ABSTRACT
In 1860 the population of the United States was 31 million. By 1913, it had more than tripled to 97 million. From 1871 to 1913, the US gross domestic product grew at an average annual rate of 4.3 per cent, while its population grew by 2.1 per cent. By 1913, the US had the highest level of gross domestic product per capita in the world. From 1870 to 1913, US exports multiplied more than sevenfold in real terms, while German exports increased less than sixfold, and British exports little more than tripled. In that period, average gross investment in fixed capital was over 20 per cent of gross national product (Scheiber et al., 1976). An Industrial Revolution was under way, rapidly transforming the US from a predominantly rural and agricultural, to a largely urban and manufacturing society. In 1880 just over a quarter of the US population lived in urban places. By 1920, more than half of the population lived in towns or cities. The period from the Civil War to the First World War was one of rapid population growth and economic development, with substantial increases in productivity and average income. The US became the industrial and financial centre of the world capitalist economy (Maddison, 1964, 1991). The emergence of institutional
economics in this period of rapid structural and cultural change was no accident (Mayhew, 1987).
