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American Neutrality and Prosperity, 1793–1808: A Reconsideration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2010

Donald R. Adams Jr.
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Extract

“Europe's misfortunes from 1790 to 1810 unquestionably re bounded [sic] to America's benefit. In the absence of warfare among the Europeans, American output and incomes would have been less.”

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 40 , Issue 4 , December 1980 , pp. 713 - 737
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1980

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References

1 Gunderson, Gerald, A New Economic History of America (New York, 1976), p. 112Google Scholar.

2 North, Douglass C., The Economic Growth of the United States, 1790–1860 (New York, 1961), p. 53Google Scholar.

3 Ibid.

4 Nettels, Curtis P., The Emergence of a National Economy, 1775–1815 (New York, 1962), pp. 233–36Google Scholar.

5 David, Paul, “The Growth of Real Product in the United States Before 1840: New Evidence, Controlled Conjectures,” this Journal, 30 (June 1967), 193Google Scholar.

6 Ibid.

7 Goldin, Claudia D. and Lewis, Frank D., “The Role of Exports in American Economic Growth During the Napoleonic Wars, 1793–1807,” Explorations in Economic History, 17 (Jan. 1980), 10CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 Ibid., 21–22.

9 North, The Economic Growth, p. 229.

10 Ibid., p. 270.

11 Bezanson, Anne, Gray, Robert D., and Hussey, Miriam, Wholesale Prices in Philadelphia, 1784–1861, pt. 1, University of Pennsylvania Research Study No. 29 (Philadelphia, 1936), p. 392CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

12 Pitkin, Timothy, A Statistical View of the Commerce of the United States (1816) (New York 1967), pp. 96–97Google Scholar.

13 David, “The Growth of Real Product,” 190.

14 Ibid., 190–91.

15 Goldin and Lewis, “The Role of Exports,” 10.

16 David, “The Growth of Real Product,” 189.

17 North, Douglass C., “The United States Balance of Payments, 1790–1860” in Trends in the American Economy in the Nineteenth Century, Conference on Research in Income and Wealth, Studies in Income and Wealth, National Bureau of Economic Research, vol. 24 (Princeton, 1960), p. 600Google Scholar.

18 North, The Economic Growth, p. 27.

19 Ibid., p. 20.

20 Pitkin, A Statistical View, pp. 96–97, 101–02, 180.

21 Nettels, The Emergence, p. 242.

22 Hutchins, John G. B., The American Maritime Industries and Public Policy, 1789–1914 (Cambridge, MA, 1941), p. 171Google Scholar; North, “The United States Balance of Payments,” p. 600.

23 Nettels, The Emergence, p. 111.

24 Johnson, Emory et al. , History of Domestic and Foreign Commerce of the United States, vol. 2 (Washington, D.C., 1915), p. 28Google Scholar.

25 U.S. Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States (Washington, D.C., 1975), p. 445Google ScholarPubMed.

26 For a more detailed discussion of real wages during the period 1790–1830, see Adams, Donald R., “Wage Rates in the Early National Period: Philadelphia, 1785–1830,” this Journal, 27 (Sept. 1968), 404–26Google Scholar.

27 Hutchins, The American Maritime Industries, p. 172.

28 See Adams, “Wage Rates,” especially 422, 424.

29 In this respect it is difficult to interpret North's contention that “… the years 1790–92 reflected no significant alteration in the position of our carrying trade…,” The Economic Growth, pp. 20–21.

30 Smith, Walter B. and Cole, Arthur H., Fluctuations in American Business, 1790–1860 (Cambridge, MA, 1935), p. 23Google Scholar.

31 North, “The United States Balance of Payments,” p. 600.

32 An outstanding example of this concurrence of interests was Stephen Girard of Philadelphia, who was simultaneously one of the city's premier international merchants and the largest stockholder in the Bank of the United States.

33 Taylor, George R., “American Urban Growth Preceding the Railway Age,” this Journal, 26 (Sept. 1966), 322Google Scholar.

34 Ibid.

35 Scharf, J. Thomas and Westcott, Thompson, History of Philadelphia, vol. 3 (Philadelphia, 1884), p. 1762Google Scholar.

36 Adams, Donald R. Jr., “Residential Construction Industry in the Early Nineteenth Century,” this Journal, 35 (Dec. 1975), 811Google Scholar.

37 Adams, , “Some Evidence on English and American Wage Rates,” this Journal, 30 (Sept. 1970), 514Google Scholar.

38 David, Paul A. and Solar, Peter, “A Bicentenary Contribution to the History of the Cost of Living in America,” Uselding, Paul, ed., Research in Economic History, vol. 2 (Greenwich, CT, 1977), pp. 17, 59Google Scholar.

39 North, The Economic Growth, pp. 42–43.

40 Pitkin, A Statistical View, pp. 53–56.

41 Ibid., p. 52.

42 Nettels, The Emergence, p. 239.

43 Ibid., p. 325.

44 Johnson, History of Domestic and Foreign Commerce, p. 29.

45 North, Douglass C., “Sources of Productivity Change in Ocean Shipping, 1600–1850,” in Fogel, Robert and Engerman, Stanley, eds., The Reinterpretation of American Economic History (New York, 1971), p. 166Google Scholar.

46 Because of the profitability of illicit trade during this period it seems likely that some losses went unreported. For the same reason, total trade was no doubt greater than reflected in the official statistics.

47 U.S. Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics, p. 719.