ABSTRACT
Production and employment data outline the development of shipbuilding during the nineteenth century. Figures for tonnage constructed were compiled from the Navigation Accounts published in House of Commons Papers. Difficulties arise from changes in the calculation of tonnage, but here all tonnage is net tonnage of merchant vessels. This is a measure of cubic capacity of the vessel after deducting the space occupied by the crew, stores, fuel and machinery. A convenient series of aggregate output data may be found in Mitchell and Dean (1962). To achieve consistency employment data were compiled from the census. As used here they represent males in shipbuilding. These data are a less reliable guide to the changes in scale and distribution of the industry than the tonnage data owing to changes in classification and under-recording (Lee, 1979).
