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Introduction to the Special Issue

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 May 2019

Fabrice Bensimon
Fabrice Bensimon*
Affiliation:
Sorbonne Université
*
*Corresponding author. Email: fabrice.bensimon@sorbonne-universite.fr
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Abstract

In the period 1815–1870, several thousand British workers and engineers went to the continent for work purposes, playing a decisive part in European industrialisation. Workers emigrated because they could market their skills at good value; or because their British employers sought to make the most of their technical lead by setting businesses up abroad, and by producing on the continent, they could avoid protective tariffs.

Which social and cultural factors enabled British capital to flow to continental and indeed global enterprise, British skills to shape labour processes overseas, and British male and female labourers to seek and find overseas employment? This introduction to the Special Issue raises a series of questions on these flows. It asks what numbers went to the continent, in comparison with the large flows to the US and the British World. It addresses the legislative and economic aspects of these labour migrations and tries to relate these to the discussion on the supposed ‘high-wage economy’ of the British industrial revolution. It also focuses on the practicalities of migration. Last, it is also interested in the cultural, religious and associational life of the British migrants, as well as in the relations with the local populations.

French abstract

Entre 1815 et 1870, des milliers d'ouvriers et d'ingénieurs britanniques se rendirent sur le continent européen pour y travailler et jouèrent un rôle décisif dans l'industrialisation européenne. Les ouvriers émigraient parce qu'ils pouvaient négocier leurs compétences à bon prix, ou bien parce que leurs patrons britanniques cherchaient à tirer le meilleur parti de leur avance technologique en établissant des entreprises à l’étranger et, en produisant sur le continent, ils pouvaient éviter les tarifs douaniers.

Quels furent les facteurs socio-culturels qui permirent au capital britannique de s'investir dans les entreprises continentales − et même mondiales −, aux compétences britanniques de venir façonner les processus de production à l’étranger et aux travailleurs et travailleuses britanniques de chercher et de trouver du travail à l’étranger? Cette introduction au numéro spécial soulève une série de questions sur ces mouvements. On se demande combien de migrants sont allés sur le continent, par rapport aux importants flux vers les États-Unis et le monde britannique. Les aspects législatifs et économiques de ces migrations de main-d’œuvre sont abordés et l'on tente de les relier aux débats sur l'hypothèse de l'effet économique des hauts salaires sur la révolution industrielle britannique. On se concentre également sur les aspects pratiques de la migration. Enfin, la vie culturelle, religieuse et associative de ces migrants britanniques est abordée, ainsi que leurs rapports avec les populations locales.

German abstract

Im Zeitraum 1815–1870 gingen mehrere tausend britische Arbeiter und Ingenieure zur Arbeit auf den Kontinent, wo sie eine entscheidende Rolle für die europäische Industrialisierung spielten. Arbeiter wanderten aus, weil sie ihre Fertigkeiten gut vermarkten konnten; oder auch, weil ihre britischen Arbeitgeber das Beste aus ihrer technischen Führungsposition zu machen suchten, indem sie im Ausland Unternehmen gründeten, zumal sie durch Produktion auf dem Kontinent Schutzzölle vermeiden konnten.

Welche sozialen und kulturellen Faktoren machten es möglich, dass britisches Kapital in kontinentale oder globale Unternehmen floss, dass britische Fertigkeiten die Arbeitsprozesse im Ausland prägten, und dass britische Arbeiter beiderlei Geschlechts im Ausland Beschäftigung suchten und fanden?

In diesem Sinne wirft die Einführung zum vorliegenden Themenheft eine Reihe von Fragen auf. Sie fragt danach, wie viele Menschen auf den Kontinent gingen, im Vergleich zu den großen Strömen in die Vereinigten Staaten und in die britische Welt. Sie behandelt die gesetzlichen und ökonomischen Aspekte dieser Arbeitsmigrationen und versucht, diese mit der Diskussion über die vermeintliche ‚Hochlohnökonomie’ der britischen industriellen Revolution zu verknüpfen. Sie thematisiert ferner die praktischen Abläufe der Migration. Schließlich nimmt sie auch die kulturellen, religiösen und gemeinschaftlichen Belange der britischen Migranten und ihre Beziehungen mit den Bevölkerungen vor Ort in den Blick.

Type
Special Issue on British Labour and Migration to Europe During the Industrial Revolution
Information
Continuity and Change , Volume 34 , Issue 1 , May 2019 , pp. 1 - 13
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

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References

Notes

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