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Mats Olsson
Head of the Department of Economic History, Professor
![Portrait of Mats Olsson. Photo.](/sites/lusem.lu.se/files/styles/lu_personal_page_desktop/public/2024-02/MatsOlsson_0.jpg.webp?itok=JjxZ-ng4)
Men at work. Wages and industriousness in southern Sweden 1500–1850
Author
Summary, in English
In this paper, we use a brand new dataset to estimate and compare wages for casually and annually hired workers in early modern southern Sweden. We ask whether men in either situation could have supported families on the basis of their earnings. Findings indicate that casual earners would have been able to out-earn annual employees for most of the period 1500–1850, but by the eighteenth century when food prices had risen their relative comfort likely reversed. Similarly, while it was possible for long periods of time for men to earn a respectability basket on the basis of approximately 150 days work this was no longer true by the end of the eighteenth century. By that time, both groups would have increasingly struggled and other family members needed to contribute. Not only is this account inconsistent with the standard story of a nineteenth century male breadwinner family but it suggests that industriousness might not have been prompted by a desire to consume new commodities but by the need to maintain basic standards.
Department/s
- Department of Economic History
Publishing year
2020
Language
English
Pages
112-112
Publication/Series
Scandinavian Economic History Review
Volume
68
Issue
2
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Routledge
Topic
- Economic History
Keywords
- Wages
- casual labour
- annualy hired
- Early Modern
- Industrious revolution
Status
Published
Project
- Wages, economic performance and inequality. Scandinavia in the ‘Little Divergence’ in Europe
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 1750-2837