Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

CHAPTER EIGHT
GENERAL CONCLUSIONS AND POINTERS TO FURTHER RESEARCH
In this chapter, as well as making some general conclusions, I briefly examine some
themes not sufficiently covered in previous chapters. There is not space in this study to
develop these themes, but I make some observations and raise some pointers for further
research.
The sources used and occupational structure
By using various sources in Chapters 4 to 7 I have shown that occupational
structure in each of the four zones followed different paths over the 180 years of this study.
Of course, the limitations of these sources only allow an incomplete picture of occupational
structure even among adult males. Before 1813, in the absence of other records, probate
and marriage licence data give pointers and allow discussion about the changing economy
in different zones. By and large there is consensus between these two sources regarding the
overall shifts in primary, secondary and tertiary occupations in the four zones. However,
each type of record used has a different bias, as analysed in earlier chapters. 1
Undoubtedly, baptism registers giving fathers’ occupations (from 1813 in most
cases, but earlier in some parishes) present the most comprehensive view of adult male
occupations before the 1841 census.
Information gleaned from other sources and discussed in each chapter helps to fill in
some of the blank pages in our understanding of the local economy as presented by the
main sources used. For example, the inland revenue apprenticeship books indicate the
1 See Tables 2.1, 4.9, 5.10, 6.10, 7.23 and 7.24 in Chapters 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7.
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