You're right that data is poor for the 19th century. The point I wanted to draw with my more recent sources is that there seems to be little empirical evidence

You're right that data is poor for the 19th century. The point I wanted to draw with my more recent sources is that there seems to be little empirical evidence to show that increased redistribution via taxation and expanded government social programs actually alleviate poverty, compared to the evidence for rising living standards via technological advances and fierce capitalistic competition that lowers costs. Across OECD countries, there appears to be at least a passing correlation between countries that have a higher ratio of government expenditure to GDP (and are at least commonly perceived to have generous government-provided social benefits) and lack of real wage growth over the past two decades[0]. [0]: https://stats.oecd.org/index.aspx?DataSetCode=AV_AN_WAGE https://stats.oecd.org/index.aspx?DataSetCode=AV_AN_WAGE