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After Columbus: Explaining Europe'S Overseas Trade Boom, 1500–1800

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  • O'Rourke, Kevin H.
  • Williamson, Jeffrey G.

Abstract

This study documents the boom in Europe's imports from Asia and the Americas between 1500 and 1800 and explores its causes. There was no commodity-price convergence between continents, suggesting that declining trade barriers were not the cause of the boom. Thus, it must have been caused by some combination of European import demand and foreign export supply. The behavior of the relative price of foreign importables in European cities should tell us which mattered most and when: we provide the evidence and offer a model which is used to decompose the sources of Europe's overseas trade boom.

Suggested Citation

  • O'Rourke, Kevin H. & Williamson, Jeffrey G., 2002. "After Columbus: Explaining Europe'S Overseas Trade Boom, 1500–1800," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 62(2), pages 417-456, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jechis:v:62:y:2002:i:02:p:417-456_00
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Kevin H. O'Rourke & Jeffrey G. Williamson, 2005. "Did Vasco da Gama Matter for European Markets? Testing Frederick Lane's Hypotheses Fifty Years Later," NBER Working Papers 11884, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Joan R. Ros s & Kevin H. O'Rourke & Jeffrey G. Williamson, 2007. "Globalization, Growth and Distribution in Spain 1500-1913," Trinity Economics Papers tep0407, Trinity College Dublin, Department of Economics.
    3. Kevin H. O'Rourke, Leandro Prados de la Escosura and Guilllaume Daudin, 2008. "Trade and Empire, 1700-1870," The Institute for International Integration Studies Discussion Paper Series iiisdp249, IIIS.
    4. Henning Bovenkerk & Christine Fertig, 2023. "Consumer revolution in north‐western Germany: Material culture, global goods, and proto‐industry in rural households in the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 76(2), pages 551-574, May.
    5. Antoni Estevadeordal & Brian Frantz & Alan M. Taylor, 2003. "The Rise and Fall of World Trade, 1870–1939," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(2), pages 359-407.
    6. Williamson, Jeffrey G., 2013. "The Commodity Export, Growth, and Distribution Connection in Southeast Asia 1500-1940," CEPR Discussion Papers 9364, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. Nico Voigtl?nder & Hans-Joachim Voth, 2013. "Gifts of Mars: Warfare and Europe's Early Rise to Riches," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 27(4), pages 165-186, Fall.
    8. Irigoin, Alejandra, 2018. "Global silver: bullion or specie? Supply and demand in the making of the early modern global economy," Economic History Working Papers 90190, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    9. Dobado-González, Rafael, 2013. "La globalización hispana del comercio y el arte en la Edad Moderna [The hispanic globalization of commerce and art in the early modern era]," MPRA Paper 51112, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Michael A. Clemens & Jeffrey G. Williamson, 2002. "Closed Jaguar, Open Dragon: Comparing Tariffs in Latin America and Asia before World War II," NBER Working Papers 9401, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Art Carden, 2010. "The economics of “Certaine Lewd and Ill-Disposed Persons”: Comment on Leeson," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 23(3), pages 287-292, September.
    12. Alan M. Taylor, 2002. "Globalization, Trade, and Development: Some Lessons From History," NBER Working Papers 9326, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Jan De Vries, 2010. "The limits of globalization in the early modern world," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 63(3), pages 710-733, August.
    14. MADSEN, Jakob B, 2018. "Is Inequality Increasing in r-g? The Dynamics of Capital’s Income Share in the UK, 1210-2013," Discussion paper series HIAS-E-70, Hitotsubashi Institute for Advanced Study, Hitotsubashi University.
    15. Maddison, Angus, 2005. "La economía de occidente y la del resto del mundo : una perspectiva milenaria," IFCS - Working Papers in Economic History.WH dilf0501, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Instituto Figuerola.
    16. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/6149 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. David S. Jacks, 2010. "Foreign Wars, Domestic Markets: England, 1793-1815," NBER Working Papers 16236, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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