The argument about the limits of Free Trade or Protectionism rages throughout the world to this day. Following the Repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846, free trade became one of the most distinctive defining features of the British state, and of British economic, social, and political life. While the United States, much of the British Empire, and the leading European Powers turned towards protectionism before 1914, Britain alone held to a policy which had seemingly guaranteed power and prosperity. This book seeks to explain the political history of this tenacious loyalty. While the Tariff Reform opponents of free trade have been much studied, this is the first substantial account, based on a wide range of printed and archival sources, which explains the primacy of free trade in nineteenth- and early-twentieth century Britain. It also shows that by the centenary of the Repeal of the Corn Laws in 1946, although British free traders lamented the death of Liberal England, they heralded, under American leadership, the rebirth of the liberal international order.

This work is the only economic history of Venezuela written in English. In it, Salazar-Carrillo provides estimates that have not been published previously on the Venezuelan economy in general, and the oil component in particular. Evolution of the oil industry in Venezuela is covered in detail and the concept of the retained value of oil expenditures and tnvestment is developed. Recent government policies and the performance of the Venezuelan economy are evaluated, and export-oriented strategies are considered. The appropriateness of these plans in fostering economic development is discussed.

This unique book deals with the most serious macroeconomic failure experienced in the US in the post-war period and the great inflation of the late 1960s and 1970s. It is the first detailed analysis, using Federal Reserve documents, of the thinking behind the inflationary monetary policy during this period. The book examines documentary evidence, including minutes, memos and reports and interviews with people who were closely involved in making policy decisions, to explain the monetary policy that led to this inflation. Thomas Mayer considers forecasting errors and wage and price controls in his attempt to explain why the inflation occurred and places some of the blame on ineffective operating procedures, institutional inefficiencies, and political pressures on the Federal Reserve. The author concludes that much of the responsibility for the mistaken policies lies with academic economists who underestimated the dangers of inflation and encouraged the Federal Reserve to focus on an unattainable employment goal. Monetary Policy and the Great Inflation in the United States will be welcomed by economists, political scientists and economic historians interested in monetary policy.

Most people have some idea what Greeks and Romans coins looked like, but few know how complex Greek and Roman monetary systems eventually became. The contributors to this volume are numismatists, ancient historians, and economists intent on investigating how these systems worked and how they both did and did not resemble a modern monetary system. Why did people first start using coins? How did Greeks and Romans make payments, large or small? What does money mean in Greek tragedy? Was the Roman Empire an integrated economic system? This volume can serve as an introduction to such questions, but it also offers the specialist the results of original research.

The volume includes six papers in quantitative economic history. Peter Mancall, Josh Rosenbloom, and Tom Weiss consider growth in colonial North America, while Gary Richardson examines the role of bank failures in propagating the Great Depression. John Komlos examines the heights of rich and poor youth in England in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Klas Fregert and Roger Gustafson provide a synoptic view of public finances in Sweden from the eighteenth through the twentieth century. Drew Keeling studies the economics of the steamship industry that facilitated migration between Europe and the United States between 1900 and 1914. Finally, Gregg Huff and Giovanni Caggiano examine the integration of labor markets in Southeast Asia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. It includes original articles written by experts on the subjects and articles supported by quantitative data.

This book provides a critical reading of Foucault's writings on the archaeology of political economy, analyzing some of Foucault's contributions to the methodology of economics, historiography of economic thought and studies on Adam Smith's context and writings. It reconstructs Foucault's archaeology, relating it to current debates in economics.

Leading scholars consider Austrian economics from several perspectives such as characteristic themes of entrepreneurship and uncertainty, scientific methods such as mathematical complexity theory and experimental economics, and historical contexts such as pre-war Vienna and post-war France. Placing "Austrian economics" in these multiple contexts helps to reveal the rich texture of the Austrian tradition in social thought and its multiple connections to current research in diverse fields. Applications to the theory of the trade cycle and to foreign intervention suggest that the Austrian tradition contains possibilities not yet full explored and exploited. The volume gathers together papers presented at the second biennial Wirth conference on Austrian economics, held in October 2008 when the crisis of Fall 2008 was still new and shocking. This coincidence of timing makes policy issues and crisis management a kind of leitmotif of the volume. If, as keynote speaker David Colander argues, Austrians have a comparative advantage in political economy, then its stock should rise in times of crisis and political uncertainty. The volume provides evidence in favor of this view. Contributors include David Colander, Richard Wagner, Jeffery McMullen, J. Barkley Rosser, Jr., Steve Horwitz, Richard Ebeling, Chris Coyne, and Peter Boettke.

"Marx's Theory of Price and its Modern Rivals "provides an original look at how Marx understood the role of money, extending his theory to consider how prices move over the course of business cycles. Key modern theories of price are also analyzed; Neoclassical, Post Keynesian and Sraffian theories are contrasted with Marxian thought.

From Oil to Gas and Beyond chronicles the history of the petroleum industry in Trinidad and Tobago and appraises major policy decisions impacting its economy. The book details the macroeconomic, commercial, and technical challenges faced by Trinidad and Tobago in the monetization of its oil and gas resources over the past one hundred years. The contributors cover several topics including local content, national participation, sustainability, communication, leadership, energy diplomacy, environmental law and macroeconomic policy.

Tracing the monetary history of Europe, this study explores the impact of change in the availability and use of bullion, in the form of money, on the economic evolution of Europe. The Romans fostered economic prosperity through the accumulation of bullion and circulation of accredited currency. Over time, shortages of species rendered the Roman coinage worthless. As a result, commercial activities contracted, causing the breakdown of the Roman economic and political systems. Lack of liquidity in the early Middle Ages limited commercial activities, and promoted conditions sustaining dependency on land, thereby enabling feudalism to flourish. In the late 10th century, discovery of rich silver mines in Central Europe increased the circulation of coinage, promoting trade and demographic urbanization. The augmentation of silver resources continued to boost economic prosperity during the 12th and 13th centuries. In the 14th century, decrease in mine output induced severe scarcity of bullion. Lack of currency caused the contraction of economic activities, leading to food shortages, famines, depopulation, and the eventual breakdown of the feudal economic order. Continuous shortage of bullion in the 15th century forced the reintroduction of barter trade and limited commercial activities. Scarcity of precious metals induced the Portuguese to venture into Africa. African gold provided them with the incentive and capital for expeditions of discovery to the East, but the lack of sufficient bullion prevented them from monopolizing the eastern trade. In the 16th century the influx of species from the mines of central Europe and America ended the European bullion famine and gave rise to economicprosperity.

The current debate about the best methods of European organization - central or regional - is influenced by an awareness of regional identity, which offers an alternative to the rigidities of organization by nation-state. Yet where does the sense of regionalism come from? What are the distinctive factors that transform a geographical area into a particular 'region'? Tom Scott addresses these questions in this study of one apparently 'natural' region - the Upper Rhine - between 1450 and 1600. This region has been divided between three countries and so historically marginalized, yet Dr Scott is able to trace the existence of a sense of historical regional identity cutting across national frontiers, founded on common economic interests. But that identity was always contingent and precarious, neither 'natural' nor immutable.

This book illuminates British imperial policy after World War II in the context of economic policy and offers a novel argument about the end of the British empire. Economic discrimination in the empire in the late 1940s and early 1950s sustained Britain's recovery, when political control in the colonies was feasible. Subsequently, economic liberalization and the move towards financial cosmopolitanism, combined with rising constraints for economic and political management in the colonies, loosened and ultimately severed Britain's imperial link.

This set of four volumes collects the major English language contributions to the theories of the structure and performance of the Japanese economy in the 20th century. It covers a wide range of topics: Volume I covers Japan before the Pacific War; Volume Two covers post-war growth; Volume Three covers trading with Japan; Volume Four explores the nature of the Japanese firm. The set gives the reader access to the most important debates about the contours of the modern Japanese economy and their evolution. Many of the articles in the set should also be accessible to non-economists, especially to political scientists.

This comprehensive study traces the history of over forty royal free towns from the sixteenth century to 1848 in the territories of what today are Hungary, Slovakia, and Romania. Szelenyi argues that these towns have been a neglected feature of national meta-narratives in Eastern Europe because their dwellers were often German speakers. He calls for a serious reevaluation of urban development in Eastern Europe and for a new meta-narrative that focuses on the region through the lenses of the numerous ethnic diasporas.

This book is an innovative collection of essays by a new generation of British and American historians and political theorists. The volume explores how critical traditions and beliefs have helped to shape capitalism. Chapters follow diverse critiques in Britain and America and explore their Atlantic and imperial exchanges. The volume includes chapters on questions of law and property in the Victorian empire; traditions of land reform in 19th century America and Britain; the influence of American romanticism on British socialism; the role of Britain in American progressivism; American and British consumer protection; the evolution of trusteeship and ideas of cosmopolitan democracy; the 'third way' and narratives of globalization.

This timely book provides a comprehensive analysis of the post-war evolution of financial markets and financial regulation in Japan, with special emphasis being placed on the period since 1975. Max Hall, a leading specialist in financial regulation, provides a full and detailed coverage of the causes and nature of the recent liberalization of financial markets adopted in Japan as well as its consequences for public policy. He also examines the recent reforms of Japan's central bank, the Bank of Japan, and offers an in-depth discussion of the current weaknesses of the Japanese banking sector. By providing a critical overview of the local financial system and detailed discussion of the evolution of financial markets in Japan, the book sheds new light on the institutional problems at the heart of the current crisis. The politics, as well as the economics, of the financial liberation programme are scrutinised to provide a comprehensive analysis of financial reform.

This book explains in fascinating detail how economic and social transformations in pre-1600 Japan led to an industrious revolution in the early modern period and how the fruits of the Industrious Revolution are what have supported Japan since the eighteenth century, improving living standards and leading to the formation of the work ethic of modern Japan. The arrival of the Sengoku Period in the sixteenth century saw the emergence and domination of government by the warrior class. It was Tokugawa Ieyasu who unified the realm. Yet this unity did not give rise to an autocratic state, as the shogun was recognized merely as a main pillar of the warrior class. Economically, however, from the fourteenth century, currency payments for shoen nengu (taxes paid to the proprietor) became standard, and currency circulation began, primarily in the central region. Under Tokugawa rule, organized domestic coinage of currency began, opening the way to establishing a national economic society. Also, agricultural land was surveyed through cadastral surveys known as kenchi. Land values were converted in terms of rice, so the expected rice yields for each village were assessed, and the lords used this as a benchmark for imposing taxes. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Japan experienced a "great transition," and conditions for peasants, agriculture, and farming villages underwent great changes. Inefficient traditional agriculture using peasants in a state of servitude was transformed into highly efficient small-sized farming operations which relied on family labor. As production yields increased due to labor-intensive agriculture, the profits obtained by the peasants improved their living standards. The stem-family system became the norm through which work ethics and even literacy were transmitted. This very change was the result of the "industrious revolution" in Japan. The book thus presents the framework of the facts of pre-industrial Japanese history and depicts pre-modern Japan from a macroscopic point of view, showing how the industrious revolution came about. It is certain to be of great interest to economists and historians alike.

This ground-breaking book provides the first English-language survey of economic thought in modern Japan. Significantly, it offers both a detailed study of economic thought from 1600 to 1945 and a nuanced analysis of Western and Asian perspectives on the field of Japanese economic history. Expertly translated from Japanese and written by leading scholars in the field, this exciting study includes: * A novel approach to economic thought which contextualizes the core values of thinkers across the period * A comparative analysis of Japanese economic history which looks at the continuities across the Meiji divide * The extensive use of archival sources, many of which were previously unavailable in English A History of Economic Thought in Japan, 1600 - 1945 serves as a case study of how Western economic ideas spread to non-Western regions and interacted with indigenous ideas. It will therefore be of immense value to both scholars of economic thought and those seeking a deeper understanding of the moral, intellectual, and societal forces that shaped modern Japan.

F.A. Hayek (1899-1992), the co-leader of the Austrian free market school, embraced the transparently fraudulent assertion made by Donald McCormick, aka Richard Deacon, in The British Connection which accused A.C. Pigou, the co-leader of the Cambridge market failure school, of being a Soviet spy.

The conquest of the Americas inaugurated the slow accumulation of resources and the imperceptible structural transformations that culminated in the Industrial Revolution. From that moment on, capitalism grew and expanded with a dynamism and adaptability that are now all too familiar, profiting from wars and even managing to rebound after a series of devastating economic crises.

In this highly-anticipated revised edition of the 1981 classic, Beaud extends one of the major strengths of the original: the interweaving of social, political, and economic factors in the context of history. At the same time, Beaud's analysis provides a realistic and thorough examination of the developments of capitalism in the last twenty years, including globalization, the accelerating speed of capital transfer, and the collapse of the Soviet empire and the subsequent absorption of its population into the world market. This new edition also offers a completely revised format that integrates diagrams and flow-charts not previously available in the English-language edition.

Volume 27C of "Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology" consists of documents from Glenn Johnson and F. Taylor Ostrander. Part I includes: notes from lectures by James E. Meade on the linking of monetary theory with the pure theory of value (Oxford University, 1932-1933); notes from the Socialist Club at the Cafe Verique in Geneva (Summer 1931); correspondence between Frank H. Knight and F. Taylor Ostrander; index to the Treasury Department papers of F. Taylor Ostrander; and notes on the long and wide-ranging career of F. Taylor Ostrander. Part II presents Glenn Johnson's notes from courses at the University of Chicago (1946); notes from Lloyd Mints' course on money and banking, economics 330 (Fall 1946); incomplete course notes from Milton Friedman's price theory, economics 300B, University of Chicago (Spring 1947); and notes from seminars by John R. Hicks and Tjalling Koopmans, University of Chicago (October 1946).