Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-9pm4c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T05:05:59.125Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Property Rights Under Administrator-Dictators: The Rise and Fall of America's First Bank

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 November 2013

Dror Goldberg  and
Igal Milchtaich
Dror Goldberg
Affiliation:
Lecturer, Department of Economics, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel. E-mail: dg@drorgoldberg.com.
Igal Milchtaich
Affiliation:
Associate Professor, Department of Economics, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel. E-mail: Igal.Milchtaich@biu.ac.il.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The dictatorial Dominion of New England (1686–1689) saw the rise and fall of the first operational bank scheme in America. Both events resulted from the appointed rulers' attempts to personally profit from real estate, subject to an absolutist constitution imposed by England. The first, local ruler led a nominally private land bank. The subsequent, foreign ruler invalidated all land titles and thus killed the bank. This unusual case study exemplifies an extension of Mancur Olson's model of stationary and roving bandits, and demonstrates how economic development can be affected in different ways by different types of dictators.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 73 , Issue 4 , December 2013 , pp. 1105 - 1131
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

For suggestions and discussions, we thank John Hanson, Arye Hillman, Avner Greif, Richard Johnson, Larry Neal, Gary Richardson, Peter Rousseau, Richard Sylla, anonymous referees, Editor Paul Rhode, participants at university seminars (Bar-Ilan, Haifa, Hebrew, NYU, Purdue) and participants at conferences (BHC, ISNIE, Israel Economic Association, SSHA, “Questioning Credible Commitment” at Cambridge).

References

REFERENCES

Acemoglu, Daron, and Robinson, James A.. Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty. New York: Crown Business, 2012.Google Scholar
Aghion, Philippe, Alesina, Alberto, and Trebbi, Francesco. “Democracy, Technology, and Growth.” In Institutions and Economic Performance, edited by Helpman, Elhanan, 511–43. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008.Google Scholar
Almeida, Heitor, and Ferreira, Daniel. “Democracy and the Variability of Economic Performance.” Economics and Politics 14, no. 3 (2002): 225–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andrews, Charles M.The Colonial Period of American History. 4 volumes. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1934.Google Scholar
Barnes, Viola F.The Dominion of New England: A Study in British Colonial Policy. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1923.Google Scholar
Batchellor, Albert Stillman.Laws of New Hampshire. 10 volumes. Manchester, NH: John B. Clark, 1904–1922.Google Scholar
Belknap, Jeremy.The History of New Hampshire. Dover, NH: S. C. Stevens, 1831.Google Scholar
Besley, Timothy, and Kudamatsu, Masayuki. “Making Autocracy Work.” In Institutions and Economic Performance, edited by Helpman, Elhanan, 452–510. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008.Google Scholar
Beverly, Robert.The History of Virginia. Richmond: J. W. Randolph, 1855.Google Scholar
BondBeverley W., Jr. Beverley W., Jr.The Quit-Rent System in the American Colonies. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1919.Google Scholar
Campbell, Charles.History of the Colony and Ancient Dominion of Virginia. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1860.Google Scholar
Davis, Andrew McFarland. “Was It Andros?” Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, New Series, 18 (1907): 346–61.Google Scholar
Davis, Andrew McFarland.Colonial Currency Reprints. New York: Franklin, 1910.Google Scholar
Dunn, Richard S. “The Downfall of the Bermuda Company: A Restoration Farce.” William and Mary Quarterly, Third Series, 20 (1963): 487–512.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geddes, Barbara. “What Causes Democratization?” In The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics, edited by Boix, Carles and Stokes, Susan C., 317–39. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Goldberg, Dror. “The Massachusetts Paper Money of 1690.” The Journal of Economic History 69, no. 4 (2009): 1092–1106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldberg, Dror. “Why Was America's First Bank Aborted?” The Journal of Economic History 71, no. 1 (2011): 211–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gonzalez de Lara, Yadira, Greif, Avner, and Jha, Saumitra. “The Administrative Foundations of Self-Enforcing Institutions.” American Economic Review: Papers & Proceedings 98, no. 2 (2008): 105–09.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greif, Avner. “On the Political Foundations of the Late Medieval Commercial Revolution: Genoa During the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries.” The Journal of Economic History 54, no. 2 (1994): 271–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greif, Avner.Institutions and the Path to the Modern Economy: Lessons from Medieval Trade. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greif, Avner. “The Impact of Administrative Power on Political and Economic Developments: Toward a Political Economy of Implementation.” In Institutions and Economic Performance, edited by Helpman, Elhanan, 17–63. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008.Google Scholar
Haber, Stephen. “Authoritarian Government.” In The Oxford Handbook of Political Economy, edited by Weingast, B. R. and Wittman, D. A., 693–707. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.Google Scholar
Haffenden, Philip S. “The Crown and the Colonial Charters, 1675–1688: Part I.” William and Mary Quarterly, Third Series, 15 (1958): 297–311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hening, William Waller.Statutes at Large: Being a Collection of the Laws of Virginia from the First Session of the Legislature in the Year 1619. 13 volumes. New York: Bartow, 1823.Google Scholar
Hillman, Arye L. “Nietzschean Development Failures.” Public Choice 119, no. 3–4 (2004): 263–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horsefield, J. Keith.British Monetary Experiments, 1650–1710. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1960.Google Scholar
Johnson, Richard R.Adjustment to Empire: The New England Colonies, 1675–1715. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1981.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kimball, Everett.The Public Life of Joseph Dudley: A Study of the Colonial Policy of the Stuarts in New England. New York: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1911.Google Scholar
Konig, David Thomas.Law and Society in Puritan Massachusetts: Essex County, 1629–1692. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1979.Google Scholar
Labaree, Leonard Woods.Royal Government in America: A Study of the British Colonial System Before 1783. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1930.Google Scholar
LewisTheodore Burnham, Jr. Theodore Burnham, Jr. “Massachusetts and the Glorious Revolution, 1660–1692.” Ph.D. diss., University of Wisconsin, 1967.Google Scholar
Martin, John Frederick.Profits in the Wilderness: Entrepreneurship and the Founding of New England Towns in the Seventeenth Century. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991.Google Scholar
Massachusetts Historical Society. Boston, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
North, Douglass C., Wallis, John Joseph, and Weingast, Barry R.. Violence and Social Orders: A Conceptual Framework for Interpreting Recorded Human History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
North, Douglass C., and Weingast, Barry R.. “Constitutions and Commitment: The Evolution of Institutions Governing Public Choice in Seventeenth-Century England.” The Journal of Economic History 49, no. 4 (1989): 803–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olson, Mancur. “Dictatorship, Democracy, and Development.” American Political Science Review 87, no. 3 (1993): 567–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olson, Mancur.Power and Prosperity: Outgrowing Communist and Capitalist Dictatorships. New York: Basic Books, 2000.Google Scholar
Pincus, Steve.1688: The First Modern Revolution. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009.Google Scholar
Przeworski, Adam, Alvarez, Michael E., Cheibub, Jose Antonio, and Limongi, Fernando. Democracy and Development: Political Institutions and Well-Being in the World, 1950–1990. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ritchie, Robert C.The Duke's Province: A Study of New York Politics and Society, 1664–1691. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1977.Google Scholar
Rutman, Darrett B.Husbandmen of Plymouth: Farms and Villages in the Old Colony, 1620–1692. Boston: Beacon Press, 1967.Google Scholar
Sah, R. K. “Fallibility in Human Organizations and Political Systems.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 5, no. 2 (1991): 67–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sainsbury, W. Noel, and Fortescue, J. W.. Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, America and West Indies, 1677–1680. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1896.Google Scholar
Savage, James.A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England. 4 volumes. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1860–1862.Google Scholar
Sewall, Samuel. “Diary of Samuel Sewall, 1674–1729.” Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society. 5th Series, Vol. V–VII. Boston: John Wilson & Son, 1878.Google Scholar
Spurdle, Frederick G.Early West Indian Government, Showing the Progress of Government in Barbados, Jamaica, and the Leeward Islands, 1660–1783. Published by the author: Palmerston North, New Zealand, 1963.Google Scholar
Stackpole, Everett S.History of New Hampshire. New York: American Historical Society, 1916.Google Scholar
Toppan, Robert N., and Goodrick, Alfred T. S., eds. Edward Randolph. 6 volumes. Boston: Prince Society, 1898–1909.Google Scholar
Whitmore, William H., ed. The Andros Tracts. 3 volumes. Boston: The Prince Society, 1868–1874.Google Scholar
Wintrobe, Ronald.The Political Economy of Dictatorship. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wintrobe, Ronald. “Dictatorship: Analytical Approaches.” In The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics, edited by Boix, Carles and Stokes, Susan C., 363–94. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.Google Scholar