Abstract

BRAGONI, Beatriz  and  OLGUIN, Patricia. Wages, prices, and living standards in Mendoza during the wine industry transformation (1890-1914). Folia [online]. 2016, n.26, pp.156-177. ISSN 0325-8238.

This paper aims to analize the impact of the economic growth of Mendoza in the wages of popular sectors between the late nineteenth century and 1914. On the basis of homogeneous and reliable sources deposited in public archives (provincial budgets, wages books of Bodegas Arizu), and specialist literature. This paper offers time series for a Cost of Living Index and real wages of low and medium public employee grades (low-level policeman, porter and clerk), and vineyard employees. The results indicate that real wages increased slightly, although differentially between categories, and presented significant fluctuations linked to the economic situation. Thus, wages fell during the recession of wine industry at the beginning of the twentieth century and, even more, during the inflationary process initiated in 1907, under the impulse of rent prices. The contrast of this evidence with those provided by the studies available for Buenos Aires, reveals a lower relative rise in real wages of workers from Mendoza.

Keywords : Wages; Prices; Cost of living index; Viticulture.

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