Price-historical database to Trials of 'Convergence. Prices, Markets and Industrialization in the Netherlands, 1800-1913' (Brill, 2021)
The database on Dutch nineteenth century commodity and factor prices was compiled between 1991 and 2001 as part of the NWO ‘Pionier’ project ‘Reconstruction of the National Accounts of the Netherlands, 1800-1913’. Its composite deflators featured earlier in the published national accounts (Smits et al., Dutch GNP and its Components, 1800-1913, Groningen University 2000) and in a general survey of the Dutch nineteenth century economy (Van Zanden and Van Riel, The Strictures of Inheritance, Princeton UP, 2004). The current full version forms the basis of the analysis of Dutch industrialization from the perspective of prices, markets and microeconomic choice in Trials of Convergence. Prices, Markets and Industrialization in the Netherlands, 1800-1913 (Brill, 2021). It contains a total of 1569 original price series of a strongly varying length. 235 of these are market prices (mostly agricultural), 338 are industrial wholesale prices, 160 pertain to foreign trade, and 836 derive from institutional accounts and records of bread prices. All prices are available as annual data. However, since some were constructed from monthly observations, longer series recorded at this frequency have also been retained. This mainly concerns grain prices for all provinces between 1837 and 1847 and market prices for a range of agricultural and industrial products between 1810 and 1855. In addition, the database also specifies composite series. These concern national averages for 144 individual products and deflators of value added in agriculture and industry, of foreign trade and of household consumption.
The database and the exposition of its sources and methodology is organized in three principal folders: ‘data and reconstructed national series’, ‘figures and supporting data’ and ‘methodology and data description’. The latter contains a general introduction to sources and methodological issues, with details for the various principal categories described specified in accompanying data appendices. ‘Figures and supporting data’ contains the Excel files for the various figures presented in Trials of Convergence, whereas ‘data and reconstructed national series’ branches out to specify all of the primary and composite series described above.
The last two folders provide parallel versions in comma separated (csv) form (core data only) and Excel (graphs and multiple tabs)
