Measuring the Great Divergence: A study of global standards of living, 1500-1950

该项目将更好地了解西欧和世界其他地区之间大分流的起源和发展。最近的学术研究表明，与波美兰兹(2001)的著名论点相反，到17世纪，西欧已经比世界其他地区更富有。但比较研究很少，而且几乎完全依赖最早17世纪(通常只有18世纪和19世纪)的英语、法语和荷兰语来源。因此，我们仍然不知道大分歧是什么时候开始的，我们也对17世纪之前世界上非欧洲地区的发展知之甚少。葡萄牙的全球帝国大多没有出现在这场辩论中，但从16世纪开始，它就包括了非洲、印度、美洲和亚洲的几个地点。葡萄牙帝国中心和前殖民地的葡萄牙殖民档案中保存着16世纪以后的详细价格和工资数据，这些数据可以用来扩大研究的时间和地理范围。葡萄牙从15世纪开始的海外活动的首要地位确保了它成为欧洲历史最悠久、持续时间最长的现代帝国。我们将使用行政、军事和商业机构在数百年来(从公元1500年到1950年)为五个关键的前帝国遗址创造的葡语定量资料：安哥拉的罗安达、莫桑比克岛的城市聚居地、印度的果阿、中国的澳门和巴西里约热内卢。从16世纪初开始，我们将赋予收入和支出账簿、支付单、人口普查和统计年鉴特权，以汇编实际工资和福利篮子。这些地点提供的地理覆盖范围可以提供更多关于世界不同地区土著和欧洲定居者生活水平的详细信息，这些地区有葡萄牙人，范围更广，比目前从英国、法国或荷兰来源获得的数据早一个多世纪就开始了。对于每个案例研究站点，我们将收集不同类型工人(技术工人和非技术工人、自由工人和奴隶工人、欧洲人、本地人和混合种族)的年度工资数据，以及各种主要商品的价格，以按时间和地理位置生产特定的福利篮子。这些篮子将反映正在进行的事件，例如在被称为哥伦比亚交换的过程中引入新商品。例如，自17世纪以来，玉米和木薯首次从殖民时期的巴西进口，逐渐改变了生产和消费模式，成为安哥拉的一种重要粮食。积累了一个包含数千个观察数据的数据集，我们将产生实际工资和价格指数，这将使我们能够确定福利比率；即这些地区的工人可以购买的主食和其他必需品的质量和数量。这将为每个地区不同群体在五个世纪内的生活水平提供明确的证据。该项目将帮助PI发展其领导技能，获得赠款管理经验，并实现研究独立。它还将极大地提高PDRA的职业前景，他们将受聘进行研究，并与PI合作处理数据集和出版物。为了确保最大限度地造福学术界，将向其他研究人员提供数据集，为了解欧洲崛起的原因开辟进一步的途径。我们的发现将通过提供大量关于奴隶制的经济遗产的新信息，从而促进我们对“大分流”起源的理解，从而引起中央政府机构和市政机构在公共历史、记忆和遗产领域的兴趣。ESRC社会科学节上的临时展览和活动也将有助于将这些发现传播给更广泛的公众。

This project will provide a better understanding of the origins and development of the Great Divergence between Western Europe and other parts of the world. Recent scholarship has shown that contrary to Pomeranz's (2001) famous argument, Western Europe was already richer than other parts of the world by the 17th century. But comparative studies are rare, and rely almost exclusively on English, French, and Dutch sources from the 17thcentury at the earliest (and typically, only the 18thand 19thcenturies). Hence, we still do not know when did the Great Divergence began, and we also know little about developments of non-European parts of the world prior to the 17thcentury. Portugal's global empire has been mostly absent from this debate, but from the 16th century it included several sites in Africa, India, the Americas, and Asia. Detailed price and wage data from the 16th century onwards survives in the Portuguese colonial archives in both the imperial centre and former colonies, and these can be used to expand the chronological and geographical scope of research.The primacy of Portuguese overseas endeavours from the 15thcentury ensured that it became Europe's oldest and longest lasting modern empire. We will use Lusophone quantitative sources created by administrative, military, and commercial institutions for five key former imperial sites over hundreds of years, from c.1500 to 1950: Luanda in Angola, the urban settlement of Mozambique Island, Goa in India, Macao in China, and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. We will privilege books of receipt and expense, payment rolls, census, and statistical yearbooks to assemble real wages and welfare baskets from the early 16thcentury onwards. The geographical coverage provided by these locations can provide much more detail on living standards for both native and European settlers in different parts of the world in which were the Portuguese were present, for a broader geographical range and beginning more than a century before currently available data derived from English, French or Dutch sources. For each case study site, we will collect yearly wage data for different kinds of workers (skilled and unskilled, free and enslaved, European, native and mixed race), and also the prices of a variety of staple goods to produce chronologically and geographically specific welfare baskets. These baskets will reflect ongoing events, such as the introduction of new goods in the process known as Columbian Exchange. For example, maize became an important food in Angola since the 17thcentury, when together with cassava was first imported from colonial Brazil, progressively transforming patterns of production and consumption. Amassing a dataset with many thousands of observations, we will produce indexes of real wages and prices which will allow us to determine welfare ratios; that is, the quality and quantity of staple foods and other essential items that workers in these locations could purchase. This will provide clear evidence of living standards for different groups in each location over five centuries.The project will help the PI develop his leadership skills, gain grant management experience and achieve research independence. It will also greatly the career prospects of the PDRA who will be hired to conduct research and work with the PI on datasets and publications. To ensure maximum benefit to the scholarly community, datasets will be made available for other researchers, opening further avenues for understanding the causes of the ascendency of Europe. Our findings will generate interest in both central government agencies and municipal institutions in the fields of public history, memory, and legacy by providing a vast amount of new information on the economic legacy of slavery and, consequently, our understanding of the origins of the 'Great Divergence'. A temporary exhibition and an event at the ESRC Festival of Social Science will also help to disseminate these findings to a wider public.