Wages, Productivity and Working Time in Italy 1300-1913

On the basis of published and unpublished data, this article presents a series
of wage rates and wages in Central-Northern Italy from the end of the
thirteenth century until 1913. The series is among the longest available. The
movement of wage rates is explained against the background of the changes
in average and marginal labour productivity and working time over six
centuries. The analysis results in a very long-term profile of the Italian
economy, which declined from the late Middle Ages, became stable after 1820,
and then grew from the 1880s.