José Joaquín García GómezUniversity of Alicante

jjgarcia@ua.es

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IndexIntroduction

The Consumer Price Index of Alcoy (1836-

1913)Real wages during the Industrialization: The

case of Alcoy Diet and nutritional status of the workers in

Alcoy

Conclusions: the importance of public

intervention2

IntroductionAlcoy, pioneer city of the Industrial

Revolution in Spain

High factory densityAccelerated demographic growth and

anarchic urbanization: market failures and negative external effects

Slight improvement of the income per

capita

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IntroductionNegative medioambiental, sanitary,

alimentary and working conditions

Deterioration of non chrematistic welfare elements was not balanced by the monetary elements: drop of the standard of living

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IntroductionWelfare only raised when recovering its non

monetary elements:a)Improvement of the nutritional statusb)Public intervention to mitigate the market

failures of the incipient industrial and capitalist system

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IntroductionOur goal is to analyse:

a)Consumption (through its proxy, real wages)

b)Nutrition (through diet and calories)c)Its impact on mortality and height

(indicators of the standard of living)

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CPI in Alcoy (1836-1913)Prices of goods and services consumed by

households, represented by a consumer basket.36.000 data references of local pricesTwo sources: MERCURIAL and

INSTITUTIONAL account booksArchives: Municipal, Provincial and National

Statistical OfficeReduction to one annual price in each

product, exchanging ancient monetary units to pesetas measures to metrical system

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CPI in Alcoy (1836-1913)Consumption baskets:a)Hospital´s account books (1837, 1852, 1871,

1918)b)Social Reforms Commission Reports (1884)

Applying Laspeyres formula:

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WEIGHT COEFFICIENTS OF THE CONSUMPTION BASKETS OF HOUSEHOLDS IN ALCOY (1836-1936)

  1836-1852 1853-1870 1871-1918 1919-1926ITEM % % % %FEEDING 77,78 77,58 69,88 68,90 Bread 25,71 22,73 21,56 16,60 Lamb 15,49 10,47 8,67 0,40 Pork 15,49 10,47 8,67 0,05 Beef 0,00 0,00 0,00 23,04 Wine and spirits 5,41 5,60 10,15 2,48 Oil 3,65 6,28 1,43 1,57 Legumes 3,17 3,29 2,72 2,41 Rice 2,65 3,86 2,68 5,44 Potatoes 0,00 0,56 0,00 2,46 Chocolate 1,79 2,79 4,33 3,78 Fresh fish 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 Codfish 0,80 6,13 6,64 0,22 Milk 0,00 0,82 0,00 1,42 Fruits and vegetables 3,18 2,61 1,45 0,17 Salt 0,00 1,63 1,08 0,87 Eggs 0,46 0,34 0,50 7,98 HOUSING 10,71 10,71 10,71 10,71 DRESSING 7,14 7,14 7,14 6,34 CLEANING AND HYGIENE 2,86 0,29 1,56 4,91 FUEL AND LIGHTING 1,51 4,28 10,71 9,14 Fire Wood 0,25 4,02 3,35 6,08

Petrol 0,00 0,00 7,14 2,56 Coal 1,27 0,26 0,22 0,50 TOTAL 100,00 100,00 100,00 100,00 9

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1913=100

Real wages during the industrialization: the case of Alcoy12.300 dataSources:a)1836-1879: records of ARFPA, the Hospital

´s account books and the budget settlements of the City Hall, completed with the occasional available statistics and historical press

b)1880-1914: Census Books and Labor Agreements

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Real wages during the industrialization: the case of AlcoyArithmetic mean of nominal wages in

agricultural, industrial and building construction sectors

Deflation of the series using CPI

Result: lethargic and irregular evolution

Comparation and contrast with mortality and height

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Diet and nutritional status of the workers in AlcoyReal wages (overall consumption) don´t explain

welfare evolution during the industrialization of Alcoy

We choose food consumption and nutrition:- 5 Budgets of food consumption- Sources: Monthly summaries of introductions in

1884, 1897 y 1912, and Hospital food expenditures in 1852, 1868 y 1928

- Conversion to Kilocalories (source: www.bedca.com)

- Comparation with mortality and height: strengthen correlation

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Daily average grammes per capita and per day in Alcoy.

DAILY FOOD CONSUMPTION PER CAPITA (1836-1913)FOODSTUFF 1852 1868 1884 1897 1912Wine 158,29 111,81 178,11 155,02 119,73

Vegetable oil 30,85 32,30 55,33 25,33 36,22

Fish 0,00 0,00 15,89 51,43 26,03

Codfish 0,00 13,13 9,86 7,81 5,10

Horsemeat 0,00 0,00 15,34 0,00 0,00 Pork 0,00 45,18 20,00 32,86 21,37

Beef 0,00 0,00 1,10 1,90 0,00

Lamb 72,44 45,18 0,00 28,10 21,37

Sausage 0,00 0,00 1,34 1,51 1,75

Rice/chickpea 85,18 115,18 47,12 61,90 40,00

Bread 388,71 339,95 520,55 562,19 623,62

Eggs 1,48 2,32 0,00 61,90 43,34

Milk 6,70 49,52 12,30 6,88 3,00

Vegetables 4,33 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,14

Chiken 2,55 1,32 4,66 2,85 4,38

Sugar 17,16 15,23 13,52 12,27 26,14

Salt 12,60 10,89 9,40 8,36 11,62

Vinegar 1,27 10,56 10,55 10,55 0,00

Potatoes 0,00 29,24 29,23 29,23 43,29

Chocolate 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00

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Own elaboration from the explained data sources. Conversion to kcal. from Cussó (2005) and www.bedca.com

DAILY KILOCALORÍES PER CAPITA IN ALCOY (1836-1913)SOURCE OF KCAL. 1852 1868 1884 1897 1912Wine 110,80 78,27 124,67 108,51 83,81

Oil 242,17 253,56 434,36 198,82 284,31

Fish 0,00 0,00 13,51 43,71 22,12

Saladuras 0,00 42,28 31,76 25,14 16,41

Horse meat 0,00 0,00 23,01 0,00 0,00

Pork 0,00 107,07 47,40 77,87 50,65

Beef 0,00 0,00 1,84 3,20 0,00

Lamb 161,55 100,75 0,00 62,65 47,65

Sausage 0,00 0,00 3,18 3,57 4,16

Rice/chickpea 286,22 387,00 158,33 208,00 134,40

Bread 859,04 751,29 1.150,41 1.242,44 1.378,19

Eggs 2,17 3,41 0,00 91,00 63,71

Milk 4,36 32,19 7,99 4,47 1,95

Vegetables 0,65 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,02

Chicken 5,78 2,99 10,58 6,47 9,95

Sugar 68,28 60,62 53,82 48,85 104,03

Salt 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00

Vinegar 0,25 2,11 2,11 2,11 0,00

Potatoes 0,00 28,94 28,94 28,94 42,85

Chocolate 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00

TOTAL 1.741,28 1.850,48 2.091,93 2.155,77 2.244,21

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ConclusionsLack of correlation between real wages

(overall consumption and mortality and heightOther factors affected negatively to welfare

(enviroment, nutrition, work conditions, sanitary state…)

These were the negative external effects of industrialization and urbanization

Nutrition is highly correlationed with mortality and height: the standard of living only rose when food did

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ConclusionsPublic expenditure in sanitary reform mitigated the

negative external effects of industrializationData compiled from municipal account books

Strong correlation between public expenditure per capita in the sanitary reform and mortality and height

Until the last decades of 19th higher real income and food consumption did not make up for a better life conditions

Between the late 19th century and 1913, when healthcare reform started up, we could already feel optimistic

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Conclusions

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