Term
| In Chapter 1 Kuznets says economic growth is accompanied/characterized by these three things. Name them. |
|
Definition
| Growth in per capita product, increasing population, sweeping structural changes |
|
|
Term
| How does Kuznets define an epochal innovation - what examples does he give? |
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Definition
| Major addition to stock of human knowledge that creates sustained economic growth. Gives unity to an epoch. Can be fitted by a single trend line. Can be a social innovation, like the growth of cities. Example - during merchant capitalism era, defining epochal innovation=discovery and exploitation of the New World. |
|
|
Term
| Kuznets: "The comparative study of economic growth has a duel task". Name them. |
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Definition
1. Study the sequence of changes in magnitude and structure of economic activity.
2. Study how the activity spreads beyond the first adopter. |
|
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Term
| Why did masters have to rely on heavy physical violence to extract work from indentured servants? |
|
Definition
| Passage fares were high; workers were contracted out for a number of years -> didn't work hard b/c no incentive and so masters had to beat them/threaten to beat them |
|
|
Term
| What does Kuznets say is the main epochal innovation of the modern period? |
|
Definition
| Application of science to problems of economic production |
|
|
Term
| Why was Adam Smith's explanation for the Royal African Company's failure incorrect? |
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Definition
| His analysis was based on false premises. The company failure was not caused by inefficiency spawned by a sheltered monopoly, but by competitiveness of the slave trade. the company's African forts were a liability that raised costs. Neither charles nor James were willing to override resistance of colonial planters and enforce the company's monopoly. |
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Term
| Early Virginia law compelled what for all hired labor? |
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Definition
| Specific performance - basically, that workers who did not fulfill their contracts could receive fines. |
|
|
Term
| Why and when did indentured servitude decline? |
|
Definition
| Growth of slavery; 17th century |
|
|
Term
| Three major institutions that emerged as solutions to problem of labor scarcity |
|
Definition
| Indentured servitude, slavery, hired labor |
|
|
Term
| What was one of the early problems with indentured servitude and how was it solved? |
|
Definition
| Company rented out servants to planters on contract, but planters lacked incentives to protect the company's investment in the labor of the hired workers. (Planters didn't do enough to go after runaways and didn't provide adequate healthcare). New solution - colonists paid a lump sum to the company and in return received fixed title for a number of years. Now servant's supervisor = owner of labor contract. |
|
|
Term
| Evidence of positive work incentives for servants within the colonial system? |
|
Definition
| masters gave more food/clothing, wages were sometimes above legally specified levels, some masters struck bargains that specified |
|
|
Term
| What three views does Kuznets associate with the modern epoch? |
|
Definition
| Secularism, nationalism, and egalitarianism |
|
|
Term
| Why did Virginia company fail? |
|
Definition
| Not a monopsonist, thought it could pay workers English wage rate, could not - they rebelled and ran away to Indians or started their own settlements. |
|
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Term
| What were the 3 big changes to finance/business that came about as a result of the railroads? |
|
Definition
1) Construction companies
2) Professional managers
3) Centralized capital markets |
|
|
Term
| Kuznets names 2 examples of what he terms "structural changes" to the economy. Name them. |
|
Definition
1) Industrialization
2) Geography - people move to cities |
|
|
Term
| What were the 3 big changes to finance/business that came about as a result of the railroads? |
|
Definition
1) Construction companies
2) Professional managers
3) Centralized capital markets |
|
|
Term
| Kuznets names 2 examples of what he terms "structural changes" to the economy. Name them. |
|
Definition
1) Industrialization
2) Geography - people move to cities |
|
|
Term
| Why did free servants leave the Chesapeake? |
|
Definition
| Competition from pennsylvania, more opportunities there (could be a landowner). |
|
|
Term
| Why was slavery profitable on plantations above a certain size? |
|
Definition
| Threshold effect - when plantations had more than a dozen slaves, became profitable because of the organization of slave labor. Ability to use slave gangs -> slave plantations like an assembly line. |
|
|
Term
| Why is a slave gang like an assembly line? |
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Definition
| Supervisor can control the pace of work and the supervisor can see who is slow. (Economy of supervision) |
|
|
Term
| Why did Galenson say that civil war was in a lot of ways inevitable? |
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Definition
| Slaves made up 1/3 of the wealth of the middle colonies. That's a lot of wealth. |
|
|
Term
| Should we expect more or less hired labor and service husbandry in New England or in England? |
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Definition
| Less in NE - labor is scarce, wages are higher, people work on their own farms |
|
|
Term
| Was husbandry cruel in England, according to Galenson? |
|
Definition
| No - MPL higher on large farms. Wealthier households have more land, net productivity is higher. |
|
|
Term
| Why does more kids = more wealth in the colonies? |
|
Definition
| Because you have people to work the land for you; children were sometimes angry when not given money at the age of 21 (Abraham Lincoln). |
|
|
Term
| Why was no one considered a laborer in Essex County, MA? |
|
Definition
| Because land is so widely available so people didn't work for others |
|
|
Term
| In general, under what conditions does Galenson say that prices are higher? Why do higher prices mean greater welfare? |
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Definition
| If price goes up = better quality. Because in a competitive economy, higher price = higher quality. |
|
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Term
| Name 4 examples that show that GNP isn't a perfect proxy for welfare. |
|
Definition
1. Redwoods - if they're chopped down, more GDP but they have an existence value
2. Vaccines - super cheap, but huge value
3. Computers - have become cheaper, but better quality
4. Pollution |
|
|
Term
| What 2 questions does an economist ask about any economy? |
|
Definition
| GDP/capita and distribution of income |
|
|
Term
| What are the major causes in modern pop growth? |
|
Definition
| Diseases tamed for children/infants |
|
|
Term
| Why was life expectancy in the country so much higher than life expectancy in the city? |
|
Definition
| Better diet. (Note - Soldiers in revolutionary war were 3 inches taller than British counterparts) |
|
|
Term
| Why does a longer life expectation lead to more education/schooling? |
|
Definition
| Can recoup investment on cost of schooling b/c live longer |
|
|
Term
| Wassily Leontief - why did he laud agricultural economics? |
|
Definition
| Ag economics achieved balance between theoretical and empirical work. |
|
|
Term
| What was decriminalized in England in 1875? |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| Why should we study economic history? Give three arguments. |
|
Definition
1) Historical evidence to estimate empirical models.
2) Laboratory for experiments - history performs natural experiments
3) Use of historical evidence can challenge body of economic theory |
|
|
Term
| Why was the example of the Irish and education that Galenson gave in class significant? |
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Definition
| Example is used to show that poverty + lack of school attendance are highly correlated. When you control for family wealth, disparities in schooling vanish. Not ethnicity that determines school attendance but WEALTH. |
|
|
Term
| What is a theory, according to G? |
|
Definition
| If (a1, a2, a3), then (probability) some other set of conditions, ceteris paribus. |
|
|
Term
| Why did joint stock companies fail? |
|
Definition
| Problem of fixed duration (what does that mean?), no rapid profits, time pressures |
|
|
Term
| What was the joint stock companies plan to make profits? |
|
Definition
| Wages are falling in the UK, there is surplus labor --> will pay low wage in colonies and land will be plentiful |
|
|
Term
| Key features of West Indies - name four |
|
Definition
1. Sugar production required high fixed capital costs - all slaves
2. No settlers of modest means
3. Deadly epidemiological environment
4. Natural increase in slave labor never achieved |
|
|
Term
| Tobacco - when was it introduced, when and why did shift from free labor to slave labor occur? |
|
Definition
| 1620, primarily cultivated by white farmers (delicate plant, not suited for routinized labor work). 1670s - decline in free servants b/c more opportunity in England |
|
|
Term
| South Carolina - name 3 key features |
|
Definition
| Resembled West Indies, heavy reliance on slave labor, many diseases, exported rice to Britain, enormous wealth in the south |
|
|
Term
| Pennsylvania - name 3 key features |
|
Definition
| Abundant, inexpensive land, migrants from Germany and Italy, family farms, William Penn 1682 = freedom of religion, Philadelphia becomes a major commercial center |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| 1682 became governor of Pennsylvania, successful recruiter of settlers, freedom of religion, challenged by representative assembly |
|
|
Term
| New England - name 3 key features |
|
Definition
| no significant immigration, no significant slave population, low mortality rates, work performed by free native bron whites, more families, more women, trade with West Indies, (major exports = fish, meat, grain), more egalitarianism, wide property ownership, less extreme poverty |
|
|
Term
| England - economic conditions + stats |
|
Definition
| Per capita wealth rose from 110 in 1760 to 192 in 1800. Per capita wealth higher in England. Worse diet. Prospects for Puritans improved in 1640s, stopped coming to America |
|
|
Term
| What was the cost of passage in the 17th C to the New World |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| What is rent? What is profit? |
|
Definition
| Economic return to land; return to capital; |
|
|
Term
| When Galenson ran regressions on the age and length of indenture, what did he find? |
|
Definition
| Inverse relationship between age and length of indenture (skilled trades = shorter contracts) |
|
|
Term
| Compensating differentials - when do those exist? |
|
Definition
| When there are competing groups. Britney spears = non competing group |
|
|
Term
| What is the merchant asking himself when trying to determine how much he's willing to lend? |
|
Definition
| What's the shortest term that I can still get a competitive profit to recoup the cost of passage. |
|
|
Term
| What was the first large scale humanitarian crusade? |
|
Definition
| To abolish the slave trade (trade, not slavery itself) |
|
|
Term
| Is free labor inefficient? |
|
Definition
| Sure--wildcat strikes in France, England are grossly inefficient and inconvenient for everybody else. Tradeoff between efficiency and freedom |
|
|
Term
| 3 ways we use historical evidence in economics |
|
Definition
-Use historical evidence to estimate economic models
-Use historical evidence to test economic hypotheses
-Use historical evidence to extend theory and to challenge theory |
|
|
Term
| cliometricians vs. imperialists |
|
Definition
| Cliometricians vs imperialists: cliometricians did not do what the math / stats economists did, which was persuade the rest of economics to see the worth of their studies for economics; imperialists are people that persuade everyone else into seeing the worth of their pursuits |
|
|
Term
| Why does the past have "better data" than the present? |
|
Definition
better data
facts from history are more voluminous
different levels and depths of data
new classes of facts
disclosure (100 year laws)
errors are not any larger than modern facts
history performs experiments : variables given
much of econ models based on non-reproducible experiments |
|
|
Term
| economists who took historical views |
|
Definition
better economists
a lot of good ones, like Smith, Marshall, Schumpeter, Keynes, Friedman, Edgeworth were deeply historical
history is stimulus to economic imagination, stretching limits of economic theory |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| “Funes” vs “Afunes” (Borges short story): former is historically specific, stamped with historical memory (ex. free labour) ; latter is ahistorical, remembers nothing (ex. indifference, equilibrium) |
|
|
Term
| Invention of telegraph and telephone |
|
Definition
1844, telegraph invented
1847, telegraph begins to be used commercially
telegraph promoters quickly realised that railroads provide them the only convenient rights of way
1861, telegraph reaches the Pacific, before the railroad
1866, Western Union dominates telegraph business
its administrative and accounting procedures resembled those of the railroads
1880s, telephone becomes commercialized
1890s, “long lines” allow telephone to become increasingly employed for long-distance calls // American Telephone and Telegraph Company dominates |
|
|
Term
| Technological improvements in railroads (1840s-1890s) |
|
Definition
iron T rail
passengers coaches became “long cars” capable of carrying 60 passengers on reversible seats
1840s, steam locomotive is improved upon and perfected |
|
|
Term
| 2 characteristics of early railroads |
|
Definition
nearly all railroads relied on one line of track
cars were not totally owned by railroad companies but by local merchants and freight forwarders |
|
|
Term
| Improvements in speed of travel on railroads |
|
Definition
1800, takes 2 weeks to get from NY to Florida
1830, takes 1 week “ “
1857, takes 3 days “ “ |
|
|
Term
| extension in possibility of destination for railroads |
|
Definition
extension in possibility of destination
1800, limit is a little west of IL
1857, limit is the Pacific |
|
|
Term
| Some of the first railroads were actually built by who? |
|
Definition
| some of the first roads were actually built by the Northern manufacturers of textiles |
|
|
Term
| Advantages of railroads over canals |
|
Definition
railroads were
cheaper
to build in rugged terrain, of which there was a lot in the west
to maintain per ton / mile
steam locomotive lowers unit cost of moving goods by permitting more intensive use of available transportation facilities (k becomes more productive)
canals have to remain idle when water freezes over (k in railroads suffers less depreciation)
Lebergott: railroads provide >=3x freight service as canals for equivalent resource cost
faster
more dependable
precisely scheduled
all-weather
less affected by droughts, freshets, floods
remained open in winter |
|
|
Term
| how were canals first financed? |
|
Definition
| financing canals was mostly done through sales of state and municipal bonds |
|
|
Term
| Primary financial center of country + how it changes over time |
|
Definition
what is the primary American financial center?
early 1800s, Philadelphia
1838, Boston
then, Boston supply decreases, Boston money becomes more expensive
1850s, New York |
|
|
Term
| When does Europe decide to invest in railroads? |
|
Definition
revolutions of 1848 → Europe looks to invest in US
first, bonds to finance Mexican W
then, state bonds
1851-2, railroad securities |
|
|
Term
| Rise of ___ which profit from exchange of railroad securities |
|
Definition
| institutions begin to develop to mediate and profit from exchange of railroad securities → become first specialized investment banking firms |
|
|
Term
| railroad stocks vs. bonds |
|
Definition
railroad bonds vs railroad stocks
initial investors wanted control over investment → prefer stock - often lived along the lines
later investors from the East and Europe want more regular and safer income → prefer bonds |
|
|
Term
| Change in construction business |
|
Definition
change from
many, small contractors working different pieces of one line to
big contractors assuming total control over importing materials and equipment and men
contractors paid often in stocks and bonds
contractors began sending recruiting agents overseas
they begin to move into other businesses like urban construction |
|
|
Term
| Innovations/organizational change on the Baltimore/Ohio line |
|
Definition
-reports, weekly and monthly statements
-reports on condition of machinery
-monthly estimate of probable expenses |
|
|
Term
| Daniel C. McCallum, Erie, contributed to shaping this organizational form |
|
Definition
perfected flow of internal information for management to monitor and evaluate performance of various activities
• drew one of the earliest organization charts in an American business enterprise
• saw that telegraph was not just means to make train movements safe; also could assure more effective coordination and evaluation of operating units under command
• saw that daily reports could be consolidated into monthly reports that could yield statistical knowledge informing controlling costs and setting rates
• differs from Montgomery and plantation owner innovations because concerned with work and discipline not only of workers but also of managers
-reception:
• Henry Varnum Poor, editor of American Railroad Journal, documents McCallum’s innovations, particularly, his ability to reduce delays, increase efficient use and running of cars, as well as reduce size of workforce
• New York State Railroad Commissioners also describe his work in their reports
• as well as Atlantic Monthly in 1858 |
|
|
Term
| McCallum's business principles |
|
Definition
1. proper division of responsibilities
2. authority commensurate with responsibility
3. knowledge of whether or not these responsibilities have been fulfilled
4. promptness
5. daily reports to provide this knowledge
6. system that makes detection of error and delinquent easy |
|
|
Term
| J. Edgar Thomson: builder and first superintendent of Georgia Railroad |
|
Definition
modified centralized administrative structure set up by Herman Haupt, civil engineer
• separated road’s financial and operating departments
• adequate until 1857—then, increasing traffic and rising costs brought about a reorganization
-major achievement was to clarify relations between function offices of division and those of central office
-direct line of authority: division superintendent to general superintendent to president
-centralization |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| “line and staff” concept – managers on line of authority responsible for ordering men involved with basic function of the enterprise, and other functional managers, are responsible for setting standards – first implemented by Pennsylvania Railroad |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| ailroad manager who most effectively developed McCallum’s proposals for cost accounting, Louisville and Nashville manager, tasked himself with measuring unit cost, the cost of ton mile |
|
|
Term
| Schultz - obstacles to use of economic history |
|
Definition
o Other economists are not serious about the matter
o There is a lack of academic entrepreneurs in the field of economic history |
|
|
Term
| "more economic facts" - McCloskey. Explain significance |
|
Definition
More economic facts
o National Bureau of Economic Research has a treasure trove of historical data
o Using historical facts is important to understand business cycle fluctuations
o More generally, economists can use historical data to identify trends, make observations about cycles and generate statistical facts |
|
|
Term
| "better economic facts" - McCloskey. explain significance |
|
Definition
Most contemporary data is inaccessible, due to privacy laws. This is especially true for data from the national census.
o However, most historical data is readily available because the relevant people and companies are dead. This makes historical data more comprehensive and richer than contemporary data
o It is naïve to believe that errors in historical statistics are larger than in modern statistics, as it over-estimates the quality of modern statistics and under-estimates the quality of historical statistics |
|
|
Term
| Better economic theories - McCloskey. explain significance |
|
Definition
History is a natural laboratory for economic ideas, e.g. accounting for the role of technological change in economic growth was instigated by findings from economic history
o Economic history tests, challenges and modifies “stylized facts” put forward by economists who study economic growth; theorists should use historical experiences to test stylized facts
o “The use of theory in economic history illuminates the theory and tests it” |
|
|
Term
| Better economic policy - McCloskey. explain significance |
|
Definition
Bad understanding or economics and history would likely result in bad policies, e.g. bad economics leading to mercantilism, bad history leading to German fascism
o Good policy makers tend to learn from mistakes observed from historical precedents
o “Whether these are good or bad policies, to the extent that their public propaganda and their private inspiration rest on false historical premise – and most of them to a large extent do – their rationale is full of doubt” |
|
|
Term
| Better economists - McCloskey. explain significance |
|
Definition
| “The wider questions that face economics are historical. If history is useful to an economist’s work, it is still more useful to his education” |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Economics is the study of resource allocation |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Economic history is the study of resource allocation in the past |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
arose in the postwar period, when economists discovered that poorer countries were overpopulated
• Malthus was believed to have been wrong – rescued by the hypothesis that children are an inferior good |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| • The inverse relationship between wealth and fertility is the primary problem of our time—effects terrorism, sectarian wars, riots and revolts, so forth |
|
|
Term
| 1620 what did the Virginia company do and why? |
|
Definition
| Brought women to Virginia, abolished martial law; general assembly convened with two reps from each of VA's settlements because company recognized that greater inducements were needed to recruit labor force |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| MA governor, complained that supply of servants from England was inadequate and that servants in the colony could not be hired but on unreasonable terms |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| IN 1612 experimented with tobacco in Virginia |
|
|
Term
| Why did tobacco weaken the VA company? |
|
Definition
| The wealth it conferred on many planters gave them the power to become independent of the company |
|
|
Term
| 1624 what happened to the VA company? |
|
Definition
| Charter was annulled and Virginia was taken under direct supervision of the king as the first royal colony |
|
|
Term
| Virginia Company's innovations |
|
Definition
| Joint stock device, indentured servitude, headright system |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| 1618 VA company granted 50 acres of land to every person who settled in the colony. A man could receive one headright for each member of his family who came to VA and each bound laborer that he imported |
|
|
Term
| private plantations/hundreds |
|
Definition
| Device intended to speed up settlement in the colonies. Groups of shareholders were allowed by the VA Co to combine their landholdings into jointly owned associations and the investors in these small communities were given local governmental power over settlers |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Powerful governor of Virginia, arrived in colony in 1642, held office for 30 yrs. Attracted new waves of migrants, especially the younger sons of eminent English families through liberal use of his patronage powers. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| powerful English investors become owners of a colony, induce migrants to settle on their land. Prominence and fortune of the promoter inspires confidence of settlers. English govt gives a title of a grant of land to the promoter. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| first English settlement of Barbados |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Obtained royal patent that made him the proprietor of both Barbados and the Leeward islands. |
|
|
Term
| Dutch introduction of sugar to West Indies |
|
Definition
| 1640s helped English planters cultivate sugar, immediately profitable |
|
|
Term
| 1643 Barbados - what happened |
|
Definition
| Ceased paying rents to absentee proprietor and declared themselves freeholders. Charles II annulled Carlisle's proprietary patent and confirmed validity of all land purchases. Barbados become a royal colony of king who largely let the planters govern the island except an export tax was levied. |
|
|
Term
| Cecillius Calvert, Lord Baltimore II + manorial organization |
|
Definition
| (142-143) First major example of proprietary form of settlement in North America. Royal charter granted to Baltimore 10 mil acres on Chesapeake Bay. Complete legal authority over the territory with the power to establish whatever govt he wanted. Installed his brother as governor - religious tolerance was to be fundamental tenet. Manorial system in place. Would grant estates to manorial lords, who would hold the legal power to operate courts on their lands. The lords would recruit tenants to settle on their estates and pay rent. The lords would support the proprietor in return for the grants and would pay him fraction of rents. |
|
|
Term
| Why did Baltimore's manorial organization fail to materialize? |
|
Definition
| (143-144) Gradual breakdown of rigid proprietary control. Tobacco became the primary cash crop - grants of large estates had no significance because no workers. Early settlers established farms, accumulating estates OUTSIDE of manorial system. |
|
|
Term
| How did Baltimore's colony evolve? |
|
Definition
| Growing population led to increases in land prices, which conferred wealth on Lord Baltimore's heirs. Govt broadly based. Elected assembly gains power and autonomy at the expense of the governor and his lords |
|
|
Term
| 1691 - maryland, what happened |
|
Definition
| Assembly declared Maryland a royal province. |
|
|
Term
| Features of proprietary settlements - ambitions by proprietors |
|
Definition
| Proprietors treated grants as personal estates from which they expected to derive personal income |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| recognized that rapid growth of Barbados had created land hungry farmers. Assembled a group of wealthy backers and obtained a royal charter to all land VA to FL. Few settlers responded to the plan. None of the proprietors settled in Carolina. |
|
|
Term
| Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper |
|
Definition
| With the help of John Locke, designed a new approach to settlement of Carolinas, more active role for proprietor. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| • Indentures: matching pieces of paper (one copy given to servant; other, captain – captain sells it for a lump-sum) |
|
|
Term
| problems solved by indentured servitude |
|
Definition
• Solves
• Allows many people to migrate who couldn’t otherwise
• Allows many to obtain labor who couldn’t otherwise
• Ships can carry servants to America, pick up colonial goods for the return voyage, ship does not suffer lightweight destabilization and lack of use. • More than ½ white immigrants were indentured upon arrival; ¾ of the Virginia population |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
• Length of indenture
• Cost of passage + risk taken on by merchant = price = marginal cost of passage
• Despite asymmetric information, this was a competitive market |
|
|
Term
| mortality rates on slave ships |
|
Definition
• Mortality rates of everyone employed by Royal Africa Co. increased when ships stalled at West African forts – even captains
No correlation btw overcrowding and mortality rates |
|
|
Term
| At what price are colonies getting labor? |
|
Definition
| Colonies have access to white and black bound labor from highly competitive markets → they are getting labor at marginal cost |
|
|
Term
| New York's failed proprietorship |
|
Definition
| NY founded by Dutch West India company in 1626 as a base for its fur trade. English captured the colony and Duke of York was given the charter. Tried to extract rents but representative assembly was formed |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Issued by William Penn, like a constitution, granted religious freedom. Representative assembly had little power. William Penn wanted to reserve power for wealthy landowners to recruit them to buy land. |
|
|
Term
| How did NE's lack of econ opportunity lead to its development? |
|
Definition
| o Communal goals: system of settlement of lands based on strict and centralized control of regimented communities – not undermined by existence of lucrative opportunities |
|
|
Term
| Premium received by merchants for bearing the risk of passage |
|
Definition
| i. Price for which servants were sold to colonial planters – fares charged free passengers for trans-Atlantic voyage = premium received by merchants for bearing the risk of servant morality on the crossing |
|
|
Term
| How is the number of servants arriving in Maryland and Virginia varying with higher prices of tobacco? |
|
Definition
| o Number of servants arriving annually in Maryland and Virginia vary with tobacco prices – higher prices → high levels of immigration – also attests to economic efficiency with which market for servants transmitted information about the state of colonial labor demand to Europe |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| o Redemptioner system: someone’s relative might be able to pay your travel fare once you arrive in America |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| 1. Then, racial division of labor existed, with white skilled, black unskilled, white indentures may have acted as plantation managers, etc |
|
|
Term
| makeup of plantations in Barbados/Jamaica vs. SC and Georgia |
|
Definition
| o Bigger plantations, fewer plantations, in Barbados and Jamaica than in SC and Georgia |
|
|
Term
| legal evolution of slavery |
|
Definition
o Legal definition of slavery evolved state by state in responses to different events
i. 1667, concern that slaves that had been baptized might be freed from their servitude – legislation in response declaring that they would not be
ii. First abolition law passed in PA in 1780, number of northern states follow thereafter |
|
|
Term
| Population growth from 1650 to 1770 |
|
Definition
| 1650 – 1770: total population increases from 100,000 to >2.6m |
|
|
Term
| Increases in white population |
|
Definition
| white population of NE increases the most (20,000%), then Middle Col, then Upper S, then Lower S, then West Indies the least (2000%); opposite trends in black population |
|
|
Term
| Chesapeake Bay colonies distinctive features |
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Definition
• Tobacco is cultivated primarily by white farmers and English indentures
• Not suited to work gang production
• Required less fixed capital than sugar
• No important economies of scale
• 1670s: 4 servants to one slave
• 1690s: 4 slaves to one servant
• Decline in servant supply as labor market in England improves
• 1680s rapid transition to bound labor; lowered prices of slave trade from falling prices of sugar |
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Term
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Definition
• Not much immigration after its initial burst of settlement
• Population growth result of high rates of natural increase |
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Term
| Demographic changes over time |
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Definition
General shift from young males to more females in composition of immigrants
Fertility rates were high in colonial America
• Marriage appears to have been nearly universal among adults (never married ~10%)
• Earlier marriage than in Europe
• Average of 5-6 children per family
• Tendency for higher southern fertility due to earlier ages at marriage might have been offset by higher southern mortality rates – fewer marriages complete their normal fertility in the South than in the North |
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Term
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Definition
| • Literacy rates among free adult males in colonies were high by contemporary English standards |
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Term
| Prosperity of English American colonies depended on... |
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Definition
• Prosperity of English American colonies depended in large part on their ability to produce goods that could profitably be sent to England
• Men born in the South taller than men born in NE
• Agriculture accounted for more than 4/5 of all nonhuman wealth |
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Term
| Advantages of railroads over canals |
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Definition
-remained open during winter months
-cheaper to maintain per ton-mile than canals
-could connect between two towns
-Better in rugged terrain
-Not affected by droughts or floods.
-carry more freight per mile
→ delivered precise, dependable shipment of goods |
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Term
| Why were costs/mile on the smaller railroad cheaper? |
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Definition
| 27. Costs per mile on smaller railroads were less than comparable costs on larger railroads because sprawling administrative organization led to greater costs. |
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Term
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Definition
| Horatio Seymour – one of the big contractors in the railroad industry who upon his death was said to have 30 mil dollars in business. |
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Term
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Definition
| The Western – first intersectional railroad in the country, connected Worcester and Albany, required a complicated operating structure, one of the first railroads to require a complex operating structure. The road was over 150 miles in length and had been built in three different sections or divisions. Each section became a separate operating division with its own set of managers. Trains ran on a single track through rugged terrain. Tragedies occurred – a series of accidents happened that led to an outcry that helped bring into being the first modern, carefully defined organizational structure. |
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Term
| Why is economics like astronomy, according to McCloskey |
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Definition
| Observational science - you look and can test predictions about gravity, movement, etc. |
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Term
| McCloskey says what is the main finding of econ history of past 200 years? |
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Definition
| merchants, slave owners, etc looked at profit in the same way we do. markets guided by same laws. consistency over time is emphasized |
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