Wages and work organization in the southeast Spanish mining, 1850-1936

Abstract

This paper analyzes the evolution of the workers’ wages in the mining operations of the southeast of Spain, where predominates a model of mining defined by the extreme division of property and a specific organization of labor relations. We reconstruct real wages series for the Sierra of Cartagena, one of the most representative area of this kind of productive organization. For deflating we have elaborated a Cost of Living Index mainly using documentation from hospitals in the area and the local government. Shopping baskets and published household budget surveys were used as weights. The wages were obtained from business documentation. Finally, results have been compared with other areas, delving into the features of the income of the study area. The purpose of this paper is explain differences across several mining business models and their implications in wages dynamics, trying to find the main factors behind these differences.