Living Standards in the Past: New Perspectives on Well-Being in Asia and Europe (review)

In this extraordinarily well-wrought example of interdisciplinary and comparative history, twenty-eight specialists of European and Asian history, most of them veterans of comparative historical analysis, scrutinize closely one aspect of the current inequality in Eastern and Western living standards by asking when the gap emerged. Seventeen chapters look at the two centuries immediately preceding the Industrial Revolution in the West and, using economic, social, and demographic measures, challenge the "established view, stemming from the classical economists and still influential, . . . that the gap originated far back in history, perhaps thousands of years ago" (1). The findings, however, "support the revisionist view that there were no systematic differences in living standards between Europe and Asia before the Industrial Revolution. . . . [T]he general picture emerging from these studies is not one of great divergence between East and West during this period, but instead one of considerable similarities" (17–19).

To bring the diverse societies of the two ends of the Eurasian continent into a meaningful comparative framework, methodological innovation was necessary. The project uses an expanded concept of "standard of living" (7), employing not only economic indicators of well-being but also sociophysical (health and height) and demographic (measurable responses to food prices) ones. Though considerable research on the latter two has been ongoing for some time in local and regional contexts, their relevance to broad-based comparative work is amply demonstrated in this book. Scarcity of quantifiable evidence, especially for the Asian countries, had to be overcome by the clever use of estimates that, on the whole, do not strain credibility. The range of evidence is itself remarkable. The various chapters look at, inter alia, the supply of, and demand for, hogs, double cropping, price series for a variety of commodities, labor markets, wage levels, life expectancy, the cost of servants, literacy rates, average heights, taxes, maternal and child mortality, proletarianization, human fertility, marriage, and out-migration.

Since the project involves the effort to understand the on-the-ground interaction of many variables, modeling of various kinds had to be employed. Its use is persuasive, as are the methods of presenting quantitative information. The close fit between the text, tables, and graphics is evidence of a rigorous editorial process. The national societies included in the study are China, Japan, India, the Netherlands, Russia, Slavonia, Denmark, Tuscany, Sweden, and Belgium. Several of the essays merge evidence from many European countries and generalize about a "Western European" region.

The book is not an easy read, and could not have been, given the inherent complexity of the topic. The excellent introduction by the editors goes a long way toward holding the rest of the chapters together, and the conclusion of each chapter adeptly describes the meaning of the particular findings for the larger theme. However, in recognition of the conceptual complexity of the main theme, the editors could have asked that each chapter also begin with a short re-introduction to the main theme and some instructions as to how to integrate it. But this is a minor point, which in no way detracts from a challenging and intellectually rewarding volume.