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The economic structure of the City of London at the end of the seventeenth century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2009

James Alexander
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Extract

While there has been much interest recently in the early modern history of London there has been little work done on establishing a comprehensive picture of the City, the central core of its economy. The population history of the City has begun to be explored in a systematic way. The social and economic structure of one or two small areas has begun to be examined, both within the City and outside, in districts such as Southwark and the East End. Other studies concentrating on single issues have attempted to establish such things as the economic profile of the metropolis from the occupations given in a sample of parish death registers, resulting in a claim that the London manufacturing sector was more significant than commerce, and not the reverse, as had been assumed previously. Another study, by Power, based on the hearth tax from a small sample of parishes concluded with the comment that ‘the impression is gained of an urban scene where occupations and rich and poor are thoroughly jumbled’.

Type
Research Article
Information
Urban History Yearbook , Volume 16 , May 1989 , pp. 47 - 62
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

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References

Notes

1 I would like to thank several people for their assistance during the early stages in the preparation of this article including Dr Peter Earl, Dr Penelope Corfield, Duncan Ross, and an anonymous referee who provided helpful comments.

2 When referring to ‘London’ I mean the whole of the metropolis, when the ‘City’ is mentioned it means solely that area under the jurisdiction of the Corporation of the City of London.

3 Finlay, R., Population and Metropolis (Cambridge, 1981);CrossRefGoogle Scholar Macfarlane, S.M., ‘Studies in poverty and poor relief in London at the end of the seventeenth century’, (University of Oxford, D.Phil, thesis, 1983);Google Scholar Boulton, J., Neighbourhood and Community (Cambridge, 1987);CrossRefGoogle Scholar Power, M.J., ‘The urban development of east London 1550–1700’ (University of London, Ph.D. thesis, 1971).Google Scholar

4 Beier, A.L., ‘Engine of manufacture: the trades of London’, in Beier, A.L. and Finlay, R., eds, The Making of the Metropolis: London 1500–1700 (Harlow, 1986), 115–40;Google Scholar M.J. Power, ‘The social topography of Restoration London’, ibid., 199–223.

5 All the assessments used for this study are held at the Corporation of London Record Office (CLRO), Assessment boxes.

6 Glass, D.V., ‘Socio-economic status and occupations in the City of London at the end of the seventeenth century’, in Clark, P., ed., The Early Modern Town (1976), 216–32.Google Scholar

7 The boundaries on the maps were found from a number of sources, principally by observation of the same map from which the streets plan was derived; see Ogilby and Morgan's Survey of the City of London, 1676, Guildhall Library Publications, (1976).Google Scholar

8 3 Will. & Mary, c.6, An act for the raising money by a Poll payable quarterly for One year for the carrying on a vigorous war against France.

9 4 Will. & Mary, c.l, An act for…an Aid of Four shillings in the Pound.

10 Ward, W.R., The English Land tax in the eighteenth century (Oxford, 1953);Google Scholar Beckett, J.V., ‘Land Tax of Excise: the levying of taxation in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century England’, Eng. Hist. Rev., C, 395 (1985), 284–308.Google Scholar

11 6 & 7 Will. & Mary, c.6, An act for a tax on marriages, births and burials.

12 Jones, P.E. and Judges, A.V., ‘London population in the late seventeenth century’, Economic History Review, VI (1935), 45–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

13 CLRO Assessment Box 36.11, 28.

14 Jones, D.W., ‘London Overseas Merchant Groups at the End of the Seventeenth Century and the Moves against the East India Company’, University of Oxford, D.Phil, thesis, 1970, Appendix B, 387–468.Google Scholar

15 CLRO, Licensed Victuallers, Ward Returns, 1692/3.

16 CLRO, Assessment Box 2.1, passim.

17 CLRO, Common Sergeant's Books, vol. IV and V.Google Scholar

18 More recent tests on different sets of inventories have revealed a somewhat lower ratio of tax to wealth, especially for the relatively less well off.

19 Around one-fifth of people's wealth was held in personal possessions and leasehold property; see Earle, P., The Middling Sort of London (forthcoming).Google Scholar

20 See for example the maps in Glass, D.V., ed., London inhabitants within the walls 1695, London Records Society, II (1966), 23;Google Scholar and Jones, E., ‘London in the early seventeenth century: an ecological approach’, London Journal, VI (1980), 124.Google Scholar

21 The level of rent will not only be determined by the position of the property but also by the number of floors and size of the building. A three-storey house on the same size plot as a two-storey house would, other things being equal, be worth more.

22 D.W. Jones, op. cit., Appendix B, lists the main wares and trading areas of each merchant identified in the Port Books.

23 There has been much discussion as to the ideal method of classifying occupations. I have generally followed the one most recently favoured, first presented in Armstrong, A., ‘The use of information about occupation’, in Wrigley, E.A., ed., Nineteenth Century Society (1972), 191–310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

24 Work within this project should hopefully be able to spread light on the relative position of the City within the metropolis as a whole, using data from the 1693 4s tax for Westminster and Middlesex.