The consumption of animal proteins in the city of Barcelona, 1830s-1930s: Evolution and determining factors

This article reconstructs the consumption of animal proteins in the city of Barcelona from the 1830s to the 1930s, focusing on: (a) the circumstances that favoured the expansion of this consumption; and (b) the factors accounting for its changing internal structure. It is considered the influence of four variables: income changes, technological innovations, scientific progress, and living conditions in urban environments. Two main conclusions are proposed. First, the relation between income and consumption has varied overtime, due to the increasing weight of the other variables included in the study. Second, as a consequence of that, concepts such as income elasticity of demand cannot be used to account for the evolution of consumption.