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26946 results in Economic history

Page 290 of 1348

  • Prophet of Perspective: Thomas K. McCraw

  • Richard R. John
  • Journal:
    Business History Review / Volume 89 / Issue 1 / Spring 2015
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    06 February 2015, pp. 129-153
    Print publication:
    Spring 2015

  • Thomas K. McCraw is justly admired as a consummate prose stylist, a talented editor, a perceptive historian of the United States, and an inspiring teacher whose mastery of the biographical form led to a string of elegantly written prize-winning publications that are widely read and often taught. The publication one month before McCraw's death in November 2012 of his last book, The Founders and Finance, provides the occasion for this essay, which contends that McCraw also deserves to be remembered as a founder of two thriving academic subfields—policy history and the history of capitalism—despite the fact that he trained relatively few history PhD students, and rarely appeared in public during the final years of his life as the result of a debilitating illness that greatly limited his mobility.

Origins of the European Economy
  • Communications and Commerce AD 300–900
  • Michael McCormick
  • Published online:
    05 February 2015
    Print publication:
    17 January 2002
  • For fifty years debate has raged about early European commerce during the period between antiquity and the middle ages. Was there trade? If so, in what - and with whom? New evidence and new ways of looking at old evidence are now breaking the stalemate. Analysis of communications - the movements of people, ideas and things - is transforming our vision of Europe and the Mediterranean in the age of Charlemagne and Harun al Rashid. This is the first comprehensive analysis of the economic transition during this period for over sixty years. Using new materials and new methodology, it will attract all social and economic historians of antiquity and the middle ages, and anyone concerned with the origins of Europe, the history of the slave trade, medicine and disease, cross-cultural contacts, and the Muslim and Byzantine worlds.

Proposals for an Economical and Secure Currency
  • With Observations on the Profits of the Bank of England, as They Regard the Public and the Proprietors of Bank Stock
  • David Ricardo
  • Published online:
    05 February 2015
    Print publication:
    01 January 2015
    First published in:
    1816
  • David Ricardo's work on currency was published in 1816, and this second edition appeared in the same year. Enormously successful as a stockbroker, Ricardo (1772–1823) was able to lead the life of a wealthy country squire, while his intellectual interests caused him to move in the circles of Thomas Malthus and James Mill. Written at the urging of the Cornish businessman Pascoe Grenfell, MP, who shared Ricardo's interest in financial matters, this work considers the problem of the national debt, in the context of paper money and whether it should in principle be exchanged at face value for gold bullion rather than for minted coins. Ricardo was very concerned at the large profits being made by the Bank of England in its dealings with the government, and suggests here the creation of an independent central bank, a proposal to which he later returned.

On the Principles of Political Economy, and Taxation
  • David Ricardo
  • Published online:
    05 February 2015
    Print publication:
    01 January 2015
    First published in:
    1817
  • This work, originally published in 1817, is one of the founding texts of modern economics. Enormously successful as a stockbroker, David Ricardo (1772–1823) was able to lead the life of a wealthy country squire, while his intellectual interests caused him to move in the circles of Thomas Malthus and James Mill. It was at Mill's urging that Ricardo published this book, entered Parliament in 1819 (as an independent member for a rotten Irish borough) and worked for financial and parliamentary reform. Ricardo argues in this work that Adam Smith was mistaken in his understanding of the economic significance of rent, and also demonstrates the mutual benefit of free trade between countries, as against protectionism. The book's findings and conclusions have been controversial since its publication, but led John Stuart Mill to judge Ricardo 'the greatest political economist'.

The Diaries of Edward Pease
  • The Father of English Railways
  • Edward Pease
  • Edited by Alfred Edward Pease
  • Published online:
    05 February 2015
    Print publication:
    13 June 2013
  • Edward Pease (1767–1858), who left behind extensive diaries for the years 1824–57, was dubbed the 'father of English railways' thanks to his backing of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, which began operating in 1825. A prominent Quaker and woollen manufacturer in Darlington, Pease famously recruited George Stephenson (1781–1848) as the line's engineer. His great-grandson Sir Alfred Pease (1857–1939) edited these diaries for private circulation only, but was persuaded to publish them in 1907. The work includes an introductory essay on Quakerism and biographical sketches of Pease and his wife Rachel. The diaries themselves reveal, as the editor mentions in his preface, a life devoted to public and private good works. The appendices include a variety of Quaker texts and other material relating to the Pease family and the founding of the railways.

The Great Divergence Reconsidered
  • Europe, India, and the Rise to Global Economic Power
  • Roman Studer
  • Published online:
    05 February 2015
    Print publication:
    29 January 2015
  • In stark contrast to popular narratives, The Great Divergence Reconsidered shows that Europe's rise to an undisputed world economic leader was not the effect of the Industrial Revolution, and cannot be explained by coal or colonial exploitation. Using a wealth of new historical evidence stretching from the seventeenth to the twentieth century, Roman Studer shows that this 'Great Divergence' must be shifted back to the seventeenth century, if not earlier. Europe was characterized by a more powerful transportation system, bigger trade flows, larger and better integrated markets, higher productivity levels, and superior living standards even before the Industrial Revolution brought about far-reaching structural changes and made Europe's supremacy even more pronounced. While the comparison with Europe draws significantly on India, the central conclusions seem to hold for Asia - and indeed the rest of the world - more generally. An interplay of various factors best explains Europe's early and gradual rise, including better institutions, favorable geographical features, increasing political stability, and increasingly rapid advances in science and technology.

History and Description of the Crystal Palace
  • and the Exhibition of the World’s Industry in 1851
  • Volume 1
  • John Tallis
  • Edited by J. G. Strutt
  • Published online:
    05 February 2015
    Print publication:
    19 May 2011
    First published in:
    1854
  • In May 1851, the doors opened on the Great Exhibition, a celebration of British industry and international trade that spawned numerous imitations across the globe. The scale of the exhibition was immense and publishers responded quickly to the demand for catalogues, guidebooks and souvenir volumes. In a marketplace swamped with exhibition literature, Tallis' three-volume History and Description of the Crystal Palace, originally published in 1852 and reproduced here in the 1854 edition, quickly established itself as the definitive history for middle-class readers. Illustrated with high-quality steel-engraved plates of the most popular and eye-catching exhibits, Tallis' book provides a fascinating contemporary account of this cultural and commercial highlight of the Victorian age, and reveals the mind-set of a society at the peak of its imperial power. Volume 1 describes the preparations for the exhibition and focuses particularly on the 'foreign and colonial' departments and the decorative arts.

Rice
  • Global Networks and New Histories
  • Edited by Francesca Bray, Peter A. Coclanis, Edda L. Fields-Black, Dagmar Schäfer
  • Published online:
    05 February 2015
    Print publication:
    19 February 2015
  • Rice today is food to half the world's population. Its history is inextricably entangled with the emergence of colonialism, the global networks of industrial capitalism, and the modern world economy. The history of rice is currently a vital and innovative field of research attracting serious attention, but no attempt has yet been made to write a history of rice and its place in the rise of capitalism from a global and comparative perspective. Rice is a first step toward such a history. The fifteen chapters, written by specialists on Africa, the Americas, and Asia, are premised on the utility of a truly international approach to history. Each brings a new approach that unsettles prevailing narratives and suggests new connections. Together they cast new light on the significant roles of rice as crop, food, and commodity, and shape historical trajectories and interregional linkages in Africa, the Americas, Europe, and Asia.

  • 5 - Markets versus climate in Europe and India

  • Roman Studer, Universität Zürich
  • Book:
    The Great Divergence Reconsidered
    Published online:
    05 February 2015
    Print publication:
    29 January 2015, pp 119-142

  • Summary

    The available sources and quantitative evidence for India do not, for the moment, allow for a similar “decomposition” of the market environment and integration process as performed for Europe in Chapter 4. Instead, we now return to the description of differences between India and Europe.

    So far, the comparison has focused on describing the “average” picture for both large regions, thereby leaving aside differences in the extent of market integration within both the European continent and the Indian subcontinent brought about by differences in geography, climate, infrastructure, legal and political frameworks, or the general trade environment. The aggregate results, both for the extent of market integration within as well as between India and Europe therefore hide or blur some heterogeneity.

    Now, we wish to narrow the geographical scope by focusing on a comparison of particular subregions to get a more specific understanding of differences between Europe and India and to explore whether such a micro view, which controls for physical geography, corroborates the broad findings of the macro picture presented in Chapter 3. The subregions in India and Europe that are to be compared should share some basic features to make this undertaking a fruitful one. Yet the choice of appropriate subregions is, to a certain degree, an arbitrary one, since differences and common features across regions exist along many dimensions. Luckily, Chapter 4 offered a good guideline for a choice of focus, showing that the most important differentiation to make in the early modern trade environment is arguably the one brought about by physical geography. Thus, the basic dividing line is whether a region has access to the sea, or to shipping more generally, or whether it is situated in the interior.

  • 7 - Conclusions

  • Roman Studer, Universität Zürich
  • Book:
    The Great Divergence Reconsidered
    Published online:
    05 February 2015
    Print publication:
    29 January 2015, pp 179-182

  • Summary

    The idea that the reach of the market is associated with the level of economic development, and that the expansion of markets leads to an increased division of labor and thus to economic growth, made Adam Smith one of the best known economists of all time. It has also become one of the most popular explanations for economic development since Smith first identified the link more than two hundred years ago. This concept of Smithian, or trade-led, growth, has thrived not only within academia but also in popular economics and in policy making around the globe. Yet the empirical evidence on when and how markets became integrated, and on whether, when, and under which circumstances expanding markets promoted economic growth, is actually amazingly thin and often ambiguous.

    One of the main motivations for this book is thus to improve the empirical – or quantitative – evidence on the historical process of economic integration, which is a central variable not only in writings on Smithian growth but also in various large bodies of literature on economic development. A substantial amount of new price and wage evidence is thus presented for both Europe and India with the aim of assessing the size and efficiency of markets as well as the process of market integration over time.

  • 6 - Economic integration in India and Europe

  • Roman Studer, Universität Zürich
  • Book:
    The Great Divergence Reconsidered
    Published online:
    05 February 2015
    Print publication:
    29 January 2015, pp 145-178

  • Summary

    In this last chapter, we want to synthesize the findings of all the previous chapters on the levels and trends in market integration in India and Europe from the seventeenth to the early twentieth century. Based on these overall insights on the process of integration, we then return to the discussion about determinants for economic integration presented in Chapter 2 and assess which of the main factors are confirmed by the quantitative investigation. In the end, we take one further step and return to one of the main motivations for studying the process of economic integration, which is the great importance that is generally ascribed to trade and economic integration for economic development. We will thus review the various trade/integration–growth narratives and derive some general indication about their plausibility in the light of the new evidence on economic integration.

    Market integration in India and Europe: a synthesis

    The present book is first and foremost an attempt to improve the empirical – or quantitative – evidence on the historical process of economic integration, which features as a central variable in several large bodies of literature. A substantial amount of new price evidence has been collected for both Europe and India with the aim of assessing the efficiency of grain markets as well as the process of market integration through time.

Page 290 of 1348