The Statistical Turn in Early American Political Economy: Mathew Carey and the Authority of Numbers

The geopolitical instability of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries prompted increased interest in political economy. But early republic leaders who sought to explain national wealth and power faced daunting challenges, as much of the economic data at their disposal was both inchoate and unreliable. This article considers how people like Mathew Carey worked to improve and spread knowledge of the republic’s economic geography and its place in the international trading system. It also examines how a growing emphasis on numbers reshaped economic debate in the early American republic. Although Carey was convinced that enhanced knowledge of market relations would help public officials write more informed policies, which in turn would strengthen the republic in relation to foreign powers and help resolve conflicts within the union, a more scientific approach to economic questions failed to produce consensus and even exacerbated sectional tensions.