Summary - TST 7
TRANSPORTES, SERVICIOS Y TELECOMUNICACIONES
Tomás Martínez Vara
Los costes laborales y la crisis de MZA, 1913-1935. Datos y algunas reflexiones
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Key words:
Economic History; Spanish Railways Madrid-Zaragoza-Alicante
Railway Company (MZA).
[ Abstract ]
This paper studies the evolution of labour costs in the Spanish railway company MZA between 1913 and 1935. This is the period of the so-called "railway problem". The bulk of the paper discusses the very many sources of data used, most of them of managerial origin, not previously used by historians. The information they contain is as rich as is varied: wages, salaries, non-wage benefits, working conditions, managerial strategies, and employment levels. The methodology and assumptions that underlie the construction of the time series given in the appendicies are detailed. The calculations are of great importance, not only for the light they throw on the impact of labour cost increases on company distress, but also because they open the way to later studies on the history of railways.
[ Abstract ]
This paper studies the evolution of labour costs in the Spanish railway company MZA between 1913 and 1935. This is the period of the so-called "railway problem". The bulk of the paper discusses the very many sources of data used, most of them of managerial origin, not previously used by historians. The information they contain is as rich as is varied: wages, salaries, non-wage benefits, working conditions, managerial strategies, and employment levels. The methodology and assumptions that underlie the construction of the time series given in the appendicies are detailed. The calculations are of great importance, not only for the light they throw on the impact of labour cost increases on company distress, but also because they open the way to later studies on the history of railways.