Re-examining extreme poverty before and after the transition to capitalism, 1300s–1900sRutar, Tibor (Avtor) capitalismextreme povertyhistorical living standardscolonialismwelfare ratiosThe ‘standard narrative’ about capitalism and extreme povertyholds that the transition to the former was associated with astaggering reduction of the latter. Recently, this has beenstrongly called into question by a critical narrative grounded in abattery of non-GDP-based measures of extreme poverty andliving standards, such as subsistence welfare ratios, skeletalheight data, and famine reports. This critical narrative holds thatextreme-poverty conditions were + rare in normal circumstancesbefore the transition to capitalism, and that a significantdeterioration amounting to extreme poverty happened in Europeand globally only afterwards. The present paper re-examines theissue, drawing on these and additional non-GDP-based historicalsources of living standards, including formerly overlooked cases,such as pre-conquest Aztec Empire and Tokugawa-era Japan. Itfinds that the standard narrative’s portrayal of the prevalence ofextreme poverty before capitalism is indeed mistaken. However,it also takes issue with parts of the critical narrative, mainly theidea that capitalism caused severe deterioration in livingstandards. On a widely shared definition of capitalism, and aquantitatively demonstrated periodization of the transition, thenotion that living standards were generally poor before asociety’s transition to capitalism and only started systematicallyimproving afterwards has better support.Routledge20242025-11-25 03:10:53Znanstveno delo96032sl