More reliable historical data reveal more deeply depressed English workers

Evidence

In general, the more reliable the data, the more firm is the impression of a progressively depressed population during the period under discussion. Still, all these figures are in some sense superficial to (though helpful for sensing) the real issue that is the experience of the men, women, and children who made up the English poor and working classes. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 228