Javascript must be enabled to continue!

Globalization revisited: Market integration and the wheat trade between North America and Britain from the eighteenth century

Category: British History - Grain Studies
Type: Article
Author: Sharp, Paul and Weisdorf, Jacob
Journal: Explorations in Economic History
Pages: 88--98
ISSN: 0014-4983
Issue: 1
DOI: 10.1016/j.eeh.2012.08.002
Volume: 50
Library catalog: ScienceDirect
Date: January 2013
Year: 2013
URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0014498312000472
Tags: American colonial trade     globalization     Grain invasion     wheat     

Abstract:

We take up again the famous case of the trade in wheat between the United States and the United Kingdom. This is often used to illustrate the so-called first era of globalization at the end of the nineteenth century. This study, however, finds evidence of transatlantic commodity market integration already during the eighteenth century. Using price data for wheat in America and Britain, our findings support both that price differentials were quite small for many years, and that prices adjusted to the law-of-one-price equilibrium. This process was, however, continuously being interrupted by �exogenous’ events, such as trade policy, war and politics. In particular, the French and Napoleonic wars and the subsequent high levels of protection in the {UK} meant that markets were almost always disintegrated until the repeal of the British Corn Laws in 1846.



The research project is implemented within the framework of the Action “Supporting Postdoctoral Researchers» of the Operational Program "Education and Lifelong Learning" (Action’s Beneficiary: General Secretariat for Research and Technology), and is co-financed by the European Social Fund (ESF) and the Greek State.