James Simpson ha escrito un interesante artículo sobre las tendencias del consumo de alimentos y de la producción agraria (en el núm. VII, 2, de esta Revista). Uno de los aspectos más destacables del mismo es la audacia conque Simpson aborda el espinoso problema de la medición indirecta del producto de la agricultura ante la ausencia de fuentes homologables a los diezmos o a las modernas estadísticas. Comparto con él el interés por conocer las grandes líneas de la evolución del sector agrario a lo largo del siglo xix, pues, de otro modo, resultará difícil establecer conjetura razonable alguna sobre el cambio económico en el conjunto de la economía española. Mi réplica a su artículo la suscita, sin embargo, el desacuerdo con el método indirecto propuesto para reconstruir las tendencias de la producción agraria, así como conlos resultados derivados de éste.

This paper proposes a new interpretation for a main issue of modern Spanish monetary history. The Spanish legal monetary system became bimetallist, as result of the Figuerola Decree, in 1868. The bimetallist system in force throughout the XIXth Century allowed the Bank of Spain, as the Bank of France did, pay its notes with silver, gold or both. As a result there was neither an inconvertibility declaration, nor any imaginary gold standard was abandoned in 1883. Law and legal practice always guaranteed convertibility of the peseta, that can't be identified only with gold exchange. In Spain there was never a suspension of tender notes convertibility such as in Italy, Portugal, Austria or France.

In 1940, the Portuguese government approved a massive primary school construction plan that projected a 60 per cent increase in the number of primary schools. Based on the collection of a new dataset, we describe literacy levels in Portugal prior to the plan as well as the plan's strategy regarding the location of schools. We then estimate the causal impact of the increase in the number of schools between 1940 and the early 60s on enrolment and literacy, all at the county level. We conclude the increase in the number of schools was responsible for 80 per cent of the increase in enrolment and 13 per cent of the increase in the literacy rate of the affected cohorts.

This article analyzes the extent to which fiscal policy has contributed to the industrialization of Spain over the last two centuries. Spanish governments have traditionally placed excessive emphasis on policies of economic regulation but at the same time, they have failed to provide a suitable level of merit and public goods. Recurrent budget deficits were always financed by inflationary means, which did nothing to promote economic growth. In clear contrast with public expenditures, the system of taxation which prevailed until 1978, meant that there was not much of a tax burden. This allowed for a level of savings, and potential investment, which was conducive to industrialization.

Después de que Inglaterra comenzara a finales del siglo xviii lo que llegó a ser conocido como la Primera Revolución Industrial, la tecnología industrial se difundió rápidamente por las naciones del Atlántico Norte. A los cincuenta años de haberse iniciado la industrialización en Gran Bretaña, el sistema fabril se había extendido por Europa Occidental y Estados Unidos. Sin embargo, Latinoamérica se quedó atrás. No fue hasta el siglo xx cuando la manufactura comenzó a dirigir las economías latinoamericanas y cuando las sociedades agrarias se transformaron en sociedades industriales.

In this paper I use historical data to analyze the relationship between crises and growth in Latin America. I calculate by how much the region's GDP per capita has been reduced as a consequence of the recu- rrence of external crises. I also analyze the determinants of major balan- ce of payments crises. The main conclusion is that it is unlikely that Latin America will, on average, experience a major improvement in long run growth in the future. It is possible that some countries will make progress in catching up with the advanced nations. This, however, will not be the norm; most Latin American countries are likely to fall further behind in relation to the Asian countries and other emerging nations. Not everything, however, is grim. My analysis also suggests that fewer Latin America countries will be subject to the type of catastrophic crises that affected the region in the past. Latin America's future will be one of «No crises and very modest growth».

The skill composition of European migrants to the New World and their contribution to the human capital and institutional formation in destination countries are popular topics in economic history. This study assesses the skill composition of 19th century transatlantic migrants to Cuba. It finds that nearly half of the European immigrants originate from the Spanish province of the Canary Islands, which displays the lowest literacy and numeracy rates of Spain. Even within this province, those who left belonged to the least skilled section of the population. By promoting the influx of a cheap and poorly educated white workforce that replaced African slaves on their sugar estates, large landowners in Cuba contributed to the perpetuation of high economic, political and social inequality.

Perfecta la concordancia entre las curvas de los precios del trigo y del pan. No podía ser de otra manera: los dos asuntos están estrechamente relacionados, y subidas de precios y bruscas depresiones se repiten al mismo compás, excepto en contadas fechas.

La tónica general es una tendencia más acusada que la de los precios del trigo al acercarse al valor central de la serie durante el período 1680–1755, lo que significa que las oscilaciones del precio del pan son menos violentas en el sentido de que las diferencias entre mínimos y máximos arrojan saldos inferiores en sus valores a los correspondientes entre los cereales. Estamos, pues, ante lo que se puede considerar como un éxito del Pósito: haber evitado los grandes desequilibrios cíclicos o coyunturales de los productos de primera necesidad.

Writing on the eve of one of the major transformations in the British Empire, Adam Smith more or less repeated the remark made by the Abbé Raynal several years earlier that «the discovery of America, and that of passage to the East Indies by the Cape of Good Hope, are the two greatest and most important events recorded in the history of mankind»l. Both of these great events of the 1490's, Columbus's discovery of the Americas and the sailing to India, a few years later, by Vasco de Gama, had no immediate impact on the British economy, but the opening up of this wider world for colonization and trading would soon have profound impacts on Britain and the other nations of Western Europe. In the same decade Britain, however, did make its first claim to New World territory, when John Cabot landed on Newfoundland in 1497, but it was to be about a century before title was clear and setdement begun. Not the first to establish an empire, the British rose to world-wide dominance over the course of the next three centuries.

The insurance industry in modern Spanish history has not practically yet been studied, notwithstanding die considerable significance of this financial activity which is not only a reflection of economic development but also in itself motive power thereof. It may also be used as an indicator of the evolution of other sectors since, in the capitalist system everything of value is always insured. This paper is intended as a first approach to the insurance industry in Spain from 1800 to 1934 and as such it has been given a maximum of generality so as to present a framework which may be used for further investigation.

The Land Tax, established in Spain in 1845, suffered from the lack of an efficient system of data collection concerning ownership and the use of land. The documents known as «amillaramientos» are unworthy of trust, not only due to their high level of concealment, but also as result of the fact that they were by nature the fruits of political negociations and not of statistical research. A detailed analysis of die province of Cádiz confirms this hypothesis. As a result, the study of the Spanish agricultural growth of the second half of the nineteenth century and die first third of the twentieth century must consider the coincidence between this time period and die growing improvement in the quality of the official information concerned with cultivated areas, productions and profits. The series so far used depart, from artificially low figures, distorted by the antifiscal efforts which dominated the Spanish rural world at the time.

The essential aims of this article are: (1) to measure the magnitude of the crisis of 1803-1805 in the two Castiles; (2) to analyse the causes and consequences of this crisis. Among the main conclusions of this essay we would like to underline: (a) the 1803-1805 crisis led to a fall in the population of Castile of about 15 per cent; (b) the severe rise in the price of grains in those years was due to the bad harvests and the sparse working capacity of the municipal grain stores, but more than anything else it was the collapse of the market for this produce as a result of the prohibition of removing grain; (c) government measures to deal with the crisis were numerous and relatively bold, but not very effective; (d) the strong mobilisation of the people disrupted the working of some of the basic institutions of the Ancien Régime.

Using new public spending statistics for Spain and other various indicators we show that Spain and Britain suffered larger increases in public expenditure in the periods in which they fought each other and other countries. The British Exchequer spent much more than its Spanish counterpart, especially on the Army and Navy and debt repayment. This situation helps to explain why Britain emerged victorious against Spain in the majority of these wars and was a consequence of the political and institutional changes made in England from 1688 onwards, reducing budget constraint and allowing Britain to mobilise the necessary resources to become the leading world power. In Spain, however, the changes required to eliminate the country's history of bankruptcies and increase its spending capacity were not made.

This article provides the first series of adult male height for 19th-century Chile. Our aim was not only to assess the trends indicated by height during this period, but also the relationship between stature and both GDP per capita and exports. Having analysed our data, our primary conclusion is that there was a reduction in height for cohorts born in the 1850s and 1860s with respect to cohorts born between 1820 and 1840. Height stagnated thereafter, with small to no improvement towards the end of the 19th century, in line with other Latin American countries for which there is comparable evidence. The increase in per capita GDP and exports during the second half of the century did not result in better biological welfare, as was the case in other Latin American countries during similar export booms.

This paper proposes a methodology for quantifying the territorial impact on population distribution of the railway. The central hypothesis is that access to railway services provides the best-connected areas with a long-term comparative advantage over others that are less accessible. Carrying out a historical analysis and providing comparable data at the municipal level allows us to determine the extent to which the railway has fostered the concentration of population within its immediate surroundings. The case study presented here is that of Spain between 1900 and 2001, but the same methodology could equally be applied to any other country for which the required data are available. In this case, key data included a Geographic Information System with information about both the development of the railway network and census data relating to total population at the municipal level. The results obtained suggest the relevance of this methodology, which makes it possible to identify the periods and areas in which this influence was most significant.

This paper explains the so-called «Spanish railways problem» as a consequence of the new competition that this traditional mean of transport suffered from the rapid development of the automobile industry. Road transportation more than any other factor was the cause of the financial difficulties of the railways companies before the Civil War. We also study the reaction of these firms and the failures of all measures that were taken.

The aim of this paper is to measure the influence of the railroad in the urbanization of Spain between 1860 and 1910. Our sources are from quantitative information –censuses of population– and qualitative one –coastal condition, existence of mining industry or industry, administrative capital and date of the railway connection–. We have estimated a first model of data panel in differences. Based on this model we have employed different estimation techniques in order to address omitted variables and/or endogeneity of the train variable. Results from all estimations give us clear evidence of the positive influence of the railroad on the urban growth. In addition a quasi-experiment design reinforces this conclusion. In short, although moderate, our paper shows strong evidence of the influence of the railroad on Spanish urbanization. This conclusion is coherent with other research.

La conciencia de que existen diferencias notables en el desarrollo socioeconómico de las diversas zonas de Italia —y especialmente entre Norte y Sur— ha estado siempre presente en Italia desde su unificación, pero ello ha producido, por lo general, un tipo de análisis de causas y remedios plasmados principalmente en términos de lo que ha dado en llamarse la questione meridionale. Como esta expresión sugiere, el problema se ha centrado en la zona atrasada, y, en consecuencia, ha arraigado profundamente la idea de que no afectaba al resto del país. Es este hecho el que ha justificado la adopción de medidas económicas del tipo de las «leyes especiales para el Sur».

El título original de este trabajo, según figuraba en el programa del Curso de Verano que la Universidad de Oviedo dedicó el pasado año a la conmemoración del veinte aniversario de la publicación de la obra España hace un siglo: una economía dual, del profesor Sánchez-Albornoz, era el de «Bancos y Banqueros en la España del siglo XIX», pero para expresar de una manera más gráfica mi modesto homenaje particular al autor y a su obra, me voy a permitir alterarlo tomando como método de análisis, o mejor dicho, de ruptura, el lema de la obra que es objeto de conmemoración.

This study looks at human capital in Spain during the early stages of modern economic growth. We have assembled a new dataset for age-heaping and literacy in Spain with information about men and women from six population censuses and forty-nine provinces between 1877 and 1930. Our results show that, although age-heaping was less prevalent during the second half of the 19th century than previously thought, it did not decline until the early 20th century. Given that literacy increased throughout the whole period, our study thus unveils stark differences between age-heaping and literacy, which raises further questions regarding sources, methods and interpretation.