![]() 5 By 1890, California was second largest wheat producing state in the nation. 4 In the 1880s, the state produced more than a 1 000 000 tons of wheat per year, and exports to Great Britain had become "a potent factor in European food supplies". As early as 1860, California was the number one barley producing state in the nation, and by the late 1870s, between ¼ and ¾ of the grain shipped from the United States to Great Britain each year originated in California, a situation that persisted for nearly two decades. The scale of grain production was remarkable. 3 California, however, appears to be exceptional, since it seems to be a case where a mineral boom led to an expansion of tradable goods. 1 Production took off then even though the state's leading newspaper had editorialized the year before that "It may be some years ere the State shall produce sufficient breadstuffs for home consumption." 2That is, the reality of self sufficiency and an export surplus in 1854 came as a surprise to the locals the timing should also be surprising to economic historians because analysis of mineral booms the socalled Dutch disease model shows that the production of tradable goods shrinks during positive supplyside shocks such as gold rushes. Significant production of wheat and flour did not start in the 1860s, but in 1852, the same year as the peak in gold production. One consequence of this focus is that economic historians have overlooked the decade of the 1850s, when the wage and price effects of the gold rush were still factors in the regional economy, the state's ability to feed itself was in doubt, and no one believed it would be possible to ship exports 14 000 miles across two oceans and be competitive in British grain markets. Key words: Mining, gold rush, price convergence, economic integration, grain trade, deindustrialization, disequilibrium.Īgricultural histories of California during the gold rush period tend to focus on the years after 1860, by which time the chaos of the mineral boom had disappeared and grain shippers were sending large cargoes of wheat to Great Britain. In addition, wheat and other cereals output increased for several reasons, including the timing of technological changes in mining, the use of native American labor, California's relative isolation from the North Atlantic economy, and the discovery of gold in Australia. A closer examination of the timing and sequencing of production shifts shows that a decline in tradable goods production fits the California case relatively well. Historians have emphasized the effects of immigration and the increase in the size of the local market. Economic models predict that the production of tradable goods such as wheat are unlikely during a mineral boom due to the availability of imports and the high cost of labor and other inputs. This paper explores the nearsimultaneous development of the gold rush and grain production in California during the early 1850s. Palabras clave: Minería, época de oro, convergencia de precios, integración económica, comercio de cereales, desindustrialización, desequilibrio. ![]() Sin embargo, hubo fenómenos adicionales que facilitaron el crecimiento de la producción del trigo y otros cereales, incluyendo los cambios tecnológicos en el sector minero, el empleo de población indígena, el relativo aislamiento de California en la economía atlántica del norte y el descubrimiento de oro en Australia. Una mirada más cercana del tiempo y la secuencia de los cambios en la producción muestran que un declive de la producción de los bienes comerciales concuerdan relativamente bien con el caso californiano. Diversos historiadores han enfatizado los impactos de la inmigración y el crecimiento del mercado local. Modelos económicos predicen que la producción de bienes de consumo, como el trigo, no se puede expandir durante un auge del sector minero si existe una fácil disponibilidad de importación, debido a que los costos del trabajo y otros insumos son altos. ![]() He is professor of Economics and director of the International Business Program at San Diego State University.Įste ensayo explora el casi simultáneo desarrollo de la fiebre de oro y la producción de cereales en la década de 1850 en California. in Economics from the University of California, Davis. The Gold Rush Origins of California's Wheat Economy
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