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A new method for estimating the money demand in pre-industrial economies: probate inventories and Spain in the eighteenth century

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  • NICOLINI, ESTEBAN A.
  • RAMOS, FERNANDO

Abstract

The study of monetary phenomena and an understanding of price determination in modern Europe are too often limited by scarcity of good-quality data sets on the evolution across time of such variables as money holdings, income, or wealth. In this article we show that information contained in probate inventories can be extremely useful in circumventing this problem. In particular, we combine a data set of 116 inventories from Palencia (in northern Spain) between 1750 and 1770 with census information (Catastro de Ensenada) in order to create a cross-section estimate of money demand, a first for any period before the nineteenth century. Results provide meaningful insights about relationships among money demand, wealth, urbanization and structural change in a pre-industrial economy; they also highlight the potential of probate inventories for improving our general understanding of the monetary history of modern Europe.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicolini, Esteban A. & Ramos, Fernando, 2010. "A new method for estimating the money demand in pre-industrial economies: probate inventories and Spain in the eighteenth century," European Review of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(1), pages 145-177, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:ereveh:v:14:y:2010:i:01:p:145-177_99
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    Cited by:

    1. Chen, Yao & Palma, Nuno & Ward, Felix, 2021. "Reconstruction of the Spanish money supply, 1492–1810," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    2. Livio Di Matteo & Angela Redish, 2015. "The evolution of financial intermediation: Evidence from 19th‐century Ontario microdata," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 48(3), pages 963-987, August.
    3. Esteban A. Nicolini & Fernando Ramos Palencia, 2016. "Decomposing income inequality in a backward pre-industrial economy: Old Castile (Spain) in the middle of the eighteenth century," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 69(3), pages 747-772, August.
    4. Esteban A. Nicolini & Fernando Ramos Palencia, 2016. "Comparing Income and Wealth Inequality in Pre-Industrial Economies: Lessons from 18th-Century Spain," Working Papers 0095, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    5. Esteban Nicolini & Fernando Ramos Palencia, 2016. "Comparing Income and Wealth Inequality in Pre-Industrial economies. Lessons from Spain in the 18th century," Working Papers 16.01, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Economics, Quantitative Methods and Economic History.

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