2023

7) Djenderedjian, J. C., Martirén, J. L., & Moraes, M. I.

Investigaciones de Historia Económica - Economic History Research

This article examines how Buenos Aires and Montevideo, two cities along the Río de la Plata whose economieswere in close contact with the Atlantic markets, experienced changes in consumer prices and the purchasingpower of low-skilled urban wages during the Age of Revolutions. It presents comparative evidence on costs ofliving and welfare ratios elaborated from primary and secondary sources for each city. The main findings arethat (a) Buenos Aires and Montevideo show comparable price fluctuations throughout the period; (b) theywent through an unusually intense inflationary lapse between 1811 and 1821 spurred by the “wars of indepen-dence”; (c) the purchasing power of unskilled workers, which was higher than those of Mexico, Lima, or Bogo-ta at the same time, and comparable to that of middle-income European cities (Allen et al. 2011), declinedduring the high inflation period, and (d) although purchasing power recovered thereafter, it failed to keep theinitial levels in both cities.