Researchers in Economic History have traditionally used income per person as a measure of welfare. Due to the limitations of this indicator, recent investigations have extended the measurement of welfare to alternative indicators. Following this Une of investigation, this article compares four welfare indicators for Spain (income per person, Human Development Index, Physical Quality of Life Index and stature). Two of these indicators (HDI and PQLI) have been novelty constructed for Spain. The overall evidence suggests some hypothesis to be contrasted by future research, as some unresolved puzzles remain.

The article is divided into three parts. In the first one we test for the hypothesis of existence of a “weak definition” of “mining-Ied-growth” in the New Spain economy in the 18th century and a “moderately optimistic” version of the relationship between mining expansion and economic growth is defended. In the second part, we analyze the determinants of the silver production, among them we include economic policy variables (mercury price and consignaciones for the Mines of Almadén, as well as the stock of mercury available in New Spain and the price of corn; we also show some of the positive effects of the new role of mercury Monopoly in the Crown's finances. Finally, a quantitative exercise intended to estimate the economic cost for Mexico of the Independence is presented. This cost seems to have been high and attributable, following Coatsworth's terminology, no only to “the achievement of the independence” but to the “independence in itself.”

The paper analyses exchange rate regimes implemented by the major Latin American (LA) countries since the 1950s, with special attention to the period beginning in the 1970s. The aim is to evaluate the relationship between exchange rate regimes and macroeconomic performance. After an overview of the main trends followed by the major LA countries over the last 60 years, the paper focusses on regimes that were implemented (1) with stabilisation purposes (nominal anchor) and (2) with the aim of targeting competitive and stable real exchange rates. These sections analyse in greater detail some important links between exchange rate regimes and macroeconomic performance. The paper closes with an assessment of the experiences with exchange rate regimes in LA.

This paper explores the relationship between the nature of Spanish savings banks and the extent of their market success during the twentieth century. It deals with the key factors which have made such a good performance possible, including their ability to promote private saving, to cooperate with government economic policy, to adapt to changing circumstances, to operate in particular geographical areas, and to cooperate with one another. Finally, the paper deals in depth with this last factor. The competitive cooperation model is used to explain the outstanding role of the Spanish Confederation of Savings Banks in making the strategic alliance between the Spanish savings banks possible.

This paper deals with the permanent existence of deliberate fertility control arising from short-term economic stress among rural farm workers. The micro-level analysis uses the family reconstitution method for ten rural Spanish localities. The husband's socio-economic level is regarded as an indicator of the family's socio-economic status. According to the available data, human agency between 1801 and 1909 resulted in a negative fertility response among all farm groups, with this negative response being especially strong among the landless and semi-landless. The existence of a rapid fertility control response suggests that such control was a voluntary decision. Since the end of the 19th century, the number of economic shocks due to high prices has reduced.

This paper focuses on the analysis of weak states in the international trading system during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic crises, especially on Portugal's trade relations with the United States. We argue that the previous studies of the trade flows during these conflicts have not paid enough attention on smaller actors. Even though the Peninsular War caused severe disruption of agricultural production in Portugal, the United States, despite its strained relations with an ally of Portugal, Great Britain, became a key supplier for the Portuguese market. Clearly, the threatened position of the peninsula, and the need to supply the troops, awarded the Portuguese some room to manoeuvre in the international markets. Total war was not a constraint for all states — economic necessities trumped political and diplomatic concerns during the era of the first real-world wars. This situation was a temporary one, only to change after the conflict.

Using the reconstructed royal treasury records for the three principal colonies of Spanish America from the last quarter of the 17th century to the first decade of the 19th century, this essay constructs the changing fortunes of royal income end expenditures in these crucial American economies. The viceroyalties of Peru and Mexico and the Audiencia of Charcas were the principal sources of surplus revenues in the American colonies. Until 1700 the two Andean regions domineted the Spanish American colonial system in terms of generating royal income and in producing silver for export to Europe. But these soon declined relative to Mexico, which in the 18th century become the dominent economy and major source of royal income. The various royal revenues and expenditures and their performance over time are analyzed for ell three colonies to determine the long term trends in their growth and relative importance.

In this paper trade to the interior of the Spanish Empire is analysed. Commodity prices during a 140 years span are described and the price convergence process between Spain and Peru, and between Peru and Chile is investigated. The main finding is that despite technological, trade and institutional improvements, price convergence between Spain and Peru was delayed by wars during the eighteenth century. Conversely, price convergence is found between Peru and Chile. The absence of wars in the Pacific Ocean can explain the difference in price behavior.

Sobre el papel del capital comercial y los comerciantes en America colonial se han escrito algunos trabajos importantes en los últimos años. Sin embargo, quedan muchos interrogantes y problemas pendientes.

Uno de ellos, cuyo estudio abordaremos aquí, se refiere a la escasez y sentido de la circulación monetaria en el ámbito americano y, en particular, al rol de los grandes mercaderes coloniales en ello.

The present paper deals with regional grain market integration in Spain during the Old Regime. Using mostly published price and production series, the author employs straightforward statistical techniques, ranging from correlations and standard deviations of detrended series to distributed lag models. These techniques show the existence of a clear covariation in the price of grain on different regional markets, as well as both simultaneous and delayed effects of grain production on prices both locally and at considerably greater distances. The author concludes that regional grain markets on the peninsula were modestly but increasingly integrated over the period, especially during the eighteenth century, and that existing institutions were a partial buffer for the immediate effects of harvest failures. The paper concludes by suggesting the potential timing for the progressive intergration of grain markets taking place throughout much of the nineteenth century in Spain.

En este artículo muestro las relaciones que se establecen entre los cambios económicos y el estado del nivel de vida en las diferentes condiciones sociales de una población, y, más concretamente, los efectos existentes entre los cambios agrarios y las pautas de nutrición y morbilidad con las tendencies de la estatura mostradas a lo largo de varias generaciones en la comarca de Murcia, durante la segunda mitad del siglo xix y las primeras décadas del siglo xx. Los resultados que se exponen a lo largo de estas páginas constituyen una primera aproximación a un trabajo más elaborado que realizo sobre las interrelaciones y los vínculos que se establecen entre indicadores antropométricos (estatura, peso) e indicadores socioeconómicos (renta, nutrición, sanidad), como consecuencia de una determinada conducta social, demográfica y económica. Resultados, por otra parte, que tienen que ver con la coyuntura económica por la que atraviesa Murcia en este período y la peculiaridad de sus componentes sociales y demográficos.

El predominio de la ganadería y la debilidad de la agricultura en la campaña de Buenos Aires a fines del siglo XVIII y comienzos del XIX suscitó la curiosidad de Azara, Belgrano, Vieytes, y de algunos otros de los espíritus más inquietos e instruidos de la época. En su Memoria de 1801 Azara analizó el rendimiento de ambos sectores y la comparación del resultado, altamente favorable a la ganadería, justificaba sin más las penurias de la agricultura. Explicar el neto predominio de la ganadería en Buenos Aires, cabe subrayar, era entonces el objeto de su ensayo. Esa visión ha sido cuestionada recientemente por estudios que, basándose en la recaudación decimal, han puesto de manifiesto la importancia de la actividad agrícola. Se plantean de esta manera dos problemas: por un lado, establecer si la imagen tradicional de la pampa bonaerense se corresponde con la realidad o fue producto de la imaginación de los viajeros; por otro, averiguar si los diezmos pueden utilizarse como indicadores de la producción agraria.

The aim of this paper is to present a historical series of Venezuelan GDP from 1830 to 2012. For that purpose we have employed an expenditure approach to reconstruct the GDP of Venezuela, which could be applied with advantages for others Latin America countries. We were able to identify three long economic phases for Venezuela: The first one from 1830-1924 which we refer as “agrarian economy”; the second one of oil driven development, characterize by a high velocity growth from 1924 to 1977, and the last phase portrayed as one of stagnation and decline from 1977 to 2012.

This paper analyses how the progressive autonomy of the capital used to arrange the treasure fleets from Seville to America derived in a real chartered company, a precedent of today's joint-stock company, when the Crown finally privatised it through the asientos de avería. The parallelism among the asientos and the companies were so noticeable that the public officers appointed by the Count-Duke of Olivares to study the foreign companies couldn't detect any difference between both institutions.

The historic process of fertility decline was interrupted during the central decades of the 20th century with an unexpected period of increasing fertility that has been called the baby boom. Normally it is considered a phenomenon exclusive to countries participating in the historic demographic transition. A recent study suggests that a similar trend change in fertility may have also taken place in a few developing nations at approximately the same time and with similar characteristics to the fertility boom in the developed world. The main goal of this paper is to examine the extent to which these trend changes took place in Latin America and whether or not their characteristics were similar to those holding in the developed world.

The financial struggles that Castilla underwent during the second half of the 16th century forced the Crown to look for new ways of funding. The monetary changes encompassed the use of copper coins known as piezas de vellón. . Throughout the 17th century, there were 25 laws decreed altering in one way or the other the monetary value of the coins. These adjustments did not go unnoticed, having a direct impact on the monetary system creating instability and dramatic price fluctuations, on top of countless protests and rejections. The Government, conscious of the severity of the situatíon, made several attempts to resolve the imbalances, which only triumphed once the underlying fiscal problems disappeared. We see in this century co-ordination between monetary and fiscal policy in which monetary policy had to finance the deficit incurred by the fiscal authorities.

La energía hidráulica en el proceso de industrialización La energía hidráulica suele ser la cenicienta en los estudios sobre la revo-lución industrial. Ésta se asocia indisolublemente a la energía del vapor, es decir, a un combustible —el carbón mineral— y a un convertidor —la máquina de vapor—. La asociación fue evidente para los contemporáneos, y cualquier emulación de la industrialización inglesa exigía disponer de carbón barato para accionar los nuevos agentes mecánicos, principalmente las máquinas de hilar y tejer algodón.

In late 1807, Brazil was still a part of the Portuguese empire. As a consequence of the outbreak of the Peninsular War, the Prince Regent and the court moved to Brazil, an amazing voyage planned as a way of safeguarding Portugal's sovereignty over her vast territories. When the royal ships arrived in Brazil, the first measure to be taken was the decree which opened up Brazilian ports to British commercial vessels, thus putting an end to the old system of exclusive colonial trading between Brazil and Portugal. This was indeed the very first sign of a much larger process of economic liberalisation that was shortly to follow. In this process, a special role was to be played by the science of political economy used as a rationale for economic change and ultimately serving as an instrument for political independence.

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.