Modern developed nations are rich and politically stable in part because their citizens are free to form organizations and have access to the relevant legal resources. Yet in spite of the advantages of open access to civil organizations, it is estimated that eighty percent of people live in...

This benchmark volume addresses the debate over the effects of early industrialization on standards of living during the decades before the Civil War. Its contributors demonstrate that the aggregate antebellum economy was growing faster than any other large economy had grown before. Despite the...

Intro -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction / Naomi R. Lamoreaux and John Joseph Wallis -- 1. The East Indian Monopoly and the Transition from Limited Access in England, 1600-1813 / Dan Bogart -- 2. Adam Smith's Theory of Violence and the Political Economics of Development / Barry R....

This benchmark volume addresses the debate over the effects of early industrialization on standards of living during the decades before the Civil War. Its contributors demonstrate that the aggregate antebellum economy was growing faster than any other large economy had grown before. Despite the...