My research explores the economic, social and medical history of Britain and Europe from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. At present, I have two main interests:
Apprenticeship and human capital
The supply of skilled labour is one of the fundamental factors in economic performance and growth. And for centuries, apprenticeship was the main way that most people outside of agriculture gained skill. My research aims to understand how apprenticeship worked in England in the three centuries leading up to the industrial revolution.
We know surprisingly little about how apprenticeship operated in practice. Together with my co-author Chris Minns, I have been using very large collections of apprenticeship records from guild and tax sources to provide new insights into the openness, effectiveness and outcomes of apprenticeship training in London and other parts of Britain. By looking beyond the legal framework, we have uncovered a more flexible and accessible system of training than historians used to believe.
Now we are extending this work in a comparative project, as part of an EU-funded study bEUcitizen, that examines citizenship across Europe from 1600 to 1900.
The transformation of healthcare in early modern England
Between the sixteenth and the nineteenth century, the English people profoundly changed their response to ill health. Previously, they had relied on their families and communities. Now they increasingly turned to commercial providers: they learned to pay doctors, buy medicines, and hire nurses.
My research is exploring how and why this transformation in healthcare occurred. By using a range of sources – from the debts left by the dying to the customs records of drug imports – I am uncovering the timing and nature of this change, showing the massive growth in the use of commercial drugs and the frequency that people sought help from medical practitioners.
Selected publications
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Introduction: The Growth of the Early Modern Medical Economy , Patrick Wallis,
Journal of Social History 2016 49 (3): 477-483
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Households, Consumption and the Development of Medical Care in the Netherlands, 1650–1900 Heidi Deneweth and Patrick Wallis, Journal of Social History published 3 October 2015, 10.1093/jsh/shv061
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'Medical Revolutions? The growth of medicine in England, 1660-1800' Working Paper 185, Teerapa Pirohakul, Patrick Wallis
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Should we call for a doctor? Households, consumption and the development of medical care in the Netherlands, 1650-1900, Heidi Deneweth, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Patrick Wallis, LSE, February 2014, Working Paper 51, CEGH Working Paper
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The price of human capital in a pre-industrial economy: Premiums and apprenticeship contracts in 18th century England’,Explorations in Economic History, 50: 3 (2013), 335-350 (with C. Minns)
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‘Labour, law and training in early modern London: apprenticeship and the city’s institutions’,Journal of British Studies, 51: 4(2012), 781-819.
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Picking winners? The effect of birth order and migration on parental human capital investments in pre-modern England. Marc Klemp; Chris Minns; Patrick Wallis; Jacob Weisdorf. European Review of Economic History 2013 17: 210-232
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Exotic Drugs and English Medicine: England’s Drug Trade, c.1550-c.1800’,Social History of Medicine 25:1(2012), 20-46
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‘Rules and reality: quantifying the practice of apprenticeship in early modern England’,Economic History Review 65:2 (2012), 556-79. (with Chris Minns)
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‘Debating a Duty to Treat: AIDS and the Professional Ethics of American Medicine’,Bulletin of the History of Medicine 85:4 (2011), 620-49.
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'Networks in the Premodern Economy: the Market for London Apprenticeships, 1600-1749' (with Tim Leunig and Chris Minns) The Journal of Economic History, 71:2 (2011), 413 - 443
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'The education and training of gentry sons in Early Modern England', with Cliff Webb, Social History 36: 1(2011), 36-53
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'Leaving home and entering service: the age of apprenticeship in early modern London' (with Cliff Webb) Continuity and Change 25: 3 (2010), 377-404
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Londoners outside the Walls (London Record Society, vol. 45, 2010)
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"Apprenticeship and Training in Pre-modern England", Journal of Economic History, 68:3 (2008), pp 832-861
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"Consumption, Retailing and Medicine in Early-Modern London", Economic History Review, 61: 1 (2008)
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(with I. Gadd), Guilds and association in Europe, 900-1900
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Medicine and the Market in England and its Colonies, c.1450-c.1850
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'A Dreadful Heritage: Interpreting Epidemic Disease at Eyam, 1666-2000',History Workshop Journal, 61:1 (2006): 31-56
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'Testing times: Plague, Courage and Duty in Early Modern England', English Historical Review 121, no. 490 (2006)
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Quackery and Commerce in Seventeenth Century London: The proprietary Medicine Business of Anthony Daffy (Medical History, supplement 2005)
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Guilds, Society and Economy in London, 1450-1800 (London: Centre for Metropolitan History, 2002), co-edited with I. A. Gadd.
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(with B. Nerlich) 'Disease Metaphors in New Epidemics: The UK media framing of the 2003 SARS Epidemic', Social Science and Medicine, 60/11 (2005), 2629-2639
Recent conference and seminar papers
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‘Apprenticeship and Training’, EHESS, Paris, March 2012
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‘Law and Labour in early modern London’, University of Leicester, January 2012
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‘Household and apprenticeship in early modern England’, N.W. Posthumus Conference, University of Antwerp, May 2011.
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‘Apprenticeships and social mobility in early modern England’, Economic History Society Annual Conference, Cambridge, April 2011.
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‘Apprenticeship in early modern London: training, household, economy’, Premodern Towns Conference, Institute of Historical Research, London, 29 Jan 2011.
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‘Apprenticeship and occupations in early modern London’, Local Population Studies conference, UEA, 6 Nov 2010.