Scarcity, hunger and allotment. A reconstruction of the working-class family budget in post-war Gijon.

Authors

Keywords:

Ration card, Living standards, Male-breadwinner, Consumer basket, Early Francoism

Abstract

The aim of this work is to examine the purchasing power of the wages of working–class families in Gijón in 1945. Using the methodology of family budgets, the income and expenditure budget is reconstructed. Expenditure on food consumption and other general expenses is compared with nominal wages in the main industrial activities. The sources used are the 1945 Enumerator Book, two local newspapers, the Provincial Official Gazette and the price of the ration are obtained; and the cost of living indices produced by the General Directorate of Statistics of the Ministry of labour, which provide the prices of housing rent, fuel and electricity. The results confirm that households in which only the head of the family contributes to the family budget do not cover the family needs. Thus, in order to survive in the hard context of the post–war years, families needed extra income from other family members.

Author Biographies

Verónica Cañal Fernández , Universidad de Oviedo

Associate Professor and Accredited to the Corps of University Tenured Lecturers of the Dept. of Economics, University of Oviedo. of the University of Oviedo. Since 2012 she is part of the Area of History and Economic Institutions. Her main line of research focuses on the study of historical demography. On the one hand, he spatial patterns of population distribution are examined through the calculation of centers of gravity, taking censuses as a source. On the other hand, the income and expenditure budget of working families is reconstructed to examine the purchasing power of their wages. She is a member of the HiSCO Committee representing the University of Oviedo. She participates as a researcher in the project directed by Dr. Luisa Muñoz Abeledo "La Estructura de la Ocupación y el ingreso en el largo plazo. Redefiniendo la modernización económica y los niveles de vida en Galicia, 1750-1975. HAR2017-5601-C2–2–P”.

Luisa Muñoz Abeledo , Universidade de Santiago de Compostela

Professor of the Department of History at the University of Santiago de Compostela. She is a member of the Spanish Labour History Network and the European Labour History Network. She is PI of the project Occupational Structure and income in the long run. Redefining economic modernization and living standards in Galicia, 1750-1975. HAR2017–85601–C2–2–P. Her latest publications are: Determinantes de la participación femenina en el mercado de trabajo en la Galicia rural y urbana de 1920 (2019, with S. Taboada Mella and R. Verdugo Matés), ¿Quién llevaba el pan a casa en la España de 1924? Trabajo y economías familiares de jornaleros y pescadores en Cataluña y Galicia (2018, with C. Borderías Mondéjar) and Les activités de négoce des femmes dans les ports atlantiques de l’Espagne au XIXe siècle (2018, in B. Michon and N. Dufurneau).

HS 107

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Published

2024-02-09

Issue

No. 107 (2023)

Section

Estudios