Wages, Prices, and Living Standards in China, 1738-1925

Wages, Prices, and Living Standards in China, 1738-1925: in Comparison with Europe, Japan and India

PDF  58 pages, July 2009

1. 1. Robert C. Allen,
   2. Jean-Pascal Bassino,
   3. Debin Ma,
   4. Christine Moll-Murata
   5. Jan Luiten van Zanden

Department of Economic History
London School of Economics
Houghton Street London, WC2A 2AE

Abstract

This paper develops data on the history of wages and prices in Beijing, Canton, Suzhou/Shanghai in China from the eighteenth century to the twentieth and compare them with leading cities in Europe, Japan and India in terms of nominal wages, the cost of living, and the standard of living. In the eighteenth century, the real income of building workers in Asia was similar to that of workers in the backward parts of Europe but far behind that in the leading economies in north western Europe. Real wages declined in China in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and rose slowly in the late nineteenth and early twentieth with little cumulative change for two hundred years. The income disparities of the early twentieth century were due to long run stagnation in China combined with industrialization in Japan and Europe.

“The difference between the money price of labour in China and Europe is still greater than that between the money price of subsistence; because the real recompense of labour is higher in Europe than in China.”

Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, 1776, p. 189.

…

1. I. Wage Levels in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century China
2. II. Wage Levels in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century China
3. iii Wage Patterns in Europe and China
4. iv. Price Indices
5. v. A Look at Other Index Numbers
6. vi. Comparison of Living Standards
7. vii. Conclusion

Tables

1. Nominal wages of workers in public construction 1769-95 ⁴⁸
2. Wage regressions for 18th China, … ⁴⁹
3. Subsistence lifestyle: baskets of goods in China ⁵⁰
4. Subsistence incomes: baskets of goods in Europe ⁵¹ 
5. Comparison of different basket costs around 1750 ⁵²

Figures

1. Nominal wages in BJ, Suzhou & Canton (in silver taels) ⁵³
2. Daily wages in grams of silver, 1738-1870 ⁵⁴ 
3. Daily wages in grams of silver 1870-1914 ⁵⁵ 
4. Costs of the baskets in grams of silver per person per year ⁵⁶ 
5. Welfare ratios ⁵⁷ 
6. Welfare ratios in Asia ⁵⁸