Food,fare and nutrition some reflections on the historical development of food consumption

Abstract

Cajsa Warg's old maxim ‘One eats what there is’ — apparently self-explanatory in its simplicity — has a different significance for the understanding of the historical development of food consumption and diet from what might be expected at first glance. The absolute food surplus which industrial and post-industrial society has generated during the last century has helped to conceal certain essential links between food consumption and more general economic and social development in fare-industrial society which was not characterised by self-generating and constantly increasing growth. The assumption of food scarcity in former times, allied to a paucity of research in this field, has among other things conjured up an image of a continual improvement and increase in food consumption coupled with the massive rise in productive capacity during the most recent centuries.     

In defence of Heckscher and the idea of Mercantilism

Abstract

In his recent reappraisal of Heckscher's Mercantilism ² Dr. Coleman raised certain questions concerning Heckscher's methodological approach which transcend the immediate problem of the nature and validity of the idea of ‘mercantilism’ and have a bearing upon the broader issue of the relationships between economic conditions, ideas and policy. To the present writer, the danger that Heckscher's development of the idea of mercantilism will drive yet another wedge between the political and the economic historians as Dr. Coleman fears,³ is less serious than the danger that Heckscher's apparent reluctance to admit the influence of economic conditions upon economic ideas,⁴ and his readiness to pass directly from generalizations about economic ideas to generalizations about economic policy, will widen the existing gap between economic historians and historians of economic doctrine, two groups of scholars whose mutual services should be considerable. To the student of economic ideas who seeks to rescue his discipline from the sterile pursuit of tracing the genealogy of particular analytic propositions, of which some of his colleagues seem inordinately fond, the matter is one of crucial importance.     

Between micro and macro — what economic history can learn from modern economics

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to discuss the role of economic history to modern economic theory. Taking my point of departure from the division that still haunts economic history — between micro and macro approaches — the paper argues that economic theory today is significantly different from what it was only twenty or thirty years ago. Hence, for example, the division between micro and macro has been upset in modern economics. Also the development of institutional economics, the use of concepts like “bounded rationality” or “path dependence” makes it necessary for economic historians to learn from and confront modern economic theorizing. Many economic historians criticise a version of (neo-classical) economics) that belongs rather to the past than to the present.     

Calculating credibility: print culture,trust and economic figures in early eighteenth-century England1

Credit in early modern England has been studied by both social historians of the market and historians of the book. The intersection of these literatures is explored by asking the question: how did producers of books about interest (which was closely connected to credit) convince readers that their books could be trusted? One particular book is considered: a palm-sized book of interest calculations by John Castaing. Most importantly, and unusually, many copies of this book contain his signature, which, it is argued, must be interpreted in the context of the particular role that signatures played in guaranteeing financial transactions.     

Slavery and agricultural bondage in South India in the nineteenth century

Abstract

A vast amount of important source material is available to the student of Indian economic history, and, for the period from about 1860 onwards, it is almost always possible to see how the information available in the government records and the official reports came to be acquired. The government officers who took part in the inquiries made into the social and economic structure of India were generally eloquent about the methods by which they had collected their information, the rules laid down for the incorporation of the facts in later reports, and the purposes for which the inquiries had actually been undertaken. All this is very useful for the research student who will not, as a result, experience too many difficulties in judging the value and the limitation of the facts presented. But when we move further back, and try to explore the economic history of India in the first century of British rule, matters become more complicated. Few of the officials took the trouble to explain how they had arrived at their knowledge. As a result we find that the few historians who have tried to cope with the early period can be divided into two groups: those who accept the information provided in the official records without further inquiry, and those who discard it altogether on the assumption that it was probably collected in the traditional Indian way by minor civil servants who were not particularly interested in elucidating the truth.     

Unemployment and Economic Policy in Denmark in the 1930s

Abstract

The paper examines Danish unemployment and the employment policy in the 1930s. The unemployment data indicate that though the unemployment increased dramatically the rate of unemployment remained low. The official Danish unemployment records definitely underestimated the actual unemployment in the early 1930s, but the discrepancy was hardly as big as some scholars have suggested. The paper furthermore points out that the rather atypical rise in the Danish unemployment from the mid-1930s can be attributed to a rise in the natural rate of unemployment due to an improved unemployment insurance coverage and a more comprehensive registration of the unemployment. The second part of the paper deals with the Danish employment policy. Unemployment remained high on the political agenda, but the employment problem never became the main target for the economic policy. An active employment policy was constrained by the problems of the balance of payments and the political disagreements in parliament. While the macroeconomic policy did help to stabilize the economy and the employment, the number of measures directly targeting the labour market was small, and they seldom gave rise to much job creation.     

Technical change and the ‘technology’ myth

Abstract

In recent years, historians and other English-speaking commentators on technical change and technical functions have often chosen to discuss these matters under the heading ‘technology’. Thus, there have been discussions about such matters as ‘echnological innovation’, ‘technological invention’, and even ‘the imperatives of technology’, ‘the technostructure’ and ‘technological drivenness’.¹ One economist with a special interest in historical matters, Kuznets, has virtually defined a separable condition of ‘modernity’ as the era of ‘technology’ — ‘The epochal innovation that distinguishes the modern economic epoch is the extended application of science to problems of economic production’ alternatively, it is ‘the utilization of a potential provided by modern technology’. An economic historian (Musson) has it that ‘applied science is … the major force behind modern economic growth’. And a prominent historian of the so-called ‘technology’, Forbes, has argued that in ‘our modern world both technology and engineering are branches of applied science’.²     

The Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis and Air Pollution in Finland

Abstract

The historiography of mercantilism has been described as a series of disconnected still pictures which reflect the shifting viewpoints of economic thought.¹ However, historians have favoured different concepts of mercantilism not only in response to the shifts of economic science but also because they have held, explicitly or implicitly, different opinions on the problem of how economic ideas are formed and of the role they have played in historical development. The following reexamination of some of those ‘stills’ concentrate on such differences.²     

Why is the Inter-firm Credit Market in Korea Special? An Agency View of Trade Credit Use by Chaebols

Abstract

China and India (Chindia) have begun in recent years to enjoy growing measures of economic success, reversing centuries of structural poverty and negligible rates of economic growth. This article examines the influence of varying cultural propensities—Hinduism in India and Confucianism in China—and their impact on each country's economic turnaround. It discusses the historical circumstances that shaped Chindia's perspectives on foreign direct investment and how external forces contributed to domestic policy-making. It also addresses three ways in which culture can affect economy and two major events that cemented the direction of Chindian economic growth. Finally, the paper presents a comparative analysis of China and India and their respective impact of culture on development. It asserts that the forces of culture and its historical development do matter, especially when it comes for a nation to reverse its deprived and stagnated situation and to achieve a status of economic powerhouse.     

Structural change in the Dutch trade with the baltic in the eighteenth century

Abstract

Affluence easily veils failure and cripples creativity. In the eighteenth century, the Dutch Republic probably enjoyed the world's highest national per capita income. The Republic was the first state to ascend beyond the modest pre-industrial income levels, interestingly enough without itself industrializing. Yet, economically the Republic stagnated visibly. Ships on the international routes increasingly passed Amsterdam by and trade — the old foundation of prosperity — declined in the midst of a general revival of North and West European commerce. The stagnation affected all walks of economic life and created a feeling of resignation that baffled many attempts at redress.¹ The fascination with the fate of the Dutch Republic in the eighteenth century arises in part from this juxtaposition of affluence and decay. Did structural change cause the decline of Dutch trade or was it precisely the want of structural adjustments that became fatal? There is a great deal of confusion in Dutch historiography on this issue. Johan de Vries — to start with the Nestor among the historians of the Dutch decline — speaks of ‘structural alterations in the trade’ that ultimately undermined the position     

Introduction

Abstract

During the past few years Scandinavian historians have felt a growing need for a journal of economic and social history in which the results of research and reviews of literature in these fields might be published. This need reflects an increasing interest in economic and social history in these countries. It is against this background that the publication of the first number of an inter-Scandinavian periodical for economic and social history should be seen.     

Credibility of European economic convergence

Credibility of European Economic Convergence. — The authors analyze economic convergence and its relation to European real interest rate differentials using a clustering method on seven macroeconomic key variables for 1979–1995. The results indicate that monetary convergence has progressed considerably but that there is hardly any real convergence in the EU. They also perform pooled nominal and real interest rate regressions with the individual cluster indicators as explanatory variables. The authors find significant positive effects of external (current account) and internal (unemployment ratios, government finance) imbalances on real interest rates. They also group countries according to economic reputation and find that real indicators remain significant for the high-reputation countries.     

Is Swedish research in economic history internationally integrated?

Abstract

This paper presents empirical evidence of the international integration of Swedish economic historians. Contrary to the claims of a recent national evaluation of the discipline, the Swedish shares of international publications and conference presentations are robustly below available cross-country and cross-discipline benchmarks. Also considering levels of research inputs, the relative underperformance of the Swedish field is alarming. Four main explanations to this situation are forwarded: 1) being among the largest economic history communities in the world, Sweden has become self-sufficient and almost independent of the international arena; 2) the dominating research language is Swedish; 3) the dominating publication format is the monograph (in Swedish); and 4) Swedish economic historians are reluctant to use modern economic theories and statistical analysis to complement the traditionally dominant qualitative research methods.     

Swedish economic history before the 1980s

Abstract

The early days of economic history in Sweden — the many scattered, more or less important, contributions of the 19th century — have never been investigated. Hans Forssell's remarkable work on the 16th century has won well-deserved fame, but his was not an isolated case. Around the turn of the century, interest in the subject area increased, in Sweden as elsewhere. There were a few dissertations, formally in economics or in history (for instance, Eli Heckscher's in 1907). The first assistant professor of economic history to be appointed was Karl Petander, in Stockhohn in 1912.     

Unemployment in Denmark in the 1930s

Abstract

This paper examines three estimates of Danish unemployment in the 1930s by Maddison (1964), Hansen (1974) and Pedersen (1977). Secondly, two new estimates of the Danish unemployment are presented based on the available monthly data from the unemployment [unds and on the official registration of unemployment outside the funds. The new estimates of the early 1930s are in between the estimates of Pedersen and Maddison, while it is argued that both Maddison and Pedersen overrate the increase in unemployment in the later part of the period.     

Sawmills — Finland's proto-industry

Abstract

The concept of proto-industrialisation, propounded by Freudenberger and Redlich in the 1960s and since revived by Mendels and others, has not really caught the attention of Finnish historians. There are two main reasons for this. Firstly, there has been a general lack of interest in historical generalisations. Secondly, and more importantly, proto-industrialisation — the idea of a pre-industrial stage which, fulfilling certain conditions, may be considered as the precursor of industrialisation itself — has not seemed applicable to the birth of Finnish industry. Moreover there seemed to be real differences between the way in which industrialisation took place in such technologically advanced countries as England, Germany and even Sweden, and the path followed by Finland. In fact, however, the more one reads about proto-industrialisation, the broader and less restrictive the concept becomes. Indeed, some of the special features peculiar to Finnish history enable certain types of industry to be classed, with some plausibility, as typical of proto-industrialisation.     

Success Strategies in the Chinese Chemical Industry: A Survey and Case Study Investigations

Rapid economic growth and radical structural transformation pose a challenge to official statisticians as they seek to encompass new economic activities and phenomena. The accuracy of official statistics is liable to come into question. Urban unemployment in China is a good example. This paper estimates the urban unemployment rate using administrative statistics, population census data and a recent sample survey data set, and provides a critique showing in some detail how and why Chinese unemployment statistics are a minefield for the unwary and unemployment is so difficult to measure. Nevertheless, it is found that the urban unemployment rate rose rapidly over the 1990s and exceeded 11% in 1999 and 2000. The paper concludes by considering the implications of the findings for understanding unemployment, for policy, and for the collection of statistics.     

Laissez‐faire,the Irish famine,and British financial crisis

The decision in 1847 to cut Treasury spending on public relief efforts during the Irish famine is generally attributed by economic historians to the pervasive influence of ‘laissez‐faire’ ideas on the Whig government of Lord John Russell. This article draws on the papers of political leaders and contemporary financial information to argue that economic reasons were the trigger for the change in policy. Robert Peel and Charles Wood's macroeconomic policies of the 1840s, including the gold standard, the Bank Charter Act, and corn law repeal, left the Whigs unable to borrow to finance relief efforts in Ireland without panicking markets. The scaling back of public assistance programmes that resulted from this—and which increased mortality at the height of the Irish famine—was the unintended result of Peel and Wood's economic policies, in the context of the Whig government's parliamentary weakness.     

咸阳市失业问题研究

在经济发展的过程中,失业现象总是会存在,但过高的失业率会带来一系列社会问题。咸阳市位于陕西省八百里秦川腹地,紧邻西安,经济发展具有一定的优势,但近几年失业问题也日趋严重。导致咸阳市失业人员迅速增长、失业压力大的原因既与我国的具体国情和近几年经济发展相关,也有咸阳市的失业管理体制因素。解决咸阳市的失业问题也要从发展经济和完善管理体制两个方面着手。