The History of PWR

History and Economic Futures is a research group affiliated with ISEG Research, a FCT-funded research unit based at the Lisbon School of Economics and Management (ISEG), Universidade de Lisboa.

We maintain this website to preserve and develop the legacy of the Prices, Wages and Rents in Portugal project.

The project was designed by Jaime Reis (then at Instituto de Ciências Sociais, Universidade de Lisboa) to create a database of Portuguese wages, prices and rents covering the period 1300–1900. It involved an ambitious programme of archival research, collecting thousands of observations on the prices of 134 domestic and colonial commodities across four markets (Coimbra, Évora, Lisbon and Porto), as well as wage rates for 26 occupations. The research was carried out in two phases: the first (2009-12) focused on the post-1500 period, and the second (2012-15) on the pre-1500 years and on filling gaps in the initial series. 

The dataset and website were transferred from ICS to ISEG—where two members of the research team were based—under a protocol signed in 2025. Under this agreement, ISEG assumed responsibility for updating and maintaining the data set.

In the present version, we publish updated price and wage series, now covering the full timespan from 1300 to 1900: "PWR Files". Mind that these new series contain new observations some revision of old one. We aim to update these regularly and, whenever possible, to add new series for additional goods, wages and locations.

The results from the first phase of the project can be accessed on the "Old PWR Data Files" page.

We would like to thank Marina Costa Lobo, the former director of ICS, for ceding the original datafiles to ISEG. We also thank FCT (the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) for funding this project in 2009 (PTDC/HAH/70938/2006) and renewing it in 2012 (PTDC/HIS-HIS/123046/2010).  

Our gratitude extends to the project researchers (Conceição Andrade Martins, Inês Amorim, Leonor Freire Costa, Álvaro Santos Pereira, António Castro Henriques, Carlos Faísca, Helder Fonseca) and to Fátima Farrica, Filomena Melo, Margarida Silva, Patrícia Costa, Raquel Berredo, João Fialho, Paulo Jorge Fernandes, Paulo Paixão, Renato Pistola and Rui Lopes, who provided excellent research assistance. A special acknowledgment is due to Conceição Andrade Martins for her pivotal role throughout this project. 

Citation

When using the PWR data, please cite as follows:

Reis, Jaime, org. (2015), Prices, Wages and Rents – Portugal. [dataset]. https://pwr-portugal.iseg.ulisboa.pt/.