Economic History Research Articles

A New Socioeconomic Formation?

This article seeks to provide a more comprehensive philosophical framework for the proposed model of a “new projectment economy” in China. Developed by a research team of political economists and social scientists, the “new projectment economy” offers an innovative theoretical framework in an attempt to interpret facts on the ground in China. However, what is needed is more extensive philosophical analysis of what is at stake. Thus, the article has two main sections. The first provides a critical overview of the move from the “old projectment” as initially proposed by the Brazilian economist Ignacio Rangel, as well the key points of the “new projectment” in relation to China. The second main section turns to connect the proposal of the research team with Chinese Marxist philosophical analysis, in terms of the development of contradiction analysis, a reconstruction of China’s economic history since 1949, and a proposed dialectical transformation (Aufhebung) of both plan and market in the new era. Further engagement by the “projectment” research team with Chinese scholars and policy-makers should be the next step, for this would lead to mutual enrichment through complementarity and difference.

Multidimensional composite indicators of well‐being: Applications in economic history

AbstractEconomists and social scientists have widely contributed to the so‐called “Beyond GDP” debate—the view that current measures of economic growth are inadequate to measure well‐being and multidimensional indicators. While economic history has not been prominent in these debates, multidimensional indicators have captured the interest of economic historians, with both theoretical and empirical contributions. In this contribution, we examine the areas of consensus and debate in economic history. A comprehensive literature review shows a lack of consensus on how to use multidimensional indicators and that they face substantial critiques. We use two case‐studies (a long‐term series for the Netherlands and one on the basis of the CLIO‐INFRA panel dataset) to illustrate how common findings emerge in the literature and empirical exercises despite methodological differences. We argue that debates on the relation between economic growth and well‐being in the long‐run using these indicators can not only contribute to many founding questions in economic history—though greater precision and transparency in our assumptions about well‐being measurement are necessary—but also to better understand present‐day challenges such as how to better pursue growth in well‐being and not merely in GDP.

Nominal wage patterns, monopsony, and labour market power in early modern England

AbstractRecords of long‐eighteenth‐century English wage rates exhibit almost absolute nominal rigidity over many decades, alongside significant dispersion between the wages paid by different organizations for the same type of work in the same location. These features of preindustrial wages have been obscured by data aggregation and the construction of real wage series, which introduce variation. In this paper, we argue that the standard explanations for wage rigidity in economic history are insufficient. We show econometric evidence for monopsony power in one major organization and argue that the main historical wage series are also affected by employer power. Eighteenth‐century England had an imperfectly competitive labour market with large frictions. This gave large organizations the power to set wage policies. We discuss the implications for the eighteenth‐century British economy and research into long‐run wages more generally.

To their Credit: The Aristocracy and Commercial Credit in Europe, c.1750–1820

The aristocracy and their use of commercial credit are seldom explored in the European comparative context despite important studies of the French aristocracy and their credit relations with shopkeepers, tradesmen and fashion merchants. This article studies the aristocracy and commercial credit in England, Germany and Sweden, by drawing on the normative literature and the account books, receipted bills, correspondence and diaries of several families occupying different echelons of the nobility. We examine the extent and nature of aristocratic engagement with shop credit, the ways in which they manipulated and managed this credit, and their motivations for doing so. We argue that the aristocracy was involved in a modern commercial credit economy and that this was central to their position in society and way of life. Our analysis of the ideals communicated through conduct books and parental advice and the actual credit practices of the aristocracy show that they took their credit arrangements seriously. They had to abide by the rules of commercial credit and settle their accounts: sometimes promptly, most often in a timely manner and only occasionally after considerable delay. The article offers a comparative framework for further and broader studies on the aristocracy within economic history.

Technical and economic history of western Han dynasty revealed by bronze mirrors from Zonglvcheng cemetery, Linzi, China

Technical and economic history of western Han dynasty revealed by bronze mirrors from Zonglvcheng cemetery, Linzi, China

Determining the Normal Degree of Capacity Utilisation: Insights from the History of Economic Thought

ABSTRACT Several issues related to the normal degree of capacity utilisation have become crucial in the recent debate within demand-led growth theories. By going back over the history of economic thought, the paper aims to highlight the main findings that may nourish the current debate. Our reconstruction identifies the main factors affecting the firm's choice as to the size and degree of utilisation of productive capacity and draws attention to three points that appear to require particular attention in the debate on demand-led growth: firstly, the degree of utilisation corresponding to the maximum profit does not necessarily correspond to the minimum unit cost associated with the plant; secondly, the size of productive capacity depends on the variability of the output produced by the firm; finally, and in connection with the two previous points, the determination of normal utilisation requires defining the market structure in which the firm is supposed to operate and is therefore affected by the notion of competition adopted.

The size of the offshore sector in the Norwegian economy

ABSTRACT Writers on Norwegian economic history often claim that industries related to the sea played a major role in the Norwegian economy for centuries. However, little has been done to quantify this sector’s contribution to the economy. The present paper seeks to quantify the size of the key offshore industries compared to GDP and exports. To do so it has been necessary to draw on new historical national account calculations and export data in addition to compute new series Based on these calculations we find that the offshore sector made up a significant part of Norwegian GDP, and a dominant part of exports, 1816–2021. As a share of the total economy the sector’s traditional industries, i.e. fishing ari and ocean transport were in sum stable until the late 1950s in the long-run. Thereafter they shrunk rapidly, when the takeoff of the new offshore industry, oil and gas extraction from the continental shelf from the 1970s, made the offshore economy reach new heights in the decades to follow. This paper quantifies this development.

Linking and Delinking Aspects of Economic Growth and Employment in the Indian Economy: Granger Causality Approach

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of various economic growth and employment approaches that have been popular throughout economic history, with a focus on linking and delinking aspects of GDP and employment in the Indian economy. The semi-log quadratic model was used for the trends of GDP and employment across the selected countries. For the determination of the linkages between the variables, the Granger causality test promulgated by Engel and Granger (1987), and the maximum likelihood-based technique of Johansen and Julius (1990) and Johansen (1992) were used in the study. The results found that employment and GDP are two different aspects of an economy not only in the Indian economy but across the majority of the world economies. The results of model specification proved the presence of both long-run and short-run relationships between GDP and employment by the Johansen co-integration test in the Indian economy over the period. It has been found that the increase in GDP is negatively influencing the employment level by the VECM model as a 1 per cent increase in GDP results in 0.28 per cent of job losses in the Indian economy. This study aims to provide an overview of several approaches to economic growth and employment that have been popular throughout economic history up to the present, with an emphasis on linking and delinking aspects of economic growth and employment. In the context of an economy, economic growth and employment are two distinct aspects that should be tackled with separate economic strategies.

The farce of the commons? Corporate rights, political wrongs and common-pool resources in English towns, 1835–1870

ABSTRACT The 1832 Reform Act and the 1835 Municipal Corporations Act reconfigured political representation in English towns from a ‘franchise’ system (based on rights of corporate freedom) to a property-based ratepaying electorate. This shift also undermined the rights of freemen to urban common lands and resources, which were linked to pre-existing forms of representation. This issue links directly to debates in economic history about use-rights and the preservation of common-pool resources (CPRs). Supporters of Nobel laureate Elinor Ostrom argue that such common resources could be preserved because this was the most rational economic choice facing their users. Critics have asserted that the fate of such economic resources was dictated by the historically contingent social, economic and political forces within them, not abstract economic rationality. This article assesses these arguments through a micro-study of the commons in the Yorkshire borough of Beverley between 1835 and 1870. New legislation ensured that these lands were managed in line with Ostrom’s principles of transparency and accountability. Despite this, they became entangled in wholesale, organised political corruption, exposed by a detailed Parliamentary enquiry in 1868. The article investigates this contradiction to explore how far ‘institutions’ could remain autonomous within a highly contested political ‘space’.

Making the global turn matter: strategies and pathways

Abstract The survey examines the past, present and future of the urban history field in Britain, mixing memories and reflections. I trace the global turn of that field and the challenges it brings. One argument concerns the impact of a global scale on the methods and the explanatory frameworks used. A second concern is the role of economic history and economic frameworks of analysis in the writing of urban history, and I advocate their continued relevance.

The State of Economic History and Households in the Economy of Early Mesopotamia

The State of Economic History and Households in the Economy of Early Mesopotamia

The VI Century eastern roman empire: Steppe allies, western turks, and herat war

The subject of the Herat War and the Ctesiphon Peace Treaty of 591 is relevant since it reveals important aspects of the political, economic and military history. These events had a significant impact on the fates of the Byzantine Empire, the Persian Empire, and the Chinese Khaganate. The study of these events provides a more comprehensive understanding of the complex interrelationships and dynamics of Eastern politics. The academic paper also attempts to summarize the facts on the history of the “Herat War” of 589 from the standpoint of geopolitical analysis. This study involves analyzing historical sources including chronicles and archaeological data to reconstruct events and assess their consequences. The interpretation and analysis of documents and written sources of the time is also an important aspect in order to understand the motives and strategies of the parties involved in the events.

Экономика СССР в начальный период Великой Отечественной Войны. Часть 1

The article analyzes the economic history of the USSR, covering an important period of the history of Stalin’s economic model – the initial period of the Great Patriotic War (1941–1942). The main feature of the Soviet economy during the war was that already in the first months the USSR lost control over the most developed industrial areas. This situation required fundamental reorganization of the structure of the economy, when its main production capabilities were used to produce military equipment at the expense of reducing the output of civilian products. The losses of the USSR economy from the occupation of part of the territory are considered and it is shown that the USSR in 1941–1942 fought Germany and its allies, having halved mobilization and economic potential. The article analyzes the process of transferring the economy to the war economy, which required an increase in the length of the working day and the abolition of vacations, the introduction of the card system, and the relocation of plants to other territories. The structure of state administration bodies, changes in the organization of management and the position of its individual participants in it are studied separately. Tables are given and analyzed, giving an idea of the volume and dynamics of production of means of production in this period, the production of non-ferrous metals, the production of consumer goods, military equipment. It is shown that due to the low quality of military production in the Red Army a huge proportion of non-combat losses, which was primarily due to unrealistic plans. The situation in agriculture is examined, where the decline in productivity was due to a number of reasons, including the predominant mobilization of the population from rural areas with a minimum of reservations, the almost complete cessation of supplies of mineral fertilizers and agricultural machinery and, consequently, a sharp decline in the mechanization of work. The situation in the construction industry, in the work of railroad transport is studied. The calculation of the dynamics of national income for 1940–1942 years is given. Thus, in the initial period of the Great Patriotic War revealed the strengths of the Stalinist economic model and created in the 30-ies military-economic potential, high qualifications of the country’s leaders promoted in the last pre-war years. The greatest achievements of the Soviet economy in this period are associated with the record-breaking rapid transfer of the entire economy on military rails.

Synthesizing explanations behind global gender (in)equality: Identifying the gaps and moving forward with more economic history

AbstractThis article aims to bridge the mainstream social science and the economic history literatures on the drivers of gender equality across contexts. We discuss the explanations in the social science literature on five central dimensions of global gender equality—health, work, education, marriage, and political representation—and survey the economic history literature that studied these explanations in the historical context. We analyze the commonalities and contradictions in the theoretical and methodological approaches of the two strands. The survey then offers an interdisciplinary theoretical framework that can bridge the two strands. By doing so, the review article discusses how incorporating the economic history literature into the social science literature can improve our current understanding of global gender equality in two ways. First, the long durée perspective provides insight into the diversity in the historical turning points in gender equality across world regions over the 20th century. Second, it suggests that the integration of a historical perspective can tackle the difficulties in isolating causal mechanisms and identify why standard economic and institutional conditions have varying impacts on gender equality outcomes across world regions. It also identifies the limitations in the current social science and economic history literatures and provide directions for future research.

Migration and the environment: A look across perspectives

The decisions related to migration – where to live, when to move, and where to move – have a long history in economics. Different fields, within economics and outside economics, have developed different empirical methods to study migration and its consequences. However, these literatures rarely cite each other and there is little crossover between them. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, to provide a simple theoretical framework for understanding general equilibrium effects in migration models that can help researchers think through the specific contexts in which these will be a problem for reduced form estimation. Second, to examine the different literatures in economics that have addressed the question of the effects of environmental amenities on migration with an eye to the differences across them and the way they can complement each other.

The global sanitary revolution in historical perspective

AbstractThis survey sheds light on the causes and consequences of the global sanitary revolution that resulted in the spread of waterworks and sewerage projects since the middle of the 19th century, by drawing on research from the fields of economic history, economics, and history. I begin with a discussion of the construction of these infrastructures during the period ca. 1850–1950 showing that their spread was relatively similar in major urban cities across the globe, while diffusion within and between countries, as well as within cities themselves, was markedly unequal. Second, I review research estimating the mortality impact of access to clean water and sanitation. Following the provision of these services, infant mortality declined between ca. 10 and 30 percent. Lastly, I examine the drivers of the sanitary revolution with a new framework that distinguishes between proximate factors (e.g., physical capital) and ultimate factors (e.g., institutions). I argue that the state of knowledge in the literature is insufficient to explain between‐ and within country differences in access to sanitary services and that more attention should be devoted to the interaction of political and economic factors within broader institutional, cultural and biogeographic contexts.

Alexander Wakelam. Credit and Debt in Eighteenth-Century England. An Economic History of Debtors’ Prisons. [Perspectives in Economic and Social History, Vol. 61.] Routledge, London [etc.] 2021. xi, 253 pp. £97.50. (Paper, E-book: £29.24.)

Alexander Wakelam. Credit and Debt in Eighteenth-Century England. An Economic History of Debtors’ Prisons. [Perspectives in Economic and Social History, Vol. 61.] Routledge, London [etc.] 2021. xi, 253 pp. £97.50. (Paper, E-book: £29.24.)

Deindustrialisation and reindustrialisation patterns in V4 countries – industry 4.0 as a way forward?

ABSTRACT This contribution aims at: (i) mapping the deindustrialisation and reindustrialisation tendencies over the economic history of the Visegrad countries (Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, henceforth, V4) since 1918 to 2022 by creating a cadastre of applied policy measures and evaluating their effectiveness; (ii) exploring whether the economic mentality of V4 countries allows current reindustrialisation policies to be effectively geared towards Industry 4.0? In order to understand the key features of industrialisation process in the V4s, a broad literature overview places emphasis on the economic characteristics of the region. It is also important to analyse the correlation between industrial policy in the XXth century and the new tendencies at the turn of the millennium by examining whether the current industrial policy mixes are serving economic resilience or grounding critical instability as a form of middle-income trap. Finally, it draws lessons for general- and V4-specific industrial policy in time of Industry 4.0.

Susan Powell, ed. The Household Accounts of Lady Margaret Beaufort (1443–1509): From the Archives of St. John's College, Cambridge Records of Social and Economic History, new series 63. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022. Pp. 735. $190.00 (cloth).

Susan Powell, ed. The Household Accounts of Lady Margaret Beaufort (1443–1509): From the Archives of St. John's College, Cambridge Records of Social and Economic History, new series 63. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022. Pp. 735. $190.00 (cloth).

Pursuing a Grand Theory: Douglass C. North and the early making of a New Institutional Social Science (1950-1981)

PurposeThe paper provides a detailed historical account of Douglass C. North's early intellectual contributions and analytical developments in pursuing a Grand Theory for why some countries are rich and others poor.Design/methodology/approachThe author approaches the discussion using a theoretical and historical reconstruction based on published and unpublished materials.FindingsThe systematic, continuous and profound attempt to answer the Smithian social coordination problem shaped North's journey from being a young serious Marxist to becoming one of the founders of New Institutional Economics. In the process, he was converted in the early 1950s into a rigid neoclassical economist, being one of the leaders in promoting New Economic History. The success of the cliometric revolution exposed the frailties of the movement itself, namely, the limitations of neoclassical economic theory to explain economic growth and social change. Incorporating transaction costs, the institutional framework in which property rights and contracts are measured, defined and enforced assumes a prominent role in explaining economic performance.Originality/valueIn the early 1970s, North adopted a naive theory of institutions and property rights still grounded in neoclassical assumptions. Institutional and organizational analysis is modeled as a social maximizing efficient equilibrium outcome. However, the increasing tension between the neoclassical theoretical apparatus and its failure to account for contrasting political and institutional structures, diverging economic paths and social change propelled the modification of its assumptions and progressive conceptual innovation. In the later 1970s and early 1980s, North abandoned the efficiency view and gradually became more critical of the objective rationality postulate. In this intellectual movement, North's avant-garde research program contributed significantly to the creation of New Institutional Economics.