Questions tagged [economy]
Questions which concern the historical management, distribution, and usage of resources; why a particular resource, or state of production, occurred in a certain way. General economics questions are off-topic but may be welcome on our sister site Economics Stack Exchange.
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How much did a sword cost in AD 1000 Constantinople?
Qualifications:
Obviously, swords vary in quality. Ideally, I would like to know what a standard army issue sword would have cost, if I bought it privately. But I realised we may only be able to ...
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What property relations existed between peasants and those who took from peasants in early Ottoman rule in Anatolia?
What property relations existed between peasants and those who took from peasants in early Ottoman rule (1300-1450) in Anatolia?
How was social surplus extracted from peasants, by who, with what ...
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Origin of land-lottery system
A report from 1894 describes the Musha'a land tenure system in the Arab villages of Palestine: the agricultural lands of the village are considered common property, and they are divided each year ...
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What was the price of bread in France from 1789 - 1815?
I would really like to know the price of bread in France during the entire revolutionary and Napoleonic era. I am aware it was high in 1789, but couldn't find hard data for further years.
All my ...
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Was the Achaemenid Empire richer than the Sasanian Empire?
A while ago I read a passage regarding the economy of different Persian empires. The passage was implying that the Achaemenid Persian empire (a.k.a first Iranian empire) was in total ``far richer"...
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Economic aftermath in Europe and the Middle East of the Black Death
The following excerpt is from Blinkist's summary of The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan:
Europe after the plague was an altogether different place. The
population had fallen dramatically, but this ...
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How did people trade for food and drink in Bronze age cities?
The time period I’m specifically interested in is Mesopotamian civilizations in the early to middle bronze age, but I don’t mind examples from other comparable cultures.
I’m curious how people in ...
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What were the names of the weapon manufacturers in France in the late 1700's
What were the names of the companies that manufactured hand weapons in France in the late 1700's and who were the most productive.
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How much iron ore could a medieval miner extract per day?
I am finding really hard to find an answer to this question. There are some numbers available online, but first of all the numbers range quite a lot from different sources, then they are given for a ...
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Are the coal mining revenue provided in the "Gentleman Jack" realistic for 1830s?
The "Gentleman Jack" series is based on the diaries of Anne Lister - a XIX century woman, often declared as "first modern lesbian" (the "gentleman" is apparently a slur, ...
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Are there any records of Foreign investments or Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in history from pre-medieval or medieval period?
A foreign direct investment (FDI) is an investment in the form of a controlling ownership in a business in one country by an entity based in another country. If we look at the articles about the ...
- 800
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What was the economic impact of Notre Dame When it was built?
After visiting Notre Dame a while back I became curious about the economic impacts behind building a cathedral in the middle ages.
The literature and the guides talked about a variety of motivations ...
- 1,126
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What is the longest lasting hyperinflationary period in history?
I guess hyperinflation periods depend on the definition of hyperinflation, which makes it hard to define and find comparative data. I could find which has been the worse in terms of percentages (...
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How long did it take to make a woolen sweater?
In premodern times, in temperate or colder climates, clothing was orders of magnitude more expensive than today and textile production made up a large percentage of total economic activity. I'm ...
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Was the tariff that Alexander Hamilton wanted to create (in his Financial Plan) ever put into action by Hamilton?
Hamilton's Financial plan had 3 parts:
The U.S. government would pay all debts
The U.S. government would create a national bank
The U.S. government would impose a high tax on imported goods (tariff)
...
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What is the oldest example of complaints against wealth being due to closeness to the ruler?
Consider the sentence “The king is the one at whose side wealth walks”. It is taken from the Babylonian Theodicy, a poem which was written somewhere between 1500 B.C. and 1100 B.C. and which is ...
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What were the personal tax rates in the Byzantine Empire during the 6th and 7th centuries?
What were the tax rates per person in the Byzantine Empire during the 6th and 7th centuries?
My findings:
wikipedia: Byzantine Economy (has no information regarding the tax rate per person of the ...
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Did wages get paid in pubs?
I recall hearing that in the past in Britain and Ireland, some workers (perhaps miners?) got their weekly wages paid out in the pub, much to the dismay of their wives. I don't remember where I heard ...
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Value of commodity money outside of the place it was minted
How was the exchange rate determined between different commodity currencies?
E.g., country X mints gold Zorkmids, each weighing 5g, and country Y mints gold Zennys, each weighting 8 grams. When Ms.XX ...
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Land concentration in Columbia
I am looking for elaboration for the following passage, which I found in Wikipedia:
"In 1968 and 1969 alone, the INCORA issued more than 60,000 land titles to farmers and workers. Despite this, ...
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Ratio of commerce to residence in preindustrial towns
Is there any research that has attempted to estimate the ratio of commerce to residence, or of shopkeepers to residents in other trades, for preindustrial towns? Or are there old census sources where ...
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Kazakhstan and anti-capitalism in the 1990s
What drove anti-capitalist sentiments from Kazakh intellectuals and economists in the 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union?
It is my understanding that Kazakhstan was a low level ...
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How did ancient Greek city-states secure mines to mint coins?
I have a basic question about mines and coinage.
I have read that different cities minted their own coins. The Athenians were lucky with the Laurion mines which contained silver. But what did cities ...
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Why didn't Louis XVI print money prior to the French revolution?
I'm currently reading "Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution" by Simon Schama. It is an ok book. There is a lot of divergence into the culture leading up to the revolution, which ...
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Are there historical statistics about the number of market towns?
As a way to understand changes in the middle ages, I want to know the development of market towns. Particularly, I am looking for the increase in their number, organised by country and period (e.g. ...
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Why did the Lindman government choose to resign over their agricultural program?
Why did the Lindman government choose to resign over their agricultural program? Did (members of) the government expound on why they chose to take the agricultural program as a matter of confidence ...
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How did a new Inka recover from being cut off from his inheritance?
When a reigning Inka ("Inka" is the quechua spelling, matter of preference) died, his successor was disinherited and all properties, servants and lands were split among the Inka's other offspring. The ...
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What are some of the earliest examples of welfare states?
I was reading about Welfare States and came across this on Wikipedia:
Emperor Ashoka of India put forward his idea of a welfare state in the 3rd century BCE. [...] The concepts of welfare and ...
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What happened in Southeast Asia in these years?
Im interesting to know what happened in the GDP growth in those years. I think that the 1964 and 1978 decline was because of the fall in oil prices, but im not sure. And in 1970 i really don't know ...
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What is the impact of 18th to 19th century colonialism on the live of the common people of the colonial empires
This topic suddenly came to me when I was doing my homework. I went online to search but most of the articles only talked about the impacts on the country or place that was being colonized.
According ...
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In Mughal India, which factors determined which countries were allowed forts?
I'm roughly halfway through this excellent extensive book: Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company. One of the more memorable sections to me was the account of how the first gestures ...
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Are there any estimates of military spending as a percentage of total government expenditure anywhere in 15th century Europe?
A little piece of information stuck in my head about the military expenditure. Namely, the current expenditure on the military is incredibly low when compared to that in the middle ages. I am not sure,...
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How did economic composition change during the world wars?
I'm trying to understand how economic composition changed during the world wars in various countries.
One route would be following the expenditure approach to gdp accounting, but in more detail. For ...
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Did the world suffer a general economic decline in 1870?
Last year the World Bank reported that :
According to World Bank forecasts, the global economy will shrink by 5.2% this year. That would represent the deepest recession since the Second World War, ...
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After the end of slavery at the closure of the US civil war, what percentage of former slaves stayed at their previous workplaces?
Upon the abolition of slavery in the USA, there were suddenly millions of former slaves set free. But they were left without an obvious workplace. On the other side, millions of jobs done previously ...
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How much would it cost to bribe a prison warden in New England in the year 1800?
The value of money from one decade to another is a very confusing topic - in my opinion, anyway.
For instance, something called the CPI Inflation Calculator states that $1 in 1800 was the equivalent ...
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