Events

Joint work with: Marco Martinez (University of Pisa) and Michelangelo Vasta (University of Siena and CEPR)

Abstract: The importance of human capital for British jndustrialization is still debated. The prevailing consensus suggests that literacy and basic education did not play a significant role in driving industrialization, even if our knowledge of the evolution of literacy rates is still incomplete. We have estimates of the evolution of literacy rates at national level (eg. Mitch, 1993), but we still lack a regional disaggregated perspective. The main exception is the contribution of Nicholas and Nicholas (1992) who used a sample of Australian convicts to estimate literacy rates for English counties.  Following Schofield (1973), who used signatures in marriage acts to infer literacy rates at national level and the recent random sampling approach of marriage certificates by Martinez (2024), we provide two new benchmark estimates of literacy rates at county level for 1750 and 1800. These new county-level literacy estimates are based on a random sample of over 4,000 marriage certificates from all the 54 counties of England and Wales, collected from four online genealogical platforms and several parish archives. We  harmonize and integrate these estimates with the existent data for 1840. This new database offers new evidence on the role played by basic human capital in the early stages of the industrialization Consistent with the national estimates provided by Schofield (1973), our evidence suggests that literacy rates estimates s was significantly overestimated by Nicholas and Nicholas (1992). At the same time, while aggregate literacy rates improved only modestly between 1750 and 1800, there was considerable variation across counties.

The Oxford Seminar in Economic and Social History series for Hilary Term 2026 is convened by Stephen Broadberry and Victoria Gierok. 

For more information on this or any of the seminars in the series, please contact stephen.broadberry@nuffield.ox.ac.uk.