Meanings and uses of numeracy in Scotland and northern England, c.1660–c.1800

Abstract

This thesis examines the practical uses and social meanings of numeracy among lower- and middle-ranking people in Scotland and northern England from 1660 to 1800. Abilities such as counting, calculating, weighing, measuring and communicating with numbers were vital to the daily lives and economic fortunes of humble individuals in this period of profound economic, social and cultural change. Far from simply a form of basic mathematics, numeracy encompassed a wide variety of competencies with deep cultural meaning. In contrast to previous studies based predominantly on printed texts by elite authors, this thesis draws upon a wide range of textual and material sources, including large quantities of unstudied manuscript evidence from local and national repositories, to reconstruct experiences of numeracy as they varied across axes of social rank, occupation and gender. In four chapters on arithmetic education, working life, financial accounting and time consciousness, it shows that number skills were pervasive regardless of education, literacy and formal expertise. Above all, it argues, numeracy was a form of communication rather than calculation, a social process more than a cognitive skill. The importance of numerical precision was often secondary to that of deep-seated cultural values rooted in custom, social norms, trust and morality. Although over the long eighteenth century, numeracy became a more literate, precise and mathematical endeavour as the ability to read and write proliferated, and the rise of capitalism and quantitative science reordered the broader cultural landscape, these changes should be understood not simply as a rise of numeracy, but a more complex evolution that saw new modes of reckoning grow in social value. As such, this thesis demonstrates the importance of considering the social and cultural meaning that underwrote everyday practical skills in understanding the relationship between knowledge and economic life.