<<
>>

Appendix

Table 5.A1 Base values for India in 1595

Indian units Grams of silver per metric unit
Commodity prices
Rice 20 dam/man 0.221g/kg
Peas 6 dam/man 0.087g/l
Meat 65 dam/man 0.717g/kg
Fat1 105 dam/man 1.158g/kg
Oil 80 dam/man 0.882g/kg
Cloth 3 dam/yard 0.908g/m
Cost of basketb 101.058 g of silver
Wages
Unskilled 3 dam/day 0.830463 grams of silver/day
Skilled 7 dam/day 1.937747 grams of silver/day
Real wagec
Unskilled 0.011294
Skilled 0.026352

‘ Fat was ghi.

b Cost of basket obtained by multiplying quantities by silver prices shown here.

c Real wage is wage divided by cost of basket.

Notes: Assumptions about weights, measures, and money: one rupee of 40 dam weighed 11.07284g of pure silver, one man equals 25.1kg, and 1l of peas weighs 0.76kg.

Table 5.A2 Base values for China in late seventeenth century

Chinese units Grams of silver per metric unit
Commodity prices
Rice 1tael∕shi 0.555g∕kg
Peas [0.219g]∕lc
Meat [1.803g]∕kgc
Fat1 [2.219g]∕kgc
Oil [2∙219g]∕lc
Clothb 0.31 tael/bolt 2.355g∕m
Cost of basketd 247.3088g of silver
Wage
Farm 0.05 tael,/day 1.553333g of silver/day
Real wagee
Farm 0.008527

‘ Fat was oil.

b Cloth price is Li's (1998: 149) figure for the net income that producers received from making cloth inflated by Pomeranz's (2000: 319) ratio of output to labour costs.

c Silver prices in brackets calculated as price of rice multiplied by the ratio of the Indian price of the commodity to the Indian price of rice as given in Appendix, Table 5.A1.

d Cost of basket obtained by multiplying quantities in Table 5.1 by silver prices shown here.

e Real wage is wage divided by cost of basket.

Notes: Assumptions about weights, measures (Li 1998: xvi—xvii), and money: one shi of paddy rice weighs 65kg (1.3 dan or picul each weighing 50kg), one bolt of cloth equals 3.63sq. yards or 3.03sq. m, and one tael weight 31.06667g of pure silver.

Table 5.A3 Base values for Japan in 1880—4

Japanese units Grams of silver per metric unit
Commodity prices
Rice 0.09476 yen/sho 1.662g/kg
Peas 0.06000 yen/sho 1.163g/L
Meat [5.403]g/kg
Far [6.650]g/kg
Oil [6.650]g/kg
Cloth 0.502 yen/tan 3.7530g/m
Cost of basketc 540.3853g of silver
Wage
Unskilled 0.2 yen/day 5.00g of silver/day
Skilled 0.2975 yen/day 7.44g of silver/day
Farm 0.1975 yen/day 4.94g of silver/day
Real waged
Unskilled 0.009200
Skilled 0.013685
Farm 0.009085

‘ Fat was oil.

b Silver prices in brackets calculated as price of rice multiplied by the ratio of the Indian price of the commodity to the Indian price of rice as given in Appendix, Table 5.A1.

c Cost of basket obtained by multiplying quantities in Table 5.A1 by silver prices shown here.

d Real wage is wage divided by cost of basket.

Notes: Assumptions about weights, measures, and money: oneyen equalled 25g of silver. Ohkawa et al. (1967: 153) state that one sho of rice weighed 1.425kg, while one sho of soy beans weighed 1.29kg. Li (1998: 205, n. 4) reports that one tan of cloth equalled 4.1sq. yards (3.43sq. m2).

Table 5.A4 Base values for England and Italy in 1750—9

England’ Northern Italy
Commodity prices (grams of silver per metric units)
Bread 1∙37g∕kg 0.91g∕kg
Peas 042gAg a58gAg
Meat 333g∕kg 2.32g∕kg
Fatb 6.89g∕kg 2.32g∕kg
Oil 3.19g∕kg 2.32g∕kg
Cloth 4.87g∕m 8.63g∕m
Cost of basketc 579.736g 381.982g
Wage
Unskilled 7.42g∕day 3.44g∕day
Skilled 11.14g∕day 5.73g∕day
Farm 5.57g∕day 2.10g∕day
Real waged
Unskilled 0.014909 0.009737
Skilled 0.022383 0.016229
Farm 0.011191 0.009752

‘ Wages shown for England are for Oxford. London wages were 16.70g/day for skilled and 11.14 for unskilled. b Fat was butter in England and oil in Italy.

c Cost of basket obtained by multiplying quantities in Table 5.A1 by silver prices shown here.

d Real wage is wage divided by cost of basket.

Notes: See Allen (2001) for discussion of underlying data.

<< | >>
Source: Allen R.C., Bengtsson T., Dribe M.. Living Standards in the Past: New Perspectives on Well-Being in Asia and Europe. Oxford University Press,2005. - 495 p.. 2005

More on the topic Appendix: