Antedating of "Working Class"

[Fred Shapiro]

working class (OED 1789)

1757 Postlethwayt, Malachy. Britain's commercial interest explained and
improved. 26 (Eighteenth Century Collections Online)  If the produce
cannot be encreased one half, nor, perhaps, hardly one fourth, would not
absolute necessity oblige the working class to give their labour as cheap
as possible, that they may supply their wants as far as they can.

Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
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