Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T19:39:59.489Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Recent Contributions to Economic History: The United States, 1789-1860

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2011

Carter Goodrich
Carter Goodrich
Affiliation:
Columbia University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

For the period between the adoption of the Constitution and the outbreak of the Civil War recent contributions have been considerable in amount and particularly notable for a high degree of concentration on the relationship between government and the economy. In 1945 a reader of the literature in the field would have found little to warn him against the assumption that the statesmen and legislators of the ante-bellum republic were faithful adherents, particularly in the economic field, of the Jeffersonian doctrine that that government is best which governs the least. Current scholarship, however, has forced a revision of this traditional view; and it is now clear that American governments intervened actively on a wide range of economic questions and in varied and complex interrelations with the activities of individuals and corporations. This significant correction has resulted in large part from two related shifts in the direction of research that have given increased attention to the economic role of state, and even local, authorities as contrasted with that of the national government, and to the promotive as contrasted with the regulatory functions of government.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 19 , Issue 1 , March 1959 , pp. 25 - 43
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1959

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Oscar, and Handlin, Mary Flug, Commonwealth, A Study of the Role of Government in the American Economy: Massachusetts, 1774-1861 (New York: New York University Press, 1947)Google Scholar; Hartz, Louis, Economic Policy and Democratic Thought: Pennsylvania, 1776-1860 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1948)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Primm, James Neal, Economic Policy in the Development of a Western State, Missouri, 1820-1860 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1954)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Heath, Milton Sydney, Constructive Liberalism, The Role of the State in Economic Development in Georgia to 1860 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1954)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Handlin, Oscar, Boston's Immigrants, 1790–1795 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1941)Google Scholar. For the Committee's statement, see Cole, Arthur H., “A Report on Research in Economic History,” The Journal of Economic History, IV (05 1944), 49–72CrossRefGoogle Scholar. In addition to sponsorship of the four state studies the Committee gave support for the publication of the books by Cadman, Benson, Pierce, Kirkland, Smith, Hunter, Gates (William), and Arrington, that are referred to in the present review.

2 Cadman, John W. Jr,, The Corporation in New Jersey, Business and Politics, 1791-1875 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1949)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 Benson, Lee, Merchants, Farmers, & Railroads, Railroad Regulation and New York. Politics, 1850-1887 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1955)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ellis, David Maldvvyn, Landlords and Farmers in the Hudson-Mohawk. Region, 1790-1850 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1946)Google Scholar.

4 Reubens, Beatrice G., “Burr, Hamilton and the Manhattan Company,” Political Science Quarterly, LXXII (12 1957), 578–607CrossRefGoogle Scholar; LXXIII (Mar. 1958), 100-25.

5 Gates, Paul Wallace, Fifty Million Acres, Conflicts over Kansas Land Policy, 1854-1890 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1954)Google Scholar.

6 Williams, Elgin, The Animating Pursuits of Speculation, Land Traffic in the Annexation of Texas (New York: Columbia University Press, 1949)Google Scholar.

7 Heath, Milton S., “Public Railroad Construction and the Development of Private Enterprise in the South before 1861,” The Journal of Economic History (Supplement, 1950), 40–53CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The earlier work is “Public Cooperation in Railroad Construction in the Southern United States to 1861,” unpublished dissertation, Harvard University, 1937Google Scholar.

8 Sanderlin, Walter S., The Great National Project, A History of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1946)Google Scholar. Jordan, Philip D., The National Road (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Company, n.d.)Google Scholar.

9 Pierce, Harry H., The Railroads of New Yory, A Study of Government Aid, 1826-1829 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1953)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Goodrich, Carter and Segal, Harvey H., “Baltimore's Aid to Railroads,” The Journal of Economic History, XII (Winter 1953), 2–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 Russel, Robert R., Improvement of Communications with the Pacific Coast as an Issue in American Politics, 1783-1864 (Cedar Rapids, la.: The Torch Press, 1948)Google Scholar.

11 Goodrich, Carter, “National Planning of Internal Improvements,” Political Science Quarterly, XLIII (03 1948), 15–44Google Scholar; “The Virginia System of Mixed Enterprise,” ibid., XLIV (Sept. 1949), 355-87; and “The Revulsion Against Internal Improvements,” The Journal of Economic History, X (11 1950), 145–69Google Scholar.

12 In unpublished dissertations Cranmer has shown how New Jersey obtained a developmental canal without paying the usual subsidy; Segal has studied the expenditures of three great public-works states with special reference to their impact on the business cycle; and Sadove has examined the conquest of the Appalachian Barrier as a problem in innovation. Cranmer, H. Jerome, “The New Jersey Canals, A Study of the Role of Government in Economic Development,” Columbia University, 1955Google Scholar. Segal, Harvey H., “Canal Cycles, 1834-1861: Public Construction Experience in New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio,” Columbia University, 1956Google Scholar. Sadove, Abraham H., “Transport Improvement and the Appalachian Barrier: A Case Study in Economic Innovation,” Harvard University, 1950Google Scholar. See also Jacklin, Kathleen Bessie, “Local Aid to Railroads in Illinois, 1848-1870,” unpublished master's thesis, Cornell University, 1958Google Scholar; and Miller, Nathan, “The Enterprise of a Free People. The Erie Canal and the Erie Canal Fund in the Economy of New York State, 1815-1837,” unpublished doctoral dissertation, Columbia University, 1959Google Scholar.

13 Lively, Robert A., “The American System, A Review Article,” Business History Review, XXIX (03 1955), 81–96CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14 Kirkland, Edward C., Men, Cities and Transportation, A Study in New England History, 1820-1900 (2 vols.; Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1948)Google Scholar.

15 Winther, Oscar Osburn, The Old Oregon Country, A History of Frontier Trade, Transportation and Travel (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1950)Google Scholar.

18 Taylor, George Rogers, The Transportation Revolution, 1815-1860 (New York: Rinehart & Company, 1951), p. 98Google Scholar. This book is Vol. IV of The Economic History of the United States.

17 Livingood, James Weston, The Philadelphia-Baltimore Trade Rivalry, 1780-1860 (Harrisburg: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1947)Google Scholar; Belcher, Wyatt Winton, The Economic Rivalry between St. Louis and Chicago, 1850-1880 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1947)Google Scholar; Rubin, Julius, “Innovation by Railroad or Imitation by Canal,” dissertation in progress, Columbia UniversityGoogle Scholar.

18 Hill, Forest G., Roads, Rails & Waterways, The Army Engineers and Early Transportation (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1957)Google Scholar.

19 Jackson, W. Turrentine, Wagon Roads West, A Study of Federal Road Surveys and Construction in the Trans-Mississippi West, 1846-1869 (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1952)Google Scholar; Deyrup, Felicia Johnson, Arms Makers of the Connecticut Valley, A Regional Study of the Economic Development of the Small Arms Industry, 1798-1870 (Northampton: Smith College Studies in History, 1948)Google Scholar.

20 Hammond, Bray, Banks and Politics in America from the Revolution to the Civil War (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1957)Google Scholar.

21 Schlesinger, Arthur M. Jr, The Age of Jackson (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1945)Google Scholar. For criticisms on economic issues see Dorfman, Joseph, “The Jackson Wage-Earner Thesis,” American Historical Review, LIV (01 1949), 296–306CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Govan, Thomas P., “Fundamental Issues in the Bank War,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, LXXXII (07 1956), 315–316Google Scholar.

22 Taylor, George Rogers, in Political Science Quarterly, LXXIII (03 1958), 153–55CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

23 Smith, Walter Buckingham, Economic Aspects of the Second Bank, of the United Slates (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1953)Google Scholar; Redlich, Fritz, The Molding of American Banking, Men and Ideas (New York: Hafner Publishing Co., Part I-1947 and 1951, Part II-1951)Google Scholar.

24 Hidy, Ralph W., The House of Baring in American Trade and Finance, English Merchant Bankers at Work., 1763-1861 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1949)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

25 Williamson, Harold F., ed., The Growth of the American Economy (2d ed., New York: Prentice-Hall, 1951), ch. xiii, esp. pp. 252–54Google Scholar; Golembe, Carter H., “State Banks and the Economic Development of the West, 1830-1844,” unpublished dissertation, Columbia University, 1952Google Scholar.

26 Dorfman, Joseph, The Economic Mind in American Civilization, 1606-1865 (New York: Viking Press, 1946), 2 volsGoogle Scholar.

27 Hacker, Louis M., Alexander Hamilton in the American Tradition (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1957)Google Scholar.

28 Mitchell, Broadus, Alexander Hamilton: Youth to Maturity, 1955-1988 (New York: Macmillan Co., 1957)Google Scholar. The comment on the Hacker interpretation is taken from Broadus Mitchell, Heritage from Hamilton (New York: Columbia University Press, 1957), pp. 50–51Google Scholar.

29 Morris, Richard B., ed., The Basic Ideas of Alexander Hamilton (New York: Pocket Library, 1957)Google Scholar.

30 Walters, Raymond Jr, Albert Gallatin, ]effersonian Financier and Diplomat (New York: Macmillan Co., 1957)Google Scholar.

31 See n.: 6.

32 Hunter, Louis C., Steamboats on the Western Rivers, An Economic and Technological History (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1949)Google Scholar.

33 Williamson, , Growth of the American Economy, chs. x, xiGoogle Scholar.

34 Thompson, Robert Luther, Wiring a Continent, The History of the Telegraph Industry in the United States, 1832-1866 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1947)Google Scholar.

35 Davis, Pearce, The Development of the American Glass Industry (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1949)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

36 Gates, William B. Jr, Michigan Copper and Boston Dollars, An Economic History of the Michigan Copper Mining Industry (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1951)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Larson, Agnes M., History of the White Pine Industry in Minnesota (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1949)Google Scholar; Fries, Robert F., Empire in Pine, The Story of Lumbering in Wisconsin, 18J0-1900 (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1951)Google Scholar; Taber, Martha Van Hoesen, A History of the Cutlery Industry in the Connecticut Valley (Northampton: Smith College Studies in History, 1955)Google Scholar.

37 McNall, Neil Adams, An Agricultural History of the Genesee Valley, 1790-1860 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1952)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. A volume eagerly awaited by students in this field is scheduled for publication in 1959: Gates, Paul W., Agriculture, 1813-1860. This will be Vol. III of the nine-volume Economic History of the United States published by Rinehart & CompanyGoogle Scholar.

38 Atherton, Lewis E., The Southern Country Store, 1800-1860 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1949)Google Scholar. McKelvey, Blake, Rochester, The Water-Power City, 1812-1854 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1945)Google Scholar might also be included under this heading, although its interest in economic development is somewhat less sustained than the subtitle would suggest. It includes a vivid account of the boom created by the Erie Canal. A sequel carries the story into a later period: Rochester, The Flower City, 1855-1890 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1949)Google Scholar.

39 Weaver, Herbert, Mississippi Farmers, 1850-1860 (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1945)Google Scholar.

40 Carson, Gerald, The Old Country Store (New York: Oxford University Press, 1954)Google Scholar, Wagenen, Jared Van Jr, The Golden Age of Homespun (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1953)Google Scholar; Josephson, Hannah, The Golden Threads: New England's Mill Girls and Magnates (New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1949)Google Scholar.

41 Foner, Philip S., History of the American Labor Movement in the United States, From Colonial Times to the Founding of the American Federation of Labor (New York: International Publishers, 1947)Google Scholar.

42 Bestor, Arthur Eugene Jr, Backwoods Utopias, The Sectarian and Owenite Phases of Communitarian Socialism in America: 1663-1829 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1950)Google Scholar. Arrington, Leonard J., Great Basin Kingdom, An Economic History of the Latter-Day Saints, 1830-1900 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1958)Google Scholar.

43 The Journal of Economic History, XVII (12 1957), 509–53Google Scholar. See also Rostow, W. W., The Process of Economic Growth (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1952)Google Scholar and Goodrich, Carter, “Economic History and Economic Development,” in Economic Growth: Rationale, Problems, Cases (Austin: University of Texas Press, in preparation), Part I, no. 1Google Scholar.

44 Matthews, R. C. O., A Study in Trade-Cycle History, Economic Fluctuations in Great Britain, 1833-1842 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1954)Google Scholar; Hughes, J. R. T., Fluctuations in Trade, Industry and Finance: A Study of British Economic Development, 1850-1860 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, in preparation)Google Scholar. The quotations are from Matthews, p. xiii. Ch. V of his book is devoted to “The American Market and Its Fluctuations.”

45 Kuznets, Simon, “National Income Estimates for the United States Prior to 1870,” The Journal of Economic History, XII (Spring 1952), 115–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

46 Raymond Goldsmith, in International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, Income and Wealth in the United States: Trends and Structure (Cambridge, England: Bowes and Bowes, 1952), pp. 245–328Google Scholar. This is Vol. II of Studies in Income and Wealth.

47 As Vol. XXIV of Studies in Income and Wealth.

48 Stampp, Kenneth, The Peculiar Institution (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1956), ch. ixGoogle Scholar; Conrad, Alfred H. and Meyer, John R., “The Economics of Slavery in the Ante Bellum South,” Journal of Political Economy, LXVII (04 1958), 95–130CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

49 Rostow, Walt W., “The Take-Off into Self-Sustained Growth,” Economic Journal, LXVI (03 1956), 25–48CrossRefGoogle Scholar. He suggests the years 1843-60 as the American “take-off.” Paul H. Cootner, “Transport Innovation and Economic Development: The Case of the U.S. Steam Railroads,” unpublished dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1953. Cited in Rostow, “The Take-Off into Self-Sustained Growth.”.

51 Davis, Lance E., “Sources of Industrial Finance: The American Textile Industry, A Case Study,” Explorations in Entrepreneurial History, IX (04 1957), 189–203Google Scholar.

52 Smith, Alfred Glaze Jr, Economic Readjustment of an Old Cotton State, South Carolina, 1820-1860 (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1958)Google Scholar.