Suchergebnisse

The Historical Social Conflict Database (HiSCoD) is an ongoing project designed to provide to scholars and society at large with a set of resources for analyzing social conflict from the Middle Ages to the second half of the nineteenth century (c. 1000–c. 1870). Based on original archival research and existing repositories, the aim is to provide a global database of social conflict in past societies by collecting, aggregating, documenting, and harmonizing instances of conflict. As of today, the database contains data on more than twenty thousand events, from fiscal scuffles to urban revolts involving thousands of individuals. For every event, we provide information on the date, location, type of conflict, and, when possible, number of participants, participation of women, and a summary of events.

AbstractThis article presents new estimates of wages for Normandy between 1600 and 1850. We use a vast array of primary and secondary sources to assemble two new databases on wages and commodity prices to establish a new regional consumer price index (CPI) and twelve regional wage series. We find that unskilled labourers earned similar wages across the agricultural, maritime, and textile sectors. Historical evidence suggests that Norman employers grappled with a tight labour market, which placed more pressure on wage increases. We posit that this situation is best explained by the combination of the early fertility transition, resulting in slow demographic growth and the rapid development of the textile industry accelerated by the arrival of cotton. Finally, we also provide tentative evidence suggesting that labourers with stable employment could have earned a little less than their English counterparts during this period.

AbstractThis article presents a study of the careers of French colonial governors between 1830 and 1960. We consider empires as the by-product of social entities structuring themselves. Specifically, we analyze the process of the emergence of this professional group with respect to other professional groups within the imperial space and the French metropolitan space, building on the concept of linked ecologies. Using data on the career of 637 colonial governors between 1830 and 1960, we examine how variations in the recruitment of these senior civil servants actually reflect the professionalization of this group. We rely on an optimal matching technique to distinguish typical sequence models and identify nine common career trajectories that can be grouped into four main clusters. We further compare the share of each cluster in the population of governors over time and show that the rise of the colonial cluster during the Interwar period corresponded to the peak of the administrative autonomy in the colonial space. We argue that this process is consistent with the professionalization of the governors' corps, which is embodied by a common career within the colonial administration and a collective identity as a group.

Cet article a pour but d'analyser les origines sociales de l'élite administrative du second empire colonial français. L'analyse prosopographique, à partir d'une nouvelle base de données comprenant les 599 individus ayant occupé la fonction de gouverneur entre 1830 et 1960, montre que l'évolution de leurs origines sociales s'explique par les changements dans le rapport à la métropole, l'attrait des colonies et l'institutionnalisation des administrations coloniales. Une comparaison avec une élite administrative métropolitaine proche, le corps préfectoral, met en évidence les spécificités de cette élite coloniale. Entre 1830 et 1960, la carrière coloniale offre aux individus qui s'y engagent des possibilités d'ascension sociale plus importantes que les carrières administratives en métropole. Ainsi, la mise en place de l'administration coloniale au tournant du xx e siècle – une période où les conditions sanitaires et sécuritaires rendent les colonies peu attractives – représente une opportunité pour les individus issus des milieux les plus modestes ou aux carrières les plus atypiques. Le renforcement de la professionnalisation des carrières coloniales après la Première Guerre mondiale conduit à une homogénéisation plus forte des parcours et des origines des gouverneurs. Cependant, les possibilités de mobilité sociale ascendante restent fortes et ne diminuent qu'avec les bouleversements apportés par la Seconde Guerre mondiale.

How do radical reforms of the state shape economic development over time? In 1790, France's first Constituent Assembly overhauled the kingdom's organization to set up new administrative entities and local capitals. In a subset of departments, new capitals were chosen quasi-randomly as the Assembly abandoned its initial plan to rotate administrative functions across multiple cities. We study how exogenous changes in local administrative presence affect the state's coercive and productive capacity, as well as economic development in the ensuing decades. In the short run, proximity to the state increases taxation, conscription, and investments in law enforcement capacity. In the long run, the new capitals and their periphery obtain more public goods and experience faster economic development. One hundred years after the reform, capitals are 40% more populated than comparable cities in 1790. Our results shed new light on the intertemporal and redistributive impacts of state-building in the context of one of the most ambitious administrative reforms ever implemented.

We study the effect of exposure to colonial public primary education on contemporary education outcomes in Tunisia. We assemble a new data set on the location of schools with the number of pupils by origin, along with population data during the French protectorate (1881-1956). We match those with contemporary data on education at both district and individual level. We find that the exposure of local population to colonial public primary education has a long-lasting effect on educational outcomes, even when controlling for colonial investments in education. A one per cent increase in Tunisian enrolment rate in 1931 is associated with a 1.69 percentage points increase in literacy rate in 2014. Our results are driven by older generations, namely individuals who attended primary schools before the 1989/91 education reform. We suggest that the efforts undertaken by the Tunisian government after independence to promote schooling finally paid off after 40 years and overturned the effects of history.