Gazeley, Ian and Horrell, Sara (2013) Nutrition in the English agricultural labourer's household over the course of the long nineteenth century. Economic History Review, 66 (3). pp. 757-784. ISSN 0013-0117

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Abstract

The welfare of agricultural labourers has recently received renewed interest in both establishing living standards for a baseline group over the long term, and assessing the energy available for increased physical labour in the eighteenth century. Disagreement persists. This article examines a key aspect of agricultural labourers' families' welfare: nutrient consumption. We utilize datasets of the diets of agricultural labourers' households for 1787–96, 1835–46, 1863, 1893, and 1912, to analyse the availability of calories and 11 key nutrients. Self-provisioned foodstuffs are incorporated and adjustments are made for beer consumption. Deficiency is computed against household needs. The results corroborate the general levels of calorie availability identified in agricultural production accounts for the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and assess these as sufficient for productive agricultural labour. However, no improvement is found in the nutritional aspect of household welfare between 1787–96 and 1835–46, thus endorsing pessimistic views of living standards for this group over this time period. Gains were evident in the next half-century, but these improvements were neither consistent nor dramatic and left a large minority of these households with nutrient deficiencies even in the twentieth century.

Item Type:	Article
Schools and Departments:	School of History, Art History and Philosophy > History
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > DA History of Great Britain H Social Sciences > HC Economic history and conditions
Depositing User:	Ian Gazeley
Date Deposited:	06 Mar 2013 15:02
Last Modified:	03 Jul 2019 01:34
URI:	http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/41016

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