Working-Class Standards of Living in Late-Victorian Urban ... · Working-Class Standards of Living...

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All rights reserved © The Canadian Historical Association/La Société historique du Canada, 1991 This document is protected by copyright law. Use of the services of Érudit (including reproduction) is subject to its terms and conditions, which can be viewed online. https://apropos.erudit.org/en/users/policy-on-use/ This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ Document generated on 09/12/2020 5:25 p.m. Journal of the Canadian Historical Association Revue de la Société historique du Canada Working-Class Standards of Living in Late-Victorian Urban Ontario: A Review of the Miscellaneous Evidence on the Quality of Material Life David Gagan and Rosemary Gagan Volume 1, Number 1, 1990 URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/031015ar DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/031015ar See table of contents Publisher(s) The Canadian Historical Association/La Société historique du Canada ISSN 0847-4478 (print) 1712-6274 (digital) Explore this journal Cite this article Gagan, D. & Gagan, R. (1990). Working-Class Standards of Living in Late-Victorian Urban Ontario: A Review of the Miscellaneous Evidence on the Quality of Material Life. Journal of the Canadian Historical Association / Revue de la Société historique du Canada, 1 (1), 171–193. https://doi.org/10.7202/031015ar Article abstract Owing to the lack of long series of data pertaining to wages and retail prices, the analysis of standards of living in late-Victorian Ontario presents unusually difficult problems for the social historian. Following the model adopted by the participants in the earlier British standard-of-living debate, this study attempts to mitigate those difficulties, to some extent, by examining a wide range of miscellaneous sociological and economic evidence generated by government agencies, usually for other purposes. A review of the data pertaining to employment, wages, savings, consumption, the accumulation of real wealth, public health and social pathology in urban Ontario between 1875 and 1900 suggests that the 1880s was a decade of rising expectations in terms of employment, consumption, savings and the distribution of wealth following the social and economic upheaval associated with the depression of the late 1870s. However, the evidence also suggests that the marginal gains made in working-class standards of living in the 1880s were largely compromised in the 1890s as the environmental effects of industrialization and urbanization began to be experienced in full measure.

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Page 1: Working-Class Standards of Living in Late-Victorian Urban ... · Working-Class Standards of Living in Late-Victorian Urban Ontario: A Review of the Miscellaneous Evidence on the Quality

All rights reserved © The Canadian Historical Association/La Société historiquedu Canada, 1991

This document is protected by copyright law. Use of the services of Érudit(including reproduction) is subject to its terms and conditions, which can beviewed online.https://apropos.erudit.org/en/users/policy-on-use/

This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit.Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal,Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is topromote and disseminate research.https://www.erudit.org/en/

Document generated on 09/12/2020 5:25 p.m.

Journal of the Canadian Historical AssociationRevue de la Société historique du Canada

Working-Class Standards of Living in Late-Victorian UrbanOntario: A Review of the Miscellaneous Evidence on the Qualityof Material LifeDavid Gagan and Rosemary Gagan

Volume 1, Number 1, 1990

URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/031015arDOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/031015ar

See table of contents

Publisher(s)The Canadian Historical Association/La Société historique du Canada

ISSN0847-4478 (print)1712-6274 (digital)

Explore this journal

Cite this articleGagan, D. & Gagan, R. (1990). Working-Class Standards of Living inLate-Victorian Urban Ontario: A Review of the Miscellaneous Evidence on theQuality of Material Life. Journal of the Canadian Historical Association / Revuede la Société historique du Canada, 1 (1), 171–193.https://doi.org/10.7202/031015ar

Article abstractOwing to the lack of long series of data pertaining to wages and retail prices,the analysis of standards of living in late-Victorian Ontario presents unusuallydifficult problems for the social historian. Following the model adopted by theparticipants in the earlier British standard-of-living debate, this study attemptsto mitigate those difficulties, to some extent, by examining a wide range ofmiscellaneous sociological and economic evidence generated by governmentagencies, usually for other purposes. A review of the data pertaining toemployment, wages, savings, consumption, the accumulation of real wealth,public health and social pathology in urban Ontario between 1875 and 1900suggests that the 1880s was a decade of rising expectations in terms ofemployment, consumption, savings and the distribution of wealth followingthe social and economic upheaval associated with the depression of the late1870s. However, the evidence also suggests that the marginal gains made inworking-class standards of living in the 1880s were largely compromised in the1890s as the environmental effects of industrialization and urbanization beganto be experienced in full measure.

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