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

Robert C. Allen, Tommy Bengtsson, and Martin Dribe

Abstract

The main concern of this book is to determine when the gap in living standards between the East and the West emerged. Why did Europe experience industrialization and modern economic growth before China, India, or Japan? This is one of the most fundamental questions in Economic history and one that has provoked intense debate. The established view, dating back to Adam Smith, is that the gap emerged long before the industrial revolution.

Keywords: Adam Smith, demographic indicators, seventeenth century economics, eighteenth century economics, Eastern economics, Western economics, economic stress, demographic vulnerability, living standards

Bibliographic Information

Print publication date: 2005 Print ISBN-13: 9780199280681
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: July 2005 DOI:10.1093/0199280681.001.0001

Authors

Affiliations are at time of print publication.

Robert C. Allen, Editor
Professor of Economic History, University of Oxford
Author Webpage

Tommy Bengtsson, Editor
Professor of Demography and Economic History, Lund University
Author Webpage

Martin Dribe, Editor
Associate Professor of Economic History, Lund University

Contents

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Front Matter

Title Pages

Acknowledgements

List of Contributors

List of Figures

List of Maps

List of Tables

Introduction

1 Standards of Living in Eighteenth-Century China: Regional Differences, Temporal Trends, and Incomplete Evidence

2 Farm Labour Productivity in Jiangnan, 1620–1850

3 Wages, Inequality, and Pre-Industrial Growth in Japan, 1727–1894

4 Agriculture, Labour, and the Standard of Living in Eighteenth-Century India

5 Real Wages in Europe and Asia: A First Look at the Long-Term Patterns

6 Sketching the Rise of Real Inequality in Early Modern Europe

7 What Happened to the Standard of Living Before the Industrial Revolution? New Evidence from the Western Part of the Netherlands

8 Economic Growth, Human Capital Formation and Consumption in Western Europe Before 1800

9 Health and Nutrition in the Pre-Industrial Era: Insights from a Millennium of Average Heights in Northern Europe

10 The Burden of Grandeur: Physical and Economic Well-Being of the Russian Population in the Eighteenth Century

11 Maternal Mortality as an Indicator of the Standard of Living in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Slavonia

12 The Standard of Living in Denmark in the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries

13 Short-Term Demographic Changes in Relation to Economic Fluctuations: The Case of Tuscany During the Pre-Transitional Period

14 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

15 Individuals and Communities Facing Economic Stress: A Comparison of Two Rural Areas in Nineteenth-Century Belgium

16 Living Standards in Liaoning, 1749–1909: Evidence from Demographic Outcomes

17 Demographic Responses to Short-Term Economic Stress in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Rural Japan: Evidence from Two Northeastern Villages

End Matter

References

Index