harles Booth, in his _Occupations
of the People_, presents an analysis of the census returns, showing
the proportion of the population engaged in various employments at
decennial points from 1841 to 1881. To these may be added such
statistics of the 1891 census as the present condition of their
presentation allows us to relate to the former censuses.[177] If we
turn to manufactures, upon which, together with transport, machinery
exercises the most direct influence, we find that the aggregate of
manufactures shows a considerable increase in demand for labour up to
1861--that is, in the period when English wares still kept the lead
they had obtained in the world market--but that since 1861 there is a
positive decline in the proportion of the English population employed
in manufactures. The percentages up to 1881 run as follows:--

1841[178] 27.1 per cent.
1851 32.7 "
1861 33.0 "
1871 31.6 "
1881 30.7 "

If we take the staple manufactures, employing the largest number of
workers, we shall find that for the most part they show a rising
demand for labour up to 1861, a stationary or falling demand when
compared with the population after that date. The foundational
industries--machinery and tools, shipbuilding, metal working--whose
demand for labour during the period 1841-61 increased by leaps and
bounds, still show in the aggregate an increased proportion of
employment, largely due to the rise since 1861 of a large export
trade in machinery. But while the machine-making industries continue
to grow faster than the population in the employment they give,
increasing from 209,353 in 1881 to 262,910 in 1891, and shipbuilding
also gives a proportionate increase, it is noteworthy that the steel
and iron trades, which up to 1871 grew far faster than the population,
began to show signs of decline. In 1881 the number of steel and iron
workers was 361,343, in 1891 it had increased to 380,193, a growth of
only 5.3 per cent. as compared with a growth of population amounting
to 11.7 per cent., and a growth of the number of occupied persons
amounting to 15.3 per cent.

Fuel, gas, chemicals, and other general subsidiary trades show a
steady advance in proportionate employment. The textile and dyeing
industries, on the other hand, showing an increased proportion of
employment up to 1851, by which time the weaving industry was taken
over by machinery, present a continuous an