Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

On the road to industrialization: nutritional status in Saxony, 1690–1850

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Cliometrica Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Saxony was one of the pioneer regions in the German modern economic growth. We analyze the Saxon nutritional status to infer the effects of early industrialization on the population standard of living. We find that the nutritional status in the eighteenth century was relatively high and heights fluctuated mainly because of wars. From the 1770s the average nutritional status declined steadily, with the exception of the Napoleonic period, until the mid of the nineteenth century. The decline, particularly accentuated after 1815, is related to the high share of urbanization, the increase in the relative price of food, and the strong dependence on food imports.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. For the United Kingdom see Floud, Wachter and Gregory (1990), Komlos (1993), and Cinnirella (2007); for the Habsburg-Austrian Empire Komlos (1985); for Northern Italy A’Hearn (2003); for Sweden Sandberg and Steckel (1987); for the Netherlands Drukker and Tassenaar (1997).

  2. Forberger (1958) reports that 170 new big factories were founded in the whole eighteenth century; 101 of those had been founded between 1771 and 1800.

  3. See Tipton (1976). Unfortunately the shares for the whole Germany include also Saxony.

  4. See Kiesewetter (1988) chapter VII and Kiesewetter(1982).

  5. See Kroll (2006) and Forberger (1958).

  6. For example taller people were more able to reload the bayonets. See Kroll (2006).

  7. When there is universal conscription at a given age, height distributions by recruitment year or by cohort are not different. But when, as in Saxony before Napoleon, the recruitment is also based on volunteers of different ages, height distributions should be inspected by recruitment year in order to avoid misspecification of the MHR.

  8. The model of army followed by Saxony after 1815 was the French one with a relatively long service (around 8 years) with a strict selection and the possibility of substitutions. An individual initially chosen for the army could pay a second person in order to substitute him. For a comparison between European army systems see Ilari (1989).

  9. For a detailed description of the history of the Saxon army in the eighteenth century see Kroll (2006).

  10. Assuming a low degree of intergenerational mobility.

  11. According to the figures of the census, in 1849 the occupational distribution was 37.4% in agriculture, 45.6% in industry, and 17.0% in the service sector (Tipton 1976, p. 185).

  12. Within manufacturing, textile and clothing accounted for more than 75% (Tipton 1976, p. 185).

  13. Komlos (2003) analyzed French soldiers born between 1660 and 1760.

  14. The share of soldiers younger than 18 years is anyway negligible.

  15. Their inclusion does not alter qualitatively our results.

  16. The towns are Dresden, Leipzig, Chemnitz and Zwickau.

  17. For studies on height cycles see Woitek (2003).

  18. See Komlos and Cinnirella (2005).

  19. In the period analyzed in this article, three wars had a large impact on Saxony: (1) the Austrian Succession War (1741–1748); (2) the Seven Years War (1756–1763), and (3) the Napoleonic Wars (1793–1815).

  20. Marriage rates are here defined as the ratio of total number of marriages on population per 1,000.

  21. Given the scarcity of labor with respect to land and capital, also real wages should rise. See Clark (2007) pp. 115–116.

  22. Rising food prices are reported in Schirmer (1996) and Gerhard (2001). See also Baten (2001) and Klasen (1998).

  23. Dresden had 21,000 inhabitants in 1699, 46,000 in 1727. During the Seven Years War Dresden had around 63,000 inhabitants; after the war 44,000. In 1852 it had 100,000 inhabitants. Leipzig had 14,000 in 1648, 32,000 in 1753, and 26,000 after the Seven Years War.

  24. See the data section for an explanation of the different approaches in dealing with truncated distributions.

  25. O’Rourke (2005).

  26. Rye, wheat, barley, and oats.

  27. See Kiesewetter (1988), Table 15 on p. 284 and Table 23 on p. 321.

  28. On the importance of potatoes in Saxony see also Baten (2001).

  29. Estimation results not reported here.

  30. Ewert (2006) on the contrary finds a height advantage for urban residents. His evidence can hardly be reconciled with the strong urbanization of early industrial Saxony.

  31. Similar differentials in magnitude have been estimated for twentieth century India in a recent study by Guntupalli and Baten (2006). Komlos (2005) estimated a very large differential between rich (Sandhurst) and poor (Marine Society) British youths in the eighteenth and nineteenth century: at age of 16 the height gap reached 22 cm.

  32. The fact that the coefficient for the textile occupation is much larger in the mining district probably derives from our allocation of counties between the textile and mining area. The two districts obviously cannot be easily defined as some counties could in principle belong to both areas. In any event, this does not flaw our results.

  33. See Cinnirella (2007) and Humphries (1990) for studies about the impact of the English enclosures on the standard of living.

  34. See also Clark (2007) about Britain before 1800.

  35. See Steckel and Floud (1997), p. 424.

  36. See Floud et al. (1990).

  37. Steckel and Floud (1997).

  38. Swedish people, due also to their high level of literacy, were more sensitive to government propaganda in favor of breast-feeding and general public health (Sandberg and Steckel, 1997).

  39. In this sense it is also important to note the role played the river Elbe which connected Dresden with the market of Hamburg.

  40. The decline in livestock production in favor of grain production in Germany was probably due to the phenomenon of the enclosures (Klasen, 1998).

  41. Twarog (1997) can also control for father’s occupation. The occupational differentials quoted here are for soldiers with the same occupation of the fathers.

References

  • A’Hearn B (2004) A restricted maximum likelihood estimator for truncated height samples. Econ Hum Biol 2:5–19

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • A’Hearn B (2003) Anthropometric evidence on living standards in northern Italy, 1730–1830. J Econ Hist 63:351–381

    Google Scholar 

  • Baten J (2001) Climate, grain production and nutritional status in southern Germany during XVIII Century. J Eur Econ Hist 30:9–47

    Google Scholar 

  • Baten J, Murray JE (1998) Womens stature and marriage markets in nineteenth century Bavaria. J Fam Hist 23:124–135

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baten J, Fertig G (2005) After the railway came: was the health of your children declining? A hierarchical mixed models analysis of German heights. University of Tuebingen, Mimeo

    Google Scholar 

  • Baten J, Murray JE (2000) Heights of men and women in 19th century Bavaria: economic, nutritional, and disease influences. Explor Econ Hist 37:351–369

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blaschke K (1967) Bevölkerungsgeschichte von Sachsen bis zur Industriellen Revolution. Böhlau Verlag, Weimar

    Google Scholar 

  • Cinnirella F (2007) Optimists or pessimists? A revision of the nutritional status in Britain, 1740–1865. Working Paper, University of Munich

  • Clark G (2001) Farm wages and living standards in the industrial revolution: England, 1670–1869. Econ Hist Rev 54(3):477–505

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clark G (2007) The long march of history: farm wages, population, and economic growth, England 1209–1869. Econ Hist Rev 60(1):97–135

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crafts NF (1985) English workers real wages during the industrial revolution: some remaining problems. J Econ Hist 45(1):139–144

    Google Scholar 

  • Crouzet F (1964) Blockade, and economic change in Europe, 1792–1815. J Econ Hist 24:567–588

    Google Scholar 

  • Drukker JW, Tassenaar V (1997) Paradoxes of modernization and material well-being in the Netherlands during the nineteenth century. In: Steckel RH, Floud R (eds) Health and welfare during industrialization. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Dumke R (1988) Income inequality and industrialization in Germany, 1850–1913. Res Econ Hist 11:1–47

    Google Scholar 

  • Dumke RH (1977) Intra-German trade in 1837 and regional economic development. Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte 64:468–496

    Google Scholar 

  • Elsas MJ (1940) Umriss einer Geschichte der Preise und Löhne in Deutschland. Vom ausgehenden Mittelalter bis zum Beginn des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts, vol 2. Sijthoff, Leiden

  • Ewert U (2006) The biological standard of living on the decline: episodes from Germany during early industrialisation. Eur Rev Econ Hist 10:51–88

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Federico G (2003) Heights, calories and welfare: a new perspective on Italian industrialization, 1854–1913. Econ Hum Biol 1:289–308

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feinstein CH (1998) Pessimism perpetuated: real wages and the standard of living in Britain during and after the industrial revolution. J Econ Hist 58(3):625–658

    Google Scholar 

  • Floud R, Wachter K, Gregory A (1990) Height, health, and history: nutritional status in the UK, 1750–1980. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Fogel RW (1994) Economic growth, population theory, and physiology: the bearing of long-term processes on the making of economic policy. Am Econ Rev 84(3):369–395

    Google Scholar 

  • Forberger R (1958) Die Manufaktur in Sachsen vom Ende des 16. bis zum Anfang des 19. Jahrhunderts. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  • Forberger R (1982) Die Industrielle Revolution in Sachsen 1800–1861. Akademie- Verlag, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  • Frisancho RA (1990) Anthropometric standards for the assessment of growth and nutritional status. The University of Michigan Press, Michigan

    Google Scholar 

  • Fu H, Goldman N (1996) Incorporating health into models of marriage choice: demographic and sociological perspectives. J Marriage Fam 58:740–758

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gerhard HJ (1984) Löhne im Vor-und Frühindustriellen Deutschland. Otto Schwartz, Göttingen

    Google Scholar 

  • Gerhard HJ (2001) Preise im Vor-und Frühindustriellen Deutschland. Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart

    Google Scholar 

  • Guntupalli AM, Baten J (2006) The development and inequality of heights in North, West, and East India 1915–1944. Explor Econ Hist 43(4):578–608

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heintel M (1998) Height samples with shortfall. A persisting problem revisited. In: Komlos J, Baten J (eds) The biological standard of living in comparative perspective. Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart

    Google Scholar 

  • Honda G (1997) Differential structure, differential health: industrialization in Japan, 1868–1940. In: Steckel RH, Floud R (eds) Health and welfare during industrialization. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp 251–284

    Google Scholar 

  • Horrell S, Humphries J (1992) Old questions, new data, and alternative perspectives: families living standards in the industrial revolution. J Econ Hist 52(4):849–880

    Google Scholar 

  • Humphries J (1990) Enclosures, common rights, and women: the proletarianization of families in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. J Econ Hist 50(1):17–42

    Google Scholar 

  • Ilari V (1989) Storia del servizio militare in Italia, vol 1, 1506–1870 (Centro militare di studi strategici). Rivista Militare

  • Jacobs, Richter H (1935) Die Großhandelspreise in Deutschland von 1792 bis 1934. Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt Hamburg, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  • Kiesewetter H (1988) Industrialisierung und Landwirtschaft. Sachsens Stellung im regionalen Industrialisierungsprozess Deutschland im 19. Jahrhundert. Böhlau Verlag, Cologne

    Google Scholar 

  • Kiesewetter H (1982) Bevölkerungswachstum während der Industrialisierung im Kgr. Sachsen 1815–1871. Scripta Mercaturae Verlag

  • Kiesewetter H (2004) Industrielle Revolution in Deutschland: Regionen als Wachstumsmotoren. Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart

    Google Scholar 

  • Klasen S (1998) Marriage, bargaining, and intrahousehold resource allocation: excess female mortality among adults during early German development, 1740–1860. J Econ Hist 58:432–467

    Google Scholar 

  • Komlos J (1985) Stature and nutrition in the Habsburg monarchy: the standard of living and economic development in the eighteenth century. Am Hist Rev 90(5):1149–1161

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Komlos J (1989) Nutrition and economic development in the eighteenth-century Habsburg Monarchy. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Komlos J (1993a) The secular trend in the biological standard of living in the United Kingdom, 1730–1860. Econ Hist Rev 46(1):115–144

    Google Scholar 

  • Komlos J (1993b) Further thoughts on the nutritional status of the British population. Econ Hist Rev 46(2):363–366

    Google Scholar 

  • Komlos J (1994) On the significance of anthropometric history. In: Stature, living standards, and economic development. Essays in anthropometric history. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

  • Komlos J (1998) Shrinking in a growing economy? The mystery of physical stature during the industrial revolution. J Econ Hist 58:779–802

    Google Scholar 

  • Komlos J (2000) The industrial revolution as the escape from the Malthusian trap. J Eur Econ Hist 29:307–331

    Google Scholar 

  • Komlos J (2003) An anthropometric history of early-modern France. Eur Rev Econ Hist 7:159–189

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Komlos J (2004) How to (and how not to) analyze deficient height sample: an introduction. Hist Methods 37:160–173

    Google Scholar 

  • Komlos J, Cinnirella F (2005) European heights in the early 18th century. Discussion Paper, University of Munich

  • Kroll S (2006) Soldaten im 18. Jahrhundert zwischen Friedensalltag und Kriegserfahrung: Lebenswelt und Kultur in der kursächsischen Armee 1728–1796. Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn

    Google Scholar 

  • Kussmaul A (1981) Servants in husbandry in early modern England. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuznets S (1966) Modern economic growth: rate, structure, and spread. Yale University Press, New Haven

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee WR (1988) Economic development and the state in nineteenth-century, Germany. Econ Hist Rev 41:346–367

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lindert PH, Williamson JG (1985) English workers real wages: reply to crafts. J Econ Hist 45:145–153

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Malthus TR (1993) An essay on the principle of populations (reprinting). Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Murray JE (2000) Marital protection and marital selection: evidence from a historical-prospective sample of American men. Demography 37:511–521

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Rourke KH (2005) The worldwide impact of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. CEPR discussion papers 5079

  • Putzger FW (1965) Historischer weltatlas. Cornelsen-Velhagen & Klasing, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  • Sandberg LG, Steckel RH (1987) Heights and economic history: the Swedish case. Ann Hum Biol 14(2):101–109

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sandberg LG, Steckel RH (1997) Was industrialization hazardous to your health? Not in Sweden!. In: Steckel RH, Floud R (eds) Health and welfare during industrialization. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp 127–160

    Google Scholar 

  • Schirmer U (1996) Der Bevölkerungsgang in Sachsen zwischen 1743 und 1815. Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte 83:23–58

    Google Scholar 

  • Silventoinen K (2003) Determinants of variation in adult body height. Journal of Biosocial Science 35:263–285

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Steckel RH (1995) Stature and the standard of living. J Econ Lit 33:1903–1940

    Google Scholar 

  • Steckel RH (1999) Industrialization and health in historical perspective. NBER working paper series (historical paper 118)

  • Steckel RH, Floud R (1997) Health and welfare during industrialization. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London

    Google Scholar 

  • Tanner JM (1989) Foetus into man: physical growth from conception to maturity. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Tipton FB (1976) Regional variations in the economic development of Germany during the nineteenth century. Wesleyan University Press, Middletown Connecticut

    Google Scholar 

  • Twarog S (1997) Heights and living standards in Germany, 1850–1939: The case of Wuerttemberg. In: Steckel RH, Floud R (eds) Health and welfare during industrialization. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp 285–330

    Google Scholar 

  • Weir DR (1997) Economic welfare and physical well-being in France, 1750–1990. In: Steckel RH, Floud R (eds) Health and welfare during industrialization. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp 161–200

    Google Scholar 

  • Weiss V (1993) Bevölkerung und soziale Mobilität, Sachsen 1550–1880. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  • Woitek U (2003) Height cycles in the 18th and 19th centuries. Econ Hum Biol 1:243–257

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wrigley EA, Schofield RS (1993) The population history of England. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 1541–1871

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

Francesco Cinnirella. The author is particularly grateful to John Komlos for his precious comments. The author also thanks Jörg Baten, Scott Carson, Michela Coppola, Hubertus Kiesewetter, Marco Sunder, and two anonymous referees for their comments. Thanks are also due to the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft which funded the data collection and to T. Barth, B. Lepši,and H. Prée who collected the data. An earlier version of the paper was presented at the Sixth Conference of the European Historical Economics Society in Istanbul, at the 30th annual meeting of the Social Science History Association in Portland, Oregon, and at the 3rd international conference on Economics and Human Biology held in Strasbourg, France. Possible remaining errors are those of the author.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, Institute of Economic History, University of Munich, Ludwigstrasse 33/IV, 80539, Munich, Germany

    Francesco Cinnirella

Authors
  1. Francesco Cinnirella
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Francesco Cinnirella.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Cinnirella, F. On the road to industrialization: nutritional status in Saxony, 1690–1850. Cliometrica 2, 229–257 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11698-007-0020-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11698-007-0020-6

Keywords

JEL Classification

Search

Navigation