18 th Century Classes and Income

1. 18th Century Classes and Income Thomas McClure Ashley Walker

2. Income by Profession • Maid: 2-6 pounds per year • Butler: 10-25 pounds per year • Soldier: <14 pounds per year • Lawyer: 80-200 pounds per year (could be more if prominent) • Doctor: up to 12,000 pounds per year • Clergy: 50-200 pounds per year • King: 200,000 pounds per year http://books.google.com/books?id=o_hwrAoqxmQC&pg=PT1&lpg=PT1&dq=18th+century+salaries&source=bl&ots=LhOhv0aKHT&sig=F_XBVh-U8Wt4evjrazE3HxHguAo&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=3&ct=result#v=onepage&q=18th%20century%20salaries&f=false

3. Standard of Living by Income • £100 a year could supply a family only with a young maid servant, and at a very low wage. • £200 a year makes a claim to gentility, but only with the narrowest style of life. The £200 income supplies a better servant, a 'servant maid of all work' at a higher salary. • £300 a year. 'Comfortable as a bachelor cannot enable him to marry'. The income brings two servants. Austen's brother James married on this sum, but found it decidedly insufficient to maintain his elevated notions of consumer display. • £400 a year. An income that approaches the comforts of genteel life, but not readily. It brings a cook, a house maid, and, perhaps, a boy. disaster to Maria Bertram. http://oldnote.org/nccolonialpm/

4. Standard of Living by Income • £500 a year. This sum, according to the domestic economists, fills the sum of human happiness. It allows for three servants, two women and a man. • £700-£1000 a year. The higher range of upper professional incomes marks the most prosperous pseudo-gentry families. Its most significant consumer marker becomes the ownership of a carriage. • £2,000 a year. At this income, domestic economy must still hold a tight rein, especially in Pride and Prejudice, where there are five daughters in need of dowries. • Above £4,000 a year. Incomes of £4,000 a year and above leave behind any struggles of the middle-class and enters a realm of unlimited genteel comforts. In terms of consumer show, any income over £4,000 a year is characterized by its ability to provide a house in London for the social season, the beguiling consumer temptation that brings romantic disaster to Maria Bertram.

5. Primogeniture • Primogeniture is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn male to inherit the entire estate, to the exclusion of younger siblings. • Mr. Bennet had no male heir, so his property was to be entailed to Mr. Collins • Women who did not marry into money would be left with out monetary support and would usually seek refuge in the church http://www.allmoviephoto.com/photo/2005_pride_and_prejudice_059.html

6. The Rich • Like some of the characters in Pride and Prejudice, how are some of the richest people the ones who work the least? • Inheritance/yearly allowance • Instead of working, they receive “old money” (money that has been in the family) to manage the estate and keep the family name well respected

7. The Poor • Half of England’s population in the eighteenth century lived as subsistence or bare survival level • Very difficult to climb the social ladder because of lack of education and little opportunities • Over-worked and under-paid http://www.bbmms.org/Eng/2009/10/the-state-of-the-poor/

8. Social Classes • Social classes of the 18th century were typically determined by wealth and ownership of land, not money, although wealth usually implies money. • One could be considered nobility with out a lot of money if they had a strong, respected, old family name • One could by rich, but not considered full nobility, if their money was recently acquired through business instead of family

9. Social Classes • Nobility • Gentry • Emerging middle class • Craftsmen • Peasants

10. Nobility • Old money—had come to posses it generations ago • Did not work a traditional profession • Managed the estate, hosted parties • Kept the family name from being tarnished • ~2-3% of the European population • Mr. Darcy http://missgeorgianadarcy.blogspot.com/2011/07/1995-and-2005-pride-and-prejudice.html

11. Gentry • New money • Not considered nobility because they had “earned” their wealth rather it being bestowed upon them • Mr. Bingley http://missgeorgianadarcy.blogspot.com/2011/07/1995-and-2005-pride-and-prejudice.html

12. Middleclass • The middleclass began to emerge as the Industrial Revolution progressed • Industrialists and businessmen • Modest income • Able to support a comfortable lifestyle http://cerisia.cerosia.org/ENGL335/richardson/middle_class.htm

13. Craftsmen/Commoners • Artists • Blacksmith • Carpenters • Bakers • Were able to separate themselves from the peasants below, but were not able to obtain status/wealth of the gentry or middleclass

14. Peasants • Farmers, factory workers, etc. • Uneducated • No potential or opportunity • Low life expectancy • Minimum-wage and maximum-hours law were yet to be passed • Exploited by the upper class • ~85% of Europe’s population

15. Resources • "18th Century Social Order: Peasants and Aristos." . N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Sep 2012. <http://www.angelfire.com/darkside/sjhscult/notes/unit4/18thCenturySoc ialOrder.htm>. • "Culture and Society in 18th Century Europe." Civilization in the Westn.pag. Pearson. Web. 3 Sep 2012. <http://wps.ablongman.com/long_kishlansky_cw_6/35/9181/2350389.cw/i ndex.html>. • "Estate." Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. Columbia University Press, 1 Nov. 2011. Web. 2 Sept. 2012. <http://prx.library.gatech.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login. aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=39005411&site=lrc-live>. • "Life In The 18th Century." Life In The 18th Century. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Sept. 2012. <http://www.localhistories.org/18thcent.html>. • McKeon, Michael. "Historicizing Patriarchy: The Emergence of Gender Difference in England, 1660-1760." Eighteenth-Century Studies 28.3 (1995): 295-322. Print. • Schwarz, L. D. "Income Distribution and Social Structure in London in the Late Eighteenth Century." Economic History Review. (1979): 250-259. Print.