A rich tradition exists on measuring human capital in historical societies through basic mathematical skills using the method of age heaping. In this article, we novelty propose to calculate it also through the analysis of the consistency in individual consecutive age declaration statements in five towns of Baix Llobregat’s county (Barcelona, Spain) during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The region underwent a proto-industrialization in the eighteenth century and was one of the main wool and cotton textile producers in the nineteenth century in Catalonia. Our main results show that (I) numeracy levels in this county were above the Spanish average in the whole period and, during the first years of the nineteenth century, ahead of countries such as Italy, Portugal and the USA. However, its numeracy dropped from 1880’s due the early industrialization of Catalonia in the Spanish and Southern Europe context, the existence of child labor in the factories and that also coincided with the phylloxera crisis. (II) To this effect, women presented lower levels of numeracy than men, but their levels tended to converge. (III) As regards emigrants, those who came to the rest of Spain had the lowest level of numeracy compared to the natives. (IV) Moreover, we found that literacy, the 1901 education reform and a higher socioeconomic status had a positive effect on reporting ages consistently over time. (V) Finally, we prove a positive association between systematically reporting ages ending in 0 or 5 and having a higher individual error in age statements along the life course.

通过使用年龄堆积方法的基本数学技能来衡量历史社会中的人力资本，存在着丰富的传统。在本文中，我们新颖地建议通过分析 19 世纪和 20 世纪初期拜克斯略夫雷加特县（西班牙巴塞罗那）五个城镇的个体连续年龄声明陈述的一致性来计算它。该地区在十八世纪经历了原始工业化，是十九世纪加泰罗尼亚主要的羊毛和棉纺织品生产国之一。我们的主要结果表明，（I）该县的算术水平在整个时期都高于西班牙平均水平，并且在十九世纪的最初几年，领先于意大利、葡萄牙和美国等国家。然而，由于加泰罗尼亚在西班牙和南欧背景下的早期工业化、工厂中存在童工以及恰逢根瘤蚜危机，其计算能力从 1880 年代开始下降。(II) 因此，女性的计算能力低于男性，但她们的水平趋于趋同。（三）就移民而言，来到西班牙其他地区的移民的算术水平比当地人低。(IV) 此外，我们发现，随着时间的推移，识字率、1901 年的教育改革和较高的社会经济地位对报告年龄持续产生积极影响。(V) 最后，我们证明了系统地报告以 0 或 5 结尾的年龄与生命历程中年龄陈述中较高的个体错误之间存在正相关关系。