Standard Budgets in Spanish Economic History: a User’s Guide to Sources and Methods

In this paper the author documents a near absence of household budget microdata in the sources for nineteenth century Spain, both published and archival. The sources do however contain a rich set of standard budgets, which can contribute to a better understanding of the history of Spanish living standards. The paper is divided in three parts: first, the author describes standard budgets and their usefulness for cliometricians; secondly, he traces their history in the Spanish sources; finally, he sketches a few applications to issues in the period 1850-1905. The latter analysis suggests: a) a substantial variation in cost of living and expenditure patterns across provinces, sectors, and socioeconomic status; b) a sensible impact of alternative CPI weights on national price indices; c) poverty lines ranging between 1,110 and 1,300 euros per year – in 2016 prices – for the years 1850 and 1856.