The timing and pattern of real wage divergence in pre‐industrial Europe: evidence from Germany, c. 1500–1850
利用德国12个城镇的价格和18个城镇的工资数据，构建了工业化前三个半世纪非熟练城市劳工的实际工资指数，揭示了17至19世纪欧洲实际工资分化的两个阶段及其与商业革命的关系。
This study uses price information relating to 12 towns and wage information from 18 towns to develop a real wage index for unskilled urban labourers in Germany during the three‐and‐a‐half centuries preceding the onset of rapid industrialization. Combining the new series with information from other parts of Europe establishes two stages of real wage divergence during the seventeenth to nineteenth century. The first occurred in the middle of the seventeenth century when real wages in centres of trade and finance located on the rim of the North Sea rose far above the level prevailing in their hinterland. The second stage unfolded from the second quarter of the eighteenth century when the real wage in south England, northern and central Italy, and Germany began to diverge; Germany followed a middle path between the other two countries. The second commercial revolution, which improved business techniques and promoted Smithian growth, goes a long way towards accounting for this development.