Tomás Martínez Vara

Una estimación del coste de la vida en Santander, 1800–1860

In this paper we build a general index of retail prices for the city of Santander, using the information from the «Mercurial» during the first half of 19th century, a period we do not have much information about This index for the Cantabrian capital is compared to the Reher-Ballesteros index. The hypothesis is that the Santander index has a different profile to the Reher-Ballesteros one due to two reasons —its composition is more varied and it describes a peripheral area. The uselfulness of local documentation for this kind of research is equally shown.

Las ideas económicas de los ingenieros de caminos: la "Revista de Obras Públicas" (1853-1936)

The Revista de Obras Publicas was born as a mean of expression of the Civil Engineer Corps. It was not only one of the most important Spanish technical publications of the second half of the 19th century and the first third of the 20th century, but also a privileged forum for debating about two fundamental public policies in which engineers played a leading role: the hydraulic and the railway policies. Moreover, the Revista contributed —direct or indirectly— to the spread of ideas linked to the “escuela economista” and the Paretian Microeconomics. It gave even the opportunity to discuss certain questions concerned with Applied Economics, such as the economic crisis of the thirties. KEY Classification-JEL: B00

La evolución del empleo en el sector ferroviario español, 1893–1935

En este trabajo se presenta una estimacion inedita sobre la oferta de empleo en el sector ferroviario espanol entre 1893 y 1935. Los datos anuales publicados por el conocido Anuario de los Ferrocarriles han sido minucio-samente depurados y contrastados con documentacion relativa a las dos gran-des companias: Norte y MZA. Los resultados confirman la bondad de la fuente y realzan el enorme dinamismo de este peculiar mercado de trabajo: las cifras de empleo se triplicaron entre 1893 y 1935. La documentacion analizada pone de manifiesto ademas la existencia de un mercado de trabajo segmentado. = This article is a novel study on previously unedited data regarding employ-ment in the Spanish Railway sector between the years 1893-1935. The Annual data published by the well know Annals of the Spanish Railways have been closely scrutinised and checked against document referring to the two major companies: Norte y MZA. The resulting findings show the dynamic nature of this labour market! Between 1893 and 1935 employment figures tripled. The documents examined further reveal the existence of a labour market which was quite diverse and consisted of numerous different segments.

Salarios y Programas de Bienestar Industrial en la empresa ferroviaria MZA (1915–1935)

We analyse in this paper the evolution of wages and salaries, in real and monetary terms, of permanent staff in the railway company MZA during the so-called “Railway Problem” period. Their understanding would not be complete without taking into account Industrial Social Welfare programmes, since these accounted for a high percentage of earnings. One of the main conclusions of this paper is that, during the period examined, the real income of railway employees improved and wage differentials between the various levels narrowed, although such levels continued to be very high. KEY Classification-JEL: J33, N14, N84, N34

Los Talleres Generales de MZA (Atocha) (1858-1936)

The aim of this work is the study of origin, location and evolution of one of the most important railway workshop in the country during the era of private companies: the MZA General Workshop. The were built on the site on the right of Atocha Station, the head of the twin lines to the Levant and Saragossa. The nature of the terrain not only impaired communication between the different premises but also seriously conditioned further building, leaving no option but to build extensions merely by lengthening the existing buildings. This was one of its structural drawbacks.