Some new thoughts about child labour during the Industrial Revolution

Oxford University Professor Jane Humphries offers lessons from the Industrial Revolution for child labour:

She offers an interesting new explanation for child labour based on empirical evidence:

"Child labour thus emerges as the outcome of the fragility of the male breadwinner family structure in a context where men’s support was irregular or insufficient, and a compact between children and their mothers, whereby working children surrendered their pay to their mothers who in return spent it carefully and in the interests of the family as a whole. In this way, older children helped to support their younger siblings, which was vital in an era of high fertility and large families."

Views about the development of child labour restrictions were mixed:

"Children were prevented from starting work or caught working under-age and expelled with sufficient frequency to suggest that scepticism about the effectiveness of regulation may be misplaced. Feelings about such expulsions were mixed; children in needy families were dismayed to no longer be able to contribute but grateful for the relief afforded. In some cases, autobiographers reflected that protective labour legislation saved them from impending physical collapse."
(Though this is not the purpose of her article, it would be interesting to learn why regulation of child labour began during the Industrial Revolution)

The last sentence of her article, however, necessitates some reflection:

"Where families have been broken up and denuded of prime-age adults by wars and epidemic disease, the prospects for preserving childhood look bleak."