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