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Trade and overcoming land constraints in British industrialization : an empirical assessment

Theodoridis, Dimitrios ; Warde, Paul and Kander, Astrid LU (2018) In Journal of Global History 13(3). p.328-351
Abstract
Land was an unambiguous constraint for growth in the pre-industrial period. In Britain it was overcome partly through the transition from traditional land-based goods to coal (vertical expansion) and partly through accessing overseas land, primarily from colonies (horizontal expansion). Kenneth Pomeranz suggested that horizontal expansion may have outweighed vertical expansion in the first decades of the nineteenth century. Taking a more complete approach to trade, we find that Britain was a net exporter of land embodied in traded commodities, apart from in the early nineteenth century, when potash (rather than cotton or timber) constituted the major land-demanding import from North America. The vertical expansion was generally larger than... (More)
Land was an unambiguous constraint for growth in the pre-industrial period. In Britain it was overcome partly through the transition from traditional land-based goods to coal (vertical expansion) and partly through accessing overseas land, primarily from colonies (horizontal expansion). Kenneth Pomeranz suggested that horizontal expansion may have outweighed vertical expansion in the first decades of the nineteenth century. Taking a more complete approach to trade, we find that Britain was a net exporter of land embodied in traded commodities, apart from in the early nineteenth century, when potash (rather than cotton or timber) constituted the major land-demanding import from North America. The vertical expansion was generally larger than the horizontal expansion. In other words, Britain was not simply appropriating flows of land and resources from abroad but simultaneously providing its trading partners with even more land-expanding resources. (Less)
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author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
coal, colonies, ghost acres, industrial revolution, trade
in
Journal of Global History
volume
13
issue
3
pages
328 - 351
publisher
Cambridge University Press
external identifiers
  • scopus:85056134365
ISSN
1740-0228
DOI
10.1017/S1740022818000189
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
28401396-37cd-4d75-85a1-1ff976d2b245
date added to LUP
2018-04-27 08:24:44
date last changed
2022-03-17 07:15:27
@article{28401396-37cd-4d75-85a1-1ff976d2b245,
  abstract     = {{Land was an unambiguous constraint for growth in the pre-industrial period. In Britain it was overcome partly through the transition from traditional land-based goods to coal (vertical expansion) and partly through accessing overseas land, primarily from colonies (horizontal expansion). Kenneth Pomeranz suggested that horizontal expansion may have outweighed vertical expansion in the first decades of the nineteenth century. Taking a more complete approach to trade, we find that Britain was a net exporter of land embodied in traded commodities, apart from in the early nineteenth century, when potash (rather than cotton or timber) constituted the major land-demanding import from North America. The vertical expansion was generally larger than the horizontal expansion. In other words, Britain was not simply appropriating flows of land and resources from abroad but simultaneously providing its trading partners with even more land-expanding resources.}},
  author       = {{Theodoridis, Dimitrios and Warde, Paul and Kander, Astrid}},
  issn         = {{1740-0228}},
  keywords     = {{coal; colonies; ghost acres; industrial revolution; trade}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{3}},
  pages        = {{328--351}},
  publisher    = {{Cambridge University Press}},
  series       = {{Journal of Global History}},
  title        = {{Trade and overcoming land constraints in British industrialization : an empirical assessment}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1740022818000189}},
  doi          = {{10.1017/S1740022818000189}},
  volume       = {{13}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}