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The article describes the colonial monetary standard in Massachusetts in the 1600s. It discusses the establishment of a commodity standard in 1640 and the official prices of commodities in Massachusetts during the 1600s. The article details the development of the paper-money standard in 1690. It comments on the topics covered by most recent studies of the monetary system of the American colonies. The establishment of a mint in Boston in 1652 is reported. By 1737 the price of silver had risen. In 1750, the Massachusetts Assembly restored specie payments. The article also considers the objections to the continuation of paper-money issues.

The article sheds light on commercial banking in the United States during the sixties. The article makes the conclusion that if the trends emerging in the late 1950s and in 1960 are not reversed by major changes in economic conditions or tax and regulatory policy, then the commercial banks will be unable to play as important a role in financing the 1960s as they have done in previous years. The article's conclusion is based on the expectation that in all years, except those of recession, bank deposits will continue to expand at a slower rate than the growth of the gross national product.

This article focuses on parliamentary records in the custody of the House of Lords Record Office, which are relevant to the study of economic history of Great Britain. The records which are in the care of the Lords Record Office are the following: the archives of the House of Lords from 1497 onwards; a few, post-medieval House of Commons documents which survived in the fire of 1834 and a large proportion of the Commons records which have accumulated since that time. The sources for economic history which are to be found among these records fall into three main groups. First, those which related to the public business of both Houses and to proceedings on public Bills; second, the private Bill records of both Houses and lastly, a varied accumulation of papers laid on the Table of the House of Lords.

The first section is devoted to the discussion of a valuation technique for making estimates of the value of pension promises consistent with the principles underlying the determination of the value of other assets reported on consumer balance sheets; and the second section to a consideration of the financial magnitude of the unfunded pension promises when valued consistently with other assets. The major purpose of the paper is to show the distortion of the size of consumer wealth arising from the fact that pension promises are not recorded in terms of their economic value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses the conflict over nationalization as an economic policy in London, England. The proposal for nationalization of the British industries is from White Paper titled "The Regeneration of British Industry," by the Labour Party. It is stated that the paper deals mainly with planning agreements of assistance between major companies. The author suggests that the concerned parties should be wise and informed in making decisions about the economy.

The themes which emerge from all of the papers here converge to several clear points about professionals and institutions. (a) The social history of professionals and institutions supplies a perspective needed to evaluate the current influence of economic and social conditions on the aims of professional practice. (b) Despite the professional`s sense of independent identity, he usually is firmly entrenched as an organizational "in" with powers and viewpoints that are consistent with this position. (c) The sharp disparities between organizational "ins" and "outs" which pervade economic, legal, and public institutions work to the continuous disadvantage of "outs" whether they are clients and/or poor people. (d) Even the scholarly activities of social scientists reveal a host of intellectual snares and class and caste prejudices that insidiously bias research and policy. The poor, in their encounter with public institutions, have provided insights into our professional and scholarly roles that we dare not ignore. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY The paper discusses the use of fiscal policy as a tool of economic stabilization in seven OECD countries since the mid-fifties. It draws on a recent empirical study, with attached fiscal policy recommendations, made by an expert group within the OECD, in which the author was a member. The method of analysis in the paper is to compare on one hand the 'direct' impact on aggregate demand of fiscal policy changes with on the other hand the timing of the business cycle. Among the countries included in the study, the U. K. and Sweden seem to have most systematically tried fiscal policy as an instrument of economic stabilization. It seems quite clear that the policy in the U. K. has been rather unsuccessful against the background of domestic economic conditions, whereas the experiences in Sweden are considerably more promising. In other countries fiscal policy has been used at particular occasions for economic stabilization, such as in Germany and Belgium during some periods with tendencies to recessions (1958 and 1962), in the U. S. to move the economy closer to full capacity utilization (1964-65) and at several occasions in various countries as part of a policy package to avoid balance of payments crises. It does not seem that forecasting mistakes have been the main obstacle to a more efficient stabilization policy. Time lags in the decision-making procedure, as well as lack of determination and firmness in policy, seem to have been more important obstacles. Another important complication has been conflicts of goals. Sometimes the policy has been more geared to the external than to the internal economic situation. At other times when the policy has been directed to influence the development of prices, unemployment problems have arisen, particularly as the price variable usually seems to lag the business cycle of the volume components. There has also been a tendency to let the expansionary actions during recessions last too long a time, thereby giving the next boom a 'flying start'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the "capital gap" presumption underlying Federal programs of financial assistance to small business and the conflicting views as to its existence and measurement. It also presents evidence developed in a study of the performance of borrowers who had received business loans from the Small Business Administration which appears to support the view that a capital gap does in fact exist for small business as a whole. If this be so, an even wider gap may be assumed for minority persons confronted with additional bars to entry into or survival in business. The paper examines the position of minority-owned businesses both in the inner city--where the largest concentrations of minority-owned firms are now found--and without regard to location. The capital gap in the inner city is all pervasive, extending to consumer, home mortgage and business credit. It is aggravated by a high incidence of crime against business and the availability of crime insurance at several multiples of standard rates, if at all. The cost of doing business is further increased by usurious interest rates and losses on credit customers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses several papers on the economic history of England. In the journal "Sussex Archaeological Collections," P.F. Brandon discusses the fortunes of agriculture at Barnholme, Sussex, which was a home farm of Battle Abbey and included heavy uplands and exposed marshlands both much affected by weather conditions. His documentation is largely for the period after the Black Death and his verdict on the farming techniques practiced there is generally favorable. Two more articles are concerned with problems on a larger scale. In a fascinating attempt to explain the background to the astonishing parliament of 1386 and its attack on the king, J.J.N. Palmer reconstructs the business of the previous parliament, the official records of which are lamentably unrevealing. C.S. Cattel's paper "An Evaluation of the Loseley List of Ironworks Within the Weald in the Year 1588," suggests that iron making was fairly stagnant ill the first part of Elizabeth's reign. In an interesting paper on the "Genesis and Structure of the Foley "Ironworks in Partnership" of 1692," R.G. Schafer describes how the Foley brothers settled their personal rivalry by establishing a protean board of directors, creating a form of corporate entity which was not only unusual for its time but allowed the Foleys to control the charcoal iron industry well into the eighteenth century.

The article presents a list of documents on the economic history of Great Britain and Ireland. Some of the documents listed are: "Survey of Documents in Private Keeping," by J. Ainsworth; "Clyde Company Papers," edited by P. L. Brown; "Report to the General Board of Health on Darlington, 1850," edited by H. J. Smith; "Calendar of the Irish Council Book, 1 March 1581 to 1 July 1586," edited by D. B. Quinn; "The Minutes of the Edinburgh Trades Council, 1859--1873," edited by D. F. McKenzie; "Seventeenth-Century Hearth Money Rolls With Full Transcript Relating to Co. Sligo," edited by E. MacLysaght.

This article discusses several papers related to economic history of Italy, published in the several journals. In a short paper "La Polonia medievale tra occidente ed oriente europeo," by A. Giesztor, the author examines economic conditions of central Europe, particularly of Poland about A.D. 1000, with particular reference to agriculture. The author decides that Polish agriculture was well adapted for a variety of crops. The paper "La structure economique et sociale de I'etat de I'ordre teutonique en Prusse," sets out to analyse the role that the Teutonic Order had in the life of Prussia. With an indubitable political function the Order showed also its efficiency in the economic sector, revitalizing internal and external commerce to a degree, which the author describes as exceptional. In 1454 the insurrection put an end to its regime in most of the country. B. Geremek deals with the problem of the origins of pauperism in an essay "La popolazione marginale tra ii medioevo e I'eta moderna'." As is evident from the title, the author believes that the problem of pauperism was born in the period of the transformation of society that occurred at the beginning of the modern era.

Presents a list of books on the economic history of Great Britain and Ireland. These include: "The British in West Sumatra, 1685-1825," edited by J. Bastin, "A Cartulary of Creake Abbey," edited by A. L. Bedingfeld, "Bedfordshire Wills, 1480-1519," edited by P. Bell, "A Calendar of the Shrewsbury and Talbot Papers in the Lambeth Palace Library," edited by E. G. W. Bell, "Ship Money Papers and Richard Grenville's Notebook," edited by C. G. Bonsey and J. G. Jenkins, "Devon Inventories of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries," edited by M. Cash, "Faculty Office Registers, 1534-49," edited by D. S. Chambers, and "London Possessory Assizes: A Calendar," edited by H. M. Chew.

This article presents various papers related to economic and industrial history, published in previous issues of different journals. In the paper "Overseas: Lending and Internal Fluctuations, 1870-1914," A.G. Ford discusses, within a theoretical framework, the mechanism of the transfer of resources overseas, and concludes that overseas lending itself largely generated the requisite balance of payments surplus on current account, by damping down home consumption and hence imports, and by stimulating exports. Rising overseas issues therefore meant rising unemployment and falling imports, and vice versa. H.W. Richardson has a go at the same field with the paper "Retardation in Britain's Industrial Growth, 1870-1913." He argues that the slowing down in the rate of growth was caused by an abnormally low rate of structural change within industry, because there was a dearth of new activities capable of taking over as leading sectors which could create whole new growth industries that could more than cancel out the stagnation of the old staples.

This article provides information on various papers and studies on the economic history. The annual selective critical survey of literature on the history of the Low Countries has been continued by the editors of the "Bijdragen voor de Geschiedenis der Kederlanden," while E. Kossmann and J. Kossmann wrote a "Bulletin critique de l'historiographie neerlandaise en 1962 et 1963" in the periodical "Revue du Nord" and J. Dhondt and his team a "Bulletin d'histoire de Belgique" over the same years. The latter also edited a list of a thousand books and papers on Belgian history, published in 1962, in the periodical "Revue Beige de Philologie et d'Histoire." B.H. Slicher van Bath's paper "Report on the study of Historical Demography in the Netherlands" surveys research in progress and the sources available, and gives a useful general outline of the probable evolution of population conditions and of particular factors of mortality such as epidemics and floods. The first bibliography of old weights and measures in the Low Countries has been drawn up by the same author, "Alfabetische lijst van boeken en tijdschriftartikelen van belang voor de kennis van de oude Nederlandse en Belgische maten en gewichten."

This article presents information on several papers and studies, which deal with the economic history of Great Britain. Two studies of general interest concern secular trends in the late medieval economy. The concept of the thirteenth century as a period of boom forms the target for a lively onslaught by E. Miller, "The English Economy in the Thirteenth Century: Implications of Recent Research" in the periodical "Past and Present." For all the signs of expansion, he argues, thirteenth-century England did not enjoy a growth economy in the technical sense. People increased more rapidly than the capacity to produce, and society faced a progressive crisis, in which average production per head was falling. Yet this does not permit us to go to the opposite extreme and make the period after 1350 an epoch of economic growth. Another paper discussed is "Monetary Movements and Market Structure: Forces for contraction in Fourteenth-and Fifteenth-Century England" by H.A. Miskimin that was published in a previous issue of the periodical "Journal of Economic History." In a discussion in fact confined to the fourteenth century, Miskimin attempts to reconcile the demographic and monetary theories of recession. Population changes caused a secular shift in demand, altering market structure and prices.

The article reports on Japan's entrance into the international financial community. A money economy although a primitive one, existed for several centuries before the post-1868 breakthrough into a modern economic society. Rice brokerage thus became an essential feature of this mixed economy--and here the merchants were in their glory, for by wielding the tremendous resources they had accumulated by catering to the needs of the free-spending upper classes they were able to profit from the wild speculative gyrations in the rice market, to the distress of the moneys income townspeople as prices went up and to the distress of the rice-income nobles and peasants as prices went down. Paper money came into wide circulation after the seventeenth century, when the daimyo, who were generally forbidden by the Shogunate to mint coins, began to resort to the printing presses to meet their expenses. Some issues had sound backing arid were accepted outside the territories of the issuing authorities, but the majority were issued recklessly and were thus practically worthless.

The article examines individual investors in Canada and seeks to show that such persons are better at making investment decisions than is usually thought and to use the theory of the firm for the analysis. Data is derived exclusively from income tax returns and only looks at investments which have produced taxable income. For individual investors, the household budget provides the money to be invested and is therefore examined and compared with business practices. It is also noted that consumer debt rose considerably between 1951 and 1961. Particular interest is paid to lower income people, many of which are retirees.

The article discusses the use of counterfactual argument in analyzing economic history. Since it is the purpose of this paper to show that the role of counterfactual argument in historical explanation is limited in a much more fundamental way than economist J.D. Gould showed, it is essential to establish at the outset the limits of its application that he has acknowledged. From the following summary it appears that he sees its application as limited to those historical problems which are "unique", not unduly "open", and from which "strong" counterfactual inferences can be drawn. In Gould's view it is "likely that if historical problems exist which are particularly apt for counterfactual treatment they will be found amongst events which are in some important sense unique, but not unduly open. That is to say, that where the events in question can be regarded as specific instances of classes of events, the operation of which is felt to be governed by some covering law, and are therefore non-unique, the "direct", traditional approach has advantages over the counterfactual one.

There is general agreement that some types of low-income situations are not a function of general economic conditions and thus will not share in improvement of the total economy. Low-income conditions in agriculture have been treated largely in economic terms. The fact that low income has become a chronic condition in a number of farm areas, in spite of extensive and expensive efforts at improvement, suggests that economic factors alone are not sufficient to account for the phenomenon even in much less isolated areas in a predominantly urban state such as Pennsylvania. The data analyzed in this article can be added to a growing body of evidence that some low-income farmers can be expected to respond poorly to education and action programs which emphasize an aggressive commercial approach to agriculture. The data analyzed in this article shows that low-income respondents are less likely to project plans into the future and are less likely to utilize such key means of gaining greater control over circumstances as credit and modern farming information and practices. No difference was however found between income groups with regard to movement from farm to farm. If the low-income respondent is to improve returns from agriculture, the observed tendencies will represent serious obstacles.

This section presents a list of publications on the economic and social history of Great Britain and Ireland, published in 1971. Some of the publications listed are: "The Hardwick Hall Inventories of 1601," edited by L. Boynton; "Bridgwater Borough Archives," edited by R.W. Dunning and T.D. Tremlett; "Collected Writings of J.M. Keynes," edited by E. Johnson; "The Acts of William I, King of Scots: 1165-1214," edited by G.W.S. Barrow; "A Calendar of the Talbot Papers in the College of Arms," edited by G.R. Batho; "The Journal of Giles Moore," edited by R. Bird; "The Register of Winwick Parish Church," edited by R. Dickinson; "The Register of Edmund Lacy, Bishop of Exeter: 1420-1455," edited by G.R. Dunstan; "Marriage Allegations in the Diocese of Gloucester," vol. 2, "1681-1700," edited by B. Frith; "Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland: XII, 1566-1574," edited by C.T. McInnes; "The Dorset Lay Subsidy Roll of 1332," edited by A.D. Mills; and "Minute Book of the Men's Meeting of the Society of Friends in Bristol: 1661-1686," edited by R. Mortimer.

This article presents a list of papers related to economic history of Europe. Some of the papers are: "An early Garolingian Mint in the Low Gountries: Bona-Tiel," by M. Metcalf; "Financial Intermediaries and Economic Development, the Belgian Case," by R.J. Morrison; "Middeleeuwse sociale structuren. Enkele kanttekeningen,"by J. Mertems; "Dutch Theology, Trade and War: 1590-1610," by C. Bangs; and others.

This article discusses the book "The Cambridge Economic History of Europe," vol. 1, "The Agrarian Life of the Middle Ages," edited by M.M. Postan. The book's comments on the incidence of taxation could be the beginning of a very fruitful inquiry. The history of taxation is related to that of credit, usury, and even commercial transactions, because purchasers of agricultural produce seem usually to have called shortly before the tax collectors. A study of taxation would also throw light upon the tendencies, which perpetually renewed the social category of seigneurs, because most of the newly rich were not merchants but, as G. Fourquin observes, notables, that is to say, officials, servants of the prince, and their fortunes were promoted by fiscal innovations. Finally, it is conceivable that economic historians would find an examination of certain mental attitudes useful, if only to establish more clearly what were the true springs of economic development, because, as M. Finley has shown in a remarkable paper presented to the Aix-en-Provence conference, they were not located in earlier societies where they are today.

Reports developments on economic conditions. Coverage of the 'Economic Papers' Nos. 32-35; Publication of 'Economic Papers' by the New South Wales and Victorian Branches; Minutes of Central Council Meeting held in Brisbane on May 26, 1971.

SUMMARY The paper presents a multisectoral growth model which is readily computable with non-linear production functions and is descriptive of economic conditions prevailing in over-populated countries. The purpose is to show the optimal allocation of resources over time in a labor surplus economy if the dominant social consideration is to increase the rate of employment as fast as possible. Given an institutionally stipulated minimum wage rate and certain other assumptions, the path that maximizes the rate of economic growth also approximates the path that minimizes the time needed to attein full employment as long as the rate of increase of the capital stock exceeds the rate of growth of the potential labor force. A rigorous proof of the proposition is presented with the help of the calculus of variations and the numerically computable solution of the growth model is derived from the conditions underlying the optimum at any moment of time. The model is an analogue of competitive markets under appropriate demand conditions. In addition, since it is computable, the model can be used by economic planners in countries where large scale unemploffment or under-employ-ment exists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to show the effect of contact with Western civilization and urbanization on the structure and functioning of the Bantu family system in the Republic of South Africa. The traditional situation is set out and compared with the present-day situation in urban areas. Attention is given to marriage customs, including the custom of lobola, interpersonal relationships within the family, sexual behavior, family composition, family disorganization, and changes in the structure and functioning of the Bantu family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a particular "political" theory of the expenditures of local governments with the aid of some of the traditional tools of economic analysis, and examines some data referring to the governments of the counties of Pennsylvania in light of the proposed theory.
Several interrelated questions merit further attention. First, in a sense this political-economic model of local expenditures represents little more than an effort to relate the preferences of the voters to the decisions on expenditures of democratically selected politicians. As such it may have merit in and of itself; for the formal model stands quite apart from the strict assumptions which were necessary to relate it to the empirical results. In this regard, it is important to point out the conceptual (if not so practicable) possibility of subjecting this theory to an adequate empirical test. One can imagine determining the frequency of preferred points of the registered voters in a locality by survey methods and then relating actual decisions on expenditures to this frequency. Yet, the crude procedure used in this paper also has merit. Granted the appropriateness of the two propositions, by augmenting the model with the additional and unrealistic assumptions in order to relate the theory to the empirical results, one gains insight into the problem of the relative importance of various assumptions.
Finally, although it is appropriate to base a theory of local governmental expenditure upon the assumption of a property tax, it should be noted that one might just as easily presume that the source of governmental revenues is an income tax and that under such conditions results quite similar to those derived herein follow naturally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a country case study of research, development and economic growth of Czechoslovakia. In the contemporary scientific and technological revolution, the development of the economy and society is based on a very intricate feed-back between science and social arrangements. Science-which in itself is a very complicated and comprehensive social phenomenon-if considered as an entity, is the most rapidly expanding human activity of the twentieth century. This is corroborated by the exponential development of scientific knowledge as well as by the growth in the number of research workers, by the growth of expenditure on research and development (R&D), by the number of scientific publications, papers, reported inventions, patents, etc. The spectrum of problems related to the effect of science on economic and cultural potential is expanding and questions of the efficiency of science and the return on inputs of R&D are subjects of study, the complexity of which increases proportionately with the accumulation of knowledge and the growing intricacy of scientific processes. Present knowledge indicates that the social and economic consequences of R&D are the most complicated amongst the entire range of problems concerning the social function of science.

The article presents a note from the authors in which they say that in the following series of papers they shall deal with those parts of the Arab world in the Middle Eastern countries and with the Jewish economy in Palestine, taking into consideration the conformity and divergence of the features of the economic development of these countries. Neither from the political point of view nor from the economic aspect do the Arabs form, in the present historical era, a unity or a whole. The Arabs lead their national life in many countries, each of them characterized by distinct politico-economic or socio-cultural traits in accordance with the prevailing conditions of production in the mentioned countries. Simultaneously and parallel to the Pan-Arabic trends, there are also centrifugal trends, which with varying conditions in the various countries are growing and developing, particularly in Egypt, Syria, and in Lebanon. In the authors' opinion, the result of the struggle between the centrifugal and centripetal trends in the countries of the Middle East will largely depend on whether in each of these countries there will be created specific economic centres with an attractive force of their own essentially different from one another or the issue in question may ultimately depend on whether the economic ties between these countries will have been developed and fostered to such an extent as to create an economic centre in common, round which all the sectors of the Middle East economy will be grouped.

To conclude, at present the American economy is intensely financial. When the American economy does well over an extended time period it is prone to generate a potential for financial booms and crises. At such times its rules of behavior differ from the rules that guided its behavior in more placid times--say the late 1930's or the early 1960's. In particular sharp impacts from monetary and financial variables to real variables will occur: the lags between monetary and real variables will be shorter in a situation such as that which rules at present than was true in the periods used in estimating the coefficients in the model. Thus the objective of the F.R.B.M.I.T. model builders--to introduce monetary and financial variables into econometric analysis--is commendable. But because they added on a somewhat more complex set of financial variables to a model that in its basic format is not well designed to handle financial factors, they are not, as far as I can judge, successful in catching how money and financial variables affect the present day American economy. Given the objective, a more appropriate way of going about their task would be to first construct a financially oriented model of the entire economy; a model that would encompass crunches, booms and crises as well as more placid behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information on several papers related to the economic history of Europe that were published in different periodicals. The Black Death, which spread through Europe in the mid-fourteenth century, immortalized by Boccaccio in his Decameron, is a subject, which continues to arouse an interest understandable in view of the gaps in our knowledge, which remain to be filled. In an attempt to fill some of those gaps, A.B. Falsini makes a fine contribution on the effects of the plague in Florence. The author deals first with the problem of population and the reliability of contemporary chronicles as sources for assessing the demographic void caused by the plague. Naturally, this is not only a question of numbers. The paper also concerns an evaluation of the effects of the plague on the economy. Falsini concentrates on four themes: the labor market, the reorganization of the guilds, rising wage trends, and the changing cost of living. Also writing about Florence but in a slightly earlier period, G. Pampaloni has picked up the classical theme of the magnati, treated in a masterly way by scholar Gaetano Salveraini. The author reconsiders the still unsolved problem of what is meant by magnati, using as evidence their fortunes and misfortunes in the turbulent life of Florence between the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

The conviction underlying this paper is that economic historians can, and indeed should, make a contribution to the body of economic generalisation. While this will mainly take the form of testing the assumptions and evaluating the relevance of economic theory, it could also involve the development of generalised relationships through induction, which may be worth testing in other cases. The discipline of economic history embraces a wide spectrum of approaches. At one extreme, some recent research has. been based upon the application of prespecified models to the historical problem under examination. At the other end of the .spectrum, a number of economic historians are persisting with the idea that by reconstructing a certain historical phenomenon using general economic concepts, rather than applying a single rigorously specified model, it is possible to derive a generalised set of relationships which best describe that situation. While this study has proceeded with the latter emphasis, i.t is expected that both types of approach will provide some insight into economic processes. In this way, the inductive approach of the economic historian can complment the deductive method of the economist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article lists publications on the economic and social history of Great Britain and Ireland. They include "Wells Cathedral Chapter Act Book, 1666-83," edited by D.S. Bailey, "The Inhabitants of Cardington in 1782," edited by D. Baker, "Milk to Market: Forty Years of Milk Marketing," by S. Baker, "Origins of English Feudalism," by R.A. Brown, "The Farmers of Old England," by E. Kerridge.

This paper examines the wealth position of blacks relative to whites, on the basis of data in the Survey of Economic Opportunity. The analysis indicates that at the same levels of both income and wealth blacks consistently invest more in consumer durables, especially housing, that these investment differences are not solely due to the income and wealth position of blacks, but may be due to a smaller set of investment opportunities institutionally fostered by discriminatory forces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper simplifies and extends some previous work on domain restriction. With the help of an easy arithmetical result, two types of necessary and sufficient conditions are established for transitivity and quasi-transitivity under majority rule and transitivity under non-minority rule. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When all the unsatisfactory features of the index numbers are taken into account it is clear that the results of the attempts that have been made to measure technical progress cannot be claimed to be more than very rough approximations." And the most unsatisfactory feature of the whole process has been the estimation of the stock of real capital. These estimates depend heavily on assumptions made about the length of life of equipment and the system of depreciation, as well as on the method of constructing the price index of new investment. These assumptions and methods are, in most eases, extremely arbitrary, and quite large differences could be made to the estimates by varying them, with consequential effects on the estimates of technical progress. It would, therefore, be a considerable advantage if a method of estimating technical progress could be developed which avoided the necessity of estimating changes in the real stock of capital. It would eliminate a most laborious task which, to a sensitive statistician, is also a heart-breaking one: and it would permit estimates of technical progress to be made in circumstances in which it is virtually impossible to make any estimate of the capital stock. The purpose of this paper is to suggest a solution to this problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a list of publications on the economic history of Great Britain and Ireland. Some of the publications are "The Suffolk Committee for Scandalous Ministers: 1644-1646," edited by C. Holmes, "The London Eyre of 1244," edited by H.M. Chew and M. Weinbaum, "Recusant Rolls: 1594-95 and 1595-96," edited by H. Bowler, "The Letter Books of Samuel Wilberforce: 1843-68," edited by P.K. Hugh, and others.

Presents a bibliography of articles related to Scottish economic history between 1963 and 1970, published in the August 1971 issue of the journal 'The Economic History Review.'

This article presents a list of publications on the economic history of Great Britain and Ireland. Some of the books listed are "The Jamestown Voyages Under the First Charter, 1606-1609," by P.L. Barbour; "Records of the Trial of Walter Langeton, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield," by A. Beardwood; "Two Estate Surveys of the Fitzalan Earls of Arundel," by M. Clough; "The Letters of Sir Francis Hastin," by C. Cross; "The Devonshire Lay Subsidy of 1332," by A.M. Erskine and "The Justiciary Records of Argyll and the Isles: 1664-17," by J. Imrie.

Presents a list of publications on the economic history of Great Britain and Ireland. "Liverpool Registry of Merchant Ships," by R. Craig and R. Jarvis; "The Correspondence of Sir James Clavering," by edited by H.T. Dickinson; "Willoughby Letters of the First Half of the Sixteenth Century," edited by M. A. Welch.

The article focuses on medieval studies published in periodicals of Great Britain concerning economic history. The year 1966 produced a reasonably large crop of medieval studies in periodicals, although the perennial subjects of debate featured in only a few of them. In one such study, A.R.H. Baker argued that the returns of the Nonarum Inquisitiones indicate an extensive contraction of arable land in several districts when they are compared with the data in the papal taxation of 1291, and that in areas as diverse as Shropshire, Sussex, the lands north and west of London, and Bedfordshire the evidence of 1342 indicates an impoverished and shrinking population. At the same time Barbara F. Harvey, writing in the "Transactions of the Royal Historical Society," surveyed the whole course of the argument since the 1930's, and concluded that land values and the present topographical studies do not support the thesis that the agricultural crises of the decade 1310-20 inaugurated a continuous decline in population down to the Black Death. The possibility of some growth in the economy after 1300, she added, should be left open, and even those who might wish to close it will find her references a useful gatherum in a subject in which bibliographical aid is always welcome.

This paper considers some aspects of the role of the Bougainville copper project in the future economic development of Papua-New Guinea.[1] It suggests that the project will make a very large immediate contribution to the growth of real income, but also argues that relative to the total size of this contribution and relative to existing levels of activity the project will provide only a small direct stimulus to the expansion of the private non-mining sectors of the economy. This small direct stimulus does not, however, signify that the total effects of the project on the growth of the rest of the economy will be small. Even apart from the substantial encouragement that the project may give to other mining ventures, the large additional resources that will be made available to the present Administration and future independent governments (as a result of the public revenue generated by the project) will create, at least potentially, the means for the public sector to promote considerable development elsewhere in the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper traces the various immediate and short-run effects of the devaluation of sterling on the economy of Fiji and outlines some of the factors which were probably taken into account in the Fiji government's decision to partially revalue the Fiji pound following the initial devaluation in line with sterling. It also describes some of the additional measures taken by the government to cushion certain undesirable effects of the resulting net devaluation on the poorer sections of the community. Although the article is primarily concerned with the impact and repercussions of the recent international currency changes on Fiji, some of the features described probably possess more general application and significance which make this particular example of Fiji an interesting case-history in development economics as well as what is essentially a specific study of recent Fijian economic history. Many of the arguments could apply almost equally well to similar plural economies and to relatively underdeveloped countries which rely for their main source of revenue on only one or two principal primary product exports that are traded both on an international market and at fixed guaranteed prices expressed in a foreign currency. The discussion which follows fails into three main sections. Firstly, the expected impact of the sterling devaluation--and the required automatic devaluation of the Fiji pound (which is, in effect, `backed' by sterling)--on the economy of Fiji is considered in the context of the subsequent exchange rate decisions made by New Zealand and Australia. Secondly, after a general review of the probable effects of these and other relevant overall exchange alterations on import costs, domestic prices, local production and exports (including tourism), a short account is given of the main reasons for the Fiji government's subsequent decision to revalue the local currency in terms of sterling and why this decision amounted to only a partial revaluation of... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a method for estimating long-run trends in income growth from the data available on a country's currency stock. The method is applied to nineteenth-centry Brazil. The results indicate that contrary to earlier beliefs, the country as a whole probably experienced only moderate growth in per-capita income during the nineteenth century. The approach may also be useful for other countries where data shortages preclude estimates of national income by conventional methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with an examination of growth trends of the Indian economy between 1860 and 1960. This examination commences with the numerous studies bearing on the more recent part of this period, from about 1900 to 1960. These studies are shown to vary greatly in coverage and comprehensiveness, and their differences and individual shortcomings are assessed. Nevertheless, these studies conclude, without exception, that the Indian economy remained virtually stationary in this period, especially in terms of negligible growth in per capita real income. In contrast to periods since 1900, the study of economic growth during the earlier period has suffered academic neglect. There are only two major studies which make an attempt to examine economic trends in this period. Both these studies are found wanting with respect to concepts and procedures. The period from 1860 to 1913 presents serious problems in any study since there is a paucity of statistics which are at all reliable and useful. The most promising approach for overcoming this deficiency is to develop better sectoral statistics rather than to rely on aggregative data even when available. In order to gain a better understanding of the growth trends of the Indian economy over this period, the author constructed indices of major economic activities. These indices demonstrate that relatively high rate of economic growth prevailed in India before 1890. Subsequent developments in the Indian economy seem to consist of minor changes in the magnitudes of economic variables rather than fundamental structural changes. Thus, the Indian economy is shown to have enjoyed relatively high rates of growth only in the initial three decades of the hundred-year period, 1860-1960. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the sensitivity of estimates of the aggregate capital stock of the United States to the statistician's choice of depreciation method. The usual depreciation charge can be shown to include allowances both for physical deterioration and for obsolescence. If one interprets the gross stock as the stock of surviving assets, then the various net stocks defined by depreciation accounting may be interpreted as a revaluation of these assets by means of an index of embodied technical change. Estimates of the United States capital stock were generated under eight sets of assumptions. These estimates are compared with respect to level, trend, and implications for other aggregate statistical indicators. The conclusion is reached that the assumptions which define a country's stock of tangible capital are of considerably greater importance than has often been supposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]