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Testing the “trickle-down” theory through GECEM database: consumer behaviour, Chinese goods, and trade networks in the Western Mediterranean, 1730–1808

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  • Manuel Perez-Garcia

    (Shanghai Jiao Tong University / P.I. GECEM Project)

Abstract

Economic historians have used GDP and its backwards projections to quantify economic growth and the process of early globalisation from year 1 CE to the present day. This has generated a lively debate concerning which methodologies are the most accurate for quantitative history and which data are most reliable. In addition, whilst an overwhelming amount of scholarship has emerged on the supply side, the demand side and family economic changes have been less popular in economic history. In this article, I present a concrete case study to analyse consumer behaviour: the circulation of Chinese goods in western Mediterranean markets during the eighteenth century. In so doing, I test the “trickle-down” theory with new archival data using GECEM Project Database, and apply the OLS and SNA to measure the social distribution of these goods through trade networks’ intermediation. The main result is that the agency of middle social groups—mainly merchants—was changing consumers’ behaviour in western Mediterranean markets, and not local oligarchies and nobility as the “trickle-down” theory has conventionally assessed.

Suggested Citation

  • Manuel Perez-Garcia, 2023. "Testing the “trickle-down” theory through GECEM database: consumer behaviour, Chinese goods, and trade networks in the Western Mediterranean, 1730–1808," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 17(3), pages 567-605, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:cliomt:v:17:y:2023:i:3:d:10.1007_s11698-022-00253-w
    DOI: 10.1007/s11698-022-00253-w
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Broadberry, Stephen & Guan, Hanhui & Li, David Daokui, 2018. "China, Europe, and the Great Divergence: A Study in Historical National Accounting, 980–1850," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 78(4), pages 955-1000, December.
    2. Manuel Perez-Garcia, 2019. "Consumption of Chinese goods in southwestern Europe: a multi-relational database and the vicarious consumption theory as alternative model to the industrious revolution (eighteenth century)," Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(1), pages 15-36, January.
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    4. Allen, Robert C., 2001. "The Great Divergence in European Wages and Prices from the Middle Ages to the First World War," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 411-447, October.
    5. Gastwirth, Joseph L, 1972. "The Estimation of the Lorenz Curve and Gini Index," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 54(3), pages 306-316, August.
    6. Deaton,Angus & Muellbauer,John, 1980. "Economics and Consumer Behavior," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521296762, June.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Global (Economic) History; “Trickle-down” theory; GECEM Project Database; China-Europe; Consumer behaviour; Social network analysis;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B3 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought: Individuals
    • B4 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology
    • N3 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy
    • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development

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