The Condition of the Working Class in England, 1209–2004 Author(s): Gregory Clark Source: Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 113, No. 6 (December 2005), pp. 1307-1340 Published by: The University of Chicago Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/498123 . Accessed: 12/10/2015 07:52 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
[email protected]. The University of Chicago Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Political Economy. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 23.235.32.0 on Mon, 12 Oct 2015 07:52:42 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions The Condition of the Working Class in England, 1209–2004 Gregory Clark University of California, Davis I use building workers’ wages for 1209–2004 and the skill premium to consider the causes and consequences of the Industrial Revolution. Real wages were trendless before 1800, as would be predicted for the Malthusian era. Comparing wages with population, however, suggests that the break from the technological stagnation of the Malthusian era came around 1640, long before the classic Industrial Revolution, and even before the arrival of modern democracy in 1689.