Real Wages in Early Economies: Evidence for Living Standards from 1800 BCE to 1300 CE

Abstract

Price and wage data from Roman Egypt in the first three centuries CE indicate levels of real income for unskilled workers that are comparable to those implied by price and wage data in Diocletian's price edict of 301 CE and to those documented in different parts of Europe and Asia in the eighteenth or early nineteenth centuries. In all these cases, consumption was largely limited to goods that were essential for survival and living standards must have been very modest. A survey of daily wages expressed in terms of wheat in different Afroeurasian societies from 1800 BCE to 1300 CE yields similar results: with a few exceptions, the real incomes of unskilled laborers tended to be very low.Dans l'Égypte romaine des trois premiers siècles après J.-C., les données disponibles sur les prix et les salaires suggèrent que les revenus réels de la main-d'oeuvre non qualifiée étaient comparables à celles de l'édit de Dioclétien sur les prix, en 301 apr. J.-C., ainsi qu'aux données relatives à plusieurs régions d'Europe et d'Asie au XVIII e ou au début du XIX e siècle. Dans tous ces cas, la consommation se limitait le plus souvent aux produits de première nécessité et les niveaux de vie devaient être très modestes. Une enquête consacrée aux rémunérations journalières, exprimées en blé, dans plusieurs sociétés afro-eurasiennes de 1800 av. J.-C. à 1300 apr. J.-C., aboutit à des résultats similaires : à quelques exceptions près, les revenus réels des travailleurs non qualifiés étaient généralement très bas. , and several anonymous referees for valuable comments and bibliographical support. I also benefited from feedback provided by Stanford graduate students at a workshop organized by Joseph Manning and Josiah Ober in April 2008. This 426 W. Scheidel / JESHO 53 (2010)

The role of technology in the water–energy–food nexus. A case study: Kerinthos, North Euboea, Greece

“…Given that wheat serves as a fundamental component in the human diet, researchers use the purchasing power of wheat, determined by a daily wage, as a yardstick for evaluating economic prosperity. This approach, as documented by scholars such as van Wees (2006), Scheidel (2010), Milanovic et al (2007, Jursa (2010), Loomis (1998), Milanovic (2006), Van Zanden (1999, Malanima (2013), andSargentis et al (2022a,d), provides a consistent and tangible measure that transcends the fluctuations in the values of money and precious metals. By anchoring economic comparisons to a staple commodity like wheat, which has been a dietary staple throughout history, the "wheat wage" method enables a more reliable assessment of the relative economic wellbeing of societies across different time periods.…”

Values and Costs in History: A Case Study on Estimating the Cost of Hadrianic Aqueduct’s Construction

“…Wheat wages is a proper measure, adapted already in antiquity by Solon for the differentiation of social classes of Athenians on the basis of the medimnoi (bushels) of grain produced [36]. This allows us to create an important cross-cultural comparison of economic wellbeing [37][38][39].…”

How Poor Were Quebec and Canada During the 1840s?

“…The last potential limitation, that of using grain prices to create approximations of real wages, is the most important one that needs to be laid out. Grain wages are most often used in the literature on premodern economies such as Ancient Rome (Scheidel, ) as crude indicators of real wages because of data limitations (cf. Broadberry and Gupta, ).…”