IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/jechis/v55y1995i04p773-800_04.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Learning, Capital Accumulation, and the Transformation of California Agriculture

Author

Listed:
  • Rhode, Paul W.

Abstract

Between 1890 and 1914, California agriculture rapidly shifted from extensive to intensive crops, emerging as one of the world's major suppliers of Mediterranean products. Based on an analysis of new data on price and quantity movements, this article calls into question the traditional emphasis on changes in transportation, water, and labor market conditions as explanations for California's transformation. It argues that increases in fruit supply outpaced increases in demand and that declining farm interest rates and biological learning played crucial, if relatively neglected, roles in the intensification process.

Suggested Citation

  • Rhode, Paul W., 1995. "Learning, Capital Accumulation, and the Transformation of California Agriculture," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 55(4), pages 773-800, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jechis:v:55:y:1995:i:04:p:773-800_04
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022050700042157/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. David A. Hennessy, 2006. "On Monoculture and the Structure of Crop Rotations," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 88(4), pages 900-914.
    2. Johnston, Warren E. & McCalla, Alex F., 2004. "Whither California Agriculture: Up, Down or Out? Some Thoughts about the Future," Special Reports 11922, University of California, Davis, Giannini Foundation.
    3. Vicente Pinilla & María Isabel Ayuda, 2006. "“Horn Of Plenty” Revisited: The Globalization Of Mediterranean Horticulture And The Economic Development Of Spain, 1850-1935," Documentos de Trabajo (DT-AEHE) 0606, Asociación Española de Historia Económica.
    4. Richard W. England, 2010. "Ricardo, Gold, and Rails: Discovering the Origins of Progress and Poverty," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 69(4), pages 1279-1293, October.
    5. Alan L. Olmstead, 2020. "Historical and Institutional Perspectives on American Agricultural Development," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 102(2), pages 400-418, March.
    6. Melinda C. Miller, 2020. "“The Righteous and Reasonable Ambition to Become a Landholder”: Land and Racial Inequality in the Postbellum South," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 102(2), pages 381-394, May.
    7. Lionel Frost, 2010. "‘Metallic Nerves’: San Francisco And Its Hinterland During And After The Gold Rush," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 50(2), pages 129-147, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:jechis:v:55:y:1995:i:04:p:773-800_04. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/jeh .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.