Prices, Wages and Living Standards of Unskilled Workers in Buenos Aires During the First Half of the 19th Century

Abstract

In recent decades, Latin American historiography has raised many questions and methodological challenges regarding the standard of living of the continent's societies in historical perspective. The aim of this paper is to address these challenges for the case of the city of Buenos Aires (Argentina) during the first half of the 19th century. We use new series of prices of a variety of items of wide consumption, and series of wage income of low-skilled labor (wages of bricklayers and salaries of low-ranking state employees). Based on various available subsistence consumption baskets, we present different possibilities of real wage series (welfare ratio). Thus, we examine the evolution of the living standards of unskilled workers in Buenos Aires between 1824 and 1850, during a period of important socio-economic and political transformations.