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How apprenticeship transformed premodern England | Coffee break research at LSE

Drawing on his new book, "The Market for Skill", Professor Patrick Wallis describes how apprenticeship helped transform England from a backwards, rural economy and laid the foundations for the first Industrial Revolution.
Drawing on his new book, "The Market for Skill", Professor Patrick Wallis describes how apprenticeship helped transform England from a backwards, rural economy and laid the foundations for the first Industrial Revolution.
Tuesday 11 March 2025 | 17 minutes 23 seconds
Watch on YouTubeDownload File | 71.81MB

For more than a century, apprenticeship in England has been in crisis. Brief moments of optimistic expansion have been punctured by political and economic shocks. Yet it was not always so. Before 1800, apprenticeship was a thriving and vital part of the economy. Drawing on his new book, The Market for Skill (Princeton University Press, April 2025), Professor Patrick Wallis describes how apprenticeship helped transform England from a backwards, rural economy and laid the foundations for the first Industrial Revolution.
Patrick Wallis is a professor of Economic History at LSE and Head of the Department of Economic History.

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