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Second Thoughts on the European Escape from Hunger: Famines, Price Elasticities, Entitlements, Chronic Malnutrition, and Mortality Rates

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  • Robert W. Fogel

Abstract

The six principal findings of this paper are as follows: (1) crisis mortality accounted for less than 5 percent of total mortality in England prior to 1800 and the elimination of crisis mortality accounted for just 15 percent of the decline in total mortality between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. (2) The use of variations in wheat prices to measure variations in the food supply has led to gross overestimates of the variability of the food supply. (3) The famines that plagued England between 1500 and 1800 were manmade, the consequence of failures in the system of food distribution related to an extremely inelastic demand for food inventories, rather than to natural calamities or inadequate technology. (4) It was not only within the power of government to eliminate famines but in fact the food distribution policies of James I and Charles I succeeded in reducing the variability of annual wheat prices by over 70 percent. (5) A change in the government policy could not have eliminated chronic malnutrition. Elimination of chronic malnutrition required technological changes that permitted the per capita consumption of food to increase by about 50 percent. (6) Improvements in average nutritional status appear to explain nearly all of the decline in mortality rates in England, France, and Sweden between 1775-1875 but only about half of the mortality decline since 1875.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert W. Fogel, 1989. "Second Thoughts on the European Escape from Hunger: Famines, Price Elasticities, Entitlements, Chronic Malnutrition, and Mortality Rates," NBER Historical Working Papers 0001, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberhi:0001
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    1. N/A, 1967. "Appendix," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 41(1), pages 47-48, August.
    2. N/A, 1967. "Appendix," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 41(1), pages 36-40, August.
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    Cited by:

    1. Morgan Kelly & Cormac Ó Gráda, 2014. "Living standards and mortality since the middle ages," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 67(2), pages 358-381, May.
    2. Antman, Francisca M., 2022. "For Want of a Cup: The Rise of Tea in England and the Impact of Water Quality on Mortality," IZA Discussion Papers 15016, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Edvinsson, Rodney, 2008. "Harvests, prices and population in early modern Sweden," Stockholm Papers in Economic History 1, Stockholm University, Department of Economic History.
    4. Sophie Mitra & Jean-Marc Boussard, 2008. "Storage and the Volatility of Agricultural Prices: A Model of Endogenous Fluctuations," Fordham Economics Discussion Paper Series dp2008-11, Fordham University, Department of Economics.
    5. S. R. Osmani, 1996. "Famine, demography and endemic poverty," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 8(5), pages 597-623.
    6. Timmer, C. Peter, 1995. "Getting agriculture moving: do markets provide the right signals?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 20(5), pages 455-472, October.
    7. Bernard Harris & Roderick Floud & Robert W. Fogel & Sok Chul Hong, 2010. "Diet, Health and Work Intensity in England and Wales, 1700-1914," NBER Working Papers 15875, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Kopsidis, Michael, 1997. "Marktintegration und landwirtschaftliche Entwicklung: Lehren aus der Wirtschaftsgeschichte und Entwicklungsökonomie für den russischen Getreidemarkt im Transformationsprozeß," IAMO Discussion Papers 5, Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO).
    9. de Beer, Hans, 2016. "The biological standard of living in Suriname, c. 1870–1975," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 140-154.
    10. Sophie Mitra & Jean‐Marc Boussard, 2012. "A simple model of endogenous agricultural commodity price fluctuations with storage," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 43(1), pages 1-15, January.
    11. Martin Uebele & Tim Grünebaum & Michael Kopsidis, 2013. "King's law and food storage in Saxony, c. 1790-1830," CQE Working Papers 2613, Center for Quantitative Economics (CQE), University of Muenster.
    12. Jayne E. Bisman, 2012. "Budgeting for famine in Tudor England, 1527--1528: social and policy perspectives," Accounting History Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(2), pages 105-126, July.
    13. Luque de Haro, Víctor A. & Pujadas-Mora, Joana M. & García-Gómez, José J., 2021. "Inequality in mortality in pre-industrial southern Europe during an epidemic episode: socio-economic determinants (eighteenth - nineteenth centuries Spain)," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 40(C).
    14. Vanhaute, Eric, 2009. "From famine to food crisis. What history can teach us about local and global subsistence crises," MPRA Paper 17630, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Cormac Ó Gráda & Eric Vanhaute & Richard Paping, 2006. "The European subsistence crisis of 1845-1850 : a comparative perspective," Working Papers 200609, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    16. Cormac Ó Gráda, 2004. "Introduction to Special Issue of Food and Foodways," Working Papers 200409, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    17. Cormac Ó Gráda, 2002. "Adam Smith and Amartya Sen : markets and famines in pre-industrial Europe," Working Papers 200218, School of Economics, University College Dublin.

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