Journal Article Two Notable Contributions to Economic History Get access Abbott Payson Usher Abbott Payson Usher Harvard University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 48, Issue 1, November 1933, Pages 171–180, https://doi.org/10.2307/1884801 Published: 01 November 1933

Nature of the data, — Tonnage of the merchant fleet, Table I, 466. — Shipping cleared in foreign trade, Table II, 469. — Entrances at London, Table III, 470. — Synoptic graph, 473. — Size of vessels, Tables IV and V, 475, 476. — Conclusion, 478.

I. Alleged danger of soil exhaustion. — Relation of this belief to the humus theory and the system of statics, 386. — Formulation of the mineral theory the work of Liebig, 387. — Discrepancies between his principles and the results of experimental work, 388. — Liebig's principles and the modern doctrine of soil exhaustion, 390. — II. Computations of the durability of average soils, 391. — Qualifications necessary to adapt these figures to the crop yields of low farming, 394. — The importance of the returns of nutritive substances made in low farming, 396. — III. Liebig's insistence upon complete replacement of the minerals removed in the crop, 399. — Recent concepts of the fertility program, 401. — Evidences of undiminished yields despite some progressive depletion of minerals, 403. — Presumptions created by recent studies of the soil solution, 404. — Declines in yield due to decreasing supplies of nitrogen, 406. — Replacement of nitrogen by natural processes, 407. — The need of lime on acid soils, 408. — Conclusions, 410.

The Genesis of Modern Capitalism Get access Abbott Payson Usher Abbott Payson Usher Boston University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 36, Issue 3, May 1922, Pages 525–535, https://doi.org/10.2307/1886036 Published: 01 May 1922

Journal Article The Content of the Value Concept Get access Abbott Payson Usher Abbott Payson Usher Cornell University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 31, Issue 4, August 1917, Pages 711–718, https://doi.org/10.2307/1884043 Published: 01 August 1917

Journal Article The French Corn Laws during the Period of Local Control, 1515–1660 Get access Abbott Payson Usher Abbott Payson Usher Harvard University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 19, Issue 3, May 1905, Pages 452–491, https://doi.org/10.2307/1882661 Published: 01 May 1905

COLBERT AND HIS TIME COLBERT was by temper an administrator; ordinarily shrewd in his judgments of current problems, and energetic in accumulating precise information. Though he certainly possessed genuine convictions, he was ever ready to temporize and to adapt his policies to local conditions. Many aspects of his reforms were essentially liberal in character, because his administrative reorganization necessarily led him to destroy obsolescent feudal rights and privileges, and to remove the numerous impediments to freedom of internal trade that were created by the officials of provinces, towns, and villages. His correspondence discloses such flexibility of thought on all these matters that any reader will be quickly convinced that the full content of Colbert's mind cannot be rendered in the catchwords of mercantilism. His industrial policy likewise discloses considerable breadth of mind. There is so much emphasis on advanced instruction, training in the fine arts, and upon technology that one must be careful not to impute to Colbert indifference to the achievements of the individual. In discussing his position in respect of the merits of individualism and collectivism it is necessary to bear in mind that in his day France was already beginning to feel the stress of competition with England and Holland. There were changes in the valuation of her economic resources that constituted a threat to her continued prosperity, though they were not at that moment an explicit factor. Colbert lived in a region that had really reached the height of its development. It was a society, too, already deeply affected by the peculiarly insidious inertia of a venal bureaucracy dominated by persons holding life interests in their salaries, irrespective of the continuance of the functions of the office. Many families of wealth looked upon their positions in the judiciary as estates by inheritance, subject to the payment of specified fines. It -was a society characterized by the courtier and the sycophant, dominated by ambitions for the secure social position conferred by land and offices. Industry and commerce were at best merely means of purchasing social security, and neither industry nor trade was expanding rapidly enough to inspire much hope or to foster a general spirit of enterprise and adventure. It was a society deeply conscious of its age; the individual looked for shelter and security rather than for opportunities to do new things or to exploit new fields. Neither the appeal of India, nor the romance of the New World, really stirred this blase and timorous society. Colbert's judgment of the possible contribution of the individual to society must thus be read in its context. His policies express only his estimate of the possible achievement of the Frenchmen that he knew, both bourgeois and nobles. To conclude, as he did, that the state might contribute much to the economic development of this society was shrewd realism. We must recognize also that Colbert was by no means the first to formulate the policies that are commonly associated with his name. Scarcely aniy phase of his policies or administrative reforms was significantly original. His financial reforms were foreshadowed by the projects laid before the States General in i6I3. The administrative system embodied in the Intendants was merely the culmination of a process of growth that reached far back into the sixteenth century. The industrial policy is foreshadowed by the edicts of I58i and I597 and' by the systematic schemes of Laffemas for the development and encouragement of industry. Many projects of economic reorganization were entertained by Richelieu. Despite these extensive plans, there was little effective accomplishment before Colbert's time. In some instances edicts had been issued with all possible solemnity; in other cases, schemes were worked out on paper but never given legal sanction. Whatever the history of the various projects, actual accomplishment was negligible. Colbert gave practical effect to concepts of royal authority and to policies that had been held since the later phases of the Wars of Religion.

IT is now many years since the publication of Wiebe's index of commodity prices in England for the period I50I-I702. Nineteenth-century studies of prices have latterly been carried back as far as I779, but there remains a substantial gap between the index based on Rogers' materials and the modern indexes. Recent developments of statistical method have disclosed deficiencies in the computations of Wiebe, so that we are now in position to make a number of important corrections in his figures, by interpolation of missing items. The theory of interpolation, too, suggests the possibility of connecting the earlier with the later series of index numbers by using the movements of wheat prices as the basis of interpolation. It has seemed best not to carry out the process of interpolation explicitly, but the effect is secured by the reduction of the various series to a common base and by the use of the series of wheat prices to supply the general character of movement in the period 1703-78. It thus becomes possible to establish the broader facts in regard to prices over a long historical period, and though results are necessarily tentative, they are certainly significant.