Capitalism in Context: Essays on Economic Development and Cultural Change in Honor of R.M. Hartwell (review)

These thirteen essays by distinguished economic historians pay fitting tribute to Max Hartwell. While the contributions vary in their intent and execution, they all further understanding of historic economic growth.

The three most interesting essays provide new approaches to well-known problems. Stephen Innes’s “Puritanism and Capitalism in Early Massachusetts” reenters the debate on the Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism by examining the apparent contradictions between Puritan rural Massachusetts “communalism” and the rational calculus of economic man. He sheds light not only on New England’s economic history but on the institutions and customs that more broadly supported the rise of market economies in western Europe. Unlikely evidence also brings broader insight in Thomas W. Lauqueur’s “Cemeteries, Religion, and the Culture of Capitalism.” He explores the espace imaginaire of the Victorian bourgeoisie. When he points out “that the deep resonances of death and bodies allowed cemeteries to become the sites for contesting and making manifest the underlying cultural infrastructure of modern capitalism” (p. 140), we must agree. The replacement of the churchyard with the modern cemetery symbolized the triumph of the cosmopolitanism of the modern world over the parochialism of the old. N. F. R. Crafts uses an economist’s reasoning to consider a much more recent era in “Human Capital and Productivity in Advanced Economies.” Poor training of managers and laborers contributed to Britain’s relatively lackluster twentieth-century performance. Crafts suggests expanding the debate to consider the implications of economists’ models of workplace bargaining. In these models, the level of work effort was the outcome of bargaining between labor and management. The power of firms and unions in product and labor markets influenced the equilibrium bargains. Market power in turn reflected public policy.

Other essays provide retrospectives on issues long central to industrialization and economic growth. Stanley Engerman updates the “standard-of-living debate,” which played a central part in Max Hartwell’s career. Nearly thirty years after they pioneered research in the area, Lance Davis and Robert Gallman again consider the history of capital formation in nineteenth-century America. Eric Jones revisits his arguments that modern growth must be examined in the long term. Douglass North summarizes his work on “the evolution of efficient markets in history.” Jeffrey Williamson explores labor mobility and market efficiency with a characteristically deft delineation of the issues and mobilization of broad data of international scope. Joel Mokyr extends his discussions of technological change with a thoughtful discussion of the power of inertial forces that usually delay progress.

Finally, several papers report on new research. David Galenson continues his research on labor markets with a discussion of the surprisingly long-drawn-out process by which free labor developed in Britain. Unlike the situation in the United States, British law bound labor to long-term service contracts until late in the nineteenth century. Mark Thomas explores the interaction of the frontier and the diffusions of economic growth to settler economies of both the Northern and Southern hemispheres. Gary Libecap considers the political economy of the U.S. General Revision Act of 1891, which marked a change in American policy from speedily moving federal lands into private ownership to one of increased public stewardship. Finally, John Wallis considers the problems of explaining the growth of government.

The essays do Max Hartwell proud. The list of authors is distinguished. As might be expected, the essays do not create a coherent whole. All, however, display high levels of scholarship. In the best spirit of economic history, they ask difficult questions about long-run economic development. In answering, they draw on analysis of social norms, economic and political institutions, and the actions of markets. Max Hartwell could hardly ask for more.