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EHS Abstract Submission
(c) 1998 EH.Net
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Name:  Gregory Clark
Email:  gclark at ucdavis.edu
Institution:  University of California, Davis

Co-author:

Title:  Nominal and Real Male Agricultural Wages, 1250-1850, and English
Economic Growth

Internet Address of abstracted work:  Not available on the internet.

By mail:
Gregory Clark
Agricultural History Center
University of California
Davis, CA 95616 USA

Language:  English

Abstract:
Using a mix of manuscript and secondary sources, in this paper I calculate
a consistent series of day wages for male agricultural laborers in England
from 1250 to 1850.  Real wages are calculated using a new cost of living
index.	Both nominal wages and the cost of living move in a different way
than is suggested by the famous Phelps Brown and Hopkins series on building
craftsmen.  In particular, the Phelps Brown and Hopkins series implied that
the English economy broke from the stasis of the medieval period only in
the Industrial Revolution period.  These new series imply that the
productivity of the economy began growing in the seventeenth century.  The
new series also suggests that Feinstein's recent estimates on living
standards in the Industrial Revolution is too optimistic for the Napoleonic
War years.

Bibliography:  Clark, Gregory.  "Nominal and Real Male Agricultural Wages,
1250-1850, and English Economic Growth."  University of California-Davis
Agricultural History Center, Working Paper Series #96.

Subject:  T
Geographical Area:  4
Country/Region:  England
Time Period:  0
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