Veblen as Teacher and Hunker in 1896–97:

Abstract . From the notes of a graduate student, James E. Hagerty, there has survived a record of sorts of what Thorstein Veblen taught at the University of Chicago in 1896–97. It shows that Veblen was working out in the classroom the ideas he presented formally after 1889, particularly the idea that “Differences in political economy now and in the past are due to a difference in psychology”—in “the point of view from which the facts are handled.” Veblenian thought was the product of the prevailing scientific philosophy. The Hagerty notes are presented in full in an appendix.     

Peddling in the Antebellum Economy: Precursor of Mass-Marketing or a Start in Life?

Abstract . This article examines the effect of peddling upon industrialization and economic development and the evolution of institutional arrangements in marketing in the Antebellum period. After 1840 peddling in America was undertaken, to an increasing extent, by newly arrived immigrants from Germany who displaced the traditional “Yankees” from the trade. The relationship between peddling and the development of entrepreneurship is explored, along with the special opportunities that peddling provided for economic and occupational mobility in the American milieu. The frequency with which individuals who started careers as peddlers rose to prominence in the fields of merchandising and finance points to the importance of the “schooling” function of this institution for newly arrived immigrants in American folkways, business practices, and commercial possibilities.