Chapter 4 Flashcards
(43 cards)
AJR argument
Connectiong between settlers and institutions followed by institutions and economic growth
Geography and science:
Agriculture was a big proportion of economic growth in 1700s and depends on:
- Soil fertility
- Amount and predictability of sun, rain
- Water sources for droughts (river, wells) if rain is scarce
- Terrain of land (Is it hilly)
- Access to markets (Access to navigable river, lake or sea)
Geography and science:
Economies formed are helped by:
Early on: local plants suitable for cultivation
Later on: coal, oil, and other valuable raw materials
Geography and science:
Economies formed are hindered by:
- Diseases, for humans, animals, and crops
- Tropical areas usually have (had) endemic tropical diseases (malaria, yellow fever, etc) which is harder to eradicate than smallpox.
What geographical issues were overcome leading to a change of the world?
- Eradication of Malaria
- Falling cost of solar power -> Cost declines from 100$/W in 1976 to 0.3$/W in 2018
- Solar power is used in Afghanistan to extract water for wells and use it for planting crops such as heroin
- Tragedy of the commons -> water is scarce and will eventually run out
What helped to connect the world?
- Transport improvements increase the value of good land, by connecting it to people and improving access to markets
Cost of transport technologies:
- Wagons -> $0.25 /tonne mile
- Rail -> $0.5 /tonne mile
- Canal/water -> $0.2 /tonne mile (although slower and more circuitous)
- This shows that in the event water is unavailable, rail helps to connect regions and as such is useful to be within 10 miles of water/rail
Case Study: America -> Railroads increase viability of land in the grain well compared to waterways and canals in the 19th Century -> Increases capacity to absorb migrants -> High wages increases productivity
What were voluntary migrants?
Economic migrants
What were involuntary migrants?
Refugees, slavery and exile
What was migration like in America between 1760-1820?
Involuntary
Peak of 4 million slaves in this period
What happened to the US migration between 1820-1880?
African slaves drops to 2 million
Increase in the number of Europeans by 14 million
What fuelled migration to the US?
Cheaper travel costs which lowers returns travel costs in case it doesn’t work out
What was the US migration patterns between 1850-1930?
First episode of free mass migration
Before 1914, leading destinations had few restrictions on incoming migrants so people moved from many places to th US, Australia
What was the foreign born flow was a % of population 1830?
0.1%
What was the foreign born flow was a % of population 1880?
1.5%
What was the foreign born flow was a % of population 1930?
0.05%
What was the foreign born stock as a percentage of the US population?
1850: 9%
1880: 14%
1930: 6%
Where did economic migrants come from in the US?
1850: 90% were from North-Western Europe
1930: 50% were from Southern-Eastern Europe
Where did Norwegians migrate to?
Fuelled by their knowledge -> Norwegians had knowledge regarding in cold climates and migrated to colder regions in the US
Emigration by Origin (1870-1913)
- France: -1 million
- Germany: 2.5 million
- Italy: 4.5 million
- UK: 6.5 million
How was immigration benefiical?
- Useful for US to become a superpower
- For countries of origin -> reduced downward pressure on wages in Sweden
- Useful during famine years -> 1 in 6 people from Ireland emigrate during the famine years to the US -> reduces pressures on land
- Arrival of new migrants: Better standards of living (younger people have greater benefits in terms of greater income)
- Those from S & E Europe get more education if they move young, so they do better if they move when very young
Why was immigation bad for the US?
Immigration terrible for indigenous people in the previously sparsely settled “White Dominions”: US, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia
Previous immigrants faced higher competition for jobs with lower wages -> Claudia Goldin (1994): 1 percentage point increase in foreign-born populationreduced unskilled wages 1-1.5 percent (cities)
American industralisation
Interchangeable parts:
Identical components which can fit into any assembly of the same type to replace another component
Examples
- Developed in the Springfield Armory (e.g. Colt Revolver)
- Singer sewing machines -> interchangeable parts sold as mass product for households
Separates manufacture and assembly -> allows easy assembly of new devices, easier repair of existing devices, lowered time and skills per person assembling the product
- Important for introduction of assembly line.
American industralisation
Assembly lines
- Oliver Evans’ flour mill -> innovative: lifting buckets without labour and grain drying (time efficient) -> fully automated process -> increased productivity
- Disassembly lines (19th century) -> Cincinnati Meat Packing -> division of labour for specialisation in each task
- Ford Assembly line (1913) -> divided process into 45 steps -> ↓ production time for Model T to 93 minutes
- Assembly line -> replaced “craft production” -> ↑ specialisation and division of labour -> labour not required to be skilled -> increase productivity.
Allowed mass production in industries -> semi-skilled labour using machine tools instead of traditional methods
What were the direct effects of industralisation?
- Labour productivity increases
- Ford chassis assembling: 13 hours (1913) ◊ 2 hours (1914).
