Despite the attention given by scholars to the military-industrial complex few studies have attempted to pinpoint and explain its origin. In this paper we argue that the coalescing of business, military, and political interest groups in support of a military build-up in the United States during peacetime occurred in the years between the Civil War and World War I. It was during this period that we observe the roots of institutional arrangements between the military and industry for the purpose of large-scale weapons acquisitions.

The federal budget, a long-sought goal of fiscal reformers, became a reality with the passage of the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921. This paper is concerned with one of the key expectations of the reformers, that the adoption of a formal budget would produce better estimates of federal revenues and expenditures. The conclusion is that there is little evidence of a dramatic improvement that could be attributed to the reform, although there is some evidence that the quality of the estimates improved over the long run. The paper then discusses the reasons for and implications of this finding.

The paper focuses on the development in Australia of minimum wage-setting and its relationship to unemployment. A variety of industrial tribunals embarked on a course of wage-setting early in the twentieth century as part of their task of reducing industrial conflict. In varying degree, the tribunals kept in mind what was thought of as wage justice for workers with low bargaining power. By 1921 a standard minimum wage for unskilled men had emerged and formed the basis of the wage system. It was a wage which had a strong welfare basis. Other wages more closely reflected the market. During the 1920s unemployment was not high but was concentrated on less-capable unskilled men. The limited evidence available points to the wage structure as the main cause.

An analysis of over 10,000 loans made by a major credit source in Keene, New Hampshire, from 1832 to 1897 is presented. The data sources are unique and include information on property ownership and wealth, occupation, involvement in businesses, age, and connections with the credit source. As time passed more funds were lent to borrowers out of the city and county, lending was used to support many new industrial and other enterprises, as well as for infrastructural and social capital investments. Many loans were made to individuals and businesses with close ties to the source of credit.

We examine the relationship between international trade and regional American credit markets. The evidence presented suggests that foreign payment flows had a significant effect on the level of interest rates in the East North Central, West North Central, Pacific, and Southern regions of the United States.

Studies of the postbellum South have neglected the development of the capital goods industry within the region. The argument of this note is that where the capital goods industry was limited or not present, economic development was inhibited. Within the South, I focus on regional differences in the development of the industry. Evidence is presented that indicates that the development of the capital goods industry and the pattern of inventive activity (as measured by patents) varied considerably within the South. One key finding is that the plantation Old South had fewer patents per capita compared with the nonplantation South.

The paper examines changes in the organization of the British cotton industry from 1825 to 1850 in its core region of Lancashire and northeast Cheshire, using new data to delineate patterns of integration, specialization, and the adoption of new technology. The industry is usually assumed to have progressed from a rather specialized structure in 1825 to a highly integrated structure in 1850; much of the literature is devoted to explaining this trend. No such trend occurred, however, and the explanations are incorrect. An alternative view, focusing on technical change and profitability in spinning and weaving, is outlined briefly.

This study questions the concept of entrepreneurial failure, traditionally invoked to account for the demise of the Gloucestershire wool trade in the Industrial Revolution. Gloucester clothiers used steam power selectively because of the high cost of coal but on a more regular basis and at greater capacity than scholars have commonly admitted. Excess capacity due to overcapitalization accounted for the failure of mills with large engines; underutilization of steam accounted for the failure of mills with small engines. Both types of failure sprang from rational and entrepreneurial choices, and not from an unwillingness to innovate.

The daily, weekly, and seasonal rhythms of production in the Montgolfier paper mill, one of the largest in eighteenth-century France, are examined here. Based on the comments of pioneer manufacturers, historians have been led to believe that early industrial work was irregular and unpredictable. The Montgolfiers as well complained of undependable workers. Yet their own output registers reveal a pattern of regular productivity unaided by advanced machinery or steam power.

This workshop addressed a question of concern to medieval economic history for over a generation. Frederic C. Lane called for a theory of consumption, and Carlo Cipolla and Robert Lopez have encouraged a more thorough investigation of the role of demand. Because demand is sometimes understood in terms of needs and of taste, it is often subsumed under the heading of social history, which characterizes and describes, while economic analysis has centered on studies of supply, with their more precise and quantifiable parameters.Will the largely descriptive tools at our disposal help us to understand how demand affected the early-modern economy? The workshop considered demand for goods and services and demand for money. The first three papers addressed the Mediterranean south, and the last three focused upon Europe north of the Alps.