Living together without marrying would be more common among the poor of a society primarily because

Wedding ceremonies and most other things associated with getting married are expensive. Expenses related to marrying someone include the ceremony itself, rings, photographers, caterers, attire, invitations, and honeymoon. Rather than go further into debt, living with the person has the same characteristics of a marriage without the rings, certificate, name change, and gathering.

Early 18th century british industries were generally small scale and relatively unsophisticated. most textile production, for example, was centred on small workshops or in the homes of spinners, weavers and dyers: a literal ‘cottage industry’ that involved thousands of individual manufacturers. such small-scale production was also a feature of most other industries, with different regions specialising in different products: metal production in the midlands, for example, and coal mining in the north-east.two illustrations of 18t