Studies in Economic History Patrick Gray Joshua Hall Ruth Wallis Herndon Javier Silvestre   Editors Standard of Living Essays on Economics, History, and Religion in Honor of John E. Murray Studies in Economic History Series Editor Tetsuji Okazaki Faculty of Economics The University of Tokyo Tokyo, Japan Aims and Scope This series from Springer provides a platform for works in economic history that truly integrate economics and history. Books on a wide range of related topics are welcomed and encouraged, including those in macro-economic history, financial history, labor history, industrial history, agricultural history, the history of institutions and organizations, spatial economic history, law and economic history, political economic history, historical demography, and environmental history. Economic history studies have greatly developed over the past several decades through application of economics and econometrics. Particularly in recent years, a variety of new economic theories and sophisticated econometric techniques— including game theory, spatial economics, and generalized method of moment (GMM)—have been introduced for the great benefit of economic historians and the research community. At the same time, a good economic history study should contribute more than just an application of economics and econometrics to past data. It raises novel research questions, proposes a new view of history, and/or provides rich documentation. This series is intended to integrate data analysis, close examination of archival works, and application of theoretical frameworks to offer new insights and even provide opportunities to rethink theories. The purview of this new Springer series is truly global, encompassing all nations and areas of the world as well as all eras from ancient times to the present. The editorial board, who are internationally renowned leaders among economic historians, carefully evaluate and judge each manuscript, referring to reports from expert reviewers. The series publishes contributions by university professors and others well established in the academic community, as well as work deemed to be of equivalent merit. All books and chapters in the Studies in Economic History book series are indexed in Scopus. Editorial Board Members: Loren Brandt (University of Toronto, Canada) Myung Soo Cha (Yeungnam University, Korea) Nicholas Crafts (University of Warwick, UK) Claude Diebolt (University of Strasbourg, France) Barry Eichengreen (University of California at Berkeley, USA) Stanley Engerman (University of Rochester, USA) Price V. Fishback (University of Arizona, USA) Avner Greif (Stanford University, USA) Tirthanker Roy (London School of Economics and Political Science, UK) Osamu Saito (Hitotsubashi University, Japan) Jochen Streb (University of Mannheim, Germany) Nikolaus Wolf (Humboldt University, Germany) (in alphabetical order) Patrick Gray • Joshua Hall Ruth Wallis Herndon • Javier Silvestre Editors Standard of Living Essays on Economics, History, and Religion in Honor of John E. Murray Editors Patrick Gray Joshua Hall Religious Studies College of Business and Economics Rhodes College West Virginia University Memphis, TN, USA Morgantown, WV, USA Ruth Wallis Herndon Javier Silvestre Department of History Applied Economics Bowling Green State University Facultad de Economia y Empresa Bowling Green, OH, USA Zaragoza, Spain ISSN 2364-1797 ISSN 2364-1800 (electronic) Studies in Economic History ISBN 978-3-031-06476-0 ISBN 978-3-031-06477-7 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06477-7 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Preface John Edward Murray was the Joseph R. Hyde III Professor of Political Economy and Professor of Economics at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee, when he passed away suddenly on March 27, 2018, at the age of 58. He was born on April 9, 1959, in Cincinnati, and became the first member of his family to attend college. He worked at a variety of jobs to pay his tuition, including phlebotomist, house painter, roofer, and ice cream vendor, graduating in 1981 from Oberlin College with a degree in economics. He later added an MS in mathematics from the University of Cincinnati, and the MA and PhD in economics from The Ohio State University, where he wrote his dissertation under Rick Steckel. John taught high school math before pursuing his graduate work in econom- ics. After finishing at Ohio State, he accepted a position at the University of Toledo, where he remained for 18 years before accepting the Hyde Professorship at Rhodes College in 2011. He had a lifelong penchant for learning, spending a summer studying the German language in Schwabish Hall in 1984, and summers as an NEH scholar in Munich in 1995 and at Duke in 2013. Murray authored two books and co-edited a third. His first book, Origins of American Health Insurance: A History of Industrial Sickness Funds (Yale University Press, 2007) was named one of ten “Noteworthy Books in Industrial Relations and Labor Economics” in 2008 by the Industrial Relations Section, Princeton University. His second book was co-edited with Ruth Wallis Herndon and titled Children Bound to Labor: The Pauper Apprentice System in Early America (Cornell University Press, 2009). Economic History Review said it was “a model for both comparative and national studies” of childhood and labor in historical context. His third book, The Charleston Orphan House: Children’s Lives in the First Public Orphanage in America (University of Chicago Press, 2013), received the George C. Rogers, Jr. Prize, awarded by the South Carolina Historical Society for the best book on South Carolina history. He published book chapters, monographs, encyclopedia and handbook contribu- tions, and numerous articles in refereed journals including the Journal of Economic History, Explorations in Economic History, Economic History Review, Agricultural v vi Preface History, and many others. His clear, crisp writing style and ability to explain com- plicated economic concepts made him a frequent choice to write for the popular press as well. John’s scholarly interests were varied, which is reflected in the essays in this volume. His most recent work centered on coal mine safety, post bellum African- American labor supply, and families in nineteenth-century Charleston. He published extensively in the areas of the history of healthcare and health insurance, religion, and family-related issues from education to orphanages, fertility, and marriage, not to mention his work in anthropometrics, labor markets, and literacy. His intellectual work was often informed by his religious convictions, and he spent time studying Catholic theology at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit. John had a deep commitment to his family. His first book was dedicated to his wife Lynn, and his second and third books to his children Rose and Sarah. He would share with delight information about his family with colleagues, and his office was filled with artwork by his children and family photos. This anthology honors John E. Murray, whose scholarly interests and collegial network ranged well beyond the economics departments in which he worked throughout his professional life. His sudden death in March 2018 ended many ongo- ing conversations in economics, history, and religion. John considered himself a historian as well as an economist, and he held himself to the scholarly standards of both disciplines. He interpreted economic data and put it to work in the service of history. He read history and put it to work in the service of economics. His work was also informed by his lifelong study of religion, and he maintained lively and colle- gial friendships with scholars of religion. The essays in this volume reflect John’s scholarly interests and were written with his interests in mind. John Murray was a person who conversed with others. The following chapters continue conversations that John started, encouraged, or inspired. He read second- ary literature voraciously and would quickly contact the author of an article or book that caught his interest. His gift for starting conversations brought many people into his network and led to wonderful collaborations. The four editors of this volume met him at different moments of his professional life and in very different circumstances. 1996: John started the conversation that brought Ruth Herndon into his scholarly community. In 1996, when Herndon was at the Philadelphia Center for Early American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania (now the McNeil Center), she published a brief “Research Note” in the Journal of Social History about the signa- ture literacy of poor people warned out of New England towns in the latter eigh- teenth century. Literacy and poor people being two of John’s interests, he naturally read the essay and promptly wrote Herndon at the Philadelphia Center, unaware that since the article’s publication she had taken up a faculty position in the Department of History at the University of Toledo, where John was himself teaching in the Department of Economics. When Herndon received John’s letter, forwarded from the Philadelphia Center, she picked up her office phone, and called her new UT col- league. After John got over the shock of this serendipity, he initiated a series of brown bag lunch conversations that gradually grew into co-authored conference Preface vii papers, then a co-authored journal article, then a major research grant proposal sup- porting their co-edited anthology Children Bound to Labor. Although Herndon sub- sequently moved to Bowling Green State University and Murray moved to Rhodes College, they continued their conversation on childhood, parenting, education, and labor in historical context. Shortly before he died, they had proposed a conference session together. 2003: Josh Hall first met John when he was teaching at Capital University in Columbus Ohio. Economic history was what first got Josh interested in economics and he had heard that there was an Ohio economic history meeting that he might attend. Having been born in Toledo, he figured that was enough of a connection to reach out to John Murray by email. And so a correspondence began that touched on baseball, the Wright Brothers, graduate school in economics, and economic history. In 2004, John provided advice when Josh applied to doctoral programs in econom- ics. In 2007, Josh was a finalist for a job at Rhodes College he didn’t get. However, a year later they were searching for an endowed chair and he encouraged John to apply. The rest, as they say, is history. Josh greatly misses John’s occasional email exchanges and is not surprised that so many were touched so deeply by John and his work. 2004: Javier Silvestre met John at the 2004 Cliometrics World Congress, in Venice, where the latter chaired the session in which the former presented a paper. Both shared a broad interest in workplace safety in different countries. Some time after the Congress, John proposed that Silvestre coauthor a paper on safety in European coal mining, using an almost unexploited source. However, it was not until several years later that the real work began. The resulting paper ended up with a strong focus on technology, to that point an almost entirely unexplored field for both authors. Once the paper was accepted for publication, in 2014, such an amount of information on technological change in nineteenth-century European coal min- ing had been gathered that John proposed that he and Silvestre embark on a project together. The premise was that, as far as technological change is concerned, perhaps different strands of the literature, economic history in particular, had been more focused on the eighteenth and twentieth centuries. Technology in nineteenth- century coalmining needed to be reassessed. John’s enthusiasm was contagious. Over the years, regular emails were exchanged on the subject of improvements in mechanical fans, safety lamps, or explosives. He travelled to Spain a few times. In Zaragoza, intense work sessions on the “coal project,” as John called it, were combined with long evening walks and talks. It was difficult not to share some of his many inter- ests: from freedom of speech to sports, via blues music, as well as dogs, of course, to mention but a few. He was also a visiting scholar at the University of Barcelona. His Origins of American Health Insurance book came at a time when the study of the genesis of the Spanish welfare state was gathering strength among young eco- nomic historians. 2011: Patrick Gray met John through mutual acquaintances in the Department of Economics when he moved from Toledo to Memphis in 2011 to become the Joseph R. Hyde III Professor of Political Economy at Rhodes College. Lunch conversations regularly turned to such topics as baseball—especially John’s beloved Cincinnati viii Preface Reds—and raising children. John was very well read, and he wore his learning lightly. This made him an outstanding scholar. John was not a member of the Austrian School, but he agreed with the remark attributed to Friedrich Hayek that “if you only understand economics, then you don’t understand economics,” and he exemplified the spirit it expressed.  His wide-ranging publications attest to a bound- less intellectual curiosity and a punctilious attention to detail. John’s endowed chair came with a generous book budget, and he was not afraid to use it. Theology was a special interest. His home and office bookshelves groaned under the additional weight of volumes related to biblical studies, church history, and philosophy. Copious notes in the margins and underlined passages show that, far from being just for show, he had actually read them. How to read and teach Augustine and Luther in the interdisciplinary humanities sequence offered at Rhodes were frequent topics of conversation. His approach to these texts bespoke an admirable humility that comes with knowing the limits of one’s knowledge and expertise. Along with his gentle spirit and hearty laugh, this is what his colleagues will miss. Religious Studies Patrick Gray Rhodes College Memphis, TN, USA College of Business and Economics Joshua Hall West Virginia University Morgantown, WV, USA Department of History Ruth Wallis Herndon Bowling Green State University Bowling Green, OH, USA Applied Economics Javier Silvestre Facultad de Economia y Empresa Zaragoza, Spain Contents 1 Urbanization, Sanitation, and Mortality in the Progressive Era, 1899–1929 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Louis P. Cain and Elyce J. Rotella 2 The Continuing Puzzle of Hypertension Among African Americans: Developmental Origins and the Mid-century Socioeconomic Transformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Garrett T. Senney and Richard H. Steckel 3 Health and Safety vs. Freedom of Contract: The Tortured Path of Wage and Hours Limits Through the State Legislatures and the Courts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Price Fishback 4 Sickness Experience in England, 1870–1949 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Andrew Hinde, Martin Gorsky, Aravinda Guntupalli, and Bernard Harris 5 Friendly Societies and Sickness Coverage in the Absence of State Provision in Spain (1870–1935) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Margarita Vilar-Rodríguez and Jerònia Pons-Pons 6 A Difficult Consensus: The Making of the Spanish Welfare State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Sergio Espuelas 7 The Effect of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic on US Life Insurance Holdings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 Joanna Short 8 “Theft of Oneself”: Runaway Servants in Early Maryland: Deterrence, Punishment, and Apprehension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 Farley Grubb ix