‘Where there Aren't no Ten Commandments…’

Abstract

The changes in income distribution ensuing from industrialisation constituted subject of lively interest towards the end of the 19th century. We might say that the main problem in the discussions at the time was whether Marx was right in maintaining that industrialisation would make the condition of the working class even more miserable, or whether Bernstein was right in maintaining the opposite. These discussions took place mostly in Germany. The distribution of income was again taken up as a subject for discussion on a larger scale in the 1950s, when Simon Kuznets suggested that industrialisation first increases the concentration of income which will, however, even out later on. In literature on economic growth, reference is also often made to the importance of income inequality for the accumulation of capital necessary for economic expansion. The former tradition was in Finland represented by Heikki Renvall through his studies on changes in income distribution in the largest cities. Adherents of the latter tradition are Riitta Hjerppe and John Lefgren who have written an article on features of the long-term development of income distribution in Finland.¹ During the last ten years, historical research into income distribution have again gained in popularity, inspired especially by the studies carried out by Peter H. Lindert and Jeffrey G. Williamson.²