This comment explores some implications and extensions of the papers collected in this volume. It stresses the disadvantages of ignoring the very long-run nature of the distributional question. It analyses the difficulty of finding practical as well as satisfactory policy solutions, especially...

Newly assembled macroeconomic statistics for early modern Portugal reveal one of Europe’s most vigorous colonial traders and at the same time one of its least successful growth records. Using an estimated model in the spirit of Allen (2009) we conclude that intercontinental trade had a...