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Shifts in agrarian entrepreneurship in mid-Victorian England and Wales

Author

Listed:
  • Montebruno, Piero
  • Bennett, Robert J.
  • Van Lieshout, Carry
  • Smith, Harry
  • Satchell, Max

Abstract

This paper provides the first full-population analysis of changes in the entrepreneurial status of farmers during the mid-nineteenth century: between being employers or sole proprietors with no workforce. Using a unique dataset of all farmers and workforces in the 1851-81 English and Welsh censuses, this paper explores the effects of changes in agriculture on entrepreneur choices. A short 'Golden Age' was followed by increasing technical changes and the onset of agricultural depression causing an important shift in agricultural entrepreneurial activity: initially the employer proportion increased slowly, but from the 1860s employers reduced labour and more worked as sole proprietors. Our findings show that farmers were adaptable and resilient to change through shifts in entrepreneurial status and/or greater involvement of the family, supporting the conclusions of earlier researchers who took an optimistic interpretation of flexibility and robustness of farmers. We also show the adaptations to be highly geographically variegated, depending on land quality, distance to local markets, and rail lines.

Suggested Citation

  • Montebruno, Piero & Bennett, Robert J. & Van Lieshout, Carry & Smith, Harry & Satchell, Max, 2019. "Shifts in agrarian entrepreneurship in mid-Victorian England and Wales," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 113866, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
  • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:113866
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    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/113866/
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    Cited by:

    1. Robert J. Bennett & Harry Smith & Piero Montebruno, 2020. "The Population of Non-corporate Business Proprietors in England and Wales 1891–1911," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 62(8), pages 1341-1372, November.
    2. Van Lieshout, Carry & Smith, Harry & Montebruno, Piero & Bennett, Robert J., 2019. "Female entrepreneurship: business, marriage and motherhood in England and Wales, 1851–1911," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 115354, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Bennett, Robert & Montebruno, Piero & Smith, Harry & van Lieshout, Carry, 2019. "Reconstructing business proprietor responses for censuses 1851-81: a tailored logit cut-off method. Working paper 9.2," MPRA Paper 103206, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Robert J. Bennett & Harry Smith & Piero Montebruno & Carry van Lieshout, 2022. "Changes in Victorian entrepreneurship in England and Wales 1851-1911: Methodology and business population estimates," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 64(7), pages 1211-1243, September.
    5. Bennett, Robert J. & Montebruno, Piero & Van Lieshout, Carry & Smith, Harry, 2022. "Business entry and exit: career changes of proprietors in England and Wales (1851-81) using record-linkage," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 113867, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    6. Matthew Hale & Graham Raymond & Catherine Wright, 2020. "List of publications on the economic and social history of Great Britain and Ireland published in 2019," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 73(4), pages 1153-1202, November.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • N0 - Economic History - - General

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