Between conquest and independence: Real wages and demographic change in Spanish America, 1530–1820

Abstract

On the basis of a newly constructed dataset, this paper presents long-term series of the price levels, nominal wages, and real wages in Spanish Latin America -more specifically in Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, and Argentina -between ca. 1530 and ca. 1820. It synthesizes the work of scholars who have collected and published data on individual cities and periods, and presents comparable indices of real wages and prices in the colonial period that give a reasonable guide to trends in the long run. We show that nominal wages and prices were on average much higher than in Western Europe or in Asia, a reflection of the low value of silver that must have had consequences for competitiveness of the Latin American economies. Labour scarcity was the second salient feature of Spanish Latin America and resulted in real wages much above subsistence and in some cases (Mexico, Bolivia, Argentina) comparable to levels in Northwestern Europe. For Mexico, this was caused by the dramatic decline of the population after the Conquest. For Bolivia, the driving force was the boom in silver mining in Potosi that created a huge demand for labour. In the case of Argentina, low population density was a pre-colonial feature. Perhaps due to a different pattern of depopulation, the real wages of other regions (Peru, Colombia and Chile) were much lower, and only increased above subsistence during the first half of the 18th century. These results are consistent with independent evidence on biological standards of living and with estimates of GDP per capita at the beginning of the 19th century.

Mexico’s Real Wages in the Age of the Great Divergence, 1730-1930

“…REAL WAGES OF LABOURERS USING THE RESPECTABLE CONSUMER PRICE INDEX (CPI; Welfare ratio) Sources: See Appendix.AMÍLCAR E. CHALLÚ/AURORA GÓMEZ-GALVARRIATO they differ, expectedly, in their levels and volatility and the trend of «respectable» welfare ratio is even flatter.Our barebones price and real wage indexes are highly correlated with those ofAllen et al (2012) andArroyo Abad et al (2012), resulting in the similar trends shown inFigure 3. Yet the levels and the magnitude of changes were different.…”

Pre-Independence Spanish Americans: Poor, Short and Unequal… or the Opposite?

“…Very long series of prices of all items in the basket (soap, candles, fuel, etc. For instance, in Arroyo-Abad et al (2012), the series of wages for Argentina between 1775 and 1810 results from combining data on «construction workers» (1775-1810) with «government officials» and «bricklayers» (1810-1860) from Buenos Aires; that for Peru mixes the wages of «mita workers» in Huamanga (1597-1603)a mining area in the Andeswith those of «porters» in Lima (1625-1760). Especialmente en el caso de las mujeres, y, en consecuencia, las rentas salariales de las familias tuvieron, en el largo plazo, una evolución bastante menos negativa que la de los jornales» (Llopis and García-Montero 2011, p. 296).…”

Despegue frustrado: costo de vida y estándares de vida en el Perú durante el siglo XIX

“…Utilizando los datos ya disponibles para el Perú del siglo XIX y complementándolos con mi propio trabajo de archivo, este trabajo utiliza la metodología diseñada por Allen (2001) y ampliada por Arroyo Abad et al (2012). Como se detalla a continuación, la metodología también incluye otras canastas de consumo disponibles de otras fuentes.…”