The Cost of Transportation in Pre-Industrial Europe

Dartmouth College, Dept. of Econ, Working Paper No. 01-02

62 Pages Posted: 6 Feb 2001

See all articles by Meir Kohn

Meir Kohn

Dartmouth College - Department of Economics

Date Written: January 2001

Abstract

In pre-industrial Europe, rising productivity both in agriculture and in industry depended on the expansion of trade, and the expansion of trade depended in turn on the reduction of trading costs. An important component of trading costs--for some goods the most important--was the cost of transportation. This had two elements: the cost of predation and the cost of carriage. This paper examines these two elements and how they changed over time. It also discusses the relative importance in lowering the cost of transportation of organizational change and technological progress.

JEL Classification: L91, N73, O30, O52, R40

Suggested Citation

Kohn, Meir G., The Cost of Transportation in Pre-Industrial Europe (January 2001). Dartmouth College, Dept. of Econ, Working Paper No. 01-02, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=256600 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.256600

Meir G. Kohn (Contact Author)

Dartmouth College - Department of Economics ( email )

Rockefeller Hall 6106
Hanover, NH 03755
United States
603-646-2648 (Phone)
603-643-2122 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~mkohn/

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
403
Abstract Views
3,052
Rank
117,738
PlumX Metrics