Colonial Origins of Inequality in Hispanic America? Some Reflections Based on New Empirical Evidence

Abstract

This paper attempts to contribute to the ongoing debate on the historical roots of the high economic inequality of contemporary Iberian America. Our approach, which is basically empirical, departs from the mainstream scholarship. We show new data on wages and heights in several viceroyalties that (1) suggest relatively medium-to-high levels of material welfare among the commoners in Bourbon Hispanic America; and (2) allow us to build indexes of economic inequality. An international comparison of those indexes casts some doubts on the widely accepted view that Viceroyal America's economy was exclusively based on extremely unequal or extractive Keywords: anthropometrics, colonialism, inequality, wages, Hispanic American economic history RESUMENEste trabajo pretende contribuir al debate sobre las causas histó ricas de la alta desigualdad econó mica en la Iberoamérica contemporá nea y lo hace en forma bá sicamente empírica, lo que es bastante inusual. En él se muestran nuevos datos sobre salarios y estaturas de varios virreinatos que: (1) sugieren niveles de bienestar material relativamente medios o altos para grupos no privilegiados de la Hispanoamérica borbó nica; y (2) permiten la construcció n de índices de desigualdad econó mica. La comparació n internacional de esos índices arroja dudas sobre la verosimilitud del ampliamente extendido supuesto de que la economía de la América españ ola se basada exclusivamente en instituciones extremadamente desiguales o extractivas, que ha sido popularizada por los influyentes trabajos de Engerman y Sokoloff y Acemoglu et al.

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

“…Thus, the «optimistic» view proposed by Dobado-González and García-Montero is based on: (a) the comparison with other parts of the world and (b) the contrast between our empirical findings and the somber inferences that may be derived with respect to the material conditions of life among labourers in pre-independence Spanish America (relatively low real wages, short heights and high inequality) from the neo-institutionalist hypothesis. Dobado-González and García-Montero (2010) basically showed the same results regarding economic (real wages) and biological (heights) living standards and inequality. A new hypothesis was then proposed: in the light of the results obtained, it seemed reasonable to wonder whether the GDP per capita estimates by Coatsworth (2008) and Maddison (2009) should be revised upwards 11 .…”

“…However, they only mention the studies of heights of a few authors — not including those of Dobado-González and García-Montero (2009, 2010) — and do not present their own data. Arroyo-Abad et al (2012) share a hypothetical proposition made by Dobado-González and García-Montero (2010). They also suggest that Maddison’s estimates of GDP per capita might need to be revised upwards: «the starting level at the eve of the 19th century may have been higher than assumed so far» (Arroyo-Abad et al 2012, p. 160).…”

“…The «pessimism»/«optimism» dichotomy may also be valid to describe the main conclusions of the anthropometric studies on pre-independence Spanish America (in fact, New Spain) published since 2009. In contrast with Dobado-González and García-Montero (2009, 2010, 2014), Challú (2009, 2010) and Grajales-Porras and López-Alonso (2011) are rather «pessimistic».…”

Neither So Low nor So Short: Wages and Heights in Bourbon Spanish America from an International Comparative Perspective

“…See those views inEngerman and Sokoloff (1994,Acemoglu et al (2002) andBruhn and Gallego (2008). A critique inDobado and García (2010) andDobado and Marrero (2011).32 That silver wages in Bourbon America were clearly higher than in Asia is consistent withBroadberry and Gupta (2006) andAllen et al (2010). According toAllen et al (2011), silver wages in Potosí (mitayos) and Mexico were third only to North America and London and Southern England towns while those in Bogotá and rural New Spain were surpassed only by those in Amsterdam, Madrid and Antwerp and higher than in the rest of the world.33 Most likely, Chilean grain wages must have been also comparatively high, as this General Captaincy was a net exporter of wheat.…”

Eating, Drinking, Paying. The Price of Food in Montevideo in the Late Colonial Period

“… 1 Dobado-González and Montero (2010); Arroyo-Abad et al . (2012); Allen et al (2012); Dobado-Gonzalez (2015); Challú and Gómez-Galvarriato (2015); Djenderedjian and Martirén (2015a, 2015b); Llorca-Jaña and Navarrete-Montalvo (2015); Gelman and Santilli (2015, 2016); Calderón Fernández et al .…”