Social mobility and the middling sort : Dublin merchants, 1760-1800

Abstract

This thesis is an investigation of social mobility in the Dublin middling sort between 1760 and 1800 and has focused on merchants in particular. This study has attempted to examine the nature and frequency of social mobility in Ireland by focusing on the capital which had the largest commercial community in Ireland, and the second largest commercial community in the British Isles. Despite the commercial importance of Dublin and the large mercantile community in the capital little research has been done on either the social mobility of the business elite or the nature of the middling sort in the city. This thesis has set out to quantify how many of Dublin’s elite merchants entered, or attempted to join, the landed class of Ireland. By focusing on the wealthiest of business men and those just below the landed class in rank it has also established the socio-economic characteristics of the upper middling sort. The thesis has employed two major methods to analyse the mobility of merchants. Firstly, it has taken a prosopographic approach by focusing the study on thirty prominent and successful merchants active in trade within Dublin between 1760-1800.