Social change and social conflict in nineteenth‐century England: The use of the open‐closed village model

Following earlier articles on social change and conflict in rural England 1780–1850, we assert the relevance of the open‐closed model of social structure, particularly to the study of Burwash by Wells [1981]. This paper demonstrates that no parish was insulated from economic and other influences exerted in and by neighbouring parishes. More especially, although open parishes challenged the upper Establishment, they were not devoid of internal strife, since different interests were not subject to the overriding influence of the large landowners who dominated the populations of closed parishes.     

Ascertaining the economic characteristics of peasant classes‐in‐themselves in rural India: A methodological and empirical exercise

In 1976 the author developed a simple labour‐use index for the empirical identification of classes‐in‐themselves within a cultivating population. This index was subsequently applied, along with other conventional grouping methods, to farm economics data relating to Haryana, India. This analysis was complete by 1981. Part I of this article summarises some results of this methodological exercise in ascertaining the economic characteristics of classes‐in‐themselves. Part II is a critical discussion of an article on a similar theme by Athreya, Böklin, Djurfeldt and Lindberg in a recent issue of this journal.     

The development of capitalism in the Atlantic world: England,the Americas,and West Africa, 1450–1900

Abstract

The paper traces the development of capitalism in England, the Americas, and West Africa over a long time period, 1450–1900. The developments in these major regions of the Atlantic Basin during the period were strongly interconnected and ultimately gave rise to the nineteenth-century Atlantic economy which integrated the major economies of the Atlantic world. The development of capitalism in the three specified geographical areas is analyzed in the context of the interconnected developments. Central to the historical analysis is a discussion of the contending conceptions of capitalism as a socioeconomic system. The paper shows that the original conception by Karl Marx, which identified free wage earners separated from their means of production and entrepreneurs who own those means of production as the defining elements, was generally accepted by supporters and critics for several decades; attempts to redefine began in the 1960s. The paper contends that, unlike the original Marxian conception, the new conceptions fail to capture precisely and accurately the dynamic elements which distinguish capitalism unambiguously from other forms of socioeconomic organization and do not facilitate a sharply focused historical investigation of its development over time. The employment of enslaved Africans in large-scale commodity production in the Americas was critical to the development of capitalism in England and in the Americas, but the adverse effects on West Africa’s economies held back the development of markets and the market economy and, ultimately, the development of capitalism in the region.     

The Law and Politics of Marital Rape in England, 1945–1994

This article examines the ending of the marital rape exemption in England. It describes the unresponsiveness of the political and legal establishment on the issue from the war to the mid-1970s. The arguments and campaigns that feminists and others advanced against the rule from the 1970s onwards are analysed, together with the political and legal reaction to this campaign. Next, the Parliamentary and legal debates over the rule in the 1980s are discussed: a story of inertia, even hostility, towards such campaigning. Finally, the article considers the demise of the exemption in the 1990s. The article presents a nuanced account of this change, which was both vigorously contested and highly contingent. It also suggests that legal protection from ‘the rapist who pays the rent’, and the campaign to achieve this, deserve appropriate recognition within the story of feminist activism in the late twentieth century.     

The development of the English rural proletariat and social protest, 1700–1850

This paper suggests that covert social protest, including theft, the sending of anonymous threatening letters, and arson, was the most enduring mode of protest in the English countryside after the 1790s. Developments in this exceptional decade were responsible for increasing the scale of covert protest. Inflation, under and unemployment, with standards of living falling beneath subsistence levels, necessitated a massive increase in poor relief. Its administration required an unprecedented extension of authority over the lives of working people. This generated class conflict, but the establishment successfully suppressed overt protest, demonstrations, ‘food riots’ and strikes. Protest was driven underground, and in spite of two important semi‐covert movements in 1816 and 1830–1, protest remained essentially covert until after 1850.     

The economic bases of demographic reproduction: From the domestic mode of production to wage‐earning

This article investigates the changes affecting demographic reproduction of population of peasant origin when they shift from self‐sustenance to market economy and wage‐earning. It shows how in the domestic mode of production, the birth‐rate and the survival of the pre‐productive generation until the age of production are dependent on the labour productivity of subsistence agriculture and on the techniques of conservation of crops, and how social reproduction is governed by the mode of distribution of the surplus‐product. The loss of control of the communities over their grain reserves, and their progressive integration into the market economy and wage‐earning, change the conditions of demographic reproduction, which comes to depend on money income, prices of subsistence, market supply, level of employment etc. These circumstances and the concomitant insecurity favour both a burst of natality as a means of social security and the survival of the younger generations for longer periods; and they accentuate the demographic effects of famines or unemployment. Hence the dramatic consequences of the monetary policy implemented in the dependent countries on the physiological conditions of the proletarianised rural populations.     

‘When Two Loving Hearts Beat as One’: same‐sex marriage,subjectivity and self‐representation in the Australian case of Marion‐Bill‐Edwards, 1906–1916

This article focuses on the Australian case of Marion‐Bill‐Edwards who lived most of her adult life in male attire. It examines three bursts of publicity Edwards encountered, a 1906 criminal trial, her 1908 autobiography and a 1916 court case in which she was a witness. The case is significant because it makes an important contribution to understandings of the sexual subjectivity of women (especially women of the lower classes) who had same‐sex relationships in the early years of the twentieth century. The article explores changes in Edwards’ self‐representation and subjectivity in this pivotal period in which (research has indicated) new models for modern sexual identities began to emerge.     

In Search of Equal Citizenship: the campaign for women magistrates in England and Wales, 1910–1939

In early 1920 women in England and Wales sat as Justices of the Peace (JPs) for the first time, becoming the first women to have any formal role in the country’s law courts. Less than thirty years later nearly a quarter of JPs were women, a proportion unparalleled in any other activity of civic and public life other than voting. Yet the legislation that admitted women to the magisterial bench—the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act—is usually pronounced a failure by historians. This article argues that the appointment of so many women to the magisterial bench in a relatively short period of time was a success for the women’s movement and that it was due very largely to the agency of some of the early women magistrates themselves and the efforts of the organisations to which they belonged, albeit working with the grain of reform in the criminal justice system. The article also maps the campaigners’ use of the twin concepts of ‘rights’ and ‘duties’ within their overall project for the advancement of equal citizenship.     

The nature and logic of the peasant economy—II: Diversity and change: III. Policy and intervention

The following Part II of this paper is devoted to the diversity of peasant economies, focusing on the typical patterns of change included under the umbrella term of ‘modernisation’. It reviews in these terms the aspects of the peasant economy outlined in Part I. The final Part III turns to agrarian policies and the impact of state intervention on peasant economies. It discusses the aims of such interventions i.e. land reform and the major programmes of reconstruction and transition in peasant economies today: ‘betting on the strong’, collectivisation, and the transformation of the peasant into a ‘modern’ farmer.