Search

This paper offers a reassessment of the origins and derivation of many of Sir William Petty's economic ideas, based on an analysis of his unpublished papers. Petty's archive makes clear what a large part Ireland played in his writings, and it is suggested that this preoccupation is essential to an appreciation of him as an economist. It also demonstrates the point that Petty was not principally a theorist but rather a practical political economist whose schemes for the enrichment of the king's dominions were inspired by the underdevelopment which he experienced at first hand in Ireland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We assemble the Irish industrial data currently available for the years 1800–1921, the period during which the entire island was in a political union with Great Britain, and construct an annual index of Irish industrial output for 1800–1913. We also construct a new industrial price index. Irish industrial output grew by an average of 1.3 per cent per annum between 1800 and the outbreak of the First World War. Industrial growth was slightly slower than previously thought, especially during the two decades immediately preceding the Great Famine. While Ireland did not experience absolute deindustrialisation either before the Famine or afterwards, its industrial growth was disappointing when considered in a comparative perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a list of papers related to economic and social history of Great Britain and Ireland published in different journals. Some of the papers are: "Sixteenth-Century Probate Documents From Manchester," by M.J. Alexander; "The Buckinghamshire Posse Comitatus," by I.F.W. Beckett; "The Governesses: Letters from the Colonies, 1862-82," by P. Clarke; "Annals of the Labouring Poor: Social Change and Agrarian England," by K.D.M. Snell; "Systems of Land Holding Between Landowners and Farmers," by R. Stratton; "The Timing and Pattern of Technological Development in English Agriculture," by R.J. Sullivan; "Dearth and Marketing of Agricultural Produce," by W. Thwaites; "Rural Rebels in Southern England in the 1830s," by R. Wells; "The Union of 1707 and Scottish Development " by T.M. Devine and others. Some other papers are: "Studies in Late Anglo-Saxon Settlement," by M.L. Faull; "Comparative National Balance Sheets," by R.W. Goldsmiths; "The Cambridge Historical Encyclopedia of Great Britain and Ireland," by C. Haigh and the like.

The tonnage of shipping entering and leaving Ireland grew rapidly from the late eighteenth century until the mid-1870s, after which there was a distinct slowdown. The mid-nineteenth century was notable for a five-fold increase in shipping per capita, an indicator of the Irish economy’s increasing commercialization. The slowdown after 1870 would have been even greater without the industrial dynamism of Belfast, Ireland’s leading port from the 1880s. The early and rapid introduction of steamships from the 1820s made possible large-scale exports of live animals and fresh eggs, products that would account for 60 per cent of agricultural exports and a quarter of total exports by 1910. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a list of literary publications related to the economic and social history of Great Britain and Ireland. Some of them are: "The Need for a Consular Service in France: An Eighteenth-Century British Memorandum," by J. Black; Extracts From the Account Books of St. Peter's Parish in Cork City, 1770-1814," by R. Folliott; "The Red Earl: The Papers of the Fifth Earl Spenser, 1835-1910," edited by P. Gordon; "The Rolls and Register of Bishop Oliver Sutton," edited by R.M.T. Hill; "The Port of Bristol, 1848-84," by D. Large; "Elizabeth Montagu: Bluestocking Turned Landlady," by J.V. Beckett; "Rural Poverty Eighty Years Ago," by R. Cotchin; "Agricultural Protection in Berkshire and opposition to the Collection of Agricultural Statistics," by J.P. Dodd; "Medieval Assarting Hamlets in Bilsdale, North-East Yorkshire," by J. McDonnell;" "English Settlements,"by J.N.L. Myres; "The Perception of Profit Before the Leasing of Demesnes,"by D. Postles; "Forestry in Northern Powys," by R.E. Stumbles.

The article examines an aspect of the Irish economy in 1841 that was shared to some degree by all European countries at that time, that is, the regional variation in the division of labour and in the specialization of the proto-industrial and agricultural labor force. The author remarks that, since economist Adam Smith's famous description of an eighteenth-century pin factory, there has been perhaps no more percipient treatment of the division of labour and its relationship to productivity and efficiency. Translated into general sociological terms, growth and labour specialization demand that the spectrum of distinct occupations widens as a society increases in productivity. Economic historians have recently expressed interest in the stockpile of European occupational data surviving from the nineteenth century and sometimes earlier periods. These occupational data are found in censuses, tax records, estate papers, and sometimes earlier period. As a basis of social categorization, demographers and sociologists employ occupational data, but their primary interests lie elsewhere, household and family size, social mobility, migration, crime, and rebellion.

The article presents information on research papers and research grants that are included in the November 1976 issue of the journal "The Economic History Review." Some of the research papers are "The Development of the Steamship," by R.S. Craig and R.C. Floud; "Industry and Technology in Britain and France in the Eighteenth Century," by J.R. Harris; "Elections, Politics and Society in Ireland," by K.T. Hoppen; "The Organization of Manuscript Material in the Fawcett Library for Preservation and Use by Researchers," by G.I.M. Horton; and others.

This section presents a list of publications on the economic and social history of Great Britain and Ireland, published in 1971. Some of the publications listed are: "The Hardwick Hall Inventories of 1601," edited by L. Boynton; "Bridgwater Borough Archives," edited by R.W. Dunning and T.D. Tremlett; "Collected Writings of J.M. Keynes," edited by E. Johnson; "The Acts of William I, King of Scots: 1165-1214," edited by G.W.S. Barrow; "A Calendar of the Talbot Papers in the College of Arms," edited by G.R. Batho; "The Journal of Giles Moore," edited by R. Bird; "The Register of Winwick Parish Church," edited by R. Dickinson; "The Register of Edmund Lacy, Bishop of Exeter: 1420-1455," edited by G.R. Dunstan; "Marriage Allegations in the Diocese of Gloucester," vol. 2, "1681-1700," edited by B. Frith; "Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland: XII, 1566-1574," edited by C.T. McInnes; "The Dorset Lay Subsidy Roll of 1332," edited by A.D. Mills; and "Minute Book of the Men's Meeting of the Society of Friends in Bristol: 1661-1686," edited by R. Mortimer.

The Committee on Industrial Organisation was established in the early 1960s to evaluate the level of preparedness of Irish industry for the imminent dismantling of the country's protectionist trade barriers. The Committee's sectoral reports list the 900 or so manufacturing firms that it surveyed and that together accounted for more than half of Irish manufacturing employment. From a range of archival sources, this article identifies the nationality of ownership of most of these firms, alongside their date of establishment and level of employment in 1960. Industrial grants data are used to strip out export-oriented businesses that began to arrive in the 1950s. This makes it possible to estimate the employment share and sectoral presence of tariff-jumping foreign firms. The latter is analysed through the lens of modern perspectives on foreign direct investment. The article also enhances our understanding of the interest-group politics of the trade liberalization process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pawnbroking, one of the oldest and most accessible forms of credit, was a common feature of life in pre‐famine and famine Ireland. This article studies the role of pawnbroking in the Irish financial system during this important period, applying insights from modern studies on fringe banking. In the period under study, a formal tiered financial system existed; regulated joint‐stock banks offered services to industry and the better off, while fringe banks provided financial services largely, but not exclusively, to unbanked groups. The main findings are that pawnbrokers provided a steady source of credit throughout the island of Ireland and that this credit stream was more durable than that provided by alternative financial service providers in the fringe banking market, especially during the famine. Our findings suggest a nuanced interpretation is needed as we find strong interrelationships between the various financial service providers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a centennial overview of the Irish economy in the one hundred years following partition and independence. A comparative perspective allows us to distinguish between those aspects of Irish policies and performance that were unique to the country, and those which mirrored developments elsewhere. While Irish performance was typical in the long run, the country under‐performed prior to the mid‐1980s and over‐performed for the rest of the twentieth century. Real growth after 2000 was slow. The mainly chronological narrative highlights the roles of convergence forces, trade and industrial policy, and monetary and fiscal policy. While the focus is mostly on the South of the island, we also survey the Northern Irish experience during this period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the grain trade in Ireland from Famine to World War I. After 1980 the trade statistics available in official publications cease to distinguish systematically between the British grain trade and the Irish grain trade. The year-on-year variation in the volume of wheat and maize imports is high. It seems reasonable to assume that Ireland was of little importance in the world market, and therefore the price of imports for each grain was determined each year by the world price. Either the world price was extremely volatile, year-on-year, or the price elasticity of demand in Ireland was very high. In fact, wheat and maize prices were some of the most volatile in the basket of products consumed in Ireland. Before 1870, wheatmeal almost never constituted more than 10 percent of the total quantity of wheat grain and meal imported. In this period there was an active world market in wheat and Ireland was a very small player in that market. It is therefore reasonable to suppose that Irish consumption had no effect on the world price. Hence the price of wheat can be treated as exogenous in Ireland. It was simply determined by the world price. In this period there was an active world market in wheat and Ireland was a very small player in that market.

The article reports on the list of publications on the economic and social history of Great Britain and Ireland. Some of the books are "The Church in Derbyshire," edited by M.R. Austin; "The Levellers in the English Revolution," edited by G.E. Aylmer; "Early Yorkshire Families," edited by C. Clay; "Sidney Iron Works Accounts," edited by D.W. Crossley; "The Registers of Roger Martival: Bishop of Salisbury," edited by K. Edwards; "Luffield Priary Charters," edited by G.R. Elvey; and others.

This article presents a case study of the problems of land ownership and land sales in the middle of the 19th century in Ireland. The spectacular size and distinctive location of the estates concerned mean that it is difficult to generalize from such a study. Nevertheless, its context and themes do have broader implications. Before the death of the first Marquis of Donegall in 1799 the estates of the Chichester family were the largest and richest in Ireland. In addition to his magnificent country seat in Staffordshire (Fisherwick Park), Lord Donegall enjoyed the rents of some 90,000 acres in county Antrim, including the town of Belfast; well over 100,000 acres in county Donegal; and another 11,000 acres in county Wexford. The annual value of his property was estimated in 1797 at 48,000 pounds. When the first Marquis died, the property in England and in Wexford, and also part of the Inishowen estate in Donegal, passed to the younger son. The remainder--that is, the great bulk of the family's possessions--was entailed to the elder son and brought him an income of more than 30,000 pounds a year, to the great joy and comfort of his numerous creditors.

The article lists publications on the economic and social history of Great Britain and Ireland. They include "Wells Cathedral Chapter Act Book, 1666-83," edited by D.S. Bailey, "The Inhabitants of Cardington in 1782," edited by D. Baker, "Milk to Market: Forty Years of Milk Marketing," by S. Baker, "Origins of English Feudalism," by R.A. Brown, "The Farmers of Old England," by E. Kerridge.

Presents a list of publications on the economic history of Great Britain and Ireland. "Liverpool Registry of Merchant Ships," by R. Craig and R. Jarvis; "The Correspondence of Sir James Clavering," by edited by H.T. Dickinson; "Willoughby Letters of the First Half of the Sixteenth Century," edited by M. A. Welch.

The article presents a list of publications on the economic history of Great Britain and Ireland. Some of the publications are "The Suffolk Committee for Scandalous Ministers: 1644-1646," edited by C. Holmes, "The London Eyre of 1244," edited by H.M. Chew and M. Weinbaum, "Recusant Rolls: 1594-95 and 1595-96," edited by H. Bowler, "The Letter Books of Samuel Wilberforce: 1843-68," edited by P.K. Hugh, and others.

This article presents a list of publications on the economic history of Great Britain and Ireland. Some of the books listed are "The Jamestown Voyages Under the First Charter, 1606-1609," by P.L. Barbour; "Records of the Trial of Walter Langeton, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield," by A. Beardwood; "Two Estate Surveys of the Fitzalan Earls of Arundel," by M. Clough; "The Letters of Sir Francis Hastin," by C. Cross; "The Devonshire Lay Subsidy of 1332," by A.M. Erskine and "The Justiciary Records of Argyll and the Isles: 1664-17," by J. Imrie.

Geary and Stark find that Ireland's post-Famine per capita GDP converged with British levels, and that this convergence was largely due to total factor productivity growth rather than mass emigration. In this article, new long-run measurements of human capital accumulation in Ireland are devised in order to facilitate a better assessment of sources of this productivity growth, including the relative contribution of men and women. This is done by exploiting the frequency at which age data heap at round ages, widely interpreted as an indicator of a population's basic numeracy skills. Because Földvári, van Leeuwen, and van Leeuwen-Li find that gender-specific trends in this measure derived from census returns are biased by who is reporting and recording the age information, any computed numeracy trends are corrected using data from prison and workhouse registers, sources in which women ostensibly self-reported their age. The findings show that rural Irish women born early in the nineteenth century had substantially lower levels of human capital than uncorrected census data would otherwise suggest. These results are large in magnitude and thus economically significant. The speed at which women converged is consistent with Geary and Stark's interpretation of Irish economic history; Ireland probably graduated to Europe's club of advanced economies thanks in part to rapid advances in female human capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reviews are provided for several articles which were published in periodicals in 2015, including "Early Medieval Settlement and Social Power: The Middle Anglo-Saxon 'Home Farm'" by D.W. Wright, "Medieval Coastal Sand Inundation in Britain and Ireland" by D. Griffiths, and "Commerce and Cult: Confronted Ideologies in 6th-9th-Century Europe" by M. Carver which appear in the "Medieval Archaeology" journal.

Refutes the criticism of writers S.J. Nicholas and M. Dziegielewski on the statistics on supply elasticities in Irish agriculture from 1850 to 1925. Mathematical model used by Nicholas and Dziegielewski; Focus on the claim by Nicholas and Dziegielewski that until the 1860s most of Ireland remained within the pre-Famine framework of peasant subsistence agriculture; Discussion on diverse agricultural commodities not marketed in post-Famine Ireland.

This article considers an example of the impact of a new good on producers of close substitutes: the invention of margarine and its rapid introduction into the British market from the mid-1870s. This presented a challenge to the traditional suppliers of that market, butter producers from different European countries. We argue that the capacity to react quickly to the appearance of this cheap substitute by improving quality and establishing product differentiation was critical for the fortunes of butter producers. This is illustrated by a discussion of the different reactions to margarine and quality upgrading in Ireland, Denmark, and the Netherlands. A statistical analysis using monthly data for Britain from 1881-7 confirms that margarine had a greater impact on the price of poor quality butter than that of high quality butter, presumably because it was a stronger substitute. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New evidence from a series of 11 Bristol customs accounts indicates that Irish consumption patterns underwent significant changes over the course of the sixteenth century. This article considers the use of the Bristol 'particular' accounts and port books as a source for Irish material culture and consumption studies and uses the customs data as a statistical framework on which to establish how, why, and to what extent patterns of consumption changed in Ireland. It considers who was consuming the increasing range of commodities that were imported into Ireland from Bristol towards the end of the century, and what changing consumption patterns may reveal about the nature of Ireland's economy, society, and culture during this critical period in Irish history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data from the Irish Census of Industrial Production are used to illuminate changes in the distribution of earnings from 1937 to 1968, an important period in Irish economic history, relevant to debates about globalization and inequality. Between the late 1930s and mid-1950s there was a greater compression of earnings than in the US's ‘great compression’ of the same period. Sectoral data suggest that this occurred quite generally. The degree of integration with the British labour market is key, and the impact of out-migration, wage controls during the Second World War, and industrial protection all merit in-depth investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines Ireland's relative position within the UK industrial sector in the early twentieth century, by critically evaluating the Irish component of the First UK Census of Production. Firstly, Ireland's employment, net output shares, and net output per person are compared to the UK results. Secondly, by supplementing and adjusting the census evidence, a new estimate of the size of the industrial workforce is constructed, which is then used to produce a new estimate of Irish industrial output. From this it is possible to estimate the contribution of industry to Irish GDP, which can then be compared to its contribution in other European economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(The place of publication is London and the date 2006 unless otherwise stated.) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(The place of publication is London and the date 2005 unless otherwise stated.) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a list of publications on the economic and social history of Great Britain and Ireland in 2004.

(The place of publication is London and the date 2003 unless otherwise stated.) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a list of publications on the economic and social history of Great Britain and Ireland published in 1996. Some of the publications included are: "Youth and Revolution in the 1790s," by P.J. Corfields and C. Evans; "The Domestic Accounts of Merton College," edited by J.M. Fletcher and C.A. Upton; "The Scottish Office: Depression and Reconstruction," by I. Levitt; "William Morris on Art and Design," edited by C. Poulson; "Collected works of Francis Bacon," edited by G. Rees, etc.

This article presents a list of publications on the economic and social history of Great Britain and Ireland, published in 1995. Some of the books are: "Household Accounts and Disbursement Books of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, 1558-61," edited by S. Adams; "The Visitation of the County of Huntingdon, 1684," edited by J. Bedells; "Correspondence of the Foundling Hospital Inspectors in Berkshire, 1757-68," edited by G. Clark; "Three Hundred Years on Pemvith Farms," edited by V. Cheser and J. Palmer; "Rowntree and the Marketing Revolution, 1862-1969," by R. Fitzgerald; and others.

A list of publications about economic and social history in Great Britain and Ireland is presented. Included in the list are "Thomas Mun's West Indies Venture, 1602-5," by J. C. Appleby, "The Society for the Reformation of Manners, 1700-5," edited by J. Berry and "Records of conscience: three autobiographical narratives by conscientious objectors, 1665-1865," edited by P. Brock.

The article focuses on elements of theory of inheritance among farms in modern Ireland. The model of rural inheritance and succession presented here has been developed primarily with reference to conditions of impartible inheritance, though it is apparent that, mutatis mutandis, it could be applied to partible inheritance regimes also. It is applicable to tenant farming systems, as in nineteenth-century Ireland, as well as owner occupancy. In testing this framework of ideas within the context of twentieth-century Irish rural society the author largely abstracted from regional, institutional, and cultural factors. Such parsimony confers a greater degree of generality but it also means that a richer analysis of inheritance and succession practices would seek to incorporate these further elements. Some of the implications of the inheritance-exchange perspective were realized already by the early twentieth century. Others, however, did not materialize fully until the postwar period. Over time regional or class deviations seem to have been eliminated, resulting in a high degree of consistency between predicted and actual behavior.

The article presents a list of publications on the economic and social history of Great Britain and Ireland. Some of the publications are--"Examination Roll of Arbroath," edited by F. Davidson, "Farmworkers: A Social and Economic History: 1770-1980," by A. Armstrong, "The Diffusion of Vetches in Medieval England," by B.M.S. Campbell, "Horses in Shakespeare's England," by A. Dent, "Countryside Planning in Practice the Scottish Experience," edited by P.H. Selman, "The Growth of the London Carrying Trade: 1681-1838," by D. Gerhold, "The British Iron Industry: 1700-1850," by J.R. Harris, "Business, Banking and Politics: The Case of British Steel, 1918-1939," by S. Tolliday" and others.

The article presents a list of publications on the economic and social history of Great Britain and Ireland published in 1987. Some of the publications included in the list are: "The First and Second Valuations of the City of Derry,"; "A Transcript of the Register of Baptisms: St. Andrews, Homchurch, Essex," edited by P. Arnold; "A Transcript of the Register of Marriages: St. Andrews, Homchurch, Essex," edited by P. Arnold; "Documents Relating to the Swaledale Estates of Lord Wharton in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries," by M.Y. Ashcroft etc.

The article assesses the living standards in Ireland before the famine in 1845. Between 1790 and 1845, Ireland and Great Britain shared some of the factors likely to affect the standard of living. Both countries experienced rapid population growth. The two economies were subject to similar weather patterns, and to the shocks to supply caused by the disruption of international trade and high taxes during the Napoleonic wars. After 1815 cereal producers in both parts benefited from the Corn Laws. Yet the differences clearly overshadow the similarities. A few enclaves apart, Ireland experienced nothing like an industrial revolution. It remained a largely rural society, in which towns failed to grow, performing primarily administrative and commercial functions. It was, above all, an agricultural economy catering for its own growing population and for the rapidly increasing British market. Migration from Ireland into Britain affected living standards in both countries, though it is not quite clear in which direction.

The article lists books on the economic and social history of Great Britain and Ireland. Some of the books are: "The Diary of a Victorian Squire," by D. Birchall; "Literature and the Social Order in Eighteenth-Century England," by S. Copley; "Lasting Impressions," by M.A. Dundrow; "The Chronicles of a Wayfarer," by T. Green; "Letters of Edward Jenner and Other Documents Concerning the Early History of Vaccination," edited by G. Miller; "News From the English Countryside, 1851-1950," edited by C. Morsley; "Footplate Days on the Southern," edited by H. Norman; "European Women: A Documentary History," edited by E. Riemer and J. Fout; "Charlton Parish Registers: 1809-29," by J.G. Smith; "Braunstone Probate Inventories: 1532-1831," edited by J. Wilshere; "Kirby Muxloe Probate Inventories: 1547-1783," edited by J. Wilshere; "Capital Grants for Farmers: A Brief History," by S.P. Bingham; "Strict Settlement: A Guide for Historians," by B. English and J. Saville; "The Bridgewater Heritage: The Story of Bridgewater Estates," by C. Garyling and "The Peasant Land Market in Medieval England," by P.D.A. Harvey.

The article presents a list of publications on the economic and social history of Great Britain and Ireland. Some of them are: "Stoker Greenwood's Navy," by S. Greenwood; "Trinity House of Deptford Transactions," by G.G. Harris; "Memories of L.M.S. Steam," by R. Keeley; "Estate Records of the Hotot Family," edited by E. King; "A Late Medieval Guide to Land Purchase," by J.D. Alsop; "Cattle Plague in Eighteenth-Century England," by J. Broad; "An Atlas of Rural Protest in Britain, 1548-1900," edited by A. Charlesworth; "Land, Men and Beliefs," by J.P. Cooper; "High Farming in Shropshire, 1845-70," by J.P. Dodd; "Planned Field Systems in Eastern Yorkshire: Some Thoughts on Their Origin," by M. Harvey; "Class Conflict and the Crisis of Feudalism," by R.H. Hilton; "Development of Farm Buildings," by J.W. Houldsworth; "The Arwystli Enclosures, 1816-28," by I.E. Jones; "Agricultural Improvement and the Neglected Labourer," by S. MacDonald; "The Rural Economy of England," by J. Thirsk.

The article outlines the contours of Irish population change between 1700 and 1850. It also discusses nuptiality and fertility, followed by an examination of the changes in mortality, morbidity, and emigration in the pre-Famine period. Researcher Kenneth H. Connell's book is the sole monograph since the early nineteenth century to deal exclusively with Irish demographic history, producing both fresh estimates of precensal population levels and a cogently argued model of population change to explain them. The annual population growth rates implied by Connell's calculations are 0.74 per cent between 1687 and 1732, 0.25 per cent for the period 1732-1754, 0.85 per cent between 1687 and 1781, and 1.61 per cent for the years 1781-1791. Emigration was a crucial element in Irish population change in the half-century before the Famine. The basic fact is that in the thirty years between the battle of Waterloo and the onset of the Great Famine, approximately 1.5 million Irish left their country to settle elsewhere, primarily in Great Britain, Canada, and the United States. The direct effect of this unique mass exodus on population growth is obvious enough.

The article focuses on the speculated contribution of early marriage to population increase in Ireland during the pre-famine period between 1760 and 1840. One of the central issues in European historical demography, not least in Ireland, concerns the usual age at first marriage. It is widely accepted that the population of Ireland increased very rapidly between about 1760 and 1840, but beyond that global statement there is little agreement. The exact period when the rise began, the rate of increase, the existence of regional and time differences, and, most important of all, the forces contributing to the rise are all subjects of debate. Considerable attention has, however, focused on the age of first marriage as a possible major contributor to population increase. The basic thesis is that social and economic factors combined during the late eighteenth century to make the acquisition of small plots of potato land relatively easy; this made the establishment of new cottier family units a simple process and thus encouraged early marriage.

This article focuses on the existence of occupation of farm servants in Ireland during the period of 1900-40. The indigenous farms were smaller, ranging from 100 acres to less than 10. The most convenient way of grouping these farms was in terms of their employment of labour. There were three groups: those which regularly employed servants or other resident laborers; those which provided servants and resident labourers from among their children; and a middle group, which neither employed nor provided resident labourers nor servants, but, depending on circumstances, might employ or provide casual farm labour. Informants agree that servants were, in the main, hired by the wealthier farmers. If this were so then one might expect the mean acreage of such farms to be greater than that of farm without servants. This supposition was tested by using census data. In rural Ireland inheritance was, in the main, impartible, and the number of local marriages possible in the society was restricted, often to one child of each sex in a family.

Reviews Irish literature on economic and social history since 1968 until 1980. Books which contain surveys of economic history; Works about Irish agrarian history; Publications dealing with textile industries.

This article discusses various issues related to the experience of traders in the Irish rural economy during the period ranging from 1880 to 1914. The final two decades of the nineteenth century heard increasing claims that the country population supported, bloated marketing and retailing sectors. Rural reformers, clustered chiefly around the agricultural co-operative movement, were particularly vigorous in denouncing the magnitude of the trading community. The troubled character of late nineteenth-century Irish agriculture requires an elaborate discussion. From roughly the mid-1870s to the mid-1890s farm-product prices slumped, tillage and dairying being particularly adversely affected. Again if one uses the numbers of paupers and of overseas emigrants as indicators of employment prospects in rural Ireland, this period emerges in a distinctly pessimistic light. An increase in the relative size of groups servicing the agricultural community is, on the face of it, an unlikely concomitant of rural crisis.

The article discusses the history of the creamery system of Ireland from 1880 to 1914. The folk-lore surrounding the birth and early development of Ireland's creamery system is plentiful, and perhaps without parallel in the annals of Irish industrial history. This is hardly surprising, since the experiment is a comparatively recent one, directly involving and materially affecting thousands of people. The fact that, almost from the beginning, Irish creameries were partly organized on a co-operative basis permitted popular reference in the press and in speeches to the older traditions of mutual help. The early strength and dynamism of the proprietary sector in Ireland were thus less due to the ineptitude of the farmers than to the historical background. This raises the question, however, why the proprietress-given their earlier start- was unable to prevent the growth of the co-operatives. The aim has been to compensate for the somewhat panegyric nature of earlier work. It remains to assess how creamery diffusion and the co-operative movement complemented one another.

This article examines the profile of horse employments in the transport or commercial sector throughout the nineteenth century in England. Behind the large numbers lay large industries and occupations, hitherto virtually unnoticed by economic or social historians. Breeding and rearing in order to sustain the population and provide for its expansion was not, on the whole, a specialized branch of British farming, since with astronomically high infant mortality rates of around 50 per cent in the first two or three months of life and with great uncertainties about the character and prowess of the offspring, it was very risky to commit one's fortunes to horse-breeding. Southern Ireland, it is true, had a high reputation for the production of the best hunters and saddle horses in the world. But aside from the occasional wealthy farmer, the pure horse farm was extremely rare even in these breeding regions, and the actual production within them took place in small lots as sidelines to general farming. All in all, however, the sale of horses to the British was worth over 1 million pound a year to the Irish by the 1890's and the annual output of horses sold away from farms was reckoned to be worth 1.5 million pound to British farmers in 1906.

This article focuses on the supply responsiveness in agriculture during 19th century in Ireland. In the two decades since Marc Nerlove proposed a new way of measuring supply responsiveness in agriculture, the catalogue of elasticities has become very extensive. The main result of all this work is to raise the status of the peasant in the development literature to one of "economic man""; the traditional caricature of the ignorant, stubborn farmer is less convincing now. The reasons for adding to the list are these: firstly, the figures presented refer to an earlier period than others derived so far, and, secondly, they suggest answers. however tentative, to a number of problems in Irish economic history. The statistics suggest a sudden drop in yields in the immediate post-Famine period, and this prompted Neilson Hancock, a prominent contemporary, to blame an unannounced change in the data collection procedure.

The article lists publications on the economic and social history of Great Britain and Ireland. They include, "Population in the Past: Family Reconstruction by Computer," by R.S. Schofield, "The History of the Dutch Slave Trade: a bibliographical Survey," by P.C. Emmer, "Sixteenth-century fiscal sources for the social and economic history of the Flemish countryside," by N. Maddens, and "The socialist trade unions after the First World War (1919-21)," by M. Nauwelaerts.

The article focuses on the economic policy of Ireland and India in the time of economist John Stuart Mill. The purpose of this article is to compare some of the main aspects of economic policy in Ireland and India in Mill's day, and to consider whether, as he believed, the paternal government of India was more successful than the semi-representative government of Ireland in its handling of the problems involved. At first sight, Ireland and India might seem to afford more grounds for contrast than comparison: but in the nineteenth century the similarity, remarked by Mill, between the economies of the two countries was quite considerable. In each, a growing population strained the resources of a backward agriculture, which was yet the only source of employment for the vast majority. Consequently, those charged with the government of both countries faced similar problems in regard to economic policy, arising eventually from the extreme poverty of the great mass of the people. It hardly needs to be emphasized that the policy-makers of that day did not see the problem of economic development as involving them in a concerted effort to raise levels of real income, as would their counterparts today. Nevertheless, in India certainly its British governors realized their responsibility for the welfare of the people, and recognized its economic dimension.

The article focuses on pre-Famine Irish population history. That this article is mainly devoted to points originally raised by Dr Michael Drake illustrates its great debt to his exceptionally stimulating article. The main implication of his argument is that, as median male age at marriage was fairly high in the 1830's, falling age at marriage can have made little or no contribution to population increase in the eighteenth century. But while he has opened important new lines of inquiry, the author is not convinced that he has succeeded in excluding falling age at marriage as a possible factor in pre-Famine demographic change, particularly as he pays relatively little attention throughout to female age at marriage. Because of his failure to consider marriage patterns in the context of the class structure, it seems to the author that the Poor Inquiry of 1836 emerges less discredited from this discussion than Dr Drake believes. Following an ingenious dissection of the methods employed by the Census Commissioners in collecting statistics on age at marriage retrospectively throughout the 1830's, Drake concludes that the trend towards later marriage which they depict probably did not occur.

This article shows that sales of Guinness' Brewery are an unreliable index of the intensity of economic trends as discussed in Patrick Lynch and John Vaizey's article "Guinness's Brewery in the Irish Economy, 1759-1876". It compares the beer consumption in the country between 1837 and 1871. It also criticizes the Lynch and Vaizey's tendency to substitute increases in Guinness' sales for overall increases in beer consumption. Finally, the article claims that Lynch and Vaizey have exaggerated the growth of beer consumption from the thirties to the seventies by relying so heavily on trends in Guinness' sales.