IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ehsrev/v60y2007i1p97-135.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The long march of history: Farm wages, population, and economic growth, England 1209–18691

Author

Listed:
  • GREGORY CLARK

Abstract

The article forms three series for English farm workers from 1209–1869: nominal day wages, the implied marginal product of a day of farm labour, and the purchasing power of a day’s wage in terms of farm workers’ consumption. These series suggest that labour productivity in English agriculture was already high in the middle ages. Furthermore, they fit well with one method of estimating medieval population that suggests a peak English population c.1300 of nearly 6 million. Lastly, they imply that both agricultural technology and the general efficiency of the economy were static from 1250 till 1600. Economic changes were in these years entirely a product of demographic shifts. From 1600 to 1800, technological advance in agriculture provided an alternative source of dynamism in the English economy.

Suggested Citation

  • Gregory Clark, 2007. "The long march of history: Farm wages, population, and economic growth, England 1209–18691," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 60(1), pages 97-135, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ehsrev:v:60:y:2007:i:1:p:97-135
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0289.2006.00358.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0289.2006.00358.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1468-0289.2006.00358.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Davenport, Frances Gardiner, 1906. "The Economic Development of a Norfolk Manor 1086-1565," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, number davenport1906.
    2. John Munro, 2002. "Postan, Population, and Prices in Late-Medieval England and Flanders," Working Papers munro-02-04, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    3. Z. Razi, 1996. "Manorial court rolls and local population: an East Anglian case study," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 49(4), pages 758-763, November.
    4. Unknown, 2005. "Agriculture In Transition," Economics of Agriculture, Institute of Agricultural Economics, vol. 52(1).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gregory Clark, 2005. "The Long March of History: Farm Wages, Population and Economic Growth, England 1209-1869," Working Papers 540, University of California, Davis, Department of Economics.
    2. Gregory Clark, 2005. "The Long March of History: Farm Wages, Population and Economic Growth, England 1209-1869," Working Papers 170, University of California, Davis, Department of Economics.
    3. Saeed Rasekhi & Saman Ghaderi, 2012. "Marginal intra-industry trade and adjustment costs: the case study of Iran’s manufacturing industries," International Journal of Economics and Business Research, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 4(1/2), pages 35-43.
    4. Olivier Blanchard & Michael Kremer, 1997. "Disorganization," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(4), pages 1091-1126.
    5. Klaus Deininger & Denys Nizalov & Sudhir K Singh, 2013. "Are mega-farms the future of global agriculture? Exploring the farm size-productivity relationship for large commercial farms in Ukraine," Discussion Papers 49, Kyiv School of Economics.
    6. Shuhua Zhang & Bingjun Li & Yingjie Yang, 2021. "Efficiency Analysis of Scientific and Technological Innovation in Grain Production Based on Improved Grey Incidence Analysis," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-21, December.
    7. Larue, Solène & Latruffe, Laure, 2009. "Agglomeration externalities and technical efficiency in French pig production," Working Papers 210403, Institut National de la recherche Agronomique (INRA), Departement Sciences Sociales, Agriculture et Alimentation, Espace et Environnement (SAE2).
    8. Narayanamoorthy, A. & Hanjra, Munir A., 2006. "Rural Infrastructure and Agricultural Output Linkages: A Study of 256 Indian Districts," Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Indian Society of Agricultural Economics, vol. 61(3), pages 1-16.
    9. Musshoff, Oliver & Hirschauer, Norbert & Herink, Michael, 2009. "Bei welchen Problemstrukturen sind Data-Envelopment-Analysen sinnvoll? Eine kritische Würdigung," German Journal of Agricultural Economics, Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin, Department for Agricultural Economics, vol. 58(02), pages 1-11, February.
    10. Konrad Hagedorn, 2013. "Natural resource management: the role of cooperative institutions and governance," Journal of Entrepreneurial and Organizational Diversity, European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises, vol. 2(1), pages 101-121, September.
    11. Eustace Njagi Kithumbu & Julius M. Huho & Humphrey Omondi, 2017. "Environmental Determinants of Choice of Sustainability Strategies Adopted by Group Ranches in Samburu County, Kenya," International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478), Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 6(3), pages 24-32, April.
    12. Tschirley, David L. & Abdula, Danilo Carimo, 2007. "Toward Improved Marketing and Trade Policies to Promote Household Food Security in Central and Southern Mozambique: 2007 Update," Food Security Collaborative Working Papers 56068, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    13. Hubert Cochet & Diane Sanchez & Clio Randimbivololona & Lénaïc Pardon & Julien Varlin & Alice Trotel & Gemma Cornuau & Clément Jaubertie, 2021. "The Household Plot: Moribund Remnant of the Past or Way of the Future? Village Farming in Ukraine," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 33(6), pages 1536-1554, December.
    14. D'Artis Kancs & Pavel Ciaian, 2010. "Factor content of bilateral trade: the role of firm heterogeneity and transaction costs," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 41(3‐4), pages 305-317, May.
    15. Nataliya Zinych & Martin Odening, 2009. "Capital market imperfections in economic transition: empirical evidence from Ukrainian agriculture," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 40(6), pages 677-689, November.
    16. Yadira Méndez-Lemus & Antonio Vieyra & Lorena Poncela, 2017. "Peri-urban local governance? Intra-government relationships and social capital in a peripheral municipality of Michoacán, Mexico," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 17(1), pages 1-23, January.
    17. Stanley Salvary, 2005. "Accounting And Financial Reporting In A Changing Environment: Historical And Theoretical Perspectives," Economic History 0510003, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Bogdanov, Natalija & Rodic, Vesna & Vittuari, Matteo, 2012. "Structural Change In Transitional Agriculture: Evidence From Serbia," 132nd Seminar, October 25-27, 2012, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia 139490, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    19. John Grin, 2012. "The politics of transition governance in Dutch agriculture. Conceptual understanding and implications for transition management," International Journal of Sustainable Development, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 15(1/2), pages 72-89.
    20. Pawel Bukowski & Filip Novokmet, 2017. "Top Incomes during Wars, Communism and Capitalism: Poland 1892-2015," Working Papers halshs-02797835, HAL.

    More about this item

    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:60:y:2007:i:1:p:97-135. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    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 bibliographic 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.

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

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.