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Order Without Law? Property Rights During the California Gold Rush

Karen Clay
Carnegie Mellon University - H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management

Gavin Wright
Stanford University - Department of Economics

June 2003

Stanford Law and Economics Olin Working Paper No. 265; Stanford Univ. Economics Working Paper No. 03-008

Abstract:
The paper reconsiders the nature of mining districts and property rights during the California gold rush. According to a widely accepted view advanced by Umbeck (1977, 1981), in the absence of effective legal authority, district codes established secure property rights in mining claims. Drawing on a data set of mining district codes and a simple theoretical model, we argue that the main historical features of mining districts may best be understood by viewing them not as enforcers of private property rights, but as institutions for managing access to a nonrenewable resource, in what was fundamentally an open-access context.

Keywords: property rights, institutions, gold rush

JEL Classifications: K0, N0

Working Paper Series

Date posted: August 12, 2003 ; Last revised: October 28, 2003

Suggested Citation

Clay, Karen B. and Wright, Gavin, Order Without Law? Property Rights During the California Gold Rush (June 2003). Stanford Law and Economics Olin Working Paper No. 265; Stanford Univ. Economics Working Paper No. 03-008. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=420960 or doi:10.2139/ssrn.420960

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Contact Information

Karen B. Clay (Contact Author) Carnegie Mellon University - H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management ( email ) Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890 United States
Gavin Wright Stanford University - Department of Economics ( email ) Landau Economics Building 579 Serra Mall Stanford, CA 94305-6072 United States