Synopses & Reviews
The rise of America from a colonial outpost to one of the worldand#8217;s most sophisticated and productive economies was facilitated by the establishment of a variety of economic enterprises pursued within the framework of laws and institutions that set the rules for their organization and operation.
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To better understand the historical processes central to American economic development, Enterprising America brings together contributors who address the economic behavior of American firms and financial institutionsand#151;and the associated legal institutions that shaped their behaviorand#151;throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Collectively, the contributions provide an account of the ways in which businesses, banks, and credit markets promoted Americaand#8217;s extraordinary economic growth. Among the topics that emerge are the rise of incorporation and its connection to factory production in manufacturing, the organization and operation of large cotton plantations in comparison with factories, the regulation and governance of banks, the transportation revolutionand#8217;s influence on bank stability and survival, and the emergence of long-distance credit in the context of an economy that was growing rapidly and becoming increasingly integrated across space.
Synopsis
Research by economists and economic historians has greatly expanded our knowledge of labor markets and real wages in the United States since the Civil War, but the period from 1820 to 1860 has been far less studied. Robert Margo fills this gap by collecting and analyzing the payroll records of civilians hired by the United States Army and the 1850 and 1860 manuscript federal Censuses of Social Statistics. New wage series are constructed for three occupational groupsand#8212;common laborers, artisans, and white-collar workersand#8212;in each of the four major census regionsand#8212;Northeast, Midwest, South Atlantic, and South Centraland#8212;over the period 1820 to 1860, and also for California between 1847 and 1860. Margo uses these data, along with previously collected evidence on prices, to explore a variety of issues central to antebellum economic development.
This volume makes a significant contribution to economic history by presenting a vast amount of previously unexamined data to advance the understanding of the history of wages and labor markets in the antebellum economy.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 183-194) and index.
About the Author
William J. Collins is the Terence E. Adderley Jr. Professor of Economics at Vanderbilt University and a research associate of the NBER.Robert A. Margo is professor of economics at Boston University and a research associate of the NBER.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
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Introduction
William J. Collins and Robert A. Margo
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I. Business Organization and Internal Governance
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1. Revisiting American Exceptionalism: Democracy and the Regulation of Corporate Governance: The Case of Nineteenth-Century Pennsylvania in Comparative Context
Naomi R. Lamoreaux
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2. Corporate Governance and the Development of Manufacturing Enterprises in Nineteenth-Century Massachusetts
Eric Hilt
Comment: Claudia Rei
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3. The Evolution of Bank Boards of Directors in New York, 1840?1950
Howard Bodenhorn and Eugene N. White
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II. Bank Behavior and Credit Markets
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4. Did Railroads Make Antebellum US Banks More Sound?
Jeremy Atack, Matthew S. Jaremski, and Peter L. Rousseau
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5. Sources of Credit and the Extent of the Credit Market: A View from Bankruptcy Records in Mississippi, 1929andndash;1936
Mary Eschelbach Hansen
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III. Scale Economies in Nineteenth-Century Production
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6. Economies of Scale in Nineteenth-Century American Manufacturing Revisited: A Resolution of the Entrepreneurial Labor Input Problem
Robert A. Margo
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7. Were Antebellum Cotton Plantations Factories in the Field?
Alan L. Olmstead and Paul W. Rhode
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Contributors
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Author Index
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Subject Index