Beyond building craftsmen. Economic growth and living standards in the sixteenth-century Low Countries: the case of 's-Hertogenbosch (1500-1560)

Abstract

Economic historians are increasingly aware of the divergence between the development of real wages and GDP per capita in pre-industrial Europe, even in affluent urbanized societies with high wage levels such as the sixteenth-century Low Countries. This article offers an empirical answer to this alleged paradox by merging living standards and real wages with income distributions in a case study of sixteenth-century 's-Hertogenbosch. It provides evidence for an optimistic reading of the living standards of this era despite the modest performance of the urban economy and a strong decline in real wages. The rich sources of 's-Hertogenbosch were instrumental in reaching this conclusion, as they offer proof that the drop in wage labourers' purchasing power was paralleled by a marked decline in social position. As such, their income experience turns out to be surprisingly atypical, and does little to capture the strong resilience of the majority of the urban populace in the face of the early price revolution.1 All empirical material presented is, unless otherwise stated, derived from the city accounts of 's-Hertogenbosch: City Archives 's-Hertogenbosch, Old City Archive (Oud Stadsarchief), numbers 1350-1420. Monetary amounts are expressed in the local currency, the (Carolus)gulden or florin and stuivers (or patard), whereby 20 stuivers equals one gulden. The stuiver was worth 2d. groot Flemish, six florins equalled one pond or pound groot. The first monetary value in the text will be given in (local) Brabantine and Flemish currency, in the remainder only guldens and stuivers are recorded.

A fine balance. Household finance and financial strategies of Antwerps households, 17th-18th century

“…Of course, the master mason's wage only serves as a yardstick for reasons of comparison, taking master masons to be the lower boundary of the middle class. 60 Furthermore, comparing wages and prices proves that a master mason would need many more years to save this amount on his household budget.…”

From orphan to artisan: apprenticeship careers and contract enforcement in The Netherlands before and after the guild abolition

“…6. Accounting for life‐cycle effects and occupational groups may call for an adjustment of early modern wage series; Blondé and Hanus, ‘Beyond building craftsmen’, p. 201.…”

‘Eating the bread out of their mouth’:Antwerp's export trade and generalized institutions, 1544–5

“…Data from John Munro are available at ‘Antwerp: annual wage and prices, 1400–1700’, http://www.economics.utoronto.ca/munro5/AntwerpWage.xls. Blondé and Hanus, ‘Beyond building craftsmen’, point out the unrepresentativeness of builders' wage. 's‐Hertogenbosch masons were spread over the entire social spectrum and in the sixteenth century they descended in the fiscal hierarchy.…”