Food for Thought: Comparing Estimates of Food Availability in England and Wales, 1700-1914

Dedicated to the memory of Robert W. Fogel. Earlier versions of this paper were presented at a conference on 'Global inequality and poverty since 1800: evidence, analysis and data sources', held at the University of Sussex on 27 - 28 September 2013; and at a conference on 'The Health Transition: A Conference in Memory of Robert Fogel', held at the University of Chicago on 4 October 2013. We would also like to thank Stanley Engerman, David Meredith, Cormac Ó Gráda and Deborah Oxley for their helpful comments on previous versions, and Steve Broadberry for permission to cite unpublished work from his forthcoming co-authored book (Broadberry et al. forthcoming). The research was not financially supported other than by the employers of the authors. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.