The Portuguese industrial production, 1870-1914: a first estimation of an index

Abstract

This 1870-1914 production index is the attempt to fill in the numerous gaps of quantitative information, which the historians of the eighteenth century economics have to cope with. The method used consists of indirectly evaluating the production of nine relevant productive sectors within this period, either through their presumed consumption of raw materials or through their exports of finished products. The partial series obtained are then aggregated by using weighted averages reflecting the sectorial different added values, the final result being deflated by means of an index of industrial prices. A final critical analysis shows that, at constant prices, a satisfactory margin of the production index is met, and the result will not be significantly misrepresented by the main roundabout ways of this approach, except in what concerns the short term cyclical fluctuations.