In Acemoglu, Johnson, and Robinson, henceforth AJR, (2001), we advanced the hypothesis that the mortality rates faced by Europeans in different parts of the world after 1500 affected their willingness to establish settlements and choice of colonization strategy. Places that were relatively healthy (for Europeans) were—when they fell under European control—more likely to receive better economic and political institutions. In contrast, places where European settlers were less likely to go were more likely to have “extractive” institutions imposed. We also posited that this early pattern of institutions has persisted over time and influences the extent and nature of institutions in the modern world. On this basis, we proposed using estimates of potential European settler mortality as an instrument for institutional variation in former European colonies today. Data on settlers themselves are unfortunately patchy—particularly because not many went to places they believed, with good reason, to be most unhealthy. We therefore followed the lead of Curtin (1989 and 1998) who compiled data on the death rates faced by European soldiers in various overseas postings. 1 Curtin’s data were based on pathbreaking data collection and statistical work initiated by the British military in the mid-nineteenth century. These data became part of the foundation of both contemporary thinking about public health (for soldiers and for civilians) and the life insurance industry (as actuaries and executives considered the

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The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation

Why nations fail? The origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty

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

After four decades of research in anthropometric history, the use of human stature to measure changes in standards of living and inequality has become widespread among economic historians (Blum, 2013; Galofré-Vilà, 2018). In close collaboration with economists, physical anthropologists and biologists, economic historians have shown that stature and other bodily measures, such as weight, robustness, and corporal mass, have been influenced by environmental and socio-economic determinants over long periods of time and across different geographies. Adult height is a good proxy of human welfare, to the extent that it correlates with health, longevity, nutrition, and economic growth, and inform about the evolution of net-nutritional status and biological wellbeing for different social classes, ethnic groups, and sub-groups within the population (Komlos and Kelly, 2016). Anthropometric history is a well-established discipline in Iberian and Latin American regions. The need to have alternative measures of the standard of living in order to explore the past evolution of economies and societies when conventional indicators were not available has been an important consideration among researchers. In an effort to reconstruct historical series of stature, scholars of the region have produced over a hundred studies that combine insights from history, economics, medicine, biology, and physical anthropology. In the last fifteen years, the anthropometric history literature has increased remarkably with important findings

Inequality and well-being in Iberian and Latin American regions since 1820. New approaches from anthropometric history

Africa and Latin America secured their independence from European colonial rule a century and half apart: most of Latin America after 1820 and most of Africa after 1960. Despite the distance in time and space, they share important similarities. In each case independence was followed by political instability, violent conflict and economic stagnation lasting for about a half-century (lost decades). The parallels suggest that Africa might be exiting from a period of post-imperial collapse and entering a period of relative political stability and economic growth, as did Latin America a century and a half earlier.

Lost Decades: Lessons from Post-Independence Latin America for Today's Africa

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Tendencias y coyunturas agrarias del Litoral rioplatense, 1760-1800: un análisis cuantitativo

espanolEl documento recopila informacion sobre los principales alimentos que formaban parte de la dieta de los habitantes de Montevideo. Luego, presenta algunas hipotesis sobre la ingesta calorica de los grupos sociales plebeyos y no elitistas, introduce dos indices de precios de los alimentos de Laspeyres para Montevideo en 1760-1810, analiza las etapas de la historia de precios de Montevideo en el periodo y compara el caso de Montevideo con las ciudades vecinas. EnglishThis paper gathers information on the diet of the people of Montevideo. It puts forward some hypotheses regarding the caloric intake of the plebeian and non-elite social groups, introduces two Laspeyres indexes of food prices for Montevideo in 1760-1810, analyses the movements of food prices in Montevideo in this period and compares the case of Montevideo with neighbouring cities.

Eating, drinking, paying: the price of food in Montevideo in the late colonial period

espanolEn este documento se analiza la historiografia uruguaya sobre temas agrarios y rurales desde 1970 hasta la actualidad. No es un directorio de autores o contribuciones, ni presenta indicadores bibliometricos para describir la historiografia agraria de Uruguay. El argumento central de este articulo es que el auge y la caida de la historiografia rural uruguaya describen el ciclo de vida de lo que Imre Lakatos llamo un programa de investigacion (Lakatos, 1983). Este programa de investigacion nacio en la decada de 1950 y tuvo su etapa progresiva entre 1960 y 1989. Desde entonces hasta el comienzo del nuevo siglo, el programa paso por lo que se denomina la etapa regresiva en terminos de Lakatos. El presente articulo se cierra con algunas referencias a las principales lineas de lo que podria ser un programa de investigacion emergente. Se espera que el caso uruguayo contribuya a una reflexion mas amplia sobre la historiografia rural latinoamericana de los ultimos cinco decenios. EnglishThis paper analyses Uruguayan historiography on agrarian and rural themes from 1970 to the present. It is not a directory of authors or contributions, nor does it present bibliometric indicators to describe the agrarian historiography of Uruguay. The main point of this article is that the rise and fall of Uruguayan rural historiography depict the life cycle of what Imre Lakatos called a research programme (Lakatos, 1983). This research programme was born in the 1950s and had its progressive stage between 1960–89. From then to the beginning of the new century, the programme underwent what is called the regressive stage in Lakatos’s terms. This article closes with some references to the main lines of what may be an emerging research programme. I hope that the Uruguayan case may contribute to a broader reflection on Latin American rural historiography during the last five decades.

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Agrarian history in Uruguay: From the “agrarian question” to the present

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María Inés Moraes

Papers

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

Tendencias y coyunturas agrarias del Litoral rioplatense, 1760-1800: un análisis cuantitativo

Eating, drinking, paying: the price of food in Montevideo in the late colonial period

Agrarian history in Uruguay: From the “agrarian question” to the present

Estado de la cuestión agraria en el Uruguay y fuentes para su estudio