DOCTORAL RESEARCH
Maureen H. Berry, Editor
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
The emphasis in the current selection of recent doctoral dissertations is on the birth of certain types of trade and the effects of the environment on the way in which these industries developed.
Our first contrast focused on the differences between fur trading in Russia and Canada. In medieval Russia, competition was fierce between political forces in different geographical areas. In Canada, on the other hand, two competitors wrestled for control over common grounds. We move on a little later in time to investigate the growth of the Brazilian economy. Sweigart’s dissertation is an in-depth study of a particular industry, coffee export. Reiss, on the other hand, has a more general concern: the characteristics of national industry development when industrial growth comes late in a nation’s life. We close with a look at the introduction of industry into North America. Here, we find the national character of the proud egalitarian to be a driving force in the birth of the American labor movement.
Treasure of the Land of Darkness: A Study of the Fur Trade and its Significance for Medieval Russia (X-XVI Centuries) (The University of Chicago, 1980; 41/07, p. 3214-A)1 by Janet L. B. Martin. During the medieval period, the northern fur trade was an important element in the political and economic development of the Russian and mid-Volga principalities. Little has hitherto been known about its operations however. Starting with the first available records from the tenth century, this dissertation traces the growth of the system and the patterns of trade over a 600 year period, until Muscovy monopolized political power and incorporated the major suppliers and fur centers into its boundaries.
The variety of sources tapped for this research is impressive, in-cluding Islamic, geographical and historical tracts, numismatic and archeological data, Russian publications and archival documents ethnological studies, Scandinavian sagas, Western European travel accounts, and commercial documents.
The fur network ranged over a very wide land area. From the river valley of the North Dvina, Pechora, and Ob in the northern regions, the traders brought down the pelts to the major collection and distribution centers which included Novgorod, Moscow and Kazan. From there the sables, ermines, martens, and foxes as well as the less luxurious beavers and squirrels were moved on to waiting markets m Central Asia and Constantinople, the gateways to Iran and Europe.
Silver was the usual commodity received in exchange. Control by the trade centers over major elements in the supply system, such as the initial sources and key locations along the trade routes, shifted as the trade expanded.
The dissertation’s estimates of the volume and profitability of the fur trade from exporting centers in Novgorod and Moscow support the thesis that there was a connection between the volume of trade and political struggles in those areas.
The North American Fur Trade 1804-1821: A Study in the Life-Cycle of a Duopoly (The University of Western Ontario (Canada), 1980; 41/12, pp. 5193-4A) by Ann Martina Carlos. In North America, two companies controlled the fur trade during the period 1804-1821: the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC), named after its base of operations, and the North West Company (NWC) which operated out of Montreal. The main objective of this study was to analyze the inter-firm behavior of this duopoly during its 16 year life cycle.
The initial years were marked by passive competition which could be characterized as a Cournot behavior model. This ended, however, with the Napoleonic Wars when the HBC suffered severe financial crisis and adopted an aggressive operating style. Despite this challenge, the NWC was content to play the role of follower, a situation which Carlos equated with the Stackleberg leader-follower model. However, NWC also began to experience financial problems as the depletion of the fur-bearing animal population continued. It then imitated the behavior of its adversary. An end to this competition came with the merger of the two companies, after three previously unsuccessful attempts, in 1821. The dissertation analyzes these previous failures, the reasons for the success of the fourth attempt, and the economic bases for the observed duopoly behavior.
Financing and Marketing Brazilian Export Agriculture: The Coffee Factors of Rio de Janeiro, 1850-1888 (The University of Texas at Austin, 1980, 362 pp; 41/11, p. 4809-A) by Joseph Earl Sweigart. This dissertation identifies and describes the key role played by the factor, who was the planter’s commission agent, in Brazil’s export coffee trade during the second half of the nineteenth century. The research relied mainly on archival search of such sources as partnership and mortgage contracts and registers, as well as financial statements attached to commercial litigation documents, and inventories of estates. Secondary sources included official regulations, company prospectuses and bank reports, official journals, newspapers, and directories.
This trade centered in the port of Rio de Janeiro and was the mainstay of the country’s economy. The factor had three main functions: he acted as an intermediary between plantation owners and coffee buyers; he purchased supplies for the plantation which were worked by black slave laborers; and he obtained the credit needed to finance coffee production.
All phases of the coffee trade were controlled by native Brazilians or Portuguese family members. As a result, kinship ties strengthened the partnership arrangements typical of many business relation-ships between planters and factors. The entrepreneurial activities of the factors were diffused throughout the agricultural, industrial, and financial sectors of the economy. For example, they expanded commercial banking in Rio de Janeiro to finance the production and marketing of coffee; they tried to develop an agriculture capital market; they invested in a number of enterprises, including textiles; and they directed transportation and insurance companies.
By the 1880s however, reversals set in. The economic effects of a severe decline in coffee prices were exacerbated by the abolition of slavery in 1888. However, although some factors were forced out of business, most of them retained their dominant position in the country’s business community.
Development of Brazilian Industrial Enterprise: A Historical Perspective (University of California, Berkeley, 1980, 422 pp; 41 / 07, p. 3210-A) by Gerald Dinu Reiss. The major hypothesis tested in this study is that the growth pattern of industrial firms exhibits certain national characteristics. The latter include forms of production, products, finance, management and markets as well as certain inter-firm and client/firm relationships. The dissertation tests this proposition through a historical analysis, focusing on the growth process of individual firms. There were three major phases of industrial development in Brazil. The earliest stage occurred when the nation was primarily a coffee export economy and little industrial investment took place. This instability in industrial growth continued until 1929. During the next two decades industry grew rapidly in an environment marked by restrictions in the finance of imports. During the latest stage starting in the 1950s, the economy developed a markedly international character. The related intensification of competition in certain markets forced firms to make dramatic adjustments to the new conditions and competitive relationships with foreign subsidiaries.
The distinctive historical features of late industrial development and their lasting consequences for Brazilian national firms are illustrated by six specific case studies.
The Beginnings of the Industrial Revolution in America: Paw-tucket, Rhode Island, 1672-1829 (Brown University, 1980, 404 pp; 41/12, p. 5221-A) by Gary B. Kulik. America’s first experiences of the factory system occurred when Samuel Slater introduced Ark-Wright’s spinning machinery into Pawtucket, Rhode Island in 1790.
This village had already been well established for over a century supporting itself through artisan production and agriculture. The new mill owners seeking to impose their own cultural influences and political power had, therefore, to confront a set of existing traditions. One of the strongest challenges to the new system was a deep sense of egalitarianism among the native population. This found expression, collectively, in 1824 when the American textile workers struck for the first time. Opposition also came from the household farmers whose arable land was flooded by the unrestricted damming of rivers. The basic alterations wrought in the landscape and in the general ecology by the new technology also had parallel effects on the social infrastructure. Resistance by the farmers, the artisans, and the mill workers was the force which limited the power of the mill owners to set their own new definitions of work and leisure.
