Humans have become much taller and heavier, and experience healthier and longer lives than ever before in human history. However it is only recently that historians, economists, human biologists and demographers have linked the changing size, shape and capability of the human body to economic and demographic change. This fascinating and groundbreaking book presents an accessible introduction to the field of anthropometric history, surveying the causes and consequences of changes in health and mortality, diet and the disease environment in Europe and the United States since 1700. It examines how we define and measure health and nutrition as well as key issues such as whether increased longevity contributes to greater productivity or, instead, imposes burdens on society through the higher costs of healthcare and pensions. The result is a major contribution to economic and social history with important implications for today's developing world and the health trends of the future.

The Changing Body: Health, Nutrition, and Human Development in the Western World since 1700

Historical studies of the growth in real wages and output depend upon the accurate measure of the price trends of goods and services. Over long periods of time, the consumption bundle has changed profoundly, and most of today's consumption includes items that were not produced, and in some cases not even conceived, at the beginning of the nineteenth century. This paper tackles the issue of the quantitative significance of the qualitative change in consumption by choosing a single service -- lighting -- for which the service characteristic -- illumination -- is invariant. We estimate changes in lighting efficiency and construct a "true" price index back to Babylonian times, with the major emphasis on changes over the last two centuries. A comparison of the true price of light with a traditional light price indicates that traditional price indexes overstate price growth, and therefore understate output growth, by a factor between 900 and 1,600 since the beginning of the nineteenth century. This finding suggests that the "true" growth of real wages and real output may have been significantly understated during the period since the Industrial Revolution.(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Do Real-Output and Real-Wage Measures Capture Reality? The History of Lighting Suggests Not

The objective of this paper is to explain, from a cliometric perspective, the determinants of the growth of Argentina’s exports between 1880 and 1929. To do this, we have constructed a gravity model with the principal products exported each year by Argentina to its most important trading partners. In this way, we believe that this study constitutes a relevant and original contribution to the analysis of economic growth from a historical perspective and specifically in explaining the factors determining the export success of the settler countries during the first wave of globalisation. Our results show that Argentina’s export-led growth must be explained from both the supply and demand sides. We also find that the reduction in trade costs and trade liberalisation, especially the latter, boosted exports. We also support the idea that Argentina had a successful agro-export sector because it offered a diverse basket of products to the different European and American countries that consumed them. To sum up, we can conclude that Argentina took advantage of a multilateral and open economic system. Within this context, the country generally found a demand for its supply, which constitutes the key to explaining the magnitude and speed of Argentina’s export growth.

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How Argentina became a super-exporter of agricultural and food products during the First Globalisation (1880–1929)

The purpose of the study is to propose a marketing plan to introduce an organic banana brand. The fruit has a potential for consumption growth. The article focuses on proposing bases for banana associations or companies in terms of product marketing. A cross-sectional methodology was applied, with field work and use of instruments such as surveys, interviews, direct observation. The target audience that has been identified are mostly women between the ages of 20 and 40, with monthly salaries exceeding a unified basic salary, belonging to the upper-middle social class, who take care of their own well-being; aimed at the consumption of healthy foods that contribute to environmental sustainability. Regarding the marketing mix, packaging, labeling, value proposition strategies were formulated; the price was estimated based on the costs of the competition; a short channel is proposed between producer, wholesaler and final customer; The defined advertising media are offline and online, guaranteeing the impact and visibility of the product in the market.

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Introducción de marca de banano orgánico en el mercado ecuatoriano

This article makes a contribution to the empirical and methodological
discussion on the standard of living in Latin America during the colonial
period. It presents evidence obtained from primary sources on the evolution
of nominal wages, cost of living and real wages for 10 occupational categories
in the region of Montevideo between 1760 and 1810. The results place
rural laborers and masons in Montevideo below subsistence levels until at
least the first decade of the 19th century, a finding that is difficult to reconcile
with the demographic and productive growth of the region at the same time.
Wages may not be the main component in the structure of family income
among the subordinate sectors of the colonial Rio de la Plata.

Los salarios reales y el nivel de vida en una economía latinoamericana colonial: Montevideo entre 1760-1810

Fil: Djenderedjian, Julio Cesar. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas. Oficina de Coordinacion Administrativa Saavedra 15. Instituto de Historia Argentina y Americana ; Argentina

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Precios, producto agrario y niveles de vida en las fronteras rioplatenses, 1700-1810: una nueva mirada sobre el crecimiento económico tardocolonial

En la segunda mitad del siglo XIX, la implantacion de colonias busco quebrar en Argentina las pautas de eficiencia estatica de la tradicional agricultura criolla. Este articulo estudia en paralelo el uso diferenciado de factores y sus efectos en la distribucion de la riqueza generada en dos nucleos representativos de ambas formas de organizacion economica rural en la region pampeana, a fin de mostrar hasta que punto la formacion de colonias significo oportunidades nuevas y una homogeneidad mayor, que contrastaban con un relativo estancamiento y una alta desigualdad de fortunas en la economia agraria criolla.

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La distribución de la riqueza rural entre tradición y modernidad. los casos de la colonia esperanza y el distrito de paraná durante la década de 1860

Price history of colonial Rio de la Plata region, despite valuable contributions, has still major shortcomings. Among them, is the lack of series for minor cities and borderland areas. This article presents and analyzes the evolution of prices in Santa Fe city during the first half of the XVIII Century, a period full of Indian attacks. We study the long-run trends in prices, and the impact of war on the local economy. Besides, some comparisons have been done with the extant price series from other neighboring cities. Conclusions show that, in the long run, warfare did not bring major problems, but it did in particular moments.

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Los precios de los bienes en las fronteras bravías del río de la plata colonial :santa fe durante la primera mitad del siglo xviii

La expansion agraria producida en la region pampeana entre el ultimo cuarto del siglo XIX y las dos primeras decadas del XX, convirtio a este espacio en uno de los mayores nichos productores de cereales del mundo Como corolario, este proceso permitio la emergencia de una industria harinera que en pocos anos acaparo los mercados nacionales y se posiciono fuertemente en las plazas de abasto brasilenas No obstante, para ingresar a este mercado las harinas argentinas debieron enfrentar constantemente fuertes restricciones arancelarias, lo cual, segun la bibliografia especializada, supuso un importante freno a la expansion de esta industria En este trabajo proponemos revisitar esa imagen, al presentar evidencia estadistica seriada sobre indices de produccion, precios y comercio exterior del producto, con el fin de mostrar, ademas de la evolucion creciente de la industria, que el peso de las exportaciones ha sido sobrevalorado en la bibliografia

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La industria argentina de harina de trigo en el cambio de siglo. Límites y alcances, 1880-1914

This paper examines the cost of living and evolution of welfare ratios among urban workers in Rio Grande's vila, the main commercial enclave of the southern Portuguese dominions in America. From diverse sources (military and hospital expenditure accounts, merchant credit bills from probate inventories), we build different consumption baskets to calculate their cost in seven benchmark years: 1772, 1792, 1802, 1809, 1816, 1819 and 1823. The evolution of cost of living shows a consistent upward trend during the period, which, however, does not substantially affect welfare ratios. In order to build regional comparisons, we follow Allen's methodology (2001) to estimate welfare ratios of skilled and unskilled workers in Rio Grande, Buenos Aires and Montevideo. The results of using this approach could be useful to adjust the methodology for further international comparisons.

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Juan Luis Martirén

Papers

Precios, producto agrario y niveles de vida en las fronteras rioplatenses, 1700-1810: una nueva mirada sobre el crecimiento económico tardocolonial

La distribución de la riqueza rural entre tradición y modernidad. los casos de la colonia esperanza y el distrito de paraná durante la década de 1860

Los precios de los bienes en las fronteras bravías del río de la plata colonial :santa fe durante la primera mitad del siglo xviii

La industria argentina de harina de trigo en el cambio de siglo. Límites y alcances, 1880-1914

Consumption baskets and cost of living in southern late colonial brazil: rio grande, 1772-1823