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Comments on an article about private banking in the United States. Discussion on the work of economist Herman Kross; Details of economic history; Perception on the role of private bankers.

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

Comments on an article about the agricultural productivity of Pennsylvania in 18th century. Discussion on economic development; Details of income distribution; Performance of the agriculture sector in the state.

This article explores the demise of the Crompton Company, which filed for bankruptcy in October 1984, causing 2,450 workers in five states to lose their jobs. Crompton was founded in 1807 in Providence, Rhode Island and when it went out of business it was the oldest textile firm in the country, having been in continuous operation for 178 years. Despite its history, scholars have overlooked Crompton, partly because most work on deindustrialization has concentrated on heavy manufacturing industries, especially steel and automobiles. I argue that Crompton's demise throws much light on the broader decline of the American textile and apparel industry, which has lost over two million jobs since the mid-1970s, and shows that textiles deserve a more central place in the literature. Using company papers, this study shows that imports played the central role in causing Crompton's decline, although there were also other problems, including the strong dollar, declining exports, and a reluctance to diversify, which contributed to it. The paper also explores broader trends, including the earlier flight of the industry from New England to the South and the industry's unsuccessful campaign to pass import-restriction legislation, a fight in which Crompton's managers were very involved. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Louisiana consistently ranks as one of the most corrupt states in the nation. In fact, the Pelican State is the most corrupt state when looking at the most common indicator of corruption: corruption convictions per 100,000. What is less clear about Louisiana is how the state became corrupt. This paper seeks to provide the missing link. I argue that the high levels of corruption in the state can be explained by its origins in French civil law. This historical influence has perverse and persistent effects on the state, despite occurring over 200 years ago. Through these origins in civil law, corruption in Louisiana impacts its economic institutions. These institutions then lead to a variety of other bad outcomes in the state such as a high dependency on oil and low incomes. This argument implies that resource dependency is bad for development only when institutional quality is low. By linking legal origins to corruption, institutions, and economic outcomes, I seek to offer a clearer explanation for why Louisiana sets itself apart from other states in its politically corrupt environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Popular and prize-winning writer Norman Mailer has advanced a view of American politics and society that he calls ‘left conservatism.’ This paper analyzes elements of Mailer's critique and describes how the parts fit together. Special attention is given to his interpretation of economic history and social psychology, his vision of moral health that he associates with the term ‘hipster,’ and his fear of a new political mentality in the United States that he conveys through a neologism, the ‘wad.’ The paper closes with a sketch of the ways Mailer's left conservatism both dovetails with and departs from the concerns and arguments of other contemporary American conservative thinkers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an estimation of the volume of unaccounted currency issued during the middle two quarter of the 19th century in the United States. Significance of the phenomenon; Details of the emergence of unaccounted money.

The article informs that the sixty-fourth annual meeting of the Economic History Association will be held in San Jose, California from 10-12 September, 2004. Many of the sessions will be focused on the theme "Technological Change and Economic Growth in History." The program committee encourages submissions that provide a historical or interdisciplinary perspective on key issues in technological change, social and economic innovation, productivity, and economic growth. Graduate students are encouraged to attend. Complete information regarding the program schedule and other details are provided in the article.

This paper examines James Buchanan’s earliest writings within the context of post-WWII public finance theory and his education at Chicago. Public choice scholars have long recognized their ties to Chicago, but few have examined Chicago’s role in serving as the primordial soup for Buchanan’s later work in public choice. Thus, we know very little about the subdiscipline of public finance at Chicago and its institutional and intellectual traditions in the immediate post-war period. As the influence of Frank Knight, price theory, and catallactics on Buchanan have been well explored, the focus here is on Buchanan’s graduate training in public finance, the departmental emphasis on product differentiation of ideas, and the general acceptance in ‘Old Chicago School’ economics of the importance of institutions and institutional design. I find that while he maintained a high degree of intellectual affinity with Chicago economics generally, Buchanan broke decisively with orthodox public finance (including that taught at Chicago) on several substantive issues early in his career, including the importance of expenditure theory and the relevance of the benefit principle and voluntary exchange. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines political influences over U.S monetary policy, analysed quarterly from 1953 to 2000. We use indicators of presidential and congressional ideology as predictors of actor preferences and as representative of overhead democracy. We also include several economic variables predicting percent change in the federal funds rate. While not surprised to find that economic conditions are important in explaining Fed decisionmaking, we also find that the theory of overhead democracy also contributes to the explanation. Initially, both presidential and congressional ideology are important but in a combined model, presidential variables wash out influence of congressional variables. Thus, we conclude that overhead democracy must be included in models predicting Fed decisionmaking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic history of the United States is that of Europeans and their institutions. Indigenous nations are absent. This absence is partly due to a lack of data but perhaps also to a perception that Indigenous communities contributed little to U.S. growth. Three case studies explore the economic complexity and social stratification across different nations/regions prior to contact. Migrants to the United States came not to an empty land but one with settled agriculture, complex production processes, and extensive trade relations, upon which Europeans built. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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.

Comments on an article which analyzed the history of working women, black or white, in the urban south of the United States during the 19th century. Approach used to test the observed differences between the work habits of black and white women; Reason behind the presence of errors in the analysis.

Presents an abstract of a conference paper comparing the effect of the economy on the health of industrial workers in the U.S. and Great Britain in the late 19th century.

Presents an abstract of a conference paper on public utility ownership in the U.S. in the 19th century.

Presents an abstract of a conference paper on the public ownership of the U.S. waterworks from 1897 to 1915.

Presents an abstract of a conference paper on private investments and government subsidies in the cotton trade in Texas.

Presents an abstract of a conference paper on the impact of the 1929 economic depression on the progress of technological innovations in the U.S.

Traces the root of federal budget in the United States. Expectation of fiscal reformers from the adoption of a formal budget; Lessons learned from the successes and failures of a previous generation of reformers.

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.

Traces the economic condition of farmers and other rural inhabitants in colonial Massachusetts during the 1650-1753 period. Reason for the economic decline of the region during the eighteenth century; Arguments advanced about the standard of living during the period.

Focuses on a study which analyzed the distribution of land in North Carolina in the early colonial period. Background on the agrarian economy of the state; Importance of land and the problems with distribution; Models and sources of data.

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 an article by Richard Sylla from the March 1982 issue of `The Journal of Economic History,' which deals with the failure of economic historians to devote attention to the phenomenon of United States monetary innovation. Role of economic growth in monetary innovation; Analysis of monetary theories explaining the phenomenon; Reflection on Sylla's work.

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.

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Political Science / Revue Canadienne de Science Politique is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

I study the impacts of one of the largest regional development projects in American History, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), on a variety of economic outcomes. The TVA has been noted as an example of how to develop a region's water power potential to stimulate growth. In what follows, I show using a county-level panel dataset, that the TVA had little impact on economic growth in the South. I attribute these results to the institutional history of the TVA and the contractual agreements it signed in an effort to expand its service territory. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Between 1933 and 1973 the federal government funded the construction of over 1 million units of low-rent housing. Using county-level data, I find that communities with high densities of public housing had lower median family income, lower median property values, lower population density, and a higher percentage of families with low income in 1970. However, I find no negative effects of public housing in 1950 or 1960, implying that long-run negative effects only became apparent in the 1960s. The effects found in 1970 are partially due to a decline in human capital. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Transportation improvements in the nineteenth century loom large in the historiography of the profession during the twentieth century. This article describes the ongoing construction of a historical geographic information systems (GIS) transportation database designed to provide new insights into the impact of the transportation and communications revolution in the continental United States by providing evidence on the spatial dimensions of those changes over time. It also reviews some preliminary findings and reinterpretations based upon these data. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Political Science / Revue Canadienne de Science Politique is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

How much of the rapid growth in output per man-hour in nineteenth-century cotton weaving arose from technical change and how much arose from price-driven substitution of capital for labor? Using an engineering production function, I find that factor price changes account for little of the growth in output per man-hour. However, much of the growth and most of the apparent labor-saving bias arose not from inventions, but from improved labor quality—better workers spent less time monitoring the looms. Labor quality played a critical role in the persistent association between economic growth and capital deepening in this important sector. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Today, German machine toolmakers accuse their Chinese competitors of violating patent rights and imitating German technology. A century ago, German machine toolmakers used the same methods to imitate American technology. To understand the dynamics of this catching-up process, we use patent statistics to analyze firms’ activities between 1877 and 1932. We show that German firms deployed imitating strategies in the late nineteenth century and the 1920s to catch-up to their American competitors. The German administration supported this strategy by stipulating a patent law that discriminated against foreign patent holders and by delaying the granting of patents to foreign applicants. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Scottish vaudevillian Harry Lauder epitomized Scottishness in the Anglo-American cultural imaginary for much of the twentieth century. Yet Lauder's Scottishness was a carefully crafted performance, a collaborative effort between Lauder and his American agent, William Morris, centred on Lauder's embodiment of the ‘canny Scot’ stereotype. The article argues that this performance served two primary objectives within the context of early twentieth-century vaudeville. First, stories of Lauder's ‘characteristic’ Scottish thrift worked to deflect commentary about the star's status as a highly paid foreign commodity. By planting stories and arranging interviews that represented Lauder as a skilled and cunning Scot, Morris addressed growing anxieties that men, as well as women, were becoming mere cogs in the machine of corporate Broadway capital. Second, Morris's representation of Lauder as the epitome of all things Scottish guaranteed the loyal patronage of the Scottish diaspora and supported expressions of nationalist pride that were not antithetical to Scottish membership within the Union. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

AbstractPrevious studies of entry under New York's free banking law of 1838 have generated conflicting results. This article shows that different measures of entry lead to different conclusions about the competitive effects of the law. Measured by the entry of new banks, New York's free banking law led to increased rates of entry relative to other states. Free banking did not, however, lead to significant increases in capital accumulation in the industry. This paradoxical outcome resulted from the regulatory features of free banking, especially the bond security feature, which reduced profitability and incentives to invest in banking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an abstract of a conference paper on the effect of U.S. silver mining on Spain's economy from 1501 to 1650.

Weaknesses within the check-clearing system played a hitherto unrecognized role in the banking crises of the Great Depression. Correspondent check-clearing networks were vulnerable to counter-party cascades. Accounting conventions that overstated reserves available to corresponding institutions may have exacerbated the situation. The initial banking panic began when a correspondent network centered in Nashville collapsed, forcing over 100 institutions to suspend operations. As the contraction continued, additional correspondent systems imploded. The vulnerability of correspondent networks is one reason that banks that cleared via correspondents failed at higher rates than other institutions during the Great Depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on how the economic performance and tax justice led to the creation of new tax regimes in the U.S. Alexander Hamilton hoped to provide the new central government with the capacity to tax under the Articles of Confederation. He emphasized on the fairness of customs duties and excises as well as the various aspects of tariffs and excises. The Revenue Act of 1916 which is the excess-profits taxation was enacted under Woodrow Wilson administration.

The author reflects on the economic history and the causes, costs and consequences of war in the U.S. over the past four decades. He accounts on the attack, which began at the end of the 1950s mounted by a group of economic historians on the existing explanation of the war. He also deals with his own experience in exploring the economic and political factors that produced such conflict in the country.

The contribution to growth from the steam engine-Industrial Revolution icon and prime example of a "General Purpose Technology"-has remained unclear. This article examines the role that a particular design improvement in steam power, embodied in the Corliss engine, played in the growth of the U.S. economy in the late nineteenth century. Using detailed data on the location of Corliss engines and water-wheels and a two-stage estimation strategy, we show that the deployment of Corliss engines served as a catalyst for the industry's massive relocation into large urban centers, thus fueling agglomeration economies and further population growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzes the key institutional and scientific developments that facilitated the innovations in biological technologies for the U.S. cotton production from 1928 to 1960. Test for market failure; Average price differential; Acreage and production of certified cotton seed.

In 1842 Lowell textile firms increased weaving productivity by assigning three looms per worker instead of two. This marked a turning point. Before, weavers at Lowell were temporary and mostly literate Yankee farm girls; afterwards, firms increasingly hired local residents, including illiterate and Irish workers. An important factor was on-the-job learning. Literate workers learned new technology faster, but local workers stayed longer. These changes were unprofitable before 1842, and the advantages of literacy declined over time. Firm policy and social institutions slowly changed to permit deeper human-capital investment and more productive implementation of technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents information on the Lower South of the United States, emphasizing Metropolitan development and regional financial centers. Reference to the founding of the Fed in Lower South; Circumstances surrounding a delay in development of regional financial centers; Details on the urbanization and the emergence of South Cities between 1860 and 1920; Recollection of the history of the Fed.

Examines the differences in the farming practices of the Amish during the period 1850 to 1880 in light of Amish culture using information from federal census schedules. Accomodation of technological change; Adoption of distinct patterns in investment to ensure the survival of their religious culture; Agricultural productivity; Explanations of productivity differential; Bequest motive.

Draws on manuscript data sources covering the western countries of Virginia between the late 1780s and 1860, suggesting that this region was not isolated from many of the principal forces which drove price level changes in the coastal commercial centers. The development of a national commodity market early in the nation's history; A decline in absolute differentials across time; Transportation and communication improvements; Indexes of real wages.

Responds to the criticisms made by author John Hanson on an article about the role of labor inefficiency in the industrial development of poor countries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Objections of the author to the article's claim; Arguments cited by Hanson on the importance of labor efficiencies to industrial development.

Deals with a study which investigated the economic condition of the manufacturing industry in the southern region of the United States from 1880 to 1905. Difficulty experienced by the region in its efforts to industrialize; Impact of high information and transaction costs on industrial promoters; Effect of the lack of investment capital on southern manufacturing firms.

Analyzes the impact of the New Deal on business investment in the United States during the 1930s. Details on the response of investment to the outcome of elections; Rejection of the hypothesis that the New Deal frightened off business investment.

Provides information on a study that documented the emergence of a market economy in rural Massachusetts from 1730 to 1838. Evidence of increased portfolio liquidity; Transaction costs; Appearance of developmental institutional change.

Questions the idea that the American frontier provided an opportunity for the poor in the United States to better themselves. Who postulated the safety-valve theory.

Examines the merger movement between World War I and the Great Depression that played an important role in the evolution of the United States banking industry. Complete statistical series on mergers; Analysis of the factors that contributed to the merger; Dimensions of the merger movement.