Malthus, Wages, and Preindustrial Growth
通过遗嘱职业记录估算前工业时期农业就业比例，发现1560-1579年和1653-1660年英格兰农业就业仅占60%，与工资显示的高收入一致，支持工资能衡量前工业生活水平的观点。
Gregory Clark argued in A Farewell to Alms that preindustrial societies, including England, were Malthusian. Day wages show incomes were trendless: as high in Europe in the medieval era as in 1800, even in England. The opposed view is that England and the Netherlands grew substantially from 1200 to 1800. Early day wages overestimate living standards. Here we show that preindustrial farm employment shares can be estimated from probate occupation reports. These imply only 60 percent employed in farming in England in 1560–1579 and 1653–1660, consistent with the high incomes indicated by wages. Day wages do measure preindustrial living standards.