ABSTRACT
The most interesting and most inconclusive debate on industrial revolution in England has been concerned with the standard of living of workers, particularly the industrial and urban poor, during the first half of the nineteenth century. Economic growth implies an increase in per capita national income, and, if distribution leaves labour with at least the same relative share of the increasing product, an increase in the average standard of living. Evidence of the condition of the working class during the industrial revolution can be found also in the statistics of savings, wages and consumption. The change cannot be measured with accuracy, that the standard of living of the mass of the people of England was improving in the first half of the nineteenth century, slowly during the war, more quickly after 1815, and rapidly after 1840. And, if expectation of life depends partly on living standards, the increase in average life over these years is further proof of increasing wellbeing.
