We follow Schumpeter's approach to analyzing price movements as set out in Business Cycles. While Schumpeter emphasizes movements in prices of finished manufactured goods, our focus is on the real prices of primary commodities, which are measured by the price of particular commodities or an...

We contribute to the task of identifying trends and cycles in energy prices by examining very long series of prices for coal and oil, going back to 1650 in the case of coal and 1859 in the case of oil. We find annual rates of increase in real price of greater than two percent are found for coal...