Colonial Origins of Inequality in Hispanic America? Some reflections based on new empirical evidence

Dobado González, Rafael / R and García Montero, Héctor / H (2010): Colonial Origins of Inequality in Hispanic America? Some reflections based on new empirical evidence. Published in: Journal of Latin American and Iberian Economic History , Vol. 2, No. 28 (2010): pp. 253-277.

Abstract

This paper attempts at contributing to the ongoing debate on the historical roots of the high economic inequality of contemporary Iberian America. Basically empirical, our approach departs from mainstream scholarship. We show new data on wages and heights in several viceroyalties that: 1) suggest relatively medium to high levels of material welfare among the commoners in Bourbon Hispanic America; 2) allow us to build indexes of economic inequality. An international comparison of those indexes casts some doubts on the widely accepted view that Viceroyal America’s economy was exclusively based on extremely unequal or extractive institutions, as it has been popularized by the influential works by Engerman and Sokoloff (1994, 2002, 2005), Acemoglu et al. (2002).

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: economic inequality, Iberian America, Viceroyal America’s economy
• Subjects: B - History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches > B2 - History of Economic Thought since 1925 > B23 - Econometrics ; Quantitative and Mathematical Studies

References

REFERENCES

ACEMOGLU, D., JOHNSON, S. y ROBINSON, J. (2002), “Reversal of Fortune: Geography and Institutions in the Making of the Modern World Income Distribution”,Quarterly Journal of Economics, 117, pp. 1231-1294.

A’HEARN, B. A. (2003), “Anthropometric Evidence on Living Standards in Northern Italy,1730-1860”, The Journal of Economic History, 63, 2, pp. 351-381.

A´HEARN, B. A. and KOMLOS, J. (2003), Improvements in maximun likelihood estimators of truncated normal samples with prior knowledge of σ. A simulation based study with application to historical height samples, Unpublished Working Paper, University of Munich, Germany.

ALLEN, R. C., BASSINO, J. P., DEBIN M., MOLL-MURATA, C. and VAN ZANDEN, J. L. (2007), “Wages, Prices, and Living Standards in China, 1738-1925: in comparison with Europe, Japan, and India”, Oxford University, Department of Economics, Discussion paper series, n. 316.

ANGELES, L. (2007), “Income inequality and colonialism”, European Economic Review, 51, pp. 1155-1176.

ASSADOURIAN, C. S. (1987), “La producción de la mercancía dinero en la formación del mercado interno colonial”, FLORESCANO (comp..), Ensayos sobre el desarrollo económico de México y América Latina, 1500-1975, Fondo de Cultura Económica, México, pp. 223- 292.

AUSTIN, G. (2008), “The ‘Reversal of Fortune’ thesis and the compression of history: perspectives from African and comparative economic history”, Journal of International Development, 20, 8, pp.996-1027.

BAKER, M. J., BRUNNSCHWEILER, C. N. and BULTE, E. H. (2008), “Did History Breed Inequality? Endowments and Modern Income Distribution”, Working Paper 08/86, CER-ETH, Zurich.

BAKEWELL, P. (1989), Mineros de la Montaña Roja, Alianza Editorial, Madrid.

BAKEWELL, P. (2004), A History of Latin America, Blackwell, Malden, Mass,, etc.

BASKES, J. (2005), “Colonial Institutions and Cross-Cultural Trade: Repartimiento Credit and Indigenous Production of Cochineal in Eighteenth-Century Oaxaca, Mexico”, The Journal of Economic History, 65, 1, pp. 186-210.

BASSINO, J. P. and MA, D. (2005), “Japanese Unskilled Wages in International Perspective, 1741-1913”, GPIH Working Paper No. 2.

BATEN, J. (2001), “Climate, grain production, and nutritional status in southern Germany during the XVIIIth century”, Journal of European Economic History, 30, pp. 9-47.

BATEN, J., PELGER, I. and TWRDEK, L. (2009), “The anthropometric history of Argentina, Brazil and Peru during the 19th and early 20th century”, Economics and Human Biology, forthcoming.

BATEN, J., REIS, J. and STOLZ, Y. (2009), The biological standard of living in Portugal 1720-1980. When and why did the Portuguese become the shortest in Europe?, paper presented at XVth World Economic History Congress- Session E6, Utrecht.

BILGER, B. (2004), “The Height Gap. Why Europeans are getting taller and taller and Americans aren’t”, The New Yorker, available at http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/04/05/040405fa_fact.

BRADING, D. A. (1983), Mineros y comerciantes en el México borbónico, 1763-1810, Fondo de Cultura Económico, México. BRESCHI, M. and POZZI, L. (eds.) (2007), Salute, malattia e sopravvivenza in Italia fra '800 e '900, Forum, Udine.

BRUHN, M and GALLEGO, F. A. (2008), “Good, Bad, an Ugly Colonial Activities: Studying Development across the Americas”, Policy Research Working Paper 4641, The World Bank.

BULMER-THOMAS, V. (1994), The Economic History of Latin America since Independence, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, etc.

BURZIO, H. F. (1956-1958), Diccionario de la Moneda Hispanoamericana, 2 vols., Fondo Histórico y Bibliográfico José Toribio Medina, Santiago de Chile.

CARSON, S. A. (2005), “The biological standard of living in 19th century Mexico and the American West”, Economics and Human Biology, 3, pp. 405-419.

CARSON, S. A. (2007), “Mexican body mass index values in the late-19th-century American West”, Economics and Human Biology, 5, pp. 37-47.

CHALLÚ, A. (2007), Grain Markets, Food Suply Policies and Living Standards in Late Colonial México, Ph. D. Dissertation, Harvard University.

CHALLÚ, A. (2009), “Agricultural Crisis and Biological Well-Being in Mexico, 1730-1835”, Historia Agraria, 47, abril 2009, pp. 21-44.

CINNIRELLA, F. (2008a), “On the Road to Industrialization: Nutritional Status in Saxony, 1690-1850”, Cliometrica, 2, 3, pp. 229-57.

CINNIRELLA, F. (2008b), “Optimist or Pessimists?: A Reconsideration of Nutritional Status in Britain, 1740- 1865”, European Review of Economic History, 12, 3, pp. 325-354.

COATSWORTH, J. H. (2005), “Structures, Endowments, and Institutions in the Economic History of Latin America,” Latin American Research Review, 40, 3, pp.126-144.

COATSWORTH, J. H. (2008), “Inequality, Institutions and Economic Growth in Latin America”, Journal of Latin American Studies, 40, pp. 545-569.

COGNEAU, D. (2003), “Colonisation, School and Development in Africa”, DT 2003/01, DIAL.

DOBADO, R. (1989), “El trabajo en la minas de Almadén, 1750-1855”, Ph.D. dissertation, Universidad Complutense, Madrid. http://eprints.ucm.es/8735/1/DOBADO2.pdf.

DOBADO, R. (2009) “Herencia colonial y desarrollo económico en Iberoamérica: una crítica a la “nueva ortodoxia””, LLOPIS and MARICHAL (eds.), Obstáculos al crecimiento económico en Iberoamérica y España, 1790-1850, Instituto José Luís Mora and Marcial Pons, México- Madrid, pp. 253-291.

DOBADO, R. and GARCÍA, H. (2009), “Neither so low nor so short! Wages and Heights in Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries Colonial Latin America”, paper presented at the Mini-Conference A Comparative Approach to Inequality and Development: Latin America and Europe, Madrid. http://www.uc3m.es/portal/page/portal/instituto_figuerola/investigacion/programas/programa1/c onferencia/programme/Neither_so_low_not_so_short!.pdf

DOBADO, R. and MARRERO, G. (forthcoming), "The Role of the Imperial State in the Mining-Led Growth of Bourbon Mexico's Economy", The Economic History Review.

ENGERMAN, S. L. and SOKOLOFF, K. L. (1994), “Factor Endowments: Institutions, and Differential Paths of Growth Among New World Economies: A View from Economic Historians of the United States”, NBER Working Paper h0066.

ENGERMAN, S. L. and SOKOLOFF, K. L. (2002), “Factor Endowments, Inequality, and Paths of Development Among New World Economics”, NBER Working Paper w9259.

ENGERMAN, S. L. and SOKOLOFF, K. L. (2005), “Colonialism, Inequality, and Long-Run Paths of Development”, NBER Working Paper w11057.

FLORESCANO, E. (1986), Precios del maíz y crisis agrícolas en México, Ediciones Era, México.

FLOUD, R., WACHTER, K. W. and GREGORY, A. (1990). Height, health and history: Nutritional status in the United Kingdom, 1750-1980, Cambridge University Press Cambridge.

FRANKEMA, E. H. P. (2009), Has Latin America Always Been Unequal?, Brill, Leiden,,etc.

GARAVAGLIA, J. C. and MARCHENA, J. (2005), América Latina de los orígenes a la independencia, 2 vols., Crítica, Barcelona.

GARCÍA MONTERO, H. (2009), “Estatura y niveles de vida en la España de finales del Antiguo Régimen. El caso de la España interior”, unpublished paper.

GARNER, R. L. (1985), "Price Trends in Eighteenth-Century Mexico", Hispanic American Historical Review, 65, pp. 292-295, reproduced in VAN YOUNG (1992), pp. 108-110.

GARNER, R. L. (1992), “Precios y salarios en México”, JOHNSON y TANDETER (comps.), Economías coloniales. Precios y salarios en América Latina, siglo XVIII, Fondo de Cultura Económica, México, pp. 81-118.

HEINTEL, M., SANDBERG, L. S. and STECKEL, R. H. (1998), “Swedish Historical Heights Revisited: New Estimation Techniques and Results”, in KOMLOS and BATEN (eds.), The Biological Standard of Living in Comparative Perspective, Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart, pp. 449-458.

HEYBERGER, L. (2005), La révolution des corps, Presses Universitaires de Strasbourg, Strasbourg.

HUMBOLDT, A. von (1822), Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain, 4 vols., Longman, Hurst, etc., London.

HUMBOLDT, A. (1822:1991), Ensayo político sobre el Reino de Nueva España, Editorial Porrúa, México.

KOMLOS, J. (1989), Nutrition and Economic Development in the Eighteenth-Century Habsburg Monarchy: An Anthropometric History, Princeton University Press, Princeton.

KOMLOS, J. (1993), “The secular Trend in the Biological in the United Kingdom”, Economic History Review, 46, 1, 115-144.

KOMLOS, J. (2004), “How to (and How Not to) Analyze Deficient Height Samples”, Historical Methods, 37, 4, pp. 160-173.

KOMLOS, J. (2007), "On English pygmies and giants: the physical stature of English youth in the late 19th and early 19th centuries", Research in Economic History, 25, pp. 149-168.

KOMLOS, J. and BATEN, J. (2004), “Looking Backward and Looking Forward”, Social Science History, 28 (2), pp. 191-210.

KOMLOS, J., HAU, M. and BOURGUINAT, N. (2003), “An Anthropometric History of Early-Modern France”, European Review of Economic History, 7, pp. 159-189.

KOMLOS, J. and KIM, J. H. (1990), “Estimating Trends in Historical Heights”, Historical Methods, 23, pp. 116-121. LADD, D. M. (1992), Génesis y desarrollo de una huelga, Alianza Editorial, Mexico.

LÓPEZ, J. H. and PERRY, G. (2008), “Inequality in Latin America: Determinants and Consequences”, Policy Research Working Paper 4504, The World Bank, Washington.

LÓPEZ-ALONSO, M. and PORRAS, R. (2007), “Las altas y bajas del crecimiento económico mexicano”, DOBADO, GÓMEZ and MÁRQUEZ (eds.), México y España ¿Historias económicas semejantes?, Fondo de Cultura Económica, México, pp. 651-672.

MADDISON, A. (2009), Statistics on World Population, GDP and Per Capita GDP, 1-2006 AD, http://www.ggdc.net/maddison/.

MARCHENA, J. (1992), Ejército y milicias en el mundo colonial americano, Madrid, Ed. Mapfre, Colección armas y América.

MARGO, R. and STECKEL, R.H. (1983), "Heights of Native-Born Whites During the Antebellum Period", Journal of Economic History, 43, 1, pp. 167- 174.

MÁRQUEZ, L., MCCAA, R., STOREY, R. and DEL ANGEL, A., ( 2005), “Health and Nutrition in Pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica”, STECKEL and ROSE (eds.), The Backbone of History, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, etc., pp. 307-338.

MARTÍNEZ-CARRIÓN, J. M. (2009), “La Historia Antropométrica y la historiografía iberoamericana”, Historia Agraria, 47, April, pp. 3-10.

MIÑO GRIJALVA, M. (2001), El mundo novohispano. Población, ciudades y economía, siglos XVII y XVIII, El Colegio de México-Fondo de Cultura Económica, México.

MILANOVIC, B., LINDERT, P. H. and WILLIAMSON, J. G. (2008), “Ancient Inequality,” revised (June) version of “Measuring Ancient Inequality,” NBER Working Paper 13550, (October 2007).

MIRONOV, B. (2005), “The Burden of Grandeur: Physical and Economic Well-Being of the Russian Population in the Eighteenth century” in ALLEN, BENGTSSON and DRIBE (eds.), Living Standards in the Past, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 255-277.

PRADOS DE LA ESCOSURA, L. (2007a), “Inequality and Poverty in Latin America. A Long-Run Exploration”, HATTON, O’ROURKE and TAYLOR (eds.), The New Comparative Economic History, The MIT Press, Cambridge, pp. 291-315.

PRADOS DE LA ESCOSURA, L.(2007b), Lost Decades? Independence and Latin America’s Falling Behind, 1820-1870, Working Papers in Economic History, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, WP 07-18.

QUIROZ, E. (2005), Entre el lujo y la subsistencia. Mercado, abastecimiento y precios de la carne en la ciudad de México, 1750-1812, El Colegio de México, etc., México.

SALVATORE, R. (1998), “Heights and Welfare in Late-Colonial and Post-Indepenence Argentina”, KOMLOS and BATEN (eds.), The Biological Standard of Living in Comparative Perspective, Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart, pp. 97-121.

SALVATORE, R. D. and BATEN, J. (1998), “A Most Difficult Case of Estimation: Argentinian Heights, 1770-1840”, KOMLOS and BATEN (eds.), The Biological Standard of Living in Comparative Perspective, Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart, pp. 90-96.

SÁNCHEZ SANTIRÓ, E. (2002), “Plata y privilegios: el Real de minas de Huautla, 1709-1821”, Estudios de Historia Novohispana, 1, pp. 85-123.

SOKOLOFF, K. L. and VILLAFLOR, G. (1982), “The Early Achievement of Modern Stature in America”, Social Science history, 6, 4, pp. 453-481.

STECKEL, R. H. (1986), "A Peculiar Population: The Nutrition, Health, and Mortality of American Slaves from Childhood to Maturity", 46, 3, pp. 721-741.

STECKEL, R. H. (1995), “Stature and the standard of living”, Journal of Economic Literature, 33, 4, pp. 1903– 1940.

STECKEL, R. H. (2005), “Health and Nutrition in Pre-Columbian America: The Skeletal Evidence”, The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, XXXVI, I, pp. 1-32.

STECKEL, R. H. (2008), “Biological Measures of the Standard of Living”, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 22, 1, pp. 129-152.

STECKEL, R. H. (2009), “Heights and Human Welfare: Recent Developments and New Directions”, Explorations in Economic History, 46, 1, pp.1-23.

SWANN, M. M. (1990), “Migration, mobility, and the mining towns in northern Mexico”, ROBINSON (ed.), Migration in colonial Spanish America, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 143-181.

TANCK, D. (1999), Pueblos de indios y educación en el México colonial, 1750-1821, El Colegio de México, Mexico.

TANCK, D. (2005), Atlas ilustrado de los pueblos de indios. Nueva España, 1800. Fomento Cultural Banamex, etc. Mexico.

TANDETER, E. (1992), Coacción y Mercado. La minería de la plata en el Potosí colonial, 1692-1826, Centro de Estudios Regionales Andinos “Bartolomé de las Casas”, Cuzco.

TANDETER, E. (1999), “Los trabajadores mineros y el Mercado”, MENEGUS (coord.), Dos décadas de investigación en historia económica comparada en América Latina”, El Colegio de México, etc. Mexico, pp. 363-380.

VELASCO, C. (1989). "Los trabajadores mineros en la Nueva España, 1750-1810", CARDENAS, E. (comp.), Historia Económica de México, FCE, Mexico, pp. 563-589.

VÉLEZ-GRAJALES, R. (2009), “The Biological Standard of Living in Mexico (c. 1953-1982): Concentration of Urban Population and Inter-Regional Inequality”, paper presented at the Mini- Conference A Comparative Approach to Inequality and Development: Latin America and Europe, Madrid, May 8-9.

VON MENTZ, B. (1998), ‘Coyuntura minera y protesta campesina en el centro de Nueva España en el siglo XVIII, HERRERA (ed.), La minería mexicana de la colonia al siglo XX, Instituto Mora, etc., Mexico.

WILLIAMSON, J. G. (1999), “Real Wage Inequality and Globalization in Latin America before 1940”, Revista de Historia Económica, XVII (special issue), pp. 101-142.

WILLIAMSON, J. G. (2002), “Land, Labor, and Globalization in the Third World, 1870–1940”, Journal of Economic History, 62, 1, pp. 55-85.

WILLIAMSON, J. G. (2008), “History without Evidence: Latin America Inequality since 1491”, paper presented at the Mini-Conference A Comparative Approach to Inequality and Development: Latin America and Europe, Madrid.

WILLIAMSON, J. G. (2009), “Five Centuries of Latin American Inequality”, NBER Working Paper No. 15305.