University of South Carolina

                                                            ECON 
329
                                               Professor Phillips
                                               American Economic 
History
                                                          Spring 
1991


Final Grade will be based on two exams and a final.  The exams are
essay questions, but `Phillips rule' requires at least two diagrams
per answer.  The two regular exams will consist of two essays
chosen from three possible topics.  The final will consist of three
essays chosen from five topics.  No make-up exams will be given
without prior notice and approval, and make-up exams will not have
any choice as to the subject of the essays.

Readings:      Walton & Rockoff, History of the American Economy,
6th edition
               Readings on Reserve in the BA library.


                          COURSE SYLLABUS

     
TOPIC                              DATES & READINGS(*-optional)

I.    The Founding of the American Colonies: Migration and Labor
Supply(January 14th-23rd)
Walton, chapters 2 & 3
Reserve reading 7 (Galenson)
II.   The American Revolution: the Navigation Acts and
Taxation(January 25th-February 4th)
Walton, chapters 4,5*,6,7
Reserve reading 12 (Thomas)
III.  Westward Expansion: Land Policy and Transportation(February
6th-13th)
Walton, chapters 8,9,15,16
Reserve readings 1 & 3
                                             (David, Fogel)
                    (First Exam--February 15th)


IV.   Antebellum Monetary Economics: Banking and the Panic of 1837

(February 18th-March 1st)
Walton, chapters 12, 10*,11*
Reserve reading 11 (Temin)
V.    Slavery and the South:  Efficiency and Exploitation(March
4th-8th, spring break,  March 18th-20th)
Walton, chapter 13, 14(pp. 279-                       283)
Reserve readings 4 & 2
 (Fogel&Engerman, David&Temin)
VI.   The Postbellum South: Sharecropping and the New South(March
22nd-29th, Easter, April  3rd)
Walton, chapter 14(pp. 283-97)
Reserve readings 8 & 14
 (Ransom & Sutch, Wright)
                     (Second Exam--April 5th)


VII.  Postbellum Monetary Economics: the Gold Standard and the
Federal Reserve
(April 8th-10th, no class April  12th, April 15th-17th)
Walton, chapters 19, 17*,18*
Reserve readings 9 & 5
 (Rockoff, Friedman)
VIII. The Great Crash & the Great Depression: Keynesians and
Monetarists(April 19th-29th)
Walton, chapters 22,23, 21*
Reserve readings 13, 6, 10
 (White, Friedman & Schwartz,   Temin)
      (Comprehensive Final Exam--Tuesday, May 7th, 9am-12pm)                       Reserve Reading List

                                               Professor Phillips
                              ECON 329--American Economic History

 1.   David, Paul, "The Mechanization of Reaping in the Antebellum
Midwest," in Technical Choice, Innovation and Economic Growth
(Cambridge, 1975), chapter 4, pp. 195-219.

 2.   David, Paul & Temin, Peter, "Slavery: The Progressive
Institution?" in Paul David et. al., Reckoning with Slavery (New
York, 1976), chapter 5, pp. 165-230.

 3.   Fogel, Robert, Railroads and American Economic Growth
(Baltimore, 1964), chapter 6, pp. 207-24.

 4.             , and Engerman, Stan, Time on the Cross: The
Economics of American Negro Slavery (Boston, 1974), chapter 6, pp.
191-257.

 5.   Friedman, Milton, "The Crime of 1873," Journal of Political
Economy, 98(Dec. 1990), pp. 1159-78.

 6.             , and Schwartz, Anna, The Great Contraction, 1929-
1933 (Princeton, 1963), pp. 3-36.

 7.   Galenson, David, White Servitude in Colonial America
(Cambridge, 1981), chapter 9, pp. 141-68.

 8.   Ransom, Roger & Sutch, Richard, One Kind of Freedom: The
Economic Consequences of Emancipation (Cambridge, 1977), chapter 9,
pp. 171-99.

 9.   Rockoff, Hugh, "The `Wizard of Oz' as a Monetary Allegory,"
Journal of Political Economy, 98(Aug. 1990), pp. 739- 60.

10.  Temin, Peter, Did Monetary Forces Cause the Great Depression?
(New York, 1976), chapter 6, pp. 169-78.

11.             , "The Economic Consequences of the Bank War," 
Journal of Political Economy, 70(April 1968), pp. 257-74.

12.   Thomas, Robert P., "A Quantitative Approach to the Study of
the Effects of British Imperial Policy on Colonial Welfare: Some
Preliminary Findings," Journal of Economic History, 25(1965), pp.
615-38.

13.   White, Eugene N., "The Stock Market Boom and Crash of 1929
Revisited," Journal of Economic Perspectives, 4(Spring 1990), pp.
67-83.

14.   Wright, Gavin, Old South, New South: Revolutions in the
Southern Economy since the Civil War (New York, 1986), chapter 2,
pp. 17-50.                                                            ECON 
329Professor Phillips
                                               American Economic 
HistoryFebruary 15, 1991

Answer two of three essays.  Include at least 2 diagrams per
answer.

1.    Discuss the economics of migration and indentured servitude. 
Explain why some American colonies relied heavily on indentured
servants, while other colonies used different sources of labor.

2.   Which do you feel provides a better economic explanation of
     the American Revolution: the Navigation Acts or the issue of
     `No Taxation without Representation'?  Explain the economic
     effects of each, and why you feel the impact of these policies
     was large or small.

3.   Discuss American land policy during the westward expansion. 
What were the economic motivations behind the `conservative' and
`liberal' positions?  Show how the model of perfect competition can
be used to explain a land boom.                                                            ECON 
329Professor Phillips
                                               American Economic 
HistoryApril 5, 1991

Answer two of three essays.  Include at least 2 diagrams per
answer.

1.    Describe the Private Bank Note System that operated in the
United States       before the Civil War, and the "Eastern" and
"Western" points of view on       money and banking.  Do you feel
that the Panic of 1837 was inevitable,         given the kind of
monetary system the United States had, or was it instead       due
to other factors?

2.   Was the American Slavery System in the South profitable?  Was
it efficient?        How can an economist measure the economic
exploitation of slaves in a          pecuniary sense?  What about
non-pecuniary factors?

3.   Did losing the Civil War seriously damage the Southern
economy, or would       it have stagnated anyway if slavery had
continued?  Be sure to discuss the       impact of cotton demand,
sharecropping, and the South's investment in          education and
infrastructure.                   UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA

                                                ECON 329--Spring 
1991 Professor Phillips
                                               American Economic 
History Final Exam

Answer three of five essays.  Include at least 2 diagrams per
answer.

1.    Discuss the economics of an indentured servant's contract. 
Why was indentured servitude used in the American colonies, and why
was it more popular in some colonies than others?

2.   Were the canals and/or the railroads crucial to American 
     economic development?  Discuss how lowered transportation
     costs can help an economy, and how one might measure the
     `social savings' of a particular transportation improvement.

3.   Did the cost and destruction of the Civil War hurt the 
     Southern economy?  Discuss other factors that may explain why
     the South continues to lag behind the North in economic
     development.

4.   Why did the New England textile industry move to the Southern
     Piedmont region in the late 1800s?  When the Southern cotton
     mills were established, why did the owners choose to build
     `company towns' for their workers, rather than rely on private
     housing markets?

5.   What were some important causes of the Great Depression of
     1929-39?  Which was more important: exogenous factors that
     could not have been prevented, or economic policy errors such
     as those emphasized by the Keynesians and the Monetarists?