IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/mul/jrkmxm/doi10.1410-115800y2024i3p277-304.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Should I stay or should I go? Living standards of serfs and peasants in 18th century Moscow

Author

Listed:
  • Elena Korchmina

Abstract

Russian serfdom is often compared to slavery, as both systems kept the majority of the population at subsistence levels (Acemoglu and Wolitzky 2011). Allen’s micro-level methodology, which compares living standards, provides a new approach to examining the economic conditions of the poorest groups. Recent research on slavery has shown significant declines in slave living standards, often below subsistence levels (Burnard, Panza and Williamson 2017). Yet, empirical evidence for this issues is limited. This study extends Allen’s approach to Russian serfs, analyzing whether it was more advantageous for them to farm semi-arable land or work as urban laborers in pre-industrial Moscow. Using archival data, I assess seasonal wages and purchasing power. The findings indicate that urban wages fell below agricultural income, and serfs had autonomy in economic choices, impacting both Moscow’s economy and rural households. This study underscores the importance of household life cycles and regional dynamics for broader economic trends

Suggested Citation

  • Elena Korchmina, 2024. "Should I stay or should I go? Living standards of serfs and peasants in 18th century Moscow," Rivista di storia economica, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 3, pages 277-304.
    • Handle: RePEc:mul:jrkmxm:doi:10.1410/115800:y:2024:i:3:p:277-304
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.rivisteweb.it/download/article/10.1410/115800
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://www.rivisteweb.it/doi/10.1410/115800
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    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:mul:jrkmxm:doi:10.1410/115800:y:2024:i:3:p:277-304. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.rivisteweb.it/ .

    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.