The main objective of this article is to determine the real salaries and living conditions of construction workers in Santiago de Chile towards the end of the colonial period (c. 1788-1808). To achieve this purpose, we have used the methodology proposed by Allen to calculate real salaries in terms of welfare ratios. Our main conclusions are: the real salaries of non-qualified workers remained above the subsistence levels throughout the entire period studied in this work, pointing to a lack of labour force in Santiago for this period (in spite of a population increase during the same period); there was also a significant proportion of qualified workers in the construction sector who earned 2-3 times more than non-qualified workers, giving rise to a notable heterogeneity in the mean income of workers in this sector and a greater difference than in other cities; despite being above the subsistence levels, the real salaries of non-qualified workers in Santiago appear to be among the lowest in the region, in contrast with previous conclusions in this respect.

This article provides the first series of adult male height for 19th-century Chile. Our aim was not only to assess the trends indicated by height during this period, but also the relationship between stature and both GDP per capita and exports. Having analysed our data, our primary conclusion is that there was a reduction in height for cohorts born in the 1850s and 1860s with respect to cohorts born between 1820 and 1840. Height stagnated thereafter, with small to no improvement towards the end of the 19th century, in line with other Latin American countries for which there is comparable evidence. The increase in per capita GDP and exports during the second half of the century did not result in better biological welfare, as was the case in other Latin American countries during similar export booms.

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This article shows how Chile experienced a profound nutrition transition within a short period of time. Before the early 1990s, the diet of most Chileans was poor in animal proteins and calcium. Today, Chileans enjoy a diet characterized by high consumption of meat and dairy products. The rapid rise in consumption of these products can be attributed to various factors: Chile belatedly joining the international agribusiness revolution; government support from the 1930s to the 1960s; increasing GDP per capita; macro-economic stability; changes in consumption habits; trade liberalization; and the fall in food prices, as both meat and milk had high income elasticity. These revolutions in both production and consumption have greatly improved the nutrition of the Chilean population and partly explain the improvement in Chile’s biological well-being.

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