This article uses population censuses to provide the first consistent counts of the population of business proprietors for 1891?1911. After appropriate adjustments for imperfect Census design the article confirms the persistence of own account self-employed as the most common businesses throughout the period. However, it identifies a turning point around 1901 when the business numbers decisively shifted towards larger firms, where employers with waged workers began substituting for many own account businesses. Developments were, however, multi-faceted, with important sector differences, and some fields of female business beginning to take off over the period, especially in retail and the professions. ? 2018 University of Cambridge. Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

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1 December 2020

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Business History 62(8) , pp.1341-1372, 2020

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DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2018.1534959

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00076791.2018.1534959

This Journal article is published under the centre's Urban programme.