This paper -- prepared for and presented at a meeting of the Conference on Research in Income and Wealth -- describes a set of seven capital stock estimates for the U.S., distributed at decennial intervals, 1840 through 1900.The estimates link with Raymond Goldsmith's work on the twentieth...

This paper examines 36.640 labor contracts signed between whalemen and the agents who organized 1,258 whaling voyages that departed from New Bedford, Massachusetts between January I. 1840 and December 31, 1858 and between January I and December 31, 1866. The contracts contain information on the...

From the end of the War of 1812 until the Civil War the New Bedford whaling fleet grew spectacularly; thereafter it declined, equally spectacularly. By the end of the century New Bedford's day was over. During the 88 years of this period, the technical configuration of the fleet, the hunting...