Founding Choices
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Edited by:
Douglas A. Irwin
About this book
The political decisions made by the founding fathers were crucial to the success of the early republic. But the economic decisions they made were just as pivotal, ensuring the general welfare and common defense of the United States for decades to come. Founding Choices explores these economic choices and their profound influence on American life, westward expansion, and influence abroad. Among the topics covered are finance, trade, and monetary and banking policy, with a focus on the factors guiding those policies and their end result.
This book redresses the relative neglect of the economic achievements of the founders. It will be essential reading for historians and economists alike.
Author / Editor information
Douglas A. Irwin is the Robert E. Maxwell ’23 Professor of Arts and Sciences in the Department of Economics at Dartmouth College and a research associate of the NBER. Richard Sylla is the Henry Kaufmann Professor of the History of Financial Institutions and Markets and professor of economics at New York University and a research associate of the NBER.
Reviews
“In Founding Choices, Douglas Irwin and Richard Sylla have brought together an impressive and accomplished list of economic historians to examine the long-run importance of the economic decisions made in the Founding Era, decisions which helped foster sustained economic growth and development in the United States. There is a tremendous amount of useful and important information contained in these essays.”
Topics
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Frontmatter
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National Bureau of Economic Research
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Relation of the Directors to the Work and Publications of the National Bureau of Economic Research
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Contents
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Acknowledgments
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The Significance of the Founding Choices: Editors’ Introduction
1 - I. Politics
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1. The Constitutional Choices of 1787 and Their Consequences
25 - II. Policy
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2. Financial Foundations: Public Credit, the National Bank, and Securities Markets
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3. Revenue or Reciprocity? Founding Feuds over Early U.S. Trade Policy
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4. Monetary Policy and the Dollar
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5. Federal and State Commercial Banking Policy in the Federalist Era and Beyond
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6. The Other Foundings: Federalism and the Constitutional Structure of American Government
177 - III. Business Organization and the Factors of Production
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7. Rise of the Corporation Nation
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8. U.S. Land Policy: Founding Choices and Outcomes, 1781– 1802
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9. Free Labor and Slave Labor
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10. Looking Backward: Founding Choices in Innovation and Intellectual Property Protection
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Contributors
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Author Index
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Subject Index
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