Nutrition and Economic Development in the Eighteenth-Century Habsburg Monarchy: An Anthropometric History
344
Nutrition and Economic Development in the Eighteenth-Century Habsburg Monarchy: An Anthropometric History
344Hardcover
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Originally published in 1989.
The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780691632896 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Princeton University Press |
| Publication date: | 04/19/2016 |
| Series: | Princeton Legacy Library , #1010 |
| Pages: | 344 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.30(d) |
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Nutrition and Economic Development in the Eighteenth-Century Habsburg Monarchy
An Anthropometric History
By John Komlos
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
Copyright © 1989 Princeton University PressAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-691-04257-2
CHAPTER 1
THE THEORY OF ANTHROPOMETRIC HISTORY
Economic historians have recently begun to analyze the ways in which economic, demographic, and biological processes interacted in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The history of human stature plays a role in this research program because nutritional status until adulthood is a determining factor of the degree to which the height of an individual, and of a population, reaches its genetic potential. At the conceptual level, nutritional status is a measure of the intake of nutrients minus the claims of basal metabolism, of energy expenditure, and of disease encounters. The higher the nutritional status, the more calories and protein remain available for growth.
Because nutrition influences both fertility and mortality, and because human stature can be used as a proxy for nutritional status, changes in the stature of a population have a powerful explanatory value for demographic trends. In addition, since food consumption in these centuries was an important component of total expenditure, changes in stature can be interpreted as reflecting changes in economic conditions and in the well-being of populations. The mean stature of a population is therefore an important variable, one with implications for both economic and demographic processes, and its longitudinal and cross-sectional analysis affords insights that have hitherto eluded the historian.
The relationship between human height and nutrition did not escape nineteenth-century social observers, who, for instance, pointed to the small stature of the English working class as a sign of its miserable material condition. In the twentieth century the study of human stature remained the purview of physicians, physical anthropologists, and biologists. Not until the late 1960s, and then more seriously in the 1970s, did French, British, and American social and economic historians begin to show an interest in anthropometric history.
The French historian Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie revived this line of reasoning in 1969 by showing that the height of French recruits born in the late 1840s depended on their education and wealth. Illiterates averaged 164.3 cm, while those able to read and write were 1.2 cm taller. Presumably literate men were wealthier, and spent more time at education and less at work than did illiterates. A more sedentary life meant that more of their caloric intake was available for growth. Thus in nineteenth-century France stature correlated positively with such socioeconomic variables as wealth and literacy.
Exploration of the American evidence by Robert Fogel and several collaborators soon unearthed some equally intriguing patterns. By the early eighteenth century the height of the colonial population was already well above European norms; this implied that the nutritional environment of the New World must have been especially favorable. Although slaves appear to have been neglected as children, even they benefited from the abundance of food in America, since as adults their height was close to that of the white population. In fact, Americans were so well nourished that not until the middle of the twentieth century did the height of Europeans approach American standards. In contrast to America, the nutritional status of the poor boys of London was truly miserable at the end of the eighteenth century. They were shorter than practically all modern populations, with the possible exception of such groups as the Lume of New Guinea. Using stature as a proxy for nutritional status, these studies paved the way for further exploration of demographic and economic trends in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, for which data relevant to these issues are extremely scarce.
Height as a Measure of Nutritional Status
The use of human stature as a proxy for nutritional status is justified by modern medical research, which has established beyond doubt that the net cumulative nutritional intake of a population over its growing years has a major influence on its average height, with maternal nutrition also playing a role. "Environmental factors," such as those summarized by socioeconomic status, "are far more important than genetic factors in accounting for most of the observed differences in body size within and among countries," with the exception of the Far East. Hence, "most nutritionists regard both height-for-age ... and weight-for-age ... as significant indicators of malnutrition."
Height measures cumulative net nutrition: the food consumed over the growing years minus such claims on the nutrients as disease and physical exertion. Therefore, the height of a birth cohort is influenced by the nutritional and other environmental circumstances of the successive two decades, but food intake during the neonatal period and the adolescent growth spurt is particularly important. If prolonged and moderate malnutrition occurs during the formative years, the individual will continue to grow beyond the age at which a well-fed individual ceases to grow. Moreover, if temporarily malnourished individuals resume an adequate diet, their bodies will attempt to compensate for the prior slowdown in growth through "catch-up" growth. Severe or prolonged malnutrition, however, may so alter the adolescent growth-spurt pattern that permanent stunting results. Nutritional status can therefore be measured not only by the age-by-height profile but also by the age at which the growth spurt is reached, the size of the greatest annual growth increment during adolescence, and the age at which growth ceases. While height is a cumulative measure of food intake, weight standardized for height is an indicator of contemporaneous nutritional status. Additionally, the birth weight of babies is an indicator of the mother's nutritional status.
Although the stature of a population is indicative of its food consumption as well as of its disease environment, some caveats are in order. The consumption of adulterated or contaminated food might detract from nutritional status. In addition, the composition of the food consumed is also of some consequence, because the mix of calorie and protein intake matters for growth. In a low-calorie diet the proteins will not be used for growth, but will be converted into energy for basal metabolism. The question is complicated by the fact that protein is made up of many amino acids, and it is the combination of amino acids, not only their quantity, that is important to growth and the body's well-being. Animal proteins are especially important, because they have a better balance of amino acids than the proteins found in grains. If the amino acids are not available in the right proportion malnutrition might result, particularly among children, even if the quantity of protein exceeds the minimum requirement. This implies that there is no one-to-one correspondence between stature and the quantity or value of food consumed; the combination of the food intake is also a factor to consider.
The terminal height an individual reaches in a given population is, of course, influenced by genetic factors as well as by the quantity of food consumed. This consideration, however, does not affect studies of human height as long as the genetic composition of the population is not altered through large-scale in- or out-migration. For this reason historical studies frequently focus on the changes in the terminal height attained by a given population over time, because such changes are not influenced by genetic factors.
The Relationship between Human Stature and the Economy
In order to explore the relationship between human stature and the economy, consider that the demand for food F is a function of real income Y, the price index of a typical basket of food products PF relative to all other prices [PAOG (where AOG = All Other Goods), and tastes T (assumed constant). Let [PF/PAOG be designated by Z. Then
Ft = (f1, f2, ... fn) = k(Yt, Zt, T), (1.1)
where fi is the quantity of the ith foodstuff. The vector Ft is determined by utility maximization. The ith foodstuff has a caloric content ci protein content ri and price Pi per unit. The total caloric intake C is given by:
C = j (f1, f2, ..., fn = j(Ft) = f1c1 + f2c2 + ... + fncn (1.2a)
and, similarly, the total protein intake R is given by:
R = b(f1, f2, ..., fn) = b(Ft) = f1r1 + f2r2 + ... + fnrn (1.2b)
Following the consensus among biologists, the terminal height of a population H must be between the genetically determined minimum Hmin and the maximum Hmax. The effect of nutrition on adult stature is constrained within these bounds. Hmin should be considered the height that would be attained if the human organism were just barely kept alive and Hmax the maximum height attainable without a budget constraint. The degree to which H exceeds Hmin is determined by the intake of calories C and of protein R above the requirements of basal metabolism, the work effort, and the nutrients claimed by diseases. Let all of these claims on the nutrients be designated by W. Then
[MATHEMATICAL EXPRESSION NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (1.3)
where h is the instantaneous growth rate and t designates age. The integral is from – 1 to 25 in order to signify, on the one hand, that intra-uterine nutrition also influences nutritional status, and, on the other hand, that physical growth usually does not continue beyond the mid-twenties. From equations 1.1, 1.2a, 1.2b, and 1.3 follows:
[MATHEMATICAL EXPRESSION NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (1.4)
where g is a composite function. Note that [partial derivative]g/[partial derivative]Y > 0 and [partial derivative]g/[partial derivative]Z< 0. Thus the mean height of a population depends on its real income and some other variables such as Z, T, and W. To the extent that Z, T, and W remain constant, there should be a positive correlation between Y and H. Indeed this correlation has been amply documented for twentieth-century populations, even in a socialist economy. However once H reaches Hmax additional nutrient intake does not lead to further growth, and the correlation between H and Y ceases to hold true.
By considering the change in stature over time ΔH, Hmin drops out of consideration. Let the integral in eq. 1.4 be designated by Φ. Then, in the absence of significant in- or out-migration which might affect Hmin and h, the change in the mean height of a population becomes:
ΔH = H2 - H1 = (Hmin + Φ2) - (Hmin + Φ1) = Φ2 - Φ1. (1.5)
One should note, however, that the relationship between food consumption and real income in eq. 1.1 is in terms of monetary units. Yet in eq. 1.3 the relationship between height and food consumption is specified in terms of another attribute of the food consumed, namely its caloric and protein content. Because the price of calories and of proteins varies depending on the food through which they are consumed, the relationship between H and Y in eq. 1.4 cannot hold monotonically unless the vectors of ratios (c1/P1, c2/P2, ... cn]/Pn) and (r1/P1r2/P2, ..., rn/Pn) are both constant. In other words, if the relative price of calories, or of proteins, changes, then H ceases to be a simple function of real income even with Z, T, and W remaining constant. For each value of Y there would not be a corresponding unique value of H. Hence the correlation between food consumption and real income should not be expected to have been perfect.
Another factor which complicates this relationship is that human stature is a function of both calorie and protein consumption. It is the mix of caloric and protein intake which affects the body's ability to grow. In addition, price and income elasticities of demand for food, or certain food products, may vary among societies at any moment in time and within a society over time. Thus, increases in income do not always bring about equivalent increases in nutritional status. Such food items as coffee and tea may have had a high income elasticity of demand when they were introduced into the diet in prior centuries, but they did not contribute to nutritional status. Sugar provides calories but no protein. Other foods, such as potatoes, may provide calories and appease hunger, but do not by themselves provide sufficient protein for growth. Consuming alcoholic beverages may become inimical to growth, although if pure water is not readily available, wine might actually be a life-saving staple.
Furthermore, one should not disregard the cultural context of food consumption. Habits may develop that prevent the attainment of a level of nutritional status commensurate with actual real income. For instance, the consumption of white bread or of polished rice, instead of whole-wheat bread or unpolished rice, might increase with income, but might detract from the body's well-being. Insofar as cultural habits change gradually over time, significant lags could develop between income and nutritional status.
Improvements in medical technology, by protecting the body from diseases, can raise nutritional status sufficiently to have an effect on terminal height. Exposure to disease can also change through urbanization, internal migration, or improvements in the amenities of urban life. Moreover, in a nonmarket economy, PAOG in eq. 1.1 may be undefined. Consequently, the structure of food consumption may change discontinuously once PAOG becomes finite through market integration. Commercialization and economic development might also lead to the introduction of new products, which could be perceived as substitutes for some food items. This in turn may lead to shifts in the demand for food as well as to changes in the elasticities of the demand for food independent of any changes in income per capita.
Finally, one should note that income distribution is a significant determinant of the mean height of a population because human growth is probably not a linear function of nutritional status. Although this relationship has not been investigated, the marginal product of nutrients is likely to depend on the initial level of nutrition. Another aspect of this question is the fact that as income increases, "consumers will spend a decreasing fraction of their food budget on pure nourishment," and spend a larger fraction on satisfying their palates. Thus, if a certain amount of purchasing power were to be taken away from a high-income family, its child's nutrient consumption might decline only slightly. In contrast, increasing the income of a low-income family by the same amount might increase the nutrient consumption of its children sufficiently to make a considerable difference in their stature. Thus the mean height of a population might increase with a more equal distribution of income even if the average income were to remain unchanged.
These caveats indicate clearly that the analysis of changes in the stature of a population cannot be reduced to a mechanical exercise, particularly at this stage of the research program. There is not a one-to-one correspondence between income and nutritional status, and one must carefully analyze economic changes before assessing their interaction with the biological aspects of human growth. Each episodic change in the height of a population should be investigated in detail by determining which of the variables in eq. 1.4 was most likely to have caused it.
Height and Demographic Processes
The present section develops the notion that nutritional status is an important determinant of demographic rates (Figure 1.1). Because a rise in nutritional status raises birth rates and lowers death rates while at the same time increasing the mean stature of a population, one should expect a positive correlation to exist between changes in the rate of population growth and changes in the mean stature in a non-contraceptive, pre-industrial population. In order to establish this relationship it is important to explore the role of nutrition in human reproduction.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Nutrition and Economic Development in the Eighteenth-Century Habsburg Monarchy by John Komlos. Copyright © 1989 Princeton University Press. Excerpted by permission of PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS.
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Table of Contents
- FrontMatter, pg. i
- CONTENTS, pg. vii
- LIST OF FIGURES, pg. xi
- LIST OF TABLES, pg. xiii
- PREFACE, pg. xv
- INTRODUCTION, pg. 3
- 1. The Theory of Anthropometric History, pg. 23
- 2. Human Stature in East-Central Europe: The Eighteenth Century, pg. 55
- 3. Institutional Change under Pressure: Government Policy in an Enlightened Despotism, pg. 119
- 4. Conclusion, pg. 167
- 5. The "Austrian" Model and the Industrial Revolution in England, pg. 187
- 6. Pre-industrial Economic Growth: A Generahzation of the "Austrian" Model, pg. 207
- APPENDIX A. RECRUITING PRACTICES OF THE HABSBURG ARMY, pg. 225
- APPENDIX B. SUPPLEMENTARY TABLES AND FIGURES, pg. 241
- APPENDIX C. A SIMULATION OF THE «AUSTRIAN" MODEL OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION (WITH MARC ARTZROUNI), pg. 277
- BIBLIOGRAPHY, pg. 291
- INDEX, pg. 319