There were buildings for boiling and distilling turpentine, for
casting brass or iron, and for making glass for chemical works for
sale.
The skilled artisan who works at home and either makes goods for a
master or sells to the trade verges into the shop keeping class.
On the other hand, the lowest type of shopkeeper, the chandler,
the dealer in old iron, the tripe shop, the milk retailer, the
keeper of a cook shop or a green cellar belong to the class of
unskilled and casual labor. The lowly chimney sweeper, paid 6d. a
day, served an apprenticeship as a boy, and then was his own
master.
The watermen and lightermen, by virtue of their fellowship and
their apprenticeship and often the ownership of a boat, belonged
to the class of skilled laborers. Craftsmen in the building trades
and paviours had their laborers as smiths had their hammermen to
do the heavy work at laborers' pay. The street ragpickers, the
ballad sellers, and the match sellers belonged to the class of
beggars.
Working women in London in 1750 were employed in domestic service:
25%, nursing and midwifery: 12%, cleaning and laundry: 10%,
vitualling: 9%, shopkeeping: 8%, hawking: 6%, and textiles: 5%.
Those employed in domestic service were mostly young women who
later married. Some women were schoolteachers, innkeepers, or
manufacturers, which were middle-class employments. Many women in
the realm engaged in a variety of occupations from fanmaking and
hairdressing to catering, and, as widows, often carried on their
husband's trade, including bookselling, hatmaking, building or
ironmongery.
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