The standard of living - the evidence

The 'standard of living' of a family depended on how much money came in and how high the prices were. If father got a pay rise, they could afford better food, clothes, and shoes. In other words, the standard of living rose. If father lost his job, the standard of living fell.

We do not know enough about the standard of living in the past. We know how high the wages were in some trades, but not all. We know about the rise and fall in the price of bread. But we do not know enough about the price of clothes, or rent. We know that wages were high in some parts of Britain, and low in others. We know that the unemployed suffered, but not who was unemployed, or for how long.

The weather had a lot to do with the standard of living. If it was good, there was a good harvest, and the price of bread was low. A bad harvest meant a shortage, and a high price. Bread was working people's main food - they sometimes had cheese with it, but seldom got meat.

The things that working people bought are clues to their standard of living. By the year 1850, their bread was made from pure wheat, not the cheaper mixture of wheat, barley, and rye that they had eaten before. Also, tea and sugar sales had greatly increased. (In the early eighteenth century, only the rich could afford tea and sugar.) By 1875, working people were spending far more on bacon, jam, chocolate, and beer.

Even at a time when the standard of living was rising, there were years of bad harvest and high unemployment. Food riots in 1795, 1812, and 1830 tell us a lot about the farm labourers' standard of living in those years. High unemployment in the late 1830s was the chief reason why so many working people backed the Chartists.

Walter Robson: Britain 1750 – 1900; Oxford University Press, 1993/2002, page 49 f.