Shireen Moosvi
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- December 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199450541
- eISBN:
- 9780199085491
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199450541.003.0012
- Subject:
- History, Indian History
The question now addressed is whether the large part of rural surplus appropriated by the ruling class (including the emperor) merely created a large service sector or generated a market for craft ...
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The question now addressed is whether the large part of rural surplus appropriated by the ruling class (including the emperor) merely created a large service sector or generated a market for craft goods. While the pattern of imperial military and household expenditure is clear enough (vide chapters 10 and 11), it is otherwise with the Mughal nobility, about whose mode of life we have some evidence, but not enough to directly sustain quantification. Use has, therefore, been made of Engel’s Law of Family Budgets so as to, first, classify imperial expenditure into necessities (N), comforts (C), and luxuries (L) and, then, vary the proportion of expenditure on them as one deals with diminishing incomes. This leads to a hypothetical construction of tables 12.3 and 12.5. While the nobles’ purchases of luxuries and imported horses (paid for by export of craft goods) could have encouraged craft production, and such expenditure could have amounted to a third of the jama‘, the major thrust was on the expansion of the service sector. This conclusion could be relevant in explaining the absence of any thrust towards capitalism.Less
The question now addressed is whether the large part of rural surplus appropriated by the ruling class (including the emperor) merely created a large service sector or generated a market for craft goods. While the pattern of imperial military and household expenditure is clear enough (vide chapters 10 and 11), it is otherwise with the Mughal nobility, about whose mode of life we have some evidence, but not enough to directly sustain quantification. Use has, therefore, been made of Engel’s Law of Family Budgets so as to, first, classify imperial expenditure into necessities (N), comforts (C), and luxuries (L) and, then, vary the proportion of expenditure on them as one deals with diminishing incomes. This leads to a hypothetical construction of tables 12.3 and 12.5. While the nobles’ purchases of luxuries and imported horses (paid for by export of craft goods) could have encouraged craft production, and such expenditure could have amounted to a third of the jama‘, the major thrust was on the expansion of the service sector. This conclusion could be relevant in explaining the absence of any thrust towards capitalism.
Marina Sorrentino
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- March 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780199944590
- eISBN:
- 9780190218850
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199944590.003.0002
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
The chapter focuses on how Italy’s economic growth enabled the spread of improvements in the diet of the Italian population. According to mid-nineteenth-century observers, nourishment was likely to ...
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The chapter focuses on how Italy’s economic growth enabled the spread of improvements in the diet of the Italian population. According to mid-nineteenth-century observers, nourishment was likely to be a daily torment for the major part of the population. In contrast, we estimate that in the aftermath of Italy’s unification (1861) the daily calories available to the average Italian exceeded 2,500, a value that is higher than that commonly used today to mark the threshold of undernutrition in developing countries. A high per-capita calorie availability is consistent with the presence of a sizable part of the population trying to make ends meet. In 1861 one person in two (perhaps even two in three) did not consume enough calories to lead a healthy life. In the case of Italy, macroeconomic data hide more than they reveal.Less
The chapter focuses on how Italy’s economic growth enabled the spread of improvements in the diet of the Italian population. According to mid-nineteenth-century observers, nourishment was likely to be a daily torment for the major part of the population. In contrast, we estimate that in the aftermath of Italy’s unification (1861) the daily calories available to the average Italian exceeded 2,500, a value that is higher than that commonly used today to mark the threshold of undernutrition in developing countries. A high per-capita calorie availability is consistent with the presence of a sizable part of the population trying to make ends meet. In 1861 one person in two (perhaps even two in three) did not consume enough calories to lead a healthy life. In the case of Italy, macroeconomic data hide more than they reveal.
