The standard of living of worsted workers in Keighley during the nineteenth century.

The ¥est Riding worsted industry grew rapidly from the
late eighteenth century, in the wake of mechanisation in the
cotton industry. Rapid urbanisation followed, with Keighley
experiencing high population growth, particularly in the
1810's, the 1840's and the 1860's. The latter decade was
very prosperous for the worsted industry because of the
Cotton Famine. From the mid-1870's however, the industry
entered a period of low profitability which hit Keighley
especially badly since heavier worsteds were produced locally
and after 1880 population growth decelerated.
This study examines the standard of living of Keighley
worsted workers in the light of these developments
following the lines set down by Ashton, Gourvish and Neale.
The components of the standard of living are real income
(earnings and prices) and qualitative conditions. It is
imperative that earnings (preferably net) are used, not wage
rates. In this study, wage books have provided data on net
earnings, including unusually extensive material relating to
domestic workers. Much of the data comes from one firm but
this firm was not untypical of Keighley firms generally.
Paucity of data meant that local price indexes could be
constructed only for the period 1845-1863, using workhouse
material. However, where comparison with national indexes
is possible, a marked similarity in trend can be noted.
Hence one is less perturbed about using the latter for the
whole period. Several local rent series provided
supplementary information.
The qualitative material suggests that urban conditions
deteriorated to the 1850's and then improved only slowly.
It also highlights the disastrous non-economic effects of the domestic workers' redundancy; the continuing economic
exploitation of children; and the change to commercial, nontraditional leisure-time activities.
Earnings had an important effect on living standards in
the short term, prices and qualitative conditions in the long term. Except for the hand workers, most workers' living standards rose through the nineteenth century, especially
those of women, but probably stagnated in the early
twentieth century. The most dramatic improvements came
between the 1860's and the 1890's, as boom conditions
increased the demand for labour and then the economic
depression reduced prices.