Real Inequality in Europe Since 1500

Abstract

, seminar participants at Arild and Davis, and the referees for helpful suggestions. 1 Rousseau, Les Confessions, book 6 (a quip later attributed, falsely, to Marie Antoinette). 2 A direct predecessor to this study is Kula, Economic Theory, pp. 119-31. In Kula's pioneering exercise, we see the first good sketch of the importance of differences in cost-of-living movements, though without any link-up with income measures and with some limitations of commodity coverage and geographic coverage. Kula offered stylized "terms of trade" measures. His stylized nobility sold only rye, divided by a useful price series for a "basket of goods" consisting of good-quality cloth, goodquality paper, French wine, pepper, coffee, and sugar. Absent from this list were any meat, drink other than wine, or labor services, a luxury purchase we have emphasized. His stylized peasants sold a mixture of rye, oats, butter, and eggs, in exchange for cloth, nails, and salt. Aside from Kula, the closest approach to some of our present points was made by Wilhelm Abel (Crises agraires), but he mentioned only food versus other goods, and left the price effects unquantified.

Does Globalization Make the World More Unequal?

“…In addition, this divergence was even greater in real than in nominal terms, because luxuries became much cheaper relative to staples (van Zanden 1995;Hoffman et al 2000;Pamuk 2000). While we still lack estimates or even guesstimates on the world distribution of income between 1500 and 1820, the bits and pieces we do have suggest unambiguously that global inequality must have risen significantly in this pre-industrial era.…”

Deviant behaviour? Inequality in Portugal 1565–1770

“…It claims that what drove distributional alterations were supervening modifications in the 26 Practically every study in this field has concluded in a similar vein. Hoffman et al (2002) find that: 'inequality within the nations of western Europe has risen greatly' (p. 324). This is echoed by Van Zanden (1995): 'a super Kuznets curve spanning many centuries […] was characterized by rising inequality' (p. 662).…”

The Seeds of Divergence: The Economy of French North America, 1688 to 1760

“…"Farm Settlement with Imperfect Capital Markets: A Life-Cycle Application to Upper Canada, 1826-1851", Canadian Journal of Economics,Vol.34,No.1, Ibid,p.177. 121 The best known paper is that of Philip Hoffman, David S. Jacks, Patricia Levin and Peter Lindert. 2002.…”