Z **Archived** Economics 210a: Introduction to Economic History: U.C. Berkeley: Spring 2008

Econ 210a: 2006-2007: Memo Question for December 6

What is Alexander Gerschenkron's view of the role of financial markets and institutions in economic development? How might he have modified it had he known about the four decades of development experience that now post-dates his article?

Econ 210a: Fall 2006: Memo Question for November 29--Spread of Industrialization

MEMO QUESTION FOR NOVEMBER 29 Is the pace of advance and the pace of the spread of industrialization in the nineteenth century best characterized as "fast" or "slow"? Why?

Econ 210a: Fall 2006: Memo Question for November 22

Memo Question for November 22:

An influential literature cites the scarcity of labor as a key factor in the emergence of the "American System of Production." How much of this argument (if any) survives Peter Temin's 1966 critique?

Econ 210a: Fall 2006: Memo Question for November 15

Memo Question for November 15:

Maxine Berg and Pat Hudson write that the "historiography of the industrial revolution in England has moved away from viewing the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries as a unique turning point in economic and social development." Do you agree with their conclusion that the literature has moved too far in this direction? Why or why not?

Econ 210a: Fall 2006: Readings for November 8--Catch-Up: Major Discussion Headings

• Adam Smith (1776), The Wealth of Nations, entire http://www.econlib.org/library/Smith/smWNtoc.html:
  • Who is Smith's audience?
  • What kind of a book is the Wealth of Nations?
  • What does Smith think his game-changing insight is?
    • Is Smith correct? Is it a game-changing insight?
    • Is the insight in fact true?
  • What does Smith leave out of the Wealth of Nations?
    • Self-interest in the narrow and in the extreme...
    • Law and order...
    • Government failure...
    • A theory of the moral sentiments...
• Jan de Vries (1994), "The Industrious Revolution and the Industrial Revolution," Journal of Economic History 54:2 (June), pp. 249-70 http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-0507%28199406%2954%3A2%3C249%3ATIRATI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-8:
  • How does Jan de Vries see the Low Countries in 1800 differing from the Low Countries in 1500?
  • The curious aspect of what did the peasants do in the nighttime in 1500...
  • What did peasants do in the nighttime in 1800?
  • What caused this difference?
    • Change in tastes?
    • Change in law-and-order?
    • Change in transportation costs?
      • A reflection of government policy? Or of technology?
    • Look east to China...
• Patrick O'Brien (1982), "European Economic Development: the Contribution of the Periphery," Economic History Review, 1-18. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0013-0117%28198202%292%3A35%3A1%3C1%3AEEDTCO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-W:
  • Could European industrialization have been fueled by exploitation of the America?
  • Exploitation there was--a hell of a lot of exploitation.
  • But how do you get resources from there to here?
    • Possible channels
• Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson (2005), "The Rise of Europe: Atlantic Trade, Institutional Change and Economic Growth," American Economic Review http://econ-www.mit.edu/faculty/download_pdf.php?id=1181:
  • A possible answer to O'Brien's question:
    • Merchants and political power
    • Bristol
    • Amsterdam
    • But counterexamples:
      • La Rochelle
      • Seville
      • Barcelona
      • Venice

Econ 210a: Fall 2006: Agriculture and Forced Labor in Early Modern Growth: Major Headings

Nov. 1. Agriculture and Forced Labor in Early Modern Growth [DeLong]

• Evsey Domar (1970), "The Causes of Slavery or Serfdom: A Hypothesis," Journal of Economic History, pp. 18-32 http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/2003_archives/001447.html
• Why slavery (or serfdom)?
• Aristotle: we will always have slavery until we have looms that work of themselves.
• Landlord upper class--needs workers, and no alternative land for the workers to go to.
• Laborlord upper class--needs effective means of control.
• What limits the rate of exploitation with laborlords?.
• Trade and laborlords.
• Adam Smith's bet: slavery inefficient. Why was his bet wrong?
• Stanley Engerman and Kenneth Sokoloff (1994), "Factor Endowments, Institutions and Differential Paths of Development Among New World Economies: A View from Economic Historians of the United States" (Cambridge: NBER Working Paper no. h0066) http://papers.nber.org/papers/h0066.pdf
• Haiti richest in world in 1776.
• Haiti not richest in world today.
• What went wrong in Haiti--and what went right in North America?
• What is Sokoloff and Engerman's story?
• Sokoloff and Engerman aren't doing economics, are they?
• Claudia Goldin and Kenneth Sokoloff (1984), "The Relative Productivity Hypothesis of Industrialization: The American Case, 1820-1850," Quarterly Journal of Economics 99 (August), pp. 461-87 http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0033-5533%28198408%2999%3A3%3C461%3ATRPHOI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-V
• America rich in land, and scarce in labor.
• America scarce in capital.
• Why, then, did part of America--New England--industrialize?
• O'Brien, Patrick (1982), "European Economic Development: the Contribution of the Periphery," Economic History Review, 1-18. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0013-0117%28198202%292%3A35%3A1%3C1%3AEEDTCO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-W
• How much did western Europe gain, 1500-1800, from trade?
• How much did western Europe gain, 1500-1800, from pillage?
• How much did western Europe gain, 1500-1800, from empire?

Econ 210a: Fall 2006: Readings for November 8--Catch-Up

• Jan de Vries (1994), "The Industrious Revolution and the Industrial Revolution," Journal of Economic History 54:2 (June), pp. 249-70 http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-0507%28199406%2954%3A2%3C249%3ATIRATI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-8
• Adam Smith (1776), The Wealth of Nations, entire http://www.econlib.org/library/Smith/smWNtoc.html
• Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson (2005), "The Rise of Europe: Atlantic Trade, Institutional Change and Economic Growth," American Economic Review http://econ-www.mit.edu/faculty/download_pdf.php?id=1181.