After Columbus: Explaining the Global Trade Boom 1500-1800

55 Pages Posted: 24 May 2001

See all articles by Kevin H. O'Rourke

Kevin H. O'Rourke

University of Dublin, Trinity College; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

Jeffrey G. Williamson

Harvard University - Department of Economics, Laird Bell Professor of Economics, Emeritus; Honorary Fellow, University of Wisconsin - Department of Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: May 2001

Abstract

This Paper documents the size and timing of the world intercontinental trade boom following the great voyages in the 1490s of Columbus, da Gama and their followers. Indeed, a trade boom followed over the next three centuries. But what was its cause? The conventional wisdom in the world history literature offers globalization as the answer: it alleges that declining trade barriers, falling transport costs and overseas 'discovery' explains the boom. In contrast, this Paper reports the evidence that confirms that there was no commodity price convergence between continents, something that would have emerged had globalization been a force that mattered. Thus, the trade boom must have been caused by some combination of European import demand and foreign export supply from Asia and the Americas. The behaviour of the relative price of foreign importables in European cities should tell us which mattered most and when. We offer detailed evidence on the relative prices of such importables in European markets over the five centuries 1350-1850. We then offer a model which is used to decompose the sources of the trade boom 1500-1800.

Keywords: Demand and supply, history, trade growth

JEL Classification: F14, N70

Suggested Citation

O'Rourke, Kevin H. and Williamson, Jeffrey G., After Columbus: Explaining the Global Trade Boom 1500-1800 (May 2001). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=270731

Kevin H. O'Rourke (Contact Author)

University of Dublin, Trinity College ( email )

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Jeffrey G. Williamson

Harvard University - Department of Economics, Laird Bell Professor of Economics, Emeritus ( email )

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Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

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IZA Institute of Labor Economics

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