Living Standards in the Past New Perspectives on Well-Being in Asia and Europe

by Allen, Robert; Bengtsson, Tommy; Dribe, Martin

• ISBN13: 9780199280681
• ISBN10: 0199280681
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-06-02
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

When did Europe pull ahead of Asia in terms of living standards? A number of well-known scholars compare economic and demographic indicators of well-being in the pre-industrial period. The emerging picture is not one of great differences, but of considerable similarities in standard of living between Europe and Asia before the Industrial Revolution.

Author Biography

Robert Allen is Professor of Economic History at Oxford University and a fellow of Nuffield College. He received his doctorate from Harvard University. He has written extensively on English agricultural history, international competition in the steel industry, the extinction of whales, the global history of wages and prices, and contemporary policies on education. His articles have won the Cole Prize, the Redlich Prize, and the Explorations Prize. His books include Enclosure and the Yeoman: The Agricultural Development of the South Midlands, 1450-1850, which was awarded the Ranki Prize by the Economic History Association, and, most recently, Farm to Factory: A Re-interpretation of the Soviet Industrial Revolution. Professor Allen is a Fellow of the British Academy and the Royal Society of Canada. Tommy Bengtsson, Professor of Demography and Economic History at Lund University, works in both historical and contemporary economic demography. He has served in leading positions in Swedish and international organisations and is currently Chair of the IUSSP Committee on Historical Demography and Series Co-editor of the Eurasian Population and Family History Series. Martin Dribe is Associate Professor of Economic History at Lund University.

Table of Contents

List of Contributors	ix
List of Figures	xv
List of Maps	xviii
List of Tables	xix
Introduction	1	(22)
Robert C. Allen
Tommy Bengtsson
Martin Dribe
Standards of Living in Eighteenth-Century China: Regional Differences, Temporal Trends, and Incomplete Evidence	23	(32)
Kenneth Pomeranz
Farm Labour Productivity in Jiangnan, 1620-1850	55	(22)
Bozhong Li
Wages, Inequality, and Pre-Industrial Growth in Japan, 1727-1894	77	(22)
Osamu Saito
Agriculture, Labour, and the Standard of Living in Eighteenth-Century India	99	(12)
Prasannan Parthasarathi
Real Wages in Europe and Asia: A First Look at the Long-Term Patterns	111	(20)
Robert C. Allen
Sketching the Rise of Real Inequality in Early Modern Europe	131	(42)
Philip T. Hoffman
David S. Jacks
Patricia A. Levin
Peter H. Lindert
What Happened to the Standard of Living Before the Industrial Revolution? New Evidence from the Western Part of the Netherlands	173	(22)
Jan Luiten van Zanden
Economic Growth, Human Capital Formation and Consumption in Western Europe Before 1800	195	(32)
Jaime Reis
Health and Nutrition in the Pre-Industrial Era: Insights from a Millennium of Average Heights in Northern Europe	227	(28)
Richard H. Steckel
The Burden of Grandeur: Physical and Economic Well-Being of the Russian Population in the Eighteenth Century	255	(22)
Boris Mironov
Maternal Mortality as an Indicator of the Standard of Living in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Slavonia	277	(30)
Eugene A. Hammel
Aaron Gullickson
The Standard of Living in Denmark in the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries	307	(12)
Hans Chr. Johansen
Short-term Demographic Changes in Relation to Economic Fluctuations: The Case of Tuscany During the Pre-Transitional Period	319	(22)
Marco Breschi
Alessio Fornasin
Giovanna Gonano
New Evidence on the Standard of Living in Sweden During the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries: Long-Term Development of the Demographic Response to Short-Term Economic Stress	341	(32)
Tommy Bengtsson
Martin Dribe
Individuals and Communities Facing Economic Stress: A Comparison of Two Rural Areas in Nineteenth-Century Belgium	373	(30)
Michel Oris
Muriel Neven
George Alter
Living Standards in Liaoning, 1749-1909: Evidence from Demographic Outcomes	403	(24)
James Z. Lee
Cameron D. Campbell
Demographic Responses to Short-Term Economic Stress in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Rural Japan: Evidence from Two Northeastern Villages	427	(34)
Noriko O. Tsuya
Satomi Kurosu
Index	461