Econ 40413
U.S. Economic History, The Founding Eras
John Lovett
Econ 40413: U.S. Economic History - The Founding Eras
John Lovett - Spring 2015
The Basics
Instructor: John Lovett
Office Hours: T, R: 10:00 – 12:00, Scharbauer Hall, Room 4112
How to Contact Me: 1) j.lovett@tcu.edu, 817.257.6582, 2) stalking … Nah. Stick with method 1.
Course Web Site: http://faculty.tcu.edu/jlovett
Texts: 1) Reading packet available from universityreaders.com
2) Exciting readings which I will post to the web site and e-mail to you
4) Selected documents to be handed out in class.
Course Description and Purpose
ECON 40413 is a lecture course. It is designed to investigate the patterns and processes of economic
development seen in the American economy during its formative years. Emphasis is on pre-modern
institutions and development that would later affect the United States as it transitioned into modernity.
Although the course is organized by topic more than chronology, the years covered run from European
contact to 1865 with the heaviest emphasis on the British colonial period. Topics include: 1) How the 13
British North American colonies differed from other colonial areas (Why were the 13 colonies more
successful, in the long-run, than most other European colonies), 2) The different economic patterns seen in
the various regions of the 13 colonies, and 3) an investigation of slavery. (Why was slavery a
predominantly southern phenomena? How might slavery have affected American economic development?).
Understanding why these developments took place is at least as important as being able to describe the
developments.
ECON 40413 counts as a “group A” for Economics majors or an elective for Economics majors and minors.
ECON 40413 is a Historical Traditions (HT) and Writing Emphasis (WEM) course under the TCU core.
Grading.
Points are earned as shown below. Please not that while you are required to take the “New Material”
final exam, the “Comprehensive” final exam is optional.
Item
Option 1
Option 2
3 x 100 = 300
3 x 100 = 300
+ Final Exam, New Material
100
100
+ Final Exam, Comprehensive Section
100
Exams 1 – 3
+ 4 Homeworks (best 4 of 5)
+ Statement of Interest (Lit. Review)
+ Paper
+ Participation
100 to - 90 points
= Total
1
N.A.
4 x 25 = 100
4 x 25 = 100
50
50
150
150
100
100
= 900 points
= 800 points
Econ 40413
U.S. Economic History, The Founding Eras
John Lovett
Semester grades are assigned as shown below.
C+: 76.5%+
A: 92.5%+
A-: 89.5%+
B+: 86.5%+
B: 82.5%+
B-: 79.5%+
C: 72.5%+
C-: 69.5%+
D+: 66.5%+
D: 62.5%+
D-: 59.5%+
Exams are approximately half essay and half “objective”. You take all of your exams, except for the
final, under “codenames”, so I will not know whose exam I am grading until later. The format of your
final is similar to the regular semester exams except that the final comes in two parts; a part on new
material (covered since exam 3) and a part that is comprehensive. The comprehensive part of the
final is optional. You do not have to take it. Further, if you take the comprehensive part of the final I
only count it if it helps your semester grade.
You will be given approximately 4 Homework assignments. Your best 5 count toward your your
grade. The rest are dropped.
For your Statements of Interest and Paper, you will research a topic(s) of your choice in European
Economic History. The first graded stage in this process is your Statements of Interest. In this you
inform the reader of your topic of research and the direction you hope it to go. You then review several
professional sources with emphasis on how these sources will contribute to your final paper. Finally,
you turn your research into the final product, a semester paper.
3, 90
1, 100
0, 100
Participation is based on attending class, being alert, and interacting in class. You start with 100
participation points. You can miss one day with no penalty. After that, each class you miss costs
you 4 points unless it is excused (see next
100
paragraph).
The chart at righ shows
80
participation points as a function of attendance.
60
Please note that your participation score can be
negative if you miss enough classes. This is
40
akin to courses in which you lose a letter grade
20
after X number of absences.
6, 75
9, 60
15, 30
Participation Points
12, 45
0
18, 15
21, 0
-20
30, -45
-60
27, -30
-40
24, -15
36, -75
-80
33, -60
-100
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Classroom behavior such as showing up late,
Days Absent
texting, disruptive conversations, starting large
fires, unleashing rabid squirrels on your instructor, etc., can also cost you participation points.
Finally, I reserve the right to make minor changes to syllabus to facilitate a better student experience.
2
35
39, -90
I will excuse an absence if: 1) you miss class
for an official TCU (not fraternity or sorority)
activity, medical emergency, etc. and, 2) you
provide documentation or an e-mail from
Campus Life. If an absence is excused, I drop
it from both the numerator and the
denominator.
40
Econ 40413
U.S. Economic History, The Founding Eras
John Lovett
Academic Misconduct Policy
Don’t cheat or facilitate cheating! Definitions of academic misconduct, as well as possible sanctions for
academic misconduct, can be found in the TCU Student Handbook (pp 12 – 15).
Students With Disabilities
Texas Christian University complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the
Rehabilitation Act of 1973 regarding students with disabilities. If you require accommodations for a
disability, please contact the Coordinator for Students with Disabilities in the Center for Academic Services,
located in Sadler Hall 11. Further information can be obtained from the Center for Academic Services, TCU
Box 297710, Fort Worth, TX 76129, or at 817-257-7486.
Adequate time must be allowed to arrange accommodations and accommodations are not retroactive;
therefore, students should contact the Coordinator as soon as possible in the academic term for which they
are seeking accommodations. Each eligible student is responsible for presenting relevant, verifiable,
professional documentation and/or assessment reports to the Coordinator. Guidelines for documentation
may be found at http://www.acs.tcu.edu/DISABILITY.HTM.
Students with emergency medical information or needing special arrangements in case a building must be
evacuated should discuss this information with their instructor/professor as soon as possible.
And now for the really cool stuff …
Why Study Economic History?
Welcome to U.S. Economic History 1 – The Founding Eras. I hope and expect you will find this
course a voyage of wonder and awe. Like all great voyages, this one requires much work and
brings some stressful moments. I am confident, however, that you will find it very worthwhile in
the end. Before I give you a preview of where we’re going (Course Outline, below), let’s consider
why we are on this voyage.
There are three reasons to study economic history, 1) the professional, 2) the social,
and 3) the personal. Professionally, this class puts you one step further to your degree. The
knowledge you gain can also help you in your future career. You may be better able understand and
explain the effects of shipping costs as you help prepare a report for your company. You may be
able to give your future students more insight into the effects of the railroad, etc. For me, however,
the main drivers for studying history, especially economic history, are the social and personal.
The Social: For Society as a Whole (This class exudes external benefits)
Knowing the past gives members of a society an understanding how they, and the world they live
in, came to be.
When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness.
Alexis de Tocqueville1
1
All the quotes with the exception of the 2nd Santayana quote are from: Quotes About History by Ferenc M. Szasz.
History News Network. http://hnn.us/articles/1328.html. Accessed August 2007.
3
Econ 40413
U.S. Economic History, The Founding Eras
John Lovett
History is also society’s laboratory. The past provides analogies to help us better understand
today’s world and guide today’s decisions.
I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know no
way of judging of the future but by the past. Edward Gibbon (18th cent. English Historian)
Economics gives our study of the past both a focus and a reality constraint. We cannot
whimsically state A led to B which led to C and therefore the adopted slavery more than the North.
Our description of history should fit economic models. If not, either our version of history, or out
economic models, need to be questioned.
History would be an impossible area of human reflection if there were no recurrent attributes
of human nature. Willson H. Coates (20th century British Historian)
The Personal: For Yourself
Why do I love economic history? I love economic history primarily because it is one great story.
Like the creation myths of old, it tells me how and why the world as I know it came to be the way
they are. It helps satisfy my thirst for stories and adventure. The setting is exciting and different
from today. Unlike fiction, the characters are real and always believable
The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there. L. P. Hartley (20th cent. novelist)
History contains great personal drama; people responding to challenges and finding success … and in
some instances failure. Finally, in history is epic and leaves one with a sense of awe or “greater than
thou”. Something very large, the shape of human society itself, is always at stake.
History at its best is vicarious experience. Edmund S. Morgan (20th century U.S. historian)
Tentative Course Outline
Theme
Topic
Readings
 Syllabus
Well Howdy!!
Introduction
Models of
Colonial
Development
The Actual
History
Why colonial development is so darned
interesting, important, … and cool
 Lovett. 2014. Chapter 1 of Geography and
Colonial Development. Draft
Models of Colonial Development – a
summary
 Lovett. 2014. Chapter 2 of Geography and
Colonial Development. Draft
The background history. How were the 13
colonies founded?
You mean there were more than 13 British
colonies in the Americas? (Let’s check out
the Caribbean.)
What the heck did each colonial area do to
make a living? Why?
4
 Divine et al. 2011. The American Story. pp 8 –
58.
 Taylor. 2002. American Colonies: The Settling
of North America. pp 204 - 221.
 Walton & Rockoff. 2010. Chapter 3: “Colonial
Economic Activities”. History of the American
Economy. pp 42 – 57.
Econ 40413
U.S. Economic History, The Founding Eras
Theme
Topic
Models of
Colonial
Development
Our 1st Model of Colonial Development:
The Staples Thesis
nd
Our 2 Model of Colonial Development:
Disease and Settlement
rd
Our 3 Model of Colonial Development:
Available Land and Settlement
Death & Dying. Why did Europeans (and
Africans) displace natives in North America
… but not every colonial area?
Our 4th Model of Colonial Development:
It’s the Institutions of the Founding Powers,
namely British land ownership and other
British property rights
How and Why
England
Succeeded in
North America …
and some models
of colonial
development
Readings
Methods of Organizing a Colony. Also,
how geography, in this case the abundance
of land, affected institutions.
Colonial Labor Institutions: Free labor,
Family Labor, Indentured Servitude, and
Slavery
Models of
Colonial Geography and Institutions
Colonial
Geography  labor system
Development (my
 (in)equality  institutions
favorite one)
 post-colonial development
The Actual
History
The Rise of Some
Particular (ProGrowth) American
Institutions
John Lovett
Trade patterns. How did each of the
colonies make a living?
What caused the American Revolution?
Was it economic restrictions?
Fiscal Federalism, The Articles of
Confederation, and the Constitution
An Independent Judiciary, Judicial Review,
and Nationwide Rule of Law
5
 Lovett. 2014. Chapter 4 of Geography and
Colonial Development. Draft
 Lecture Notes and wicked cool handouts
 Lecture Notes and wicked cool handouts
 Diamond. 1999. Guns, Germs, and Steel. Table
on p 87. Chapter 11: "The Lethal Gift of
Livestock".
 Hughes & Cain. 2011. "The Colonial Property
Rights Heritage". American Economic History.
Addison-Wesley. p 132 - 134.
 Galenson. 1996. “The Settlement and Growth of
the Colonies: Institutions of Settlement”, pp 135 –
152. from The Cambridge Economic History of
the United States: Vol 1.
 Galenson. 1996. “The Settlement and Growth of
the Colonies: Labor Market Institutions &
Population, Labor, and Economic Development”,
pp 153 – 181. from The Cambridge Economic
History of the United States: Volume 1, The
Colonial Era.
 Engerman & Sokoloff. 2002. “Factor
Endowments, Inequality, and Paths of
Development Among New World Economies”.
NBER Working Paper 9259.
 Lovett. 2010. Chapter 12 of Horizons in
Macroeconomics.
 Walton & Rockoff. 2010. Chapter 4: “The
Economic Relations of the Colonies”. History of
the American Economy. pp 58 – 74.
 Walton & Rockoff. 2010. Chapter 6: “Three
Crises and Revolt”. History of the American
Economy. pp 93-107.
 Lecture Notes and wicked cool handouts
 Wood. 2009. Empire of Liberty: A History of the
Early Republic, 1789-1815. pp 400 - 408, 433 452.
Econ 40413
Theme
U.S. Economic History, The Founding Eras
John Lovett
Topic
Readings
An overview of American slavery
 Walton & Rockoff. 2010. Chapter 13: “The
Entrenchment of Slavery and Regional conflict”.
History of the American Economy. pp 219-238.
Why was slavery predominantly a Southern
phenomenon in the U.S?
Was slavery dying economically prior to the
Civil War?
The Politics of Slavery
Slavery
Was the conflict over geographical limits on
slavery a non-issue?
Why was slavery predominantly a Southern
phenomenon in the U.S. … a different view
Estimating the costs of the Civil War
 Atack & Passell. 1994. “How the southern slave
system worked”. A New Economic View of
American History. pp 326-334.
 Kornblith. 2007. Slavery and Sectional Strife in
the Early American Republic, 1776-1821. pp 31 60.
 Wood, Gordon. 2009. Empire of Liberty: A
History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815. pp 359365.
 Wright, Gavin. 2003. “Slavery and American
Agricultural History”. Agricultural History, 77(4).
pp 527 – 552.
 Atack & Passell. 1994. “The economics of the
Civil War”. A New Economic View of American
History. pp 355-363.
Thomas Corum’s “View of Mulberry House and Street” ( 1800, oil on paper). The original is held by the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston,
South Carolina. The Gibbes Museum owns the right to this image, but gave me permission to use it in a class handout.
Why did I put this image here? This painting depicts a South Carolina plantation during the late 18th century. I like the
image because it depicts the lower South (South Carolina & Georgia), a region that receives less attention in historical
studies than New England, the Mid-Atlantic, or the Chesapeake. Also, despite being influenced by the romantic
notations of slavery of the time, the painting illustrates that slavery was a central element in the southern (rice in this
case) economy. Note that while the slave houses look very nice, they are very tiny compared to the master’s house.
6
Econ 40413
U.S. Economic History, The Founding Eras
John Lovett
Finally, Notes on “Economic History” Relative to “Regular” History
Economic History is not a traditional History course. Economic history studies changes in
how people and societies go about making a living. While economic change can occur quickly (ex. in
1832 President Jackson vetoed a bill that would have re-chartered the 2nd Bank of the U.S.), more
they involve slower processes than political, military, and other forms of “traditional” history. As a
result, Economic History tends to focus on very broad trends. You get more of the very
broad brushstrokes in Economic History, and relatively less of the “what happened in each year” than
one might expect from a History course.
Further, to understand economic processes, we need to be familiar with many of their
details. Economic History, therefore, also studies the seemingly narrow (the antiquarian if you will)
more than most History courses. You will learn how tobacco and bricks were made. You will learn
how cotton textiles were produced before and after mechanization. You will learn about labor
contracts in different colonies. In short, you will learn about the day to day lives of people in the past.
As a result, Economic History also focuses on the very small, almost antiquarian,
aspects of history.
The middle, therefore, is relatively lacking in Economic History. By “the middle” I mean a history of
major political and social events, in each year. That being said, the whole spectrum is important if
one is to understand Economic History. We will get some of the “traditional history” in this class. I
will also assume you have a decent background in “traditional” U.S. History … or will take the time
and effort to acquire one.2
Spaniard’s Hempen
halter be dammed!2
I be goin’ on
account to the
America’s, I are!
Capn’ John in 2007
1577 checking out a
ship named the Golden
Hind in London. He’s
off to the Americas!!
(photo by John)
2
“Hempen Halter” refers to the hangman’s noose. In 1577, Francis Drake took the Golden Hind and sailed to Spanish
claimed waters in the Americas. The English crown was a major financer of his voyage. Off the coast of South
America, even though England and Spain were at peace, Drake captured a Spanish galleon. He then sailed around Cape
Horn (S. America’s tip) and all the way around the world. Upon returning to England, he was knighted.
7