ABSTRACT
The development of wage labour can be observed throughout history and in particular
prior to industrialization. In fact, it appeared under the manufacture and expanded fur-
ther under the factory system during the industrial revolution in England. The long-
term historical trend of decrease of farm employment is explained by the pushing-out
effects inherent to farming activity than by the pulling effect of urban areas (Charoenloet
et al. 2014). The pushing-out effects started in general by the private appropriation of
land and the expulsion of peasants from the land they were cultivating. In eighteenth-
century England, this has been the process of enclosure where landlords closed their
land for the purpose of developing their own farming system and in particular for sheep
breeding and therefore expelled peasants from the land. Marx referred to this as the
process of proletarianization. It is believed that factory work would bring about the
socialization process, where the working class would overcome their differences and
developed common identity and political consciousness. This would set about the revo-
lutionary process which provided the bypass of the capitalist system. Indeed, wage
labour has been the dominant form of work in the industrialized countries. The rate of
salarialization is around 80%90% for developed countries between 1970 and 2005 (Table 1). On the contrary, independent labour or self-employed has been declining in
importance.
