The Journal of Economic History

Table of Contents - 1999 - Volume 59, Issue 03  

Notes and Discussion

Grain Storage in Early Modern Europe

Mette Ejrnaesa1 and Karl Gunnar Perssona1

a1 Mette Ejrnaes is a research fellow and Karl Gunnar Persson is Reader at the Institute of Economics, University of Copenhagen.

Abstract

Scholars have long held strong views about the nature and extent of grain storage in early modern Europe. Direct evidence on the issue is quite poor and inconclusive.1 Randall Nielsen's ambitious attempt at solving the problem in a recent issue of this JOURNAL therefore deserves serious attention.2 Like others before him, Nielsen uses inferences from price behavior in assessing the nature of grain storage. Nielsen identifies three distinguishing implications of profit-maximizing storage for grain price structure.