1. Society
and
Economy
in England

2. The rebellion of 1688, set the stage for
golden age of the English landlords.
• They wrote and also secured The rule of law
• They defined Rights of property

3. The 18th Century:
a time of contrast and paradox
 The stability of social hierarchy vs
The scramble of people for higher status
 The extreme wealth of few vs
The heartbreaking poverty of the many
 Deference of inferiors to superiors vs
The frequency of riots by them

4. Social Structure: Open Hierarchy
Status Ladder
18th century English Society
A status hierarchy not a class society

5. “Dr. Samuel Johnson
remarked that the
English people were set
in hierachical places “by
the fixed, invariable
rules of distinction of
rank, which create no
jealousy, since they are
held to be accidental.””
(Heyck, The people of British Isles)

6. Nobility:
Landowners
Gentry:
Baronets, Knights,
Squires, Gentlemen
Merchants,
Professional Men
Freeholders, Smallholders
The Laboring Poor

7. Nobility
 At the highest rung of hierarchy
 Great Lords
 Heredity rights
 Fewer than two hundreds families
 Enjoying prosperity thanks to enclosure acts
 Interested in agriculture, trade and industry
 House of Commons, House of Landlords

8. Gentry
• Baronets, knights and gentlemen
• Not necessary of noble birth
• More than 15 thousand families
• The ability to live without working for a living.
• Gentlemen, a position of honor

9. “[…]as the novelist Daniel Defoe
put it, gentlemen were” such
who live on estates and without
the mechanism of
employment.””
(Heyck, The people of British Isles)

10.  Freeholders
 Tenant Farmers
 Farm Laborers

11. The Laboring Poor
The base of social hierarchy
The urban laboring
poor ranged upward
From beggars and
criminals to soldiers,
sailors and unskilled
laborers.

12. Middling Ranks
• Do not fit neatly into the social hierarchy
• Above laboring poor
• Merchants, professional men
Their main desire was to make enough money to
buy an estate and join the elite circle of landed
society.

13.  Property
Patronage
 Deference
Patronage and deference held the society
together more then force.

14. Works Consulted
Heyck, Thomas William. The Peoples of British Isles: A New
History From 1688-1870. vol.2. California: Wadsworth,1992.
pp.62-66.
Allen, Derek R., Paul G. Smith, Fablo G. Malgeretti. Words
Words Words: A History and Anthology of Literatures in
English. Milan:Medialibri, 2003.