The Market for Skill

Apprenticeship and Economic Growth in Early Modern England

Patrick Wallis

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2025
• Print ISBN: 9780691265902, 9780691265315
• eBook ISBN: 9780691265896
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Economics

How apprenticeship shaped the English economy

Apprenticeship dominated training and skill formation in early modern Europe. Years spent learning from a skilled master were a nearly universal experience for young workers in crafts and trade. In England, when apprenticeship reached its peak, as many as a third of all teenage males would serve and learn as apprentices. In The Market for Skill, Patrick Wallis shows how apprenticeship helped reshape the English economy.

Some historians see apprenticeship as a key ingredient in the industrial revolution; others agree with Adam Smith in seeing it as wasteful and conservative. Wallis shows that neither of these perspectives is entirely accurate. He offers a new account of apprenticeship and the market for skill in England, analyzing the records of hundreds of thousands of individual apprentices to tell the story of how apprenticeship worked and how it contributed to the transformation of England. Wallis details the activities of apprentices and masters, the strategies of ambitious parents, the interventions of guilds and the decisions of town officials. He shows how the system of early modern apprenticeship contributed to the growth of cities, the movement of workers from farms to manufacturing and the spread of new technologies and productive knowledge.

In this groundbreaking study, Wallis argues that apprenticeship succeeded precisely because it was a flexible institution which allowed apprentices to change their minds and exit contracts early. Apprenticeship provided a vital channel for training that families could trust and that was accessible to most young people, whatever their background.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures and Tables
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• 1. Introduction
• Part I. Apprenticeship and Development
• Part II. A System of Training
• Part III. Apprenticeship and the Enemies of Opportunity
• Appendix 1: Apprenticeship Registration Records
• Appendix 2: Estimating the Number of Apprentices in London’s Guilds, 1500–1850
• Appendix 3: Estimating the Incidence of Apprenticeship in England
• Appendix 4: Guild Ordinances
• Appendix 5: Social Origins of Apprentices in England
• Appendix 6: Apprentice Migration and Family Background
• Appendix 7: Reconstructing the Training Careers of Masters
• Appendix 8: Identifying Apprentices as Freemen
• Notes
• References
• Index
• Series List