ABSTRACT

There has recently been renewed interest among economic historians in preindustrial inequality, but there are still few case studies on wealth inequality in preindustrial Latin America, particularly involving colonial Spanish America before 1820. This paper presents a study of wealth inequality in Montevideo, an area of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, in the late colonial period. This work addresses the level of wealth inequality, the composition of wealth, and its relationship with social structure in Montevideo in the late eighteenth century. It uses a data set of probate inventories and population records as its main sources, estimating a Gini index, presenting a stylized picture of the social structure, and analysing the differences in wealth between social groups in 1772–3. The main finding is that wealth inequality in Montevideo was similar to that in the English colonies of North America in 1774 and was lower than that in preindustrial economies in Europe in the same time period. Although most of this society was made up of a relatively wealthy middle class, some important assets were strongly concentrated among the elite.

摘要

最近，经济史学家对前工业化不平等重新产生了兴趣，但关于前工业化拉丁美洲财富不平等的案例研究仍然很少，特别是涉及 1820 年之前的殖民西班牙美洲。里奥德拉普拉塔的总督，在殖民时期晚期。这项工作探讨了 18 世纪后期蒙得维的亚的财富不平等程度、财富构成及其与社会结构的关系。它使用遗嘱认证清单和人口记录的数据集作为主要来源，估计基尼指数，呈现社会结构的程式化图片，并分析 1772-3 社会群体之间的财富差异。主要发现是，蒙得维的亚的贫富差距与 1774 年北美英属殖民地的贫富差距相似，低于同一时期欧洲前工业经济体的贫富差距。尽管这个社会大部分由相对富裕的中产阶级组成，但一些重要资产却强烈集中在精英手中。