Quill-Driving: British Life-insurance Clerks and Occupational Mobility, 1800–1914

Abstract

For the clerks who worked in British life-insurance companies during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, occupational mobility was both an opportunity that motivated effort and a generator of wide disparities in pay and status. Ambitious clerks learned math in the hope of becoming actuaries. By the end of the nineteenth century, this pattern had changed, owing to the rise of branch networks and accompanying bottle-necks in the promotion process. Insurance companies tried to divert clerks’ ambition by offering them opportunities to engage in sports and other leisure activities, and by enhancing their financial security through staff pension schemes. Although these strategies only succeeded in retaining around half of all entering clerks for more than a few years, the activities added meaning to the lives of those clerks who stayed on and made vital contributions to the rapid growth of one of Britain's most important financial services.