ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book discusses the period up to 1750 and shows that a moral rather than a strictly cash, market economy held sway for domestic servants well beyond the turn of the nineteenth century. It demonstrates that simply characterising servants in terms of degrees of vulnerability denied them the agency over their lives that they were able to exercise much of the time. The book argues that a moral economy of service could be seen in operation in metropolitan households, in which cash wages were important but, particularly for menservants, a mixture of earnings was a crucial customary component of servant remuneration. The managerial role of the mistress was a long-term component of household authority, and not only its timing but the proximity of mistress and maid in most servant-employing households makes the aspect of ‘separate spheres’ look decidedly shaky.
