Peasant differentiation and proto‐industrialisation in the Ulster countryside: Tullylish 1690–1825

Abstract

This article focuses on the parish of Tullylish, County Down during a critical period known as the ‘long eighteenth century’ when the linen industry in Ulster developed rapidly. Through a focus on local history, the numerous factors involved in the development of capitalism are discussed, emphasising the debates about the applicability of the concept of proto‐industry. The article is part of a wider study of capitalist development in Tullylish, and the impact of proletarianisation on the linen producing households.

Notes

Department of Anthropology, Graduate Faculty, The New School for Social Research, 65 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10003. This research received support from the Joint Committee on the International Doctoral Research Fellowship Program for Western Europe of the Social Science Research Council, the Board of Foreign Scholarships for a grant under the Fulbright‐Hays Act, and the Wenner‐Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. The author would abo like to thank two anonymous referees, Henry Bernstein, Leigh Binford, Thomas Wilson, Joan Vincent and especially William Roseberry for reading and critically commenting upon earlier drafts of this article.