'A town built on migration?' Calculating the human capital value of migration to Reading, 1851-1871

Abstract

This article provides an estimate of the human capital value of migration to Reading in the period 1851-1871 to the town's economy. This is determined by estimating total net migration to the town across this period by age and sex and assigning all migrants a value for expected lifetime economic output less expected lifetime consumption costs. The final figures are contextualised by comparison with the value of social overhead capital used to fund significant local infrastructure projects in the same time period and show that, from a human capital perspective, the value of migration to Reading was very significant. This article thus addresses significant historiographical gaps in the study of Victorian labour migration to southern provincial towns and provides an original perspective to studies of the economic value of migration and its role in the growth of such communities.