Geography is not destiny: geography, institutions and literacy in England, 1837–63

• DOI: 10.1093/oep/gpu020
• Publication Date: 2014-06-27T00:23:10Z
• Authors: Gregory Clark; Rowena Gray
• Keywords: HB Economic Theory; N33; 330; ddc:330; Comparative regional history; 05 social sciences; 1. No poverty; Comparative regional history, European education history, human capital development; European education history; 910; jel:N93; O15; 0502 economics and business; 8. Economic growth; jel:N33; human capital development; jel:O15; N93

Geography made rural society in the south-east of England unequal. Economies of scale in grain growing created a farmer elite and many landless labourers. In the pastoral north-west, in contrast, family farms dominated, with few hired labourers and modest income disparities. Engerman and Sokoloff (2012) argue that such differences in social structure between large plantations in the southern Americas, and family farming in the north, explain the rise of schooling in the north, and its absence in the south. We show, however, that rural literacy across England 1810-45 was not determined by geographically driven inequality. There were substantial differences in literacy by region, but driven by culture not geography. Geography is not destiny.