“The man who earns his penny”: the independent labourer as a synthesis of the social ideology of English liberal reformism in the 1830s and 1840s
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5007/1984-9222.2024.e96606Keywords:
Industrial Revolution, Liberalism, History of EnglandAbstract
During the 1830s and 1840s, several royal commissions of inquiry were active in England to address social issues considered urgent. The work of these investigative bodies served as a basis for guiding the government's official response to these problems, including forwarding important institutional reforms. The reports presented by the commissioners constitute fundamental documents for understanding the liberal reformism that characterized the period. This article discusses some central paradigms that permeate the work of the commissions, referring to the model of organization of work relations and the qualities to be assimilated by the working class, using as a guide the ideal of the “independent worker”, a figure repeatedly evoked in the commissioner’s writings. It is argued that the commissioners' actions were aimed at encouraging the rooting of a social practice adapted to the reality of the Industrial Revolution and economic laissez-faire that was consolidating.
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