Daniel Defoe and the Social Structure of Pre-Industrial England

This chapter uses Defoe’s classification of English society into seven social strata to understand the gradations of rank in England prior to the Industrial Revolution. In the Review, Defoe wrote that English men and women fell into the following social levels: ‘the Great, who live profusely’; ‘the Rich, who live very plentifully’; ‘the middle Sort, who live well’; ‘the working Trades, who labour hard, but feel no Want’; ‘the Country People, Farmers, &c. who fare indifferently’; ‘the Poor, that fare hard’; and ‘the Miserable, that really pinch and suffer Want’. The chapter challenges simplified understandings of Defoe which see him announcing and embracing the rise of the middle class, promoting ‘middle-class gentility’, or embodying liberal and democratic ideals. It addresses Defoe’s social conservatism, the centrality of the possession of landed property to his understanding of the political nation, and the compatibility with this outlook of his consistent championing of trade.