LAND, LABOR, AND GLOBALIZATION IN THE THIRD WORLD, 1870–1940

Abstract

This article documents pre-1940 wage–rental ratios, land–labor ratios, the terms of trade, and other variables for nine countries in the periphery, and joins them to data previously collected for the greater Atlantic economy. Commodity-price convergence is found to have been stronger in the preindustrial Third World than in the industrializing Atlantic economy. A previously unnoticed Third World convergence in wage–rental ratios is also documented. It appears that relative factor-price convergence took place, even though average living standards diverged dramatically between center and periphery.