What were the economic roots of modern industrialism? Were labor unions ever effective in raising workers' living standards? Did high levels of taxation in the past normally lead to economic decline? These and similar questions profoundly inform a wide range of intertwined social issues whose complexity, scope, and depth become fully evident in the Encyclopedia. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of the field, the Encyclopedia is divided not only by chronological and geographic boundaries, but also by related subfields such as agricultural history, demographic history, business history, and the histories of technology, migration, and transportation. The articles, all written and signed by international contributors, include scholars from Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Covering economic history in all areas of the world and segments of ecnomies from prehistoric times to the present, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History is the ideal resource for students, economists, and general readers, offering a unique glimpse into this integral part of world history.

Published in the year 1975, Study of Economic History is a valuable contribution to the field of Military and Strategic Studies.

The first comprehensive economic history of pre-colonial Madagascar, this study examines the island's role from 1750 to 1895 in the context of a burgeoning international economy and the rise of modern European imperialism. This study reveals that the Merina of the Central Highlands attempted to found an island empire and through the exploitation of its human and natural resources build the economic and military might to challenge British and French pretensions in the region. Ultimately, the Merina failed due to imperial forced labour policies and natural disasters, the nefarious consequences of which (disease; depopulation; ethnic enmity) have in traditional histories been imputed external capitalist and French colonial policies.

There is a striking chronological parallel between Germany’s transition from a post-Malthusian regime to modern economic growth and the formation of a modern nation-state between the late 1860s and the early 1880s, which culminated in the events of 1871.The central question of this book is whether and how such state formation did in fact contribute to economic development. Twenty chapters written by leading experts in their respective fields deal with various aspects of the book’s main question. Together, they identify three channels by which national unification contributed to Germany’s economic development: (1) Creation of a nation-state completed a process of institutional Unification of a large inland area and thereby increased the integration of domestic markets. (2) Unification raised the capacity of the political system with respect to regulating complex domains, such as stock companies, patenting, and social insurance. (3) The emerging political regime of market-preserving federalism promoted the quality of economic institutions. Moreover, a set of chapters dealing with the experience of other European economies apart from Germany during the second half of the nineteenth century highlight additional factors in nineteenth-century economic development, most notably the first wave of modern globalization and economic geography. Readers interested in the history of state building and the economic history of Germany and of Europe in general during the age of industrialization and globalization and students of the economic effects of political integration and decentralized state growth will all gain much from this book.

A retrospective on the Federal Reserve, these essays by leading historians and economists investigate how financial infrastructure shapes economic outcomes.

Research in Economic History is a well-established publication presenting influential work by leading researchers in the field of economic history, including economists, historians, and demographers.

The book, first published in 1977, contrasts new and older approaches to the history of transport and outlines a critical exposition of the methods used to quantify the contribution of railways to economic growth by means of counterfactual speculation and the measurement of social savings. The author also outlines and appraises an alternative measure of the impact of railways, namely the social rate of return on capital invested in railways. The final chapters are concerned with the effects on growth generated by the construction and diffusion of railways through expenditure on labour, capital goods and industrial inputs and through their effects on the integration of markets, and patterns of location.

Incorporating political, economic, and environmental factors, this book explores the evolution of health and living standards in Brazil in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It draws on anthropometric data and an interdisciplinary approach to illuminate the profound socioeconomic transformations that unfolded in Brazil during this period. Through an analysis of archival military and passport records, the book reveals an increase in heights starting in the 1880s, predating the Vargas Era’s economic growth and social reforms. It also offers novel insights into Brazil’s regional development divide, showing that regional height differentials existed as early as the mid-nineteenth century (before industrialization began in earnest). Innovative methods, such as surname sorting to study immigration and merging anthropometric data with historical weather records to study the link between climate and health, are introduced. Qualitative evidence on municipal-level clean water and sewage interventions, along with data on malaria and hookworm disease, further corroborate the observed longitudinal trends and spatial patterns in stature. Scholars and students of historical anthropometrics, living standards, and Brazilian history will find this book essential, as will those with a broader interest in Latin American or economic history.

This collection represents a modest attempt to chart a new course for the intellectual discipline known as economic history. (The book is not about productivity growth in the 1990s, lest the title give rise to any confusion.) As a group, these essays suggest new and potentially fruitful areas or approaches for research and at the same time address weaknesses in past efforts. One important audience will be graduate students attempting to decide whether to write a dissertation in economic history, or trying to select or refine dissertation topics in the area, and determine how to approach them. Some of the essays will most certainly be appropriate additions to the or semester courses in economic history that remain a fixture in quarter graduate economics training programs. A second audience should be established scholars who are now or have in the past done research in economic history and are interested in the perspectives of a relatively younger group of scholars. The term "younger" is used here advisedly to describe a group of scholars born between 1943 and 1954. Nevertheless, the authors of these essays can on at least one dimension be distinguished from the pathbreaking new economic his torians who established their academic reputations in the early 1960s. Indeed, the contributors to this volume include students of such pioneers as Richard Easterlin, Albert Fishlow, William Parker, and Jeffrey Williamson.