future of the ICT Revolution
- 5. Technological Systems and Comparative Systems of Innovation: From Historical Performance to Future Policy Guidelines
- Part Two: Changes in Economic Regimes and Ideologies
- 6. The East Asian Escape from Economic Backwardness: Retrospect and Prospect
- 7. The Russian Transition through the Historical Looking-glass: Gradual versus Abrupt Decontrol of Economic Systems in Britain and Russia
- 8. Rational Resistance to Land Privatization: The Behaviour of Russia’s Rural Producers in Response to Agrarian Reforms, 1861–2000
- 9. Understanding the Past to Reshape the Future: Problems of South Africa’s Transition
- 10. Lessons from Italy’s Monetary Unification (1862–1880) for the Euro and Europe’s Single Market
- 11. Ideology and the Shadow of History: A Perspective on the Great Depression
- Part Three: Welfare, Well-being and Individual Economic Security
- 12. Economic Welfare Measurements and Human Well-being
- 13. The Human Body in Britain: Past and Future
- 14. Height and the High Life: What Future for a Tall Story?
- 15. Producing Health in Past and Present: The Changing Roles of Scientific and Alternative Medicine
- 16. An Old Poor Law for the New Europe? Reconciling Local Solidarity with Labour Mobility in Early Modern England
- 17. Paying for Old Age: Past, Present, Future
- Name Index
- Subject Index
