The main objective of this article is to determine the real salaries and living conditions of construction workers in Santiago de Chile towards the end of the colonial period (c. 1788-1808). To achieve this purpose, we have used the methodology proposed by Allen to calculate real salaries in terms of welfare ratios. Our main conclusions are: the real salaries of non-qualified workers remained above the subsistence levels throughout the entire period studied in this work, pointing to a lack of labour force in Santiago for this period (in spite of a population increase during the same period); there was also a significant proportion of qualified workers in the construction sector who earned 2-3 times more than non-qualified workers, giving rise to a notable heterogeneity in the mean income of workers in this sector and a greater difference than in other cities; despite being above the subsistence levels, the real salaries of non-qualified workers in Santiago appear to be among the lowest in the region, in contrast with previous conclusions in this respect.

This article provides the first series of adult male height for 19th-century Chile. Our aim was not only to assess the trends indicated by height during this period, but also the relationship between stature and both GDP per capita and exports. Having analysed our data, our primary conclusion is that there was a reduction in height for cohorts born in the 1850s and 1860s with respect to cohorts born between 1820 and 1840. Height stagnated thereafter, with small to no improvement towards the end of the 19th century, in line with other Latin American countries for which there is comparable evidence. The increase in per capita GDP and exports during the second half of the century did not result in better biological welfare, as was the case in other Latin American countries during similar export booms.

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This article shows how Chile experienced a profound nutrition transition within a short period of time. Before the early 1990s, the diet of most Chileans was poor in animal proteins and calcium. Today, Chileans enjoy a diet characterized by high consumption of meat and dairy products. The rapid rise in consumption of these products can be attributed to various factors: Chile belatedly joining the international agribusiness revolution; government support from the 1930s to the 1960s; increasing GDP per capita; macro-economic stability; changes in consumption habits; trade liberalization; and the fall in food prices, as both meat and milk had high income elasticity. These revolutions in both production and consumption have greatly improved the nutrition of the Chilean population and partly explain the improvement in Chile’s biological well-being.

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la agrIcultura y la élIte agrarIa chIlena a traVés de los catastros agrícolas, c.1830-1855 resumenEste artículo analiza la situación del sector agropecuario y la composición de la élite agraria en Chile en la primera mitad del siglo xIx, un periodo insuficientemente tratado en la literatura especializada. Para ello hemos empleado información procedente de fuentes escasamente utilizadas en la historiografía agraria, como son El Agricultor y, especialmente, el Catastro Agrícola. A partir de este último, hemos construido y procesado una base de datos de medio millón de registros provenientes de los tres primeros catastros agrícolas, realizados en 1832, 1838 y 1852. Junto con establecer las razones del atraso del sector agrario, y una muy desigual distribución tanto de la propiedad de la tierra como del ingreso agrícola, nuestros resultados indican una notable persistencia de las élites agrarias entre fines de la Colonia y las primeras décadas de Chile independiente, así como una significativa correlación entre la clase de grandes agricultores de mayores ingresos y la élite política.Palabras claves: Chile, siglo xIx, agricultura, catastro, élites, hacendados, desigualdad. abstractThis article assesses the state of the agrarian sector and the composition of the Chilean agrarian elite during the first half of the nineteenth century, a rather unexplored period

This article makes a contribution to the study of family groups in developing economies by analysing the case of the Cousiño-Goyenechea business, one of the most important business groups in nineteenth-century Chile. We provide new evidence of how the Cousiño's original fortune was built, and how after being highly concentrated in copper and silver mining, the family business successfully diversified and integrated vertically through two generations, thus becoming the second most important economic group in the country by the end of the 19 th century. This was the result of risky business decisions, particularly after deciding to enter coal mining under much uncertainty, modernising this industry, as well as expanding into copper refining, brick and glass manufacturing, hydroelectric power plants, and wine production. However, their success was also due to a clever strategy of capital increase by creating corporations linked to the group. RESUMENEste artículo hace una contribución al estudio de empresas familiares en economías en desarrollo analizando el caso de la empresa familiar Cousiño-Goyenechea, uno de los grupos económicos más importantes de Chile en el siglo XIX. Presentamos nueva evidencia sobre cómo se construyó la fortuna inicial de los Cousiño, y de cómo, después de haber estado altamente concentrada en cobre y plata, el negocio familiar se diversificó de manera exitosa, además de integrarse verticalmente a través de dos generaciones, deviniendo así en el segundo grupo económico más importante del país a fines del siglo XIX. Esto fue resultado de decisiones de negocio arriesgadas, sobre todo el decidir ingresar a la minería del carbón bajo gran incertidumbre, modernizando la industria, expandiéndose a otras actividades como refinado de cobre, producción de ladrillos y vidrios, plantas hidroeléctricas, producción de vinos, etc. Pero el éxito del grupo también se debió a una inteligente estrategia de incrementos de capital al crear sociedades anónimas vinculadas al grupo.