A City Full of People: Men and Women of London 1650-1750

From war, plague and fire, London emerged into the last half of the seventeenth century and the early eighteenth, a city startling for its wealth and poverty, its bright modernity and ageless squalor.For most Londoners, work of one kind or another was a vital part of their lives, and although few of the records in London were intended to record working experiences, the vast majority include information which sheds light on Londoners' occupations and working conditions. The economy of eighteenth-century London was still essentially pre-industrial, characterised by a heavy reliance on manual labour and small places of employment, rarely employing more than a dozen people. Few Londoners had secure jobs for life, and many, particularly among the poor, worked in a number of different jobs throughout their lives in order to make ends meet. This volume explores the daily lives of these Londoners, particularly the working classes, many in their own words of written accounts. Includes exploration of the occupational structure which was highly gendered, also politcal and religious aspects.Peter Earle is Reader in Economic History at the University of London and teaches at the London School of Economics. He is the author of several books on maritime history and English social history, the latter including "The World of Defoe" and "Monmouth's Rebels".