How did the telegraph improve market integration in late imperial China? We exploit differences in the exogenous timing of telegraph construction in different prefectures from 1870 to 1911. The empirical results show that the arrival of the telegraph within a prefecture pair reduced the ratio of...

How much did the telegraph improve market integration in imperial China? We exploit differences in the timing of telegraph construction in different prefectures in the late 19th to the early 20th centuries to show that telegraph presence in both prefectures decreased the monthly grain price...

Britain contrary to received wisdom was not a free trader for most of the 1800s and, despite repeal of the Corn Laws, continued to have higher tariffs than the French until the last quarter of the century. War with Louis fourteenth from 1689 led to the end of all trade between Britain and France...

This paper evaluates the impacts of China's massive drinking water program on labor reallocation and rural development. Using representative survey data, we find that improved access to drinking water at the village level significantly increased off-farm employment and household labor income....

Problems of perspective : the myth of free trade Britain and fortress France -- The history of British economic policy -- The unbearable lightness of drink : assessing the effects of British tariffs on French wine -- The beginnings : trade and the struggle for European power in the late 1600s --...