Christopher Hanes - Research in Economic History

Paul Caruana-Galizia

Price Fishback

Bernard Harris, Roderick Floud and Sok Chul Hong

Jessica S. Bean

Barbara Pistoresi and Alberto Rinaldi

RESEARCH IN ECONOMIC HISTORY

RESEARCH IN ECONOMIC HISTORY

Series Editors: Christopher Hanes and Susan Wolcott

RESEARCH IN ECONOMIC HISTORYVOLUME 31

EDITED BY

CHRISTOPHER HANES

SUNY Binghamton, NY, USA

SUSAN WOLCOTT

SUNY Binghamton, NY, USA

United Kingdom North America Japan
India Malaysia China

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2015

Copyright 2015 Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Reprints and permissions service

Contact:

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying issued in the UK by The Copyright Licensing Agency and in the USA by The Copyright Clearance Center. Any opinions expressed in the chapters are those of the authors. Whilst Emerald makes every effort to ensure the quality and accuracy of its content, Emerald makes no representation implied or otherwise, as to the chapters suitability and application and disclaims any warranties, express or implied, to their use.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-78441-782-6

ISSN: 0363-3268 (Series)

Research in Economic History is a refereed journal, specializing in economic history, in the form of a book. We publish articles that follow the standard formats of economics journals, but we can also accommodate historical narratives and articles that primarily present newly constructed data sets. This volume is particularly rich in the last.

Paul Caruana-Galizia introduces new series for nominal wages, consumer prices, and real wages in Algeria and Tunisia from 1847 through 1913, constructed from archival sources. Based on these series and existing series for Egypt and Syria, he concludes that real wages converged across these countries over the nineteenth century, but did not generally rise. This is a somewhat surprising result, as some historical literature and estimates of real GDP per capita suggest living standards in these countries were improving.

Price Fishback presents estimates of spending by American Federal government New Deal programs during the 1930s. The estimates give spending on each program separately, year by year. They should be useful to researchers on topics including the political origins of New Deal programs and the economic, social, and political effects of government spending. Fishback thoroughly explains the assumptions and sources underlying each series.

Bernard Harris, Roderick Floud, and Sok Chul Hong present new estimates of food supply, measured as calories available for human consumption, in England and Wales from the nineteenth century through the eve of the First World War. The estimates are substantially different from those produced by other researchers as well as the authors own earlier work on the subject. They should become a focus in ongoing debates about welfare across the era of the Industrial Revolution.

Jessica S. Bean analyzes a data source which has never before been examined in scholarly literature. In 1897 and 1907, the Womens Industrial Council (WIC) in Britain interviewed London women who worked at piece rates in their homes. The WIC recorded the results almost without comment or exposition, with a stated goal of providing more accurate information for the formation of employment policy. Bean uses the survey results to better understand the relationship between a womans wages and hours in employment and her bargaining power, as affected by her health and family structure.

The paper by Barbara Pistoresi and Alberto Rinaldi does not present new data, but it uses a recently developed dataset to go at an old question: the causes of fluctuations in the current account and investment in Italy before the First World War. On the authors interpretation, their results support arguments that variations in both the current account and investment were caused by fluctuations in the supply of foreign capital. But, they conclude, these variations in investment were concentrated in equipment and machinery, not construction as claimed by earlier literature.

We ruefully note that just one paper in this volume ventures off the well-trodden paths of American and European history. We strongly encourage submissions presenting new data or newly constructed statistics from other parts of the world. Give us your estimates, your tedious accounts of interpolations and debatable but necessary assumptions, your huddled footnotes yearning to breathe free. We lift our lamp beside the golden door.

Christopher Hanes

Susan Wolcott

Series Editors

Paul Caruana-Galizia