Hostname: page-component-7b9c58cd5d-f9bf7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-03-18T03:25:36.812Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Colonial Origins of the Divergence in the Americas: A Labor Market Approach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 December 2012

Robert C. Allen ,
Tommy E. Murphy  and
Eric B. Schneider
Robert C. Allen*
Affiliation:
Professor, Department of Economics and Nuffield College, University of Oxford, New Road, Oxford OX1 1NF, United Kingdom. E-mail: [email protected].
Tommy E. Murphy*
Affiliation:
Research Fellow, Centro Dondena and IGIER, Université Commerciale Luigi Bocconi, Via Roentgen, 1, 20136 Milan, Italy. E-mail: [email protected].
Eric B. Schneider*
Affiliation:
Ph.D. Candidate in Economic Historym Faculty of History and Nuffield College, University of Oxford, New Road, Oxford OX1 1NF, United Kingdom. E-mail: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article introduces the Americas in the Great Divergence debate by measuring real wages in various North and South American cities between colonization and independence, and comparing them to Europe and Asia. We find that for much of the period, North America was the most prosperous region of the world, while Latin America was much poorer. We then discuss a series of hypotheses that can explain these results, including migration, the demography of the American Indian populations, and the various labor systems implemented in the continent.

Type
ARTICLES
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 72 , Issue 4 , 14 December 2012 , pp. 863 - 894
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Acemoglu, Daron, Johnson, Simon, and Robinson, James A.. “The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation.” American Economic Review 91, no. 5 (2001): 1369–1401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Acemoglu, Daron, Johnson, Simon, and Robinson, James A.. “The Reversal of Fortune: Geography and Institutions in the Making of the Modern World Income Distribution.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 117, no. 4 (2002): 1231–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Adams, Donald R. “Wage Rates in the Early National Period: Philadelphia, 1785–1830.” The Journal of Economic History 28, no. 3 (1968): 404–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allen, Robert C. “The Great Divergence in European Wages and Prices from the Middle Ages to the First World War.” Explorations in Economic History 38, no. 4 (2001): 411–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allen, Robert C., Bassino, Jean-Pascal, Ma, Debin, et al. . “Wages, Prices, and Living Standards in China, 1738–1925: In Comparison with Europe, Japan, and India.” Economic History Review 64, S1, Special Issue (2011): 8–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allen, Robert C., and Tommy E. Murphy. Just Before the Metre, the Gram, the Litre: Building a Rosetta Stone of Weights and Measures in the Early Modern World. Version 05.08, 2005. Available at http://www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/users/murphy/measures/before_metre.htm.Google Scholar
Altman, Ida. “A New World in the Old: Local Society and Spanish Emigration to the Indies.” In “To Make America”: European Emigration in the Early Modern Period, edited by Altman, Ida and Horn, James, 30–58. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Altman, Ida, and Horn, James, eds. “To Make America”: European Emigration in the Early Modern Period. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Abad, Arroyo, Leticia, Elwyn Davies, and van Zanden, Jan Luiten. “Between Conquest and Independence: Real Wages and Demographic Change in Spanish America, 1530–1820.” Explorations in Economic History 49, no. 2 (2012): 149–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Assadourian, Carlos Sempat. El sistema de la economía colonial. Mercado interno, regiones y espacio económico. Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 1982.Google Scholar
Bairoch, Paul. “International Industrialization Levels from 1750 to 1980.” Journal of European Economic History 11, no. 2 (1982): 269–333.Google Scholar
Banerjee, Abhijit, and Duflo, Esther. “The Economic Lives of the Poor.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 21, no. 1 (2007): 141–67.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barba, Fernando E.Aproximación al estudio de los precios y los salarios en Buenos Aires desde fines del siglo XVIII hasta 1860. La Plata: Editorial de la Universidad Nacional de la Plata, 1999.Google Scholar
Berry, R. Albert, and Cline, William R.. Agrarian Structure and Productivity in Developing Countries. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979.Google Scholar
Bezanson, Anne, Gray, Robert D., and Hussey, Miriam. Prices in Colonial Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1935.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bezanson, Anne, Gray, Robert D., and Hussey, Miriam. Wholesale Prices in Philadelphia, 1784–1861. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1936.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blaut, James M.The Colonizer's Model of the World: Geographical Diffusionism and Eurocentric History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.Google Scholar
Boal, William M., and Ransom, Michael R.. “Monopsony in the Labor Market.” Journal of Economic Literature 35, no. 1 (1997): 86–112.Google Scholar
Booth, Anne, and Sundrum, R. M.. Labour Absorption in Agriculture. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985.Google Scholar
Borah, Woodrow, and Cook, Sherburne F.. Price Trends of Some Basic Commodities in Central Mexico, 1531–1570. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1958.Google Scholar
Calderón Fernández, Andrés. “Una serie de precios de vivienda: Las Accesorias del Real Colegio de San Ignacio de Loyola de los Señores Vizcaínos, 1771–1821.” Unpublished Manuscript, II Congreso Latinoamericano de Historia Económica, México, DF: Mexico, 2009.Google Scholar
Carr, Lois Green, Menard, Russell R., and Walsh, Lorena Seebach. Robert Cole's World: Agriculture and Society in Early Maryland. Williamsburg, VA: UNC Press Books, 1991.Google Scholar
Carter, Susan B. et al. . Historical Statistics of the United States: Millennium Edition Online. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011. Available at http://hsus.cambridge.org/.Google Scholar
Challú, Amílcar E. “The Great Decline: Biological Well-Being and Living Standards in Mexico, 1730–1840.” In Living Standards in Latin American History: Height, Welfare, and Development, 1750–2000, edited by Salvatore, R. D., Coatsworth, J. H., and Challú, A. E., 23–67. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010.Google Scholar
Coatsworth, John H. “Economic History and the History of Prices in Colonial Latin America.” In Essays on the Price History of Eighteenth-Century Latin America, edited by Johnson, L. and Tandeter, Enrique, 21–34. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1990.Google Scholar
Johnson, L. and Tandeter, Enrique. “Political Economy and Economic Organization.” In The Cambridge Economic History of Latin America, Volume 1: The Colonial Era and the Short Nineteenth Century, edited by Bulmer-Thomas, V., Coatsworth, J. H., and Conde, R. Cortés, 237–73. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.Google Scholar
Bulmer-Thomas, V., Coatsworth, J. H., and Conde, R. Cortés. “Inequality, Institutions, and Economic Growth in Latin America.” Journal of Latin American Studies 40, no. 3 (2008): 545–69.Google Scholar
David, Paul A., Gutman, Herbert G., Sutch, Richard, Temin, Peter, and Wright, Gavin. Reckoning with Slavery: A Critical Study in the Quantitative History of American Negro Slavery. New York: Oxford University Press, 1976.Google Scholar
Descola, Jean. Daily Life in Colonial Peru, 1710–1820. New York: Allen & Unwin, 1968.Google Scholar
Gonzalez, Dobado, Rafael, Aurora Gomez Galvarriato, and Williamson, Jeffery G.. “Mexican Exceptionalism: Globalization and De-Industrialization, 1750–1877.” The Journal of Economic History 68, no. 3 (2008): 758–811.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drelichman, Mauricio. “The Curse of Moctezuma: American Silver and the Dutch Disease, 1501–1650.” Explorations in Economic History 42, no. 3 (2005): 349–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Engerman, Stanley L., and Sokoloff, Kenneth L.. “Factor Endowments, Institutions, and Differential Paths of Growth Among New World Economies: A View from Economic Historians of the United States.” In How Latin America Fell Behind: Essays on the Economic History of Brazil and Mexico, 1800–1914, edited by Harber, S., 260–304. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1997.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harber, S.. “Factor Endowments, Inequality, and Paths of Development Among New World Economies.” NBER Working Paper Series, No. 9259, Cambridge, MA, October 2002.Google Scholar
Flynn, Dennis O. “A New Perspective on the Spanish Price Revolution: The Monetary Approach to the Balance of Payments.” Explorations in Economic History 15, no. 4 (1978): 388–406.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fogel, Robert W., and Engerman, Stanley L.. Time on the Cross: The Economics of American Negro Slavery. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1974.Google Scholar
Galenson, David W. “The Rise and Fall of Indentured Servitude in the Americas: An Economic Analysis.” The Journal of Economic History 44, no. 1 (1984): 1–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garner, Richard L. “Price Trends in Eighteenth-Century Mexico.” Hispanic American Historical Review 65, no. 2 (1985): 279–325.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garner, Richard L., and Stefanou, Spiro E.. Economic Growth and Change in Bourbon Mexico. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1993.Google Scholar
Gibson, Charles. The Aztecs Under Spanish Rule: A History of the Indians of the Valley of Mexico, 1519–1810. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1964.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gootenberg, Paul. “Carneros y Chuño: Price Levels in Nineteenth-Century Peru.” Hispanic American Historical Review 70, no. 1 (1990): 1–56.Google Scholar
Habakkuk, H. J.American and British Technology in the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1962.Google Scholar
Hagen, Everett E.The Theory of Social Change: How Economic Growth Begins. Homewood, IL: Dorsey Press, 1962.Google Scholar
Hersh, Jonathan, and Hans-Joachim Voth. “Sweet Diversity: Colonial Goods and the Rise of European Living Standards After 1492.” Unpublished Manuscript, 2009. Available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=1402322.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacobs, Auke Pieter. “Legal and Illegal Emigration from Seville.” In “To Make America”: European Emigration in the Early Modern Period, edited by Altman, I. and Horn, J., 59–84. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, Lyman L. “The Price History of Buenos Aires During the Viceregal Period.” In Essays on the Price History of Eighteenth-Century Latin America, edited by Johnson, L. and Tandeter, Enrique, 137–71. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1990.Google Scholar
Johnson, Lyman L., and Tandeter, Enrique, eds. Essays on the Price History of Eighteenth-Century Latin America. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1990.Google Scholar
Knight, Alan. Mexico: The Colonial Era. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.Google Scholar
Kulikoff, Allan Lee. Tobacco and Slaves: Population, Economy, and Society in Eighteenth Century Prince George's County, Maryland. Ph.D. Diss., Brandeis University, 1976.Google Scholar
Lehmann, Hartmut, and Roth, Guenther. Weber's Protestant Ethic: Origins, Evidence, Contexts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.Google Scholar
Maddison, Angus. Monitoring the World Economy, 1820–1992. Paris: OECD, 1995.Google Scholar
Main, Gloria L. “Gender, Work, and Wages in Colonial New England.” The William and Mary Quarterly 51, no. 1 (1994): 39–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mellor, John H., and Mudahar, Mohinder S.. “Agriculture in Economic Development: Theories, Findings, and Challenges in an Asian Context.” In A Survey of Agriculture Economics Literature, Vol. 4: Agriculture in Economic Development, 1940s to 1990s, edited by Martin, L. R., 331–544. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1992.Google Scholar
Menard, Russell R. Economy and Society in Early Maryland. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Iowa, 1975.Google Scholar
Martin, L. R.. “Economic and Social Development of the South.” In The Cambridge Economic History of the United States, edited by Engerman, Stanley L. and Gallman, Robert E., 261–95. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.Google Scholar
Monteiro, John. “Labor Systems.” In The Cambridge Economic History of Latin America, Volume 1: The Colonial Era and the Short Nineteenth Century, edited by Bulmer-Thomas, V., Coatsworth, J. H., and Conde, R. Cortés, 185–233. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.Google Scholar
Magnus, Mörner. “Spanish Historians on Spanish Migration to America During the Colonial Period.” Latin American Research Review 30, no. 2 (1995): 251–67.Google Scholar
Mosk, Stanford A. “Latin America versus the United States.” American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings 41, no. 2 (1951): 367–83.Google Scholar
Nash, Gary B.The Urban Crucible: Social Change, Political Consciousness, and the Origins of the American Revolution. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1979.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newson, Linda A. “The Demographic Impact of Colonization.” In The Cambridge Economic History of Latin America, Volume 1: The Colonial Era and the Short Nineteenth Century, edited by Bulmer-Thomas, V., Coatsworth, J. H., and Conde, R. Cortés, 143–84. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.Google Scholar
North, Douglass C., Summerhill, William, and Weingast, Barry R.. “Order, Disorder, and Economic Change: Latin America vs. North America.” In Governing for Prosperity, edited by de Mesquita, Bruce Bueno and Root, Hilton, 17–58. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Ottaviano, Gianmarco, and Giovanni Peri. “Rethinking the Effects of Immigration on Wages.” Journal of the European Economic Association, forthcoming.Google Scholar
Alberto, Pardo Pardo. Geografía económica y humana de Colombia. Bogotá: Ediciones Tercer Mundo, 1972.Google Scholar
Peri, Giovanni, and Sparber, Chad. “Task Specialization, Immigration, and Wages.” American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 1, no. 3 (2009): 135–69.Google Scholar
Puente Brunke, José. Encomienda y encomenderos en el Perú: Estudio social y político de una institución colonial. Excma. Diputación Provincial de Sevilla, 1992.Google Scholar
Quiroz, Enriqueta. Entre el lujo y la subsistencia: Mercado, abastecimiento y precios de la carne en la ciudad de México, 1750–1812. México: El Colegio de México, 2005.Google Scholar
Ravallion, Martin, Chen, Shaohua, and Sangraula, Prem. “Dollar a Day Revisited.” World Bank Economic Review 23, no. 2 (2009): 163–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raychaudhuri, Tapan, and Habib, Irfan. The Cambridge Economic History of India –Vol. I, c. 1200–c.1750. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982.Google Scholar
Rogers, Everett M.The Diffusion of Innovations. New York: Free Press, 1962.Google Scholar
Rosenbloom, Joshua. “The History of American Labor Market Institutions and Outcomes.” EH.Net Encyclopedia, edited by Robert Whaples, March 16, 2008. Available at http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/Rosenbloom.LaborIns.Google Scholar
Schultz, Theodore W.Transforming Traditional Agriculture. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1964.Google Scholar
Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition. Energy Requirements Working Group Draft Report, 2009. Available at http://www.sacn.gov.uk/pdfs/5nov_sacn_energy_drafting_group_draft.pdf.Google Scholar
Smith, Billy G. “The Material Lives of Laboring Philadelphians, 1750–1800.” The William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd series 38, no. 2 (1981): 163–202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stauton, George L.An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China. Dublin: P. Wogan, 1798.Google Scholar
Tandeter, Enrique. “Forced and Free Labour in Late Colonial Potosi.” Past and Present 93 (1081): 98–136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tandeter, Enrique, and Wachtel, Nathan. “Prices and Agricultural Production: Potosi and Charcas in the Eighteenth Century.” In Essays on the Price History of Eighteenth-Century Latin America, edited by Johnson, L. and Tandeter, Enrique, 201–76. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1990.Google Scholar
Tawney, Richard H.Religion and the Rise of Capitalism. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1938.Google Scholar
Taylor, Allan M., and Williamson, Jeffrey G.. “Convergence in the Age of Mass Migration.” European Review of Economic History 1, no. 1 (1997): 27–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Temin, Peter. “Labor Scarcity and the Problem of American Industrial Efficiency in the 1850s.” The Journal of Economic History 26, no. 3 (1966): 277–329.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thornton, Russell. American Indian Holocaust and Survival: A Population History Since 1492. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1987.Google Scholar
Hugh, Trevor-Roper. The Crisis of the Seventeenth Century. New York: Harper & Row, 1967.Google Scholar
Walsh, Lorena S.Motives of Honor, Pleasure, and Profit: Plantation Management in the Colonial Chesapeake. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010.Google Scholar
Weber, Max. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, trans. by Talcott Parsons. London: Allen & Unwin, 1930 [1904/05].Google Scholar
Wright, Carroll D. “History of Wages and Prices in Massachusetts: 1752–1883.” In The Sixteenth Annual Report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labour. Boston: Wright & Potter Print, Co., 1885.Google Scholar
Yeager, Timothy. “Encomienda or Slavery? The Spanish Crown's Choice of Labor Organization in Sixteenth-Century Spanish America.” The Journal of Economic History 55, no. 4 (1995): 842–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Allen supplementary appendix

Allen supplementary appendix

Download Allen supplementary appendix(PDF)
PDF 209.2 KB