IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ehsrev/v64y2011is1p8-38.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Wages, prices, and living standards in China, 1738–1925: in comparison with Europe, Japan, and India

Author

Listed:
  • ROBERT C. ALLEN
  • JEAN‐PASCAL BASSINO
  • DEBIN MA
  • CHRISTINE MOLL‐MURATA
  • JAN LUITEN VAN ZANDEN

Abstract

This article develops data on the history of wages and prices in Beijing, Canton, and Suzhou/Shanghai in China from the eighteenth century to the twentieth, and compares them with leading cities in Europe, Japan, and India in terms of nominal wages, the cost of living, and the standard of living. In the eighteenth century, the real income of building workers in Asia was similar to that of workers in the backward parts of Europe but far behind that in the leading economies in north-western Europe. Real wages stagnated in China in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and rose slowly in the late nineteenth and early twentieth, with little cumulative change for 200 years. The income disparities of the early twentieth century were due to long‐run stagnation in China combined with industrialization in Japan and Europe.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert C. Allen & Jean‐Pascal Bassino & Debin Ma & Christine Moll‐Murata & Jan Luiten Van Zanden, 2011. "Wages, prices, and living standards in China, 1738–1925: in comparison with Europe, Japan, and India," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 64(s1), pages 8-38, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ehsrev:v:64:y:2011:i:s1:p:8-38
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/j.1468-0289.2010.00515.x
    Download Restriction: no

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Feuerwerker, Albert, 1970. "Handicraft and Manufactured Cotton Textiles in China, 1871–1910," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 30(02), pages 338-378, June.
    2. Li, Lillian M., 2000. "Integration and Disintegration in North China's Grain Markets, 1738–1911," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 60(03), pages 665-699, September.
    3. Ma, Debin, 2008. "Economic growth in the Lower Yangzi region of China in 1911–1937: a quantitative and historical analysis," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 32398, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Diewert, W. E., 1976. "Exact and superlative index numbers," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 4(2), pages 115-145, May.
    5. Van Zanden, Jan Luiten, 2009. "The skill premium and the ‘Great Divergence’," European Review of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 13(01), pages 121-153, April.
    6. van Zanden, Jan L., 1999. "Wages and the standard of living in Europe, 1500 1800," European Review of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 3(02), pages 175-197, August.
    7. Jan Luiten van Zanden & Arthur van Riel, 2004. "Introduction to The Strictures of Inheritance: The Dutch Economy in the Nineteenth Century," Introductory Chapters,in: The Strictures of Inheritance: The Dutch Economy in the Nineteenth Century Princeton University Press.
    8. Ma, Debin, 2008. "Economic Growth in the Lower Yangzi Region of China in 1911–1937: A Quantitative and Historical Analysis," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 68(02), pages 355-392, June.
    9. Broadberry, Stephen N & Gupta, Bishnupriya, 2005. "The Early Modern Great Divergence: Wages, Prices and Economic Development in Europe and Asia, 1500-1800," CEPR Discussion Papers 4947, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    10. zmucur, S leyman & Pamuk, Sevket, 2002. "Real Wages And Standards Of Living In The Ottoman Empire, 1489 1914," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 62(02), pages 293-321, June.
    11. Bassino, Jean‐Pascal & Ma, Debin & Saito, Osamu, 2005. "Levels of Real Wages in Historic China, Japan and Southern Europe, 1700-1920―A Review of Evidence―," Economic Review, Hitotsubashi University, vol. 56(4), pages 348-369, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • N0 - Economic History - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ehsrev:v:64:y:2011:i:s1:p:8-38. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Wiley Content Delivery) or (Christopher F. Baum). General contact details of provider: http://edirc.repec.org/data/ehsukea.html .

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.