Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Working class wages in Britain - 1300 to 1840

From Brad DeLong:
Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal: The Condition of the Working Class in Britain, 1300-

Data built by Greg Clark on real wages coupled with population estimates.

I read this as showing slow improvements in technology from 1300 to 1600 offset by the coming of the 'little ice age.' Thus from 1300-1600 when population went up real wages went down, and vice versa. After 1600, with the climate no longer deteriorating, improvements in technology get you a more favorable population-real wages tradeoff. After 1700 the speed at which the tradeoff moves left accelerates ('agricultural revolution') and after 1800 it accelerate again ('industrial revolution').
See also the picture on the left of this page.

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