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The article discusses the exact amount of the money issued by the United States Congress for the financing of the American Revolution. During the revolution, Congress released paper money otherwise called Continental dollars to finance its expenditures. Past literatures have claimed the exact amount spent but they left behind unclear and conflicting estimates. The article traces back the transactions that took place from the enactment to disbursement of the dollars. The article presents supporting tables on estimates and cumulative total net emissions of the continental dollars.

Comments on articles about economic and business history in the United States. Details of private banking; Views on capital accumulation.

Presents an abstract of the paper `Establishing a Monetary Union: The United States's Experience,' by Arthur J. Rolnick, Bruce D. Smith and Warren E. Weber, presented at the fifty-fifth annual meeting of the Economic History Association.

Provides information on different economic factors that led to the 1792 securities market crash in the First Bank of the United States (U.S.). Details on the economic history of the U.S.; Implication of the credit markets on financial institutions; Effect of low liquidity and speculations in the purchasing of bank notes and securities; Discussion on the banking system of the U.S.

Examines the behavior of the national capital market in the United States during the 1888-1913 period through the analysis of short-term interest rates. Information on interest rates; Method used to examine the convergence of interest rates from different reserve cities; Factors which may have contributed to the movements of the rates.

Examines the founding and early work of the California Marine Research Committee established in 1947 by the state legislature in response to the catastrophic failure of the Pacific Coast sardine fishery. Explanation on how a stalemate occurred that delayed a consensus on policy recommendations; Implication of the delayed policy recommendations for the sardine fishing industry.

Presents a study which discussed the structure of the rural furnishing business and its effect on economic stagnation of the United States during the postbellum period. Argument on the monopoly hypothesis; How farmers managed the production of cotton; Justification on merchant supervisory costs and risk of default.

Presents summaries of several dissertations on economic history. Analysis of the surge of industrial mergers in the United States between 1898 and 1902; Examination of railroad cartels and the establishment of the Interstate Commerce Commission in the 1880s; Examination of the applicability of macroeconomics for the historical analysis of the economic conditions in Great Britain.

Examines the role of legal and institutional factors in the economic development of the United States from the 1940s to the 1950s. Character of the country's legal system; Impact of regulatory law.

Addresses a commentary on the role of economic instability in the United States agriculture in the agrarian discontent during the late 19th century. Review of the methodology used; Response to a suggestion on the differences in the relative variability between states; Points of agreement; Criticism against the argument on railroad network as primary determinant of relative variability.

This article takes advantage of an exogenous shift towards patenting in chemicals to test whether patents contribute to the geographic diffusion of innovations. Data on U.S. innovations that were exhibited at four world fairs between 1851 and 1915 suggest that innovative activity became less localized after patenting rates increased. These changes cannot be explained by changes in the localization of chemical production or economy-wide changes in the localization of innovations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Explores the reason behind male predominance in the production department of Ford Motor Company in the early 1940s. Automobile industry as a male domain; Masculinity in the pre-mass production period; Masculinity and mass production at the Ford Motor Company; Development of a fraternalist labor strategy at Ford to monotony an maximize labor productivity.

Examines the recent view that economic distress was not an important cause of English immigration to the United States before 1860. Use of demographic information to show that characteristics of males on suspect passenger lists matched those of laborers on other lists; Sampling methods and distributions of immigrant occupations; Comparing the questionable and good passenger lists; Discussion.

Argues that the coalescing of business, military and political interest groups in support of a military build-up in the United States during peacetime occurred in the years between the Civil War and World War I. Insight into the origin of the military-industrial complex in the United States; Warning issued by former United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower in his farewell address to the American people in 1960.

Examines the influence of stock market trading on the transactions demand for money at the New York Stock Exchange during the 1919-1929 period. Range of monetary aggregates used as variables; Problem with the economic policies implemented in 1928-29.

Considers the hypothesis that the fear of foreclosure of farm mortgages provided an important impetus to agrarian reform movements in the nineteenth and early twentieth century United States. Status of farm income during the period; Examination on indebtedness data and measures of unrest.

Explores the existing contention that real per capita incomes for most of the population in the United States declined from 1923-1929. Range of economic factors analyzed; Labor force trends observed during the period.

Argues that conservationists were misdirected in campaigning for the establishment of the National Forests in the United States in the late nineteenth century. Overview of public land laws; Explanation on land selection by claimants; Calculation of the added transaction costs that resulted from circumventing the law.

Discusses the evolution of the social welfare system of the United States (U.S.). Sectors behind the creation of the social welfare system; Transition made by federal bureaucrats in 1930s; Impact of the creation of a disability insurance plan on the welfare debate in the U.S. between the government and private businessmen.

Discusses studies concerning United States economic history during the early twentieth century. Insight on the lower income groups in the 1920s; Relationship between per capita income and state shares of the top one and five percent of the population.

Comments on several articles about demography which appeared in the March 1980 issue of `The Journal of Economic History.' Applicability of the Malthusian model to explain the economic and demographic trends in Ireland in the prefamine period in the 19th century; Analysis of the fertility rates of white families in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from 1850-1880; Contribution of interregional migration to the elimination of labor market disequilibrium during the American Civil War.

Comments on several articles about the employment of women which appeared in the March 1980 issue of `The Journal of Economic History.' Role of the economic functions of women in the economic development in Florence, Italy; Trends in the earnings function of employed single women in the United States (U.S.); Analysis on the participation of women on the labor force in the U.S. during the Second World War.

Comments on several articles about the economic history of the United States. How the relationship of capital to deposits is best treated; Issue over the use of a consumer price index; How wealth could grow without affecting income.

Discusses studies made on economics in the United States during the colonial period. Nature of economic behavior in the pre-industrial Anglo-American world; Standard of living in eighteenth century farmers; Patterns of consumption in elite and simpler households in Chesapeake, Virginia at about 1720.

We explore the effects of human capital on workers during the latter nineteenth century by examining the U.S. Navy. Naval officers belonged either to a regular or an engineer corps and had tasks assigned for their specialized training. We compile education and career data for officers from Naval Academy and navy registers for the years 1858 to 1907. Wage premia for “engineer-skilled” officers deteriorated over their careers; more traditionally skilled officers enjoyed higher gains in earnings and more frequent promotions. This compelled those with engineering skills to leave the service early, hindering the navy's capacity to further technologically develop. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Mexican expropriation of 1938 was the first large-scale non-Communist expropriation of foreign-owned natural resource assets. The literature makes three assertions: the United States did not fully back the companies, Mexico did not fully compensate them for the value of their assets, and the oil workers benefitted from the expropriation. This article finds that none of those assertions hold. The companies devised political strategies that maneuvered a reluctant President Roosevelt into supporting their interests, and the Mexican government more than fully compensated them as a result. Neither wages for oil workers nor Mexican government oil revenue rose after the expropriation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While economists predicted a return to double-digit unemployment rates during the reconversion from World War II, this outcome did not materialize. This article explores the role that the significant rise in net exports—which accounted for nearly 4 percent of GDP in 1946 and 1947—played in helping the United States avoid a postwar unemployment problem. Using an input-output analysis, we find that the export surplus directly accounted for 1.33 million jobs in 1946 and 1.97 million jobs in 1947. This accounts for close to half of the gains to private sector employment during these years. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Focusing on the New York banking sector, we analyze a neglected, but profound impact of the National Banking Acts. By resisting federal banking legislation and “boycotting” newly chartered national banks, the New York Clearing House Association members created market opportunities for the new entrants to dominate the correspondent banking market. The new entrants’ aggressive tactics including interest payments on deposits increased their vulnerability to panicky withdrawals by country banks. They also magnified conflicts of interest within the clearinghouse, which weakened its central banking functions and further destabilized the macroeconomy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The role of economists in organizing the domestic US. economy for the rigors of World War II has been fairly well documented.' Be- fore and during the war they had set up the U.S. national income accounts, which helped to identify ways in which resources could be used more productively. 2 Economists in the Office of Price Administration managed to allocate resources to the civilian economy in such a way as to keep inflation under control and minimize opportunistic behavior while ensuring that the supply of resources to military forces in Europe [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explores the economics of pauper apprenticeship among poor children in 18th-century U.S. Evolution of protracted indenture of poor children into a specialized form of craft apprenticeship; Variations in the relationships between end payments and education and training clauses by region; Lack of advocacy during contract formation.

Explores the 1837 U.S. financial crisis. Hypothetical attempts of disentanglement of the causes of the crisis from domestic and international influences; Reconsideration of the role of domestic influence with an analysis of government documents and newspapers; Causes of the depletion of New York City bank specie reserves.

Features a study which presented the estimates of return to years of education in the United States before 1940 using the 1915 Iowa State Census. Discussion on the high school movement and the prairie states; Details on the Iowa State Census of 1915; Educational stocks and flows.

Discusses a study which examined the effects of state-level legal innovations governing labor disputes in the United States in the late 1800s. Labor law in the late 19th century and its effect on strike activity; Effects on strike incidence; Effects of the legal environment on strike outcomes; Conclusions.

Presents a historical analysis of state personal income per capita in the United States from 1880 to 1980. Differences in regional price levels; Alternative measures of regional economic performance; Implications.

Presents a historical background of private weather organizations and the founding of the United States Weather Bureau. Challenges to the efficient provision of private weather-information services; Explanation for the public provision of weather forecasts; Economic benefits of the provision of weather information.

Studies how labor markets have functioned during some periods of extraordinary economic change in the American and Indian economic history. Questions regarding the history of African-American migration and employment; Role played by the government antidiscrimination policy in opening wage employment opportunities to black workers during World War II; Investigation of the labor market impact of rapid advances in transportation.

Examines the presence of national labor market at the end of the nineteenth century in the United States. Labor market integration; Changing geography of product and financial markets; Bringing together the sources of supply and demand.

Focuses on the essay from John Komlos entitled `Height and Weight of West Point Cadets: Dietary Change in Antebellum America.' West Point cadets' statistics; What the differences in height and weight suggests; Production and consumption of food between 1839 and 1910-1919; Structure of diet.

Presents a reply by the author of the essay `Height and Weight of West Point Cadets: Dietary Change in Antebelleum America,' to the criticism of Robert Gallman. Relay to the question on nutritional shortfall; Accuracy of meat consumption estimates; Protein intake; Association of decrease in heights to economic processes.

Focuses on the economic status of the elderly between the years 1890 and 1950 in the United States. Increase in wages during this period; What the sentiment on wages was; Perpetuation of family based economic strategy; Results of surveys from the 1920s and 1930s; Relevant statistics; Reduction of pressure on children to work; Creation of social security.

Focuses on the retirement behavior of men in the United states. Requirements for retirement; History of American retirement; Selfemployment during retirement; Problems with the traditional view of retirement; Relevant statistics; Percentages of men retiring from various sectors of the economy.

Examines the fertility level among Norwegian immigrants to the United States in the second half of the nineteenth century. Impact of perceived non-American fertility behavior of immigrant groups; European perspective on these migrants; Influence of cultural tenacity and economic opportunity on fertility experience.

Examines where consensus does and does not exist among American economic historians based on the results of a questionnaire mailed to selected Economic History Association members. Issues on which economic historians agreed and disagreed; Areas of disagreement between historians and economists.

Analyzes data documenting the actual characteristics and behavior of early reaper adopters in the United States. Question on the standard interpretation of northern farms as self-contained production units; Reactions to the usefulness of farm-specific-threshold model and the family-labor-constraint model.

Presents quantitative evidence that establishes when and why Europeans stopped using servitude to finance passage to America sometime in the early 19th century. Description of the data; Annual flow of German immigrants into the U.S. from 1772 to 1835; Supply versus demand; Collapse of immigrant servant supplies after 1871; Abruptness of the collapse.

Argues that the banking crises and collapse of the international gold standard in the early 1930s contributed to the severity of the Great Depression by increasing interest-rate uncertainty. Risk premium; Financial crises, policy changes and the risk premium; Crash of 1929; Banking crises of 1930 and 1931; Britain and United States's departure from the gold standard; Investment models.

Explores the savings behavior of ordinary Americans through their accounts at the Philadelphia Saving Fund Society in the middle of the 19th century. 19th-century savings banks; Philadelphia at midcentury; Characteristics of the account holders and the accounts.

Criticizes John Mc'Gee's seminal study of predatory pricing by standard oil by citing the history of the American Telephone Industry. Allegations of predatory pricing against American Telephone and Telegraph Co. (AT&T); Strategy of independent telephone companies; Competition in the Middle West among telephone companies.

Explores the phenomenon of `job-loan trading' as practiced in mid-nineteenth-century California. Sampling the job-loan trade; Observations about the job-loan trade; Trends in the quantity and value of job-loan trades; Share of job-loan trades within white-collar employment; Role of moral hazard and adverse selection; Loans as a response to imperfect lending markets.

Examines loans pricing to stock brokers to find information of the lenders' perceptions of the future course of stock prices in 1929. Bubble component contributing to explain stock price behavior; Account of the American economy and stock market in the twenties; Explanation for the emergence of a bubble in the market; Nature of the market for brokers' loans in the late 1920s; 1920-34 Dow Jones quarterly index use.