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The Treaty of Yandabo (1826) marked the colonial conquest of the Brahmaputra valley. Following two decades witnessed calculations and speculations about the prospect of the region as a part of the British colonial empire. Discovery of tea plants and the existence of tradable commodities such as cotton, silks and salt made the region look promising for the East India Company. The early-colonial rulers introduced policy changes in the1820 s and the 1830 s. Existing historiography on wasteland rules has clarified that these regulations were aimed at making land available for tea plantations. At the same time monetization of the region with one uniform currency was undertaken. This paper argues that in the face of these developments, commerce remained an important part of the economy, as before. Creation of a land market by wasteland regulations and uniform coinage facilitated the Empire's trade and made the region a part of the colonial commerce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A quantitative turn in history of economic thought is looming. We argue that engineering it consciously is of crucial importance for historians of economics. We also highlight the limitations of quantitative techniques. Yet, the combination of qualitative and quantitative research could substantially enrich our narratives of the development of economics and its practice, of how ideas and tools disseminate and influence other spheres. A failed quantitative turn could lead our field to a house divided and, in the worst case, a civil war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the topic modeling technique known as Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), a form of text-mining aiming at discovering the hidden (latent) thematic structure in large archives of documents. By applying LDA to the full text of the economics articles stored in the JSTOR database, we show how to construct a map of the discipline over time, and illustrate the potentialities of the technique for the study of the shifting structure of economics in a time of (possible) fragmentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantitative approaches are not yet common among historians and methodologists of economics, although they are in the study of science by librarians, information scientists, sociologists, historians, and even economists. The main purpose of this essay is to reflect methodologically on the historiography of economics: is it witnessing a quantitative turn? Is such a turn desirable? We answer the first question by pointing out a ‘methodological moment’, in general, and a noticeable rise of quantitative studies among historians of economics during the past few years. To the second question, all contributors to this special issue bring relatively optimistic answers by highlighting the benefits of using quantitative methodologies as complements to the more traditional meta-analyses of both historians and methodologists of economics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper delineates a profile of Luigi Einaudi as an economist and answers to the question: what kind of economist was Einaudi?. It describes the major trends of classical and neoclassical economic thought that influenced his background and focuses on his conception of economic science: method and vision, fields of application (from the Italian economy to the the Great Crisis) and his theory of economic policy (Buongoverno). The paper maintains that Einaudi possessed the qualities of the great economists of the past but his understatement in the manner of presenting his positions and his style of argument have overshadowed the great economist he was. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the topic modeling technique known as Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), a form of text-mining aiming at discovering the hidden (latent) thematic structure in large archives of documents. By applying LDA to the full text of the economics articles stored in the JSTOR database, we show how to construct a map of the discipline over time, and illustrate the potentialities of the technique for the study of the shifting structure of economics in a time of (possible) fragmentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that historical existence in the Anthropocene is constituted by waste. As both act and product waste increasingly dominate natural, social, and political environments. The Anthropocene as a threshold in natural history then is inseparable from the profusion of waste that has accompanied its rise. Our insatiable wastefulness and our reforming of the planet with trash in turn create distinct consequences for historical consciousness and historical theory. Historical thinking and historical writing must reckon with waste in its physical and metahistorical registers. Key to this challenge is the thought of Georges Bataille, who attempted to reorient political economy by centering waste in place of production. With expenditure at the center of human existence, twenty-first-century historians can undertake an analogous restructuring of historical knowledge. Waste constitutes a central experience of sovereignty. In wasting, the consumer attains momentary sovereignty over self, world, and history. This article also examines Jean Baudrillard's articulation of the end of history as a moment of refusal in order to sketch how waste has emerged as a historical condition. As a consequence of this connection, it also considers how the historicity of waste might reshape the self-understanding of historians as they take stock of the Anthropocene. (7724 words) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human capital has become a popular concept in modern economics since the 1960s, though its historiography is still limited. Prior studies focussed on rational reconstructions, using earlier references to provide legitimacy to modern developments. In this text we take a different approach by tracing the evolution of the term and the (dis)continuities in its use. We analyse various contexts in which education and human capital were discussed during the first half of the twentieth century. The analysis underlines the complex stabilisation of the concept human capital, the loose connections among earlier debates and between those debates and modern economics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

My background as an economic historian has strongly influenced my approach to sports history which I practise as a combination of theory and empiricism, particularly of the quantitative kind. Theory is central to our understanding of the social science of sport and evidence makes the subject history rather than fiction. As sports historians we should emphasize that our discipline is as ‘mainstream’ as any other form of history and we can contribute to major historical debates on, for example, race, gender, identity, and nationalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the first chapter of the Wealth of Nations, where the division of labour is defined and its effects described. It first shows the rhetoric and logical effects that are used to win the reader's goodwill. Then it reviews nineteenth century debates on the validity of the theory. Finally, it cites three real cases, where the division of labour does not increase the productive power of labour. In conclusion, it suggests that the theory on division of labour appears to require some adjustment, while acknowledging that some of the facts underlying arguments in its support are naturally true. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recent developments derived from the increasing economic, cultural and communication interpenetration normally referred to as 'globalisation' have shifted the attention of the social sciences to objects of study that have often been overlooked by historiographical traditions centred on the national states. A look at major theoretical currents of historical and comparative work like the theories of 'world systems', 'world society' and 'world polity' could be helpful for reassessing historical work beyond narrow national perspectives. These three grand narratives of modern globalisation will be briefly outlined, their main theoretical and methodological insights described, and their particular rapports with historical work assessed. Finally, the new 'global history' will be presented as being different from the traditional 'world history' regarding their rapports with postmodern trends stressing the importance of the history of 'fragments'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]