It is a widely held belief that significant wage rate differentials existed between Britain and the United States during the period 1790–1830. Indeed, the existence of such differentials is a pivotal factor in at least one theory of the nature and rate of growth of American and British technology and in the explanation of relative factor combinations in the two countries during the nineteenth century.

Can learning by doing be held to have played a significant part in raising productive efficiency during the early growth of manufacturing industries in the United States? If there is indeed an adequate basis for regarding technical progress during the pre-Civil War period as an endogenous process depending crucially upon the accumulation of practical experience, what sorts of ‘learning functions” best describe the forms in which that process manifested itself? And, in evaluating the impact of national commercial policies—be they historical or contemporary—what implications flow from the existence and the characteristics of learning effects in young industries, and possibly also in not-so-young industries?

Land was the resource that nineteenth-century America possessed in greatest abundance. A large part of the land was initially in the public domain and was transferred to private ownership in the course of the century. Land policy, therefore, had the potential for creating significant and long lasting effects on the American economy—on the rate of settlement of the West, the distribution of income, the rate of economic growth. A substantial body of literature, much of it severely critical, has developed concerning the economic effects of nineteenth-century American land policy. Unfortunately, the criticisms often rest primarily on tales of corruption and thievery, rather than on economic analysis. Certainly many of the stories are true, but they represent an insufficient basis for evaluating the economic effects of land policy. A detailed economic analysis of individual policies is required.

Economic historians have not provided a satisfactory discussion of the banking collapse of 1933. There are two reasons for their disinterest. First, while state systems contributed 80 percent of the commercial bank failures during the crisis year, banking statistics from state authorities are erratic, difficult to consolidate, and in some cases simply not available. Second, there already exists a set of generalizations based upon contemporary accounts which provides plausible answers to most of the obvious questions. The purpose of the following article is to explore the usefulness of these generalizations by applying them to 1932–1933 failure patterns in Iowa, and to suggest further research activities which need to be undertaken in order to construct a more powerful analysis.

Almost two decades ago, Professor Frederic C. Lane, assisted by Dr. Jelle C. Riemersma, prepared a book of readings in economic history, published in 1953, by Richard D. Irwin, Inc., under the title Enterprise and Secular Change. At that time I suggested the inclusion after translation of Arthur Spiethoff's article, “Die Allgemeine Volkswirtschaftslehre als geschichtliche Theorie: Die Wirtschaftsstile,” published in the Festgabe für Sombart in Schmollers Jahrbuch, LVI, No. 6 (1932), 51 fr. When Professor Spiethoff was informed of this suggestion, he refused to give the needed permission since his ideas on the subject had matured. Instead he sent an original article consisting of several sections, some of which I translated. Spiethoff's pertinent ideas were then published in translation in America in two separate papers. One, entitled “The ‘Historical’ Character of Economic Theories,” is to be found in the Journal of Economic History, XII (1952), 131 ff; the other, “Pure Theory and Gestalt Theory: Ideal Types and Real Types,” appeared in the Lane-Riemersma reader just cited. The rest of Spiethoff's original article remained untranslated. One section of it is now being submitted.