This paper investigates the labour market for female servants in England and Wales between 1780 and 1834, using previously unexplored archival materials alongside qualitative sources. After introducing the dataset, the study provides a micro-level analysis of wage determinants and traces the sources and evolution of employer market power. The findings show that real wages fell substantially during the early decades of the nineteenth century and stagnated throughout the period from 1780 to 1834. Amid rising cost-of-living pressures in the early 1800s, declining real wages were accompanied by increased nominal wage bunching, suggesting greater employer market power. These trends are contextualized with insights from servants’ autobiographies and household manuals. The combined quantitative and qualitative evidence suggests that service labour markets were highly localized, employers coordinated wage-setting and working conditions, and servants faced barriers to job mobility due to living in tied housing, difficulties in recovering unpaid wages, and the critical role of character references. The results indicate that employers in the largest segment of the labour market had considerable wage-setting power, which intensified during the early years of industrialization.

中文翻译：

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仆人劳动力市场中的工资决定和雇主权力：来自英格兰和威尔士的证据，1780-1834 年


本文调查了 1780 年至 1834 年间英格兰和威尔士女仆的劳动力市场，使用了以前未曾探索过的档案材料和定性资料。在介绍数据集之后，该研究提供了对工资决定因素的微观分析，并追踪了雇主市场力量的来源和演变。研究结果表明，实际工资在 19 世纪初的几十年里大幅下降，并在 1780 年至 1834 年期间停滞不前。在 1800 年代初期生活成本压力不断上升的情况下，实际工资的下降伴随着名义工资的增加，这表明雇主的市场力量更大。这些趋势与仆人的自传和家庭手册中的见解相辅相成。综合定量和定性证据表明，服务劳动力市场高度本地化，雇主协调工资设定和工作条件，仆人由于生活在捆绑住房中、难以收回未付工资以及性格参考的关键作用而面临工作流动性障碍。结果表明，劳动力市场最大部分的雇主拥有相当大的工资设定能力，这种权力在工业化初期得到了加强。