Population Previously to 1760 the old industrial system obtained in England;none of the great mechanical inventions had been introduced;the agrarian changes were still in the future.It is this industrial England which we have to contrast with the industrial England of to-day.For determining the population of the time we have no accurate materials.There are no official returns before 1801.A census had been proposed in 1753,but rejected as 'subversive of the last remains of English liberty.'
In this absence of trustworthy data all sorts of wild estimates were formed.During the American War a great controversy raged on this subject.Dr Price,an advocate of the Sinking Fund,maintained that population had in the interval between 1690 and 1777 declined from 6,596,075 to 4,763,670.On the other hand,Mr Howlett,Vicar of Dunmow,in Essex,estimated the population in 1780 at 8,691,000,and Arthur Young,in 1770,at 8,500,000 on the lowest estimate.These,however,are the extremes in either direction.The computations now most generally accepted are those made by Mr Finlaison (Actuary to the National Debt Office),and published in the Preface to the Census Returns of 1831.These are based on an examination of the registers of baptisms and burials of the eighteenth century.But the data are deficient in three respects:because the number of people existing at the date when the computation begins is a matter of conjecture;because in some parishes there were no registers;and because the registration,being voluntary,was incomplete.Mr Finlaison,however,is stated to have subjected his materials to 'every test suggested by the present comparatively advanced state of physical and statistical science.'
Now according to Mr Finlaison,the population of England and Wales was,in 1700,5,134,516,in 1750,6,039,684,an increase of not quite a million,or between 17 and 18 per cent.In the first half of the century.in 1801 the population of England and Wales was 9,187,176,showing an increase of three millions,or more than 52 per cent.In the second half.8 The difference in the rate of increase is significant of the great contrast presented by the two periods.In the former,England,though rapidly increasing in wealth owing to her extended commercial relations,yet retained her old industrial organisation;the latter is the age of transition to the modern industrial system,and to improved methods of agriculture.
The next point to consider is the distribution of population.
A great difference will be found here between the state of things at the beginning of the eighteenth century,or in Adam Smith's time,and that prevailing now.Every one remembers Macaulay's famous deion in the beginning of his history of the desolate condition of the northern counties.His picture is borne out by Defoe,who,in his Tour through the Whole Island (1725),remarks:'The country south of Trent is by far the largest,as well as the richest and most populous,'though the great cities were rivalled by those of the north.if we consider as the counties north of Trent Northumberland,Durham,Yorkshire,Cumberland,Westmoreland,Lancashire,Cheshire,Derbyshire,Nottinghamshire,and Staffordshire (about one-third of the total area of England),we shall find on examination that in 1700 they contained about one-fourth of the population,10 and in 1750 less than one-third,while in 1881,they contained more than two-fifths;or,taking only the six northern counties,we find that in 1700 their population was under one-fifth of that of all England,in 1750 it was about one-fifth,in 1881 it was all but one-third.
In 1700 the most thickly peopled counties (excluding the metropolitan counties of Middlesex and Surrey)were Gloucestershire,Somerset,and Wilts,the manufacturing districts of the west;Worcestershire and Northamptonshire,the seats of the Midland manufactures;and the agriculture counties of Herts and Bucks -all of them being south of the Trent.Between 1700 and 1750 the greatest increase of population took place in the following counties:
Lancashire increased from 166,200to 297,400,or 78 per cent.
Warwickshire "96,000"140,000,"45"
The West Riding "236,700"361,500,"52" of Yorkshire Durham "95,000"135,000,"41"Staffordshire "117,200"160,000,"36"
Gloucestershire "155,200"207,800,"34"
Cornwall,Kent,Berks,Herts,Worcestershire,Salop,Cheshire,Northumberland,Cumberland,and Westmoreland each increased upwards of 20per cent.
The change in the distribution of population between the beginning of the eighteenth century and Adam Smith's time,and again between his time and our own,may be further illustrated by the following table.The twelve most densely populated counties and their density to the square mile were:
170017501881
Middlesex 2221 Middlesex 2283 Middlesex 10,387 Surrey 207 Surrey 276 Surrey 1,919
Gloucester 123 Warwick 159 Lancashire 1,813
Northampton 121 Gloucester 157 Durham 891
Somerset 119 Lancashire 156 Stafford 862
Worcester 119 Worcester 148 Warwick 825
Herts 115 Herts 141 West Riding 815
Wilts 113 Stafford 140 Kent 600
Bucks 110 Durham 138 Cheshire 582
Rutland 110 Somerset 137 Worcester 515
Warwick 109 West Riding 135 Nottingham 475
Oxford 107 Berks 131 Gloucester 455
The most suggestive fact in the period between 1700 and 1750 is the great increase in the Lancashire and the West Riding,the seats of the cotton and coarse woollen manufactures.
