Was standard of living higher in britain or in france?
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Was standard of living higher in britain or in france? what was the effect of the french revolution on standards of living? what was the effect of the industrial revolution on standards of living

Intro

O’Brien + Keyder

·        Separate demographic and economic behaviour: real commodity output France 1.4% Britain 2.5%. France slower popn. Growth (fertility restraint) there would have been a real decline in French standard of living in the 19^th century

·        Contemporaries agree (Young real wages higher in Britain) but only 4 decades 1780-1913 where domestic output per captia greater France? Effect trade – import more than export, foreign services, consumes more than economy produces - Foreign investment could have increased per capita consumption in Britain by 23% - potential boost to French consumption only 9%.

·        On average 1781 – 1913 British per capita commodity flows are 11% above French levels (current values) and 22% if British weights are employed – stats qualify France standard of loving below that of Britain

·        REAL WAGES – 45% below Britain some decades bias more wage earners Britain, does not include services like rent on average 1781 – 1913 British per capita commodity flows are 11% above French levels (current values) and 22% if British weights are employed – stats qualify France standard of loving below that of Britain – French workers support fewer people (dependency) NEED – more than real wage estimates – income from land, more people own it in France very little about welfare standards from real wages - Measured difference material welfare cannot be properly explained by superior efficiency British economy – trade deficit or import surplus - Successful mercantilism – use of services intl. Stage not the factory system might seem to Frenchmen to be centre British superiority century after Waterloo British industrialization offset advantages of French restraints on fertility.

Crafts

·        Once conventional wisdom earlier commitment to I under British lines led to higher standards of living for French citizens during 19^th century – Kemp, Kindleberger – French retardation – O’Brien disagrees: geographical endowments, peasant farming – Britain’s path net necessarily best

1.      dramatically more labour force in agriculture, agricultural labour productivity drastically lower, real GNP reduced by inefficient use of labour BUT real wages rise and considerable shift distribution income away from capital land. Peasants gain and capitalists lose some of this is transfer resources to peasantry, induced effect larger labour force agric for market wage labour elsewhere – ratio capital to labour in rest of economy increase considerably and real wages up by 29% - same time return capital falls and capitalists see real income decline 42% - shift dist. Income away from capital.

·        Simulation supports O’Brien’s contention French industrialisation significantly retarded by agrarian structure – against objection of Grantham.

·        Likely that effects size of capital stock (labour utility, capitalist tuilty GNP decline as capital stock falls – will do if less saving etc)and agric. tfp imply labour utility reduced rather than increased switch capitalist to peasant agric – only with demographic feedback as well would original result that workers better off be restored. – demographic effect lower population

·        Only with a significant demographic response in form restrains nuptiality and fertility likely workers gained from survival peasant agric. However marriage changes other way from proletarisation resulting from landlords’ revolution – Allen’s pessimistic conclusion that IR benefited few expense of many perhaps justified.

·        Demographic restraint France may have been enough to mitigate adverse implications for peasant income levels.
O’Brien’s position strengthened by this position – survival peasants farming major restraint on industrialisation of French labour force – inefficient use of abour, dissipation of rent assoc French agrarian structure significant cost terms of reduced GNP.

1840                                BUT French path probably sustained living standards relatively well.

French Revolution

·        Lessening inequality through revolution followed by Kuznets increase to 1860s and levelling off

·        Land Gains: biens nationaoux land auctions lower orders able to acquire land – share of land held by Paysans increased from 3 to 42% in new department Nord

·        Inflationary Gains - Postel-Vinay – inflation agricultural sharecroppers purchase fixed capital and animals for production - debta depreciated money. Higher classes lose out – paid large sums for posts old regime reimbursed with depreciated currency.

Industrial Revolution

·        OPTIMISTS - LW - After prolonged wage stagnation real wages measured by the evidence nearly doubled between 1820 and 1850 – far larger increase than even optimists predicted - Reasonable to conclude that average worker much better off in any decade form 1830s onwards than ant decade before 1820 – need to look at social injustices etc

·        No conceivable level of unemployment could have cancelled out near doubling of full-time wages

·        Real wage gains for men not achieved at the expense of women and children – no institutions apart from protective legislation 1830s compelled factory owners to raise pay women and children above opp. Cost.

·        Urban Disamenities: look from their point of view not ours - “social murder…” – but life expectancy up except Manchester and Liverpool, death rates,a ccording to Farr, constant over occupations

·        “clean air, water and uncongested space are luxury goods,

·        value implicitly put on these human costs by marginal workers not large enough to cancel even a tenth of blue collar workers’ real wage – wage premium

·        PROBLEMS - Problems LW index – sharp drop prices post 1820 (accounts real wage rise) – as uses price of linen to measure textile prices rather than price of cotton which was falling faster than price sin general.

·        LESS OPTIMISTIC - FEINSTENimportance qualitative aspects - Wrigley and Shofield: “suggest possibility of a substantial worsening of mortality in infancy and childhood in the early 19^th century” - Huck infant mortality increase 1813 – 1846, heights declining 19^th century until 1840 - all these studies consistent with a significant deterioration in the standard of living of the urban industrial working population

·        Differences Cost of Living Index – sharper rise in prices after 1820 plateau than LW – differing foods, accentuate rent rises

·        only from late 1850s that average British workers enjoyed substantial and sustained advances in real wages.

·        CF LW 75% above 1810 level and Feinstein only 32% - differences from cost of living index NOT the result of inclusion incomes of omen and children in patriarchal index.

·        1778/82 to 1853/57 – 75 years – irrespective of Ireland increase real weekly earnings less than 30%

·        Increase number dependents each worker had to support – 2.61 in 1771 to 3.06 in 1821 – stable until 1860 – demographic change may have reduced standard of living by 10% - average real earning would be cut by 3 to 8 % points. (deleterious effect poor housing) – 1834 Decline Poor Law amendment act - Combination of these factors reduce improve s of l 1780 to 1850 from 30% to somewhere between 10 and 15%.

·        Most British workers and their families did not experience an actual deterioration in their standard of living during or after IR – nor super progress optimists describe - Majority of working class: endure century of hard till with little or no advance from low base – before they began to share any of benefits the economic transformation helped to create

·        WILLIAMSON - The Standard of Living - Dismal standard of living performance prior to 1820s attributed to wars and their financing not from failure capitalism – peace would have raised growth workers’ living standards by 0.73% PA 1760-1810 Crowding out doing the damage: slow accumulation and slow rates of job creation account for most of the poor performance up to 1820s – war induced price distortions played a major role – crowding out and foregone accumulation account for slow aggregate growth – do not account slow rate of I – prices and world markets greater role.

·        Was it the IR? - 19^th century pattern of relative prosperity in England and the low countries matched by wretched poverty in the rest of the continent was established by 1759.

·        The advantage of northern Europe did not lie in cheap labour but rather in high productivity – labour markets so inflated in England late 18^th century winter wage of men in agric. exceeded wage of craftsmen in many parts of Europe - wage history indicated mid-19^th century pre-eminence was built up over several centuries.

Gains from 1815 to 1850 were cycle and minor one at that, not a trend

1. Important features in British real wag history were long swing reflecting population changes in the medieval period, maintenance of a high real wage after economic development gathered strength in 17^th century, and sharp rise living standards between 1870 and WW1

Trend continues 19^th century – only way Britain could pay the highest wages in Europe and dominate export markets was to have the most productive manufacturing

Conclusion

Other Notes in this Category

1. A History of Oppida
2. A Tudor revolution in government?
3. British Banking System in the years 1700-90
4. Explanations of Nuptiality during the first industrial revolution in England
5. Has the “retardation” thesis been overthrown by recent mainly cliometric historians?
6. Wage and consumption levels in england and on the continent in the 1830s – paul uselidin
7. Was standard of living higher in britain or in france?
8. Welfare effects of british free trade: debate and evidence from the 1840s
9. What were the effects of tariffs and free trade in the 19^th century?

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