The Importance of Youth in the Early Modern Economy: Apprentices and their peer-networks, 1605-1800

本项目使用文具公司的学徒记录来探讨学徒之间建立的同伴关系-即他们的同伴社会关系-对他们随后的职业发展至关重要。许多学徒并没有完成他们的学徒生涯，或者从未从他们加入的公会中“解放”出来，然而学术界认为，与师傅的联系是成功学徒生涯的决定性因素。本研究以定量与定性相结合的方法，探讨同伴网络在文具店学徒职业建立与发展中的作用，并重新评估学徒制度。

This project uses the apprentice records of the Stationers' Company to explore the thesis that peer relationships forged between apprentices - that is their peer-to-peer social bonds - were fundamental to their subsequent career development. Many apprentices did not complete their apprenticeship or were never made 'free' of the guild they joined, yet scholarship assumes that it is the association with a master that is definitive of a successful apprentice career. This study uses quantitative and qualitative data to understand the role of the peer-network in establishing and advancing the careers of the Stationers' apprentices and to re-evaluate the apprenticeship system.