Old Dominion Industrial Commonwealth: Coal, Politics, and Economy in Antebellum America (review)

Although focused on the history of just a single mineral fuel in just two states, this book could have been titled "Why Pennsylvania Grew Rich as Virginia Grew Poor." Both states were well-endowed with fertile cropland and extensive coal fields, but Pennsylvania's farmers, miners, and industrialists proved far superior at turning resources into wealth, that is, marketable goods.

Slavery certainly played a role in Virginia's relative inability to tap its mineral resources. Slaves were incapable of utilizing, or could not be trusted to run, expensive machinery like steam-driven water pumps. Slaves who excelled at mining were rare, and the institution of slavery made it difficult for Virginia to retain its white laborers, let alone attract immigrant miners. But, Adams warns, slavery was only part of the story. Ultimately, Virginia's coal enterprises foundered because their government failed to foster them, and at times even opposed them. Pennsylvania's colliers, by contrast, thrived because their government did not hamper them, and at times even extended them a helping hand. Fueled with cheap coal, Pennsylvania's industrial sector blossomed while Virginia's remained enslaved to slavery, of both the economic and political varieties.

The outcome, Adams argues, was largely a function of governmental structure. Virginia's constitution allowed Tidewater planters to prey on the rest of the state. Since representation was by county rather than population, the older, eastern parts of the state, where counties were small and numerous, were overrepresented in the legislature. The governor was weak; suffrage was limited by stringent property requirements. Elite interests also controlled the powerful county-court system. In contrast, Pennsylvania's constitution was modeled after the U.S. Constitution, which instituted three powerful branches of government to check each other. A bicameral legislature and universal male suffrage further ensured that the government usually acted for the common weal. Seemingly all Pennsylvanians wanted economic growth, and the government was happy to oblige, sometimes by not interfering with private enterprise, sometimes by passing enabling legislation, and sometimes by actively promoting industrial growth, as in the late 1830s when it sponsored a statewide geological survey.

Adams supports his arguments in the old-fashioned way, with a dense web of historical narrative, telling descriptive statistics, and careful reasoning. He presents neither models nor equations. Adams also ventures into the work of serious economic and business historians.

The book, though, suffers in places from a lack of economic acuity. Adams confuses real and nominal values in Table 1.2, and in Table 2.2 he prices different types of coal by weight instead of by energy production. More troubling, Adams ignores crucial concepts like "comparative advantage" and "efficient scale." He also ignores the economic-growth literature, including the recent spate of work applying the finance-led growth hypothesis to the early republic. He also repeatedly praises government for the successes of private enterprises, anthracite-utilizing iron producers, and the myriad private contractors, investors, and shipping companies that made the Erie Canal project a success (85). Finally, he presents a much too sanguine view of internal improvement projects actually operated by state governments, all of which, in the tradition of state industries, were colossal flops both economically and developmentally.

Nevertheless, this is an important book, or at least could be, if the members of the professional history establishment will lay aside their pretensions and pay attention to its profoundly powerful insights into the importance of political and economic institutions.