From 1720-1750 cheap gin was drunk in large quantities, especially in London. To stop this, in 1751 Parliament raised the tax on spirits, and kept a close watch on the sale of it, which made it less of a problem among the poorer people.
Even though the drink problem was taken care of, the lack of basic medical knowledge caused death among both poor and wealthy. A good example of disease amongst the higher classes is that of Queen Anne (1702-1714), who had seventeen children, none of who survived childbirth.
In the second half of the century, the population of England and Wales rose to 9.5 million. This was due to the falling death rate, caused by better overall diet and living conditions, which increased people's resistance to disease. Some of the medical improvements of the age included improvements in midwifery, a vaccination against smallpox and quarantine for infectious diseases.
Even though many aspects of life were improving, village life was still the most prominent. The most common professions of the age included blacksmiths, carpenters, thatchers and millers. Few bothered to travel to the nearest market town, as most items could be obtained in the local community. The only things people needed from these market towns were clothes and shoes for themselves and their families. All crops, like wheat, rye, barley and oats, were grown locally. Other items, such as bread, ale and dairy produce, all came from the local farms.
In the eighteenth century, it was the nobility who owned most of the land. They also held high positions in the Church, army and navy. It as not uncommon for a nobleman's park to measure eighty kilometres around the perimeter. The status of being a noble was so high that many accomplished businessmen invested in land, as this was the only way of gaining acceptance in the higher ranks of society.
The next step down in the social ladder from the nobility came the gentry. These were the major landowners in each county that were not born into noble families. In a village, however, the chief landowner was called a squire. These people seemed to have a more comfortable way of life than others in the village, but under closer inspection, seemed to be not as well-off as first expected.
After the squire, the most important person in a village was the parson. These were the people who looked after the churches, and although many went to church more out of habit than religious reasons, it was still one of the main aspects of village life. In their spare time, they farmed a small plot of land, known as the glebe. He also would receive a tithe (tenth) of the produce of the other farms in the region. Even though the church was an important thing in the eighteenth century, the parson usually had to use the glebe and the tithe to keep his head above water.
The parson also helped to educate the local children in reading and writing. The people who did receive some education were told not to have ideas 'above their station'; in other words to obey their superiors, and keep their rightful place in society. They were taught that it was god who put them in this position on Earth, and that they should 'obey his wishes'.
Below the parson were the freeholders. These were farmers who actually owned their property instead of renting it from the gentry or nobility. They were regarded as socially superior to the smallholders, who could have up to eight hectares of land. Most lived in houses built of the building materials that were easiest to get, which could have been timber, stone or bricks. They lived simple lives, not having things such as curtains, curtains and other necessities. Their houses were furnished with nothing more than strong tables, stools and chairs. The light was provided by nothing more than dim slow burning candles. The people who helped out on the farms of the freeholders were called labourers. They were normally found working on large farms, which were too big for one family to work on alone. They usually resided in small shacks made of mud, and were out of work for long periods in the winter.
In the eighteenth century, the population of London was roughly just over half a million. Even though that seems small compared to today, it was nearly ten times as big than any other towns in Britain. In London, both ends of the social scale could be found, with the gloriously rich and the meagre poor.
An example of the poorer aspect of life in the eighteenth century was the East End of London. This was the home of London's poor. Workers such as seamen and dockers lived in squalid conditions. Open sewers and cesspools surrounded them. The houses did not have anywhere to put their rubbish, so they would just throw it out into the street. Night-time in the East End was dangerous, with no one venturing outside unless it was on urgent business. The streets were filled with thieves, who at night turned to murderers. But the main threat was not the violence, but the disease. It was estimated that half of the children born in the East End died before they reached the age of two.
In the eighteenth century, there were only two bridges in the whole of London that crossed both sides of the river Thames. Before that, people fought to try and get across, until the Westminster Bridge was opened in 1750. London Bridge provided the only road over the river at the time. The centre of the whole nation's shipping was in London, called the Pool of London. It dealt with most foreign trade, including the rest of Europe, the Mediterranean, Africa, America, and the West Indies (which was where the sugar and tobacco came from). It also dealt with practically all of the trade from the Far East and India. The rest of England also used it, and most of London's food and raw goods were sent there.
The largest towns outside the capital were Norwich, which was the main town in the East Anglian cloth trade, and Bristol, the West's major port. In Scotland, the main town was Edinburgh, which was the centre of the country's social life. Even though these towns were important to the running of the country, it is unlikely that the population would have exceeded 50,000. Today's big cities were back in those days small ports or centres of small scale industry. These include -
- Birmingham - metal trades
- Newcastle - coal and the Baltic trade
- Liverpool - Transatlantic trade
- Hull - Baltic trade and shipbuilding
- Leeds and Manchester - centres of the textiles trades for Yorkshire and South Lancashire
It is unlikely that any of these towns would have had populations exceeding 10,000 in the early 1700's.
In the early eighteenth century, the centre of industry was the village rather than the town. All around the countryside there was mining, quarrying, timber cutting, iron smelting and other manufacturing industries. Children were easy solutions to any problems involving lack of workers, as most industries were carried out in the home. Families were sending out children as young as four to earn money to make ends meet.
Since the Middle Ages, the chief (main) industry in Britain has been that of manufacturing woollen cloth. It was sold all over Africa, America, and India, as it was the main source of exports. To signify its importance in English history, the Lord Chancellor still sits on a woolsack in the House of Lords. The finer cloth made would come from the West Country and East Anglia, where the industry was more organised, while the coarser cloth, which was also cheaper, came from West Yorkshire.
The lesser industries in Britain include iron, metal goods and coal mining. The iron was mined and smelted where there was a good supply of timber, as charcoal was used for heating the furnaces where it was smelted. The West Midlands, and towns such as Birmingham, was where the manufacture of metal goods took place, like today. Sheffield was also a main town in this, being famous for its steel, used in cutlery etc. Coal mining was an industry that took place in the northeast of England, most commonly around Newcastle.
Even though these trades were growing all the time, the lack of suitable transport was hindering their development somewhat. There was no easy was to deliver goods to far away towns, due to the shortage of navigable rivers. Transporting goods by road was also tricky, as there weren't enough proper ones. Until the methods of transporting goods were improved, it was unlikely that people would order large quantities of things outside the local area.
The early eighteenth century factories needed things such as steam engines to be used for pumping water out of mines. Even though inventions such as waterwheels to provide power were used, all different kinds of industry relied mainly on human strength and skill.
