American Economic Growth before the Civil War The Testimony….pdf

This PDF is a selection from an out-of-print volume from the National Bureau of Economic Research Volume Title: American Economic Growth and Standards of Living before the Civil War Volume Author/Editor: Robert E. Gallman and John Joseph Wallis, editors Volume Publisher: University of Chicago Press Volume ISBN: 0-226-27945-6 Volume URL: /books/gall92-1 Conference Date: July 20-22, 1990 Publication Date: January 1992 Chapter Title: American Economic Growth before the Civil War: The Testimony of the Capital Stock Estimates Chapter Author: Robert E. Gallman Chapter URL: /chapters/c8008 Chapter pages in book: (p. 79 - 120) 2 American EconomicGrowth before the CivilWar: The Testimony ofthe Capital Stock Estimates RobertE. Gallman 2.1 Introduction Robert Giffen,ofparadoxfame,thoughtestimatesofaggregate wealthhave eightuses; the following haveimmediaterelevance: 1. To measure the accumulation of capital in communities at intervals of somelength . . . 2. Tocomparethe incomeof acommunity, whereestimatesof incomeexist, with itsproperty ... 4.Tomeasure, in conjunctionwith other factors, suchas aggregateincome, revenue, and population, the relative strength and resources of different communities. 5. Toindicate generallytheproportionsof the differentdescriptionsofprop- erty in a country to the total-how the wealth of a communityis com- posed. 6. To measure the progress of a community from period to period, or the relative progress of two or more communities, in conjunction with the facts as toprogress in income, population,andthe like;to apply,in fact, historicallyand in conjunctionwith No. 1,the measures used under the above heads 2, 3, 4and 5 for a comparison at a given moment. (1889, 136-37) Robert E. Gallman is Kenan Professor of Economics and History at the University of North Carolina