A Radical Endeavor: Joseph Chamberlain and the Emergence of Municipal Socialism in Birmingham

Joseph Chamberlain, an industrial entrepreneur, proponent of the “civic gospel,” and emerging British Radical Liberal leader of the 1870s, established Birmingham as one of the most influential models for municipal socialism in Europe and North America. Arguing gas and water ought to be in public hands and city officials ought to take a role in securing inhabitants’ health, he set the stage for continued mayoral activism and municipal socialism in the late 19^th and early 20^th century.     

Henry George,Jane Jacobs,and Free Trade

Henry George and Jane Jacobs were both journalists and made a contribution to economics based on their commitment to the original version of free trade, as understood by 19^th‐century liberals, rather than the late 20^th‐century version. The distinctive concept of free trade, as originally understood, was as an instrument for small‐scale producers to break up entrenched monopolies and serve the interests of the ordinary citizen. That was how Cobden used it in the debates over the Corn Laws in the 1840s, and how Ruskin, Gesell, Chesterton, and other critics conceived of economic liberation. In debates over free trade in recent decades, that term has come to mean a defense of power and privilege, the exact opposite of the intent of 19^th‐century liberals. George and Jacobs sought to restore the original meaning by developing theories of development and distribution that would enable the market system to benefit everyone.     

The Vanity of the Economist: A Comment on Peart and Levy's The “Vanity of the Philosopher”*

Abstract . In the Vanity of the Philosopher, Sandra Peart and David Levy reconsider “postclassical” economics from the vantage point of Adam Smith's “analytical” egalitarianism. Analytical egalitarianism is assumed, not proved; and Peart and Levy's criticisms of many 19^th‐ and early 20^th‐century economists, as well as eugenics in general, depend on equivocating between analytical and substantive egalitarianism. They fail to provide a non–question‐begging critique of eugenics.     

Henry George and the Intellectual Foundations of the Open Source Movement

The emergence of a common development platform (either in the form of open source projects or proprietary products) and the corresponding economic communities that emerge to support those platforms is similar in scale and scope to the concept of the city found in Henry George's economics of time and place. A modern counterpart to the 19^th‐century focus on land can be found in the 20^th‐century concern with the establishment of intellectual property rights that fence off a portion of the creative commons in order to construct temporary monopolies. Captured in the open source movement where licenses that specify property rights are adopted in order to provide a great deal of flexibility in terms of how ideas are used and shared, a strong connection can be drawn between this modern movement and the work of Henry George. Building a connection between the two provides greater clarity in terms of understanding how in a modern technology‐based economy, progress can be achieved without poverty.     

Ricardo,Gold, and Rails: Discovering the Origins of Progress and Poverty

Henry George's Progress and Poverty was one of the most widely read books of the 19^th century. It is important to acknowledge the influence of classical writers such as Smith and Ricardo on George's thought. However, the content of George's most popular work cannot be fully appreciated unless one takes account of the historical period and social context within which its author came to maturity: Philadelphia and California before 1879 are part of the story of Progress and Poverty ( 1979 ).     

Determinants of share price movements in emerging equity markets:: Some evidence from america’s past

Emerging equity markets are plagued by poor information, which is a barrier to outside shareholder participation. This paper examines the determinants of share prices of two United States companies over a 14-year period during the late 19^th century, when America had an emerging equity market. These two companies withheld all information on profits and assets until the end of the period, yet traded regularly. Overall, the evidence suggests that outside investors received sufficient compensation for their ignorance, and that these outsiders set the market price. An event study shows that when information about company assets was revealed, market returns were significantly changed.     

American Commerce,American Empire: Late 19th-Century Merchant Organizations and Trade Policy

The American debate over free trade and protectionism has taken many forms, but it is particularly instructive when it occurs within a single sector of the economy, pitting allied economic interests against each other. That occurred in the shipping industry in the 19^th century when shippers and shipbuilders fought each other over trade-related questions: subsidies for shipbuilding and reciprocal trade agreements with foreign nations. Shipbuilders wanted protection and subsidies; shippers wanted the freedom to make use of cheaper foreign vessels for trade and to develop trade agreements. We show how these opposing forces stymied each other and prevented the shipping industry from taking an active, unified role in national politics. These particular intra-industry debates reveal broader divisions within the business community over the relationship between business and government under modern commercial capitalism.     

Politics,Economic Provisioning,and Suffrage in St. Louis: What Women Said,What Men Heard

One of the enduring questions in history is why any group would choose to share power with another group. The granting of suffrage to American women in 1919 is one of those events in which we seek answers. I focus here on the diversity of women's economic provisioning functions, arguing that, because of that diversity, the granting of suffrage had more political benefits to the men in power and less political risks. The social provisioning status‐quo, which had been threatened by the feminist voices of the 19^th century, must have seemed to be back under the control of the men in power. In order to consider economic provisioning and politics more specifically, I study the economic profile of women and the political cost/benefit thinking of male legislators in St. Louis, Missouri.     

Populism and the Populists: The Incoherent Coherence of Coxey's March

Coxey's March was a multidimensional spectacle reflecting the disparate social and intellectual strands that comprised an energetic late 19^th‐century producer's movement. This well‐staged, though seemingly spontaneous, march was emblematic of a brand of grassroots populism that united producers from farm fields to factory floors. Their cause was propelled by an eclectic array of reformers whose distinct ideas to change the economic landscape were united only in their common vision of a more cooperative, rather than corporate, vision of the future. Coxey shared in that vision with his bold public works plan. In choosing a direct form of democratic expression, and then adorning it with religious and utopian symbols, his march to Washington reflected the essence of a progressive populism churning throughout the Gilded Age.     

Nature,Economy, and Equity: Sacred Water,Profane Markets

Numerous conflicts over natural resources can be overcome by restoring reciprocity between public and private sectors of the economy. Chapter 1 reviews two competing forms of environmentalism: one that accommodates business interests by giving public resources to them, and one that sacralizes the bond between society and nature by protecting both environmental quality and social equity. Chapter 2 discusses problems around the world that can be traced to mismanagement of natural resources, including land grabs and poverty. It also reveals a natural confluence between environmental, economic, and social concerns. Chapter 3 shows problems created by California's water tenure laws. California's 19^th century equitable solution (the Wright Act) is examined, along with inequities in legal regimes of India, Pakistan, South Africa, and the Philippines. Chapter 4 is a case study of how water laws have affected one river in California's Central Valley by preventing efficient water use. Chapter 5 shows why “water markets,” the standard panacea offered by most economists, have failed to improve either the efficiency or equity of water allocations in California and why such schemes are likely to fail for other natural resources. The missing element in such plans is a method of creating reciprocity by compensating the public, as the original owners of all natural resources. Chapter 6 concludes with four principles derived from the foregoing analysis.     

Hazen S. Pingree and the Detroit Model of Urban Reform

Hazen S. Pingree was a remarkable civic leader. In his four terms as mayor of Detroit from 1889 to 1897, Pingree lowered the cost of vital public utilities, including gas, lighting, and transit; modernized the city's sewage system; and rooted out corruption and dishonesty in municipal government. He successfully spearheaded the movement for the three‐cent streetcar fare and brought Detroit to the brink of public ownership and operation of its own transit system. Pingree's social reform program for Detroit centered around two interrelated urban reform movements gathering steam at the turn of the 20^th century: the movement for municipal ownership and the movement to equalize taxes by increasing taxes on corporate property. Both of these movements drew heavily from Henry George's single tax. In particular, Pingree's efforts to secure a municipally owned and operated street railway system and effort to increase taxation on corporate property illustrate the ways in which turn‐of‐the‐20^th‐century civic leaders drew from the rhetoric and substance of George's ideas to implement progressive urban reforms.     

Cyclical Housing Markets and Homelessness

The fundamental explanation of homelessness has eluded governments that claim to operate with “evidence-based policies.” The underlying cause of most homelessness is inherent in land markets, which are subject to wide swings of speculative manias followed by debilitating depressions. Rather than seeking to rectify the economic roots of homelessness by altering the tax treatment of real estate, governments focus on ameliorative strategies that are destined to fail. Cycles of boom and bust in land markets have persisted since the 19^th century. They exacerbate homelessness by pricing low-income renters out of the market during the upswing, as land prices rise, and by generating massive foreclosures and evictions during the downswing. The most important action government could take to remedy the problem of homelessness is to devise policies to dampen the swings in land prices.     

History of the Meetings of the Allied Social Science Associations Since World War II

The Allied Social Science Associations is a marketing name for an annual three‐day, citywide conference of about 9,000 economists that is organized, managed, and controlled by the American Economic Association (AEA). AEA invites the participation of about 50 additional (i.e., allied) economics‐related societies that organize the scholarly content of a portion of the ASSA meetings. It is this broader meeting that operates under the ASSA flag. Although the AEA has met periodically with other social science associations since the 19^th century, the current format dates back to the 1960s. The convention rotates among approximately 10 large U.S. cities. A centralized staff at AEA headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee has managed the convention since 1986. The ASSA name was first used on the conference program in 1952.     

Financialization and Income Inequality in the United States, 1967–2010

This article presents a historical overview of the late 20^th‐century advent of financialization, that is, the unprecedented growth of the financial sector. We summarize its origins and consequences, particularly greater income inequality. An econometric model quantifies the relationship. We conclude that along with higher unemployment and an eroding minimum wage, the growth of the U.S. financial sector has contributed to the exacerbation of inequality in recent decades.     

Radical Trade Reform: From Industrial to Ecological Civilization

All theories of international trade that are based on the paradigm of industrial civilization are becoming obsolete. The premises behind the principle of comparative advantage, which developed in the historical context of the early 19^th century, are disappearing. Uncertainties about the future of fossil fuels, conflicts between rich and poor, global ecological fragility, and many other symptoms of system failure have revealed the flaws of industrial civilization and international trade. We examine the history of trade theory within the framework of industrial civilization. We then propose the transition to an ecological civilization, which will restore the diversity of cultures by moving away from the homogeneous world culture that globalization has begun to create. Under the conditions of ecological civilization, international trade will serve the human need to exchange the surplus of each society and to communicate with other cultures. It will cease to be a system of debt and dependence that threatens the sovereignty of most nations today.     

Birth of the Modern Corporation: From Servant of the State to Semi‐Sovereign Power

It is widely known that large business corporations have accumulated enormous political and economic power since the early 20^th century. They not only create barriers to entry to small firms in the economic domain, they also pose a serious threat to democracy by dominating public discourse and occupying a wide range of public spaces. Efforts to halt or reverse the growth of corporate power have been largely ineffective, in large part because they have been entirely reactive. In order for citizens to reclaim the economy and politics, a new strategy is necessary, one that starts by analyzing the source of corporate power. The method of analysis in this article is historical, specifically the history of changes in the United States of the legal instruments of incorporation and their relationship to emerging conditions in the economy and business. In the first half of the 19^th century, corporations were chartered by state governments to carry out public benefit activities, particularly infrastructure projects. These mixed corporations lost favor during the depression of the 1840s and were replaced by private for‐profit corporations that continued using the same debt financing instruments employed by states. They were also still regulated by the states that issued their charters. When corporations sought to avoid competition by creating cartels, they had difficulty maintaining discipline and discovered they needed new rights in order to gain permanent control of markets. In the 1890s, they were granted the status of “natural persons,” with the legal protections of citizens, but they also gained the right to buy other corporations, thereby solidifying their market power and making them largely autonomous from public control. Each transition was contested, but when it was completed, it seemed to the public as if corporations had always had their new powers. In order to regain the power to hold corporations accountable to the public, those old contested issues need to be brought back into public discourse, so that citizens might decide for themselves how much power corporations should have.     

Natural Rights: Henry George and the Economic Fruits of a Good Society

This article examines Henry George's understanding of how natural rights grow out of a just society. His views were influenced by the 17^th‐century proponents of natural rights, but cannot be subsumed under them. The connection of freedom to obligation affirmed by George's classical Protestantism allowed him to overcome tension between theories of natural law and natural rights. Rights and responsibilities were not abstractions for George. His practical solution for restructuring society offers a modern path to a more just society in which rights would abound.     

“Economic Policies Are the Best Social Policies”: West German Neoliberalism and the Housing Question After 1945

This article challenges the widespread view that neoliberalism had become hegemonic in the late 20^th century by zooming into a less well‐known variant of neoliberalism, German ordoliberalism, whose political ascendency dates back to the 1940s and 1950s. Through the lens of post‐WWII housing policies—a central field of political intervention after 1945—this article focuses on the remaking of social policies as neoliberal policies in West Germany, a remake that rendered the market economy a key source of political legitimacy of the newly emerging, liberal democracy.     

Real Estate,Public Works,and Political Organization in Winnipeg, 1870–1885

The second half of the 19^th century represented an era of great territorial expansion in almost all the countries of “recent settlement.” In Canada, Winnipeg, the capital of the Province of Manitoba, went from a small hamlet located at the confluence of the Assiniboine and Red Rivers to become the third largest Canadian city at the turn of the century. I argue that the development of a real estate market and the organization of the local political institutions in Winnipeg were interconnected mechanisms that the emerging business elite used to obtain political and economic power during the years of city organization (1870–1885). The disputes over land ownership and the uncertain distribution of land titles among parties related by business and family ties showed how individuals exploited the weakness of the state to secure personal benefits. In this era, old settlers, newcomers, speculators, and business representatives of central Canada and British firms, acting alone or in partnership, attempted to obtain political control of a city in its making and to acquire power and economic benefits through the commodification of urban land. After a period of corruption and mismanagement, a new group organized within the Board of Trade obtained political control of the city and initiated a new cycle of political stability.