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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 May 2010
Much of the federally owned public lands in the American South to the west of the Appalachians was sold to private interests between 1820 and 1860. Land sales' policy remained a great political issue during the nineteenth century because of its perceived effects on the distribution of wealth, sectoral economic growth, and the geographic location of political power. In this essay we consider the marginal impact of Southern land sales on national income. Like all models, our model is only as good as its underlying assumptions. Our aim is less to provide the last word on an important historical issue than to place the problem in a context in which analytical tools can be employed.
The author benefited from the comments of Gavin Wright, William Parker and David Grether in preparing this paper.
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23 Ibid.
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35 Ibid., p. 14.
36 Evidence gathered from U.S.D.A., Soil Conservation Service, Soil Surveys from ten selected Southern counties.
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38 U.S.D.A., Runoff, p. 31.
39 U.S.D.A., Soils, p. 102.
40 Blakely interview.
41 The basic result is supported indirectly by Wright's thesis results in the appendix of chapter iv. Wright regressed the average product of labor against (among other variables) length of settlement, grouping counties by soil type region. He found that the linear coefficient of length of settlement was significantly negative for the hilly regions, and insignificant for die flat regions. Length of settlement may be a proxy for soil depletion.
