A QUANTITATIVE APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF RAILROADS IN AMERICAN ECONOMIC-GROWTH - A REPORT OF SOME PRELIMINARY FINDINGS
A QUANTITATIVE APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF RAILROADS IN AMERICAN ECONOMIC-GROWTH - A REPORT OF SOME PRELIMINARY FINDINGS
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DOI：
10.1017/s0022050700062719
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发表时间：
1962-01-01
影响因子：
2.1
通讯作者：
FOGEL, RW
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
FOGEL, RW
利兰·詹克斯（Leland Jenks）的文章描述了铁路对美国经济的普遍影响，首先是一种理念，然后是建筑企业，最后是廉价运输的供应商，这篇文章已成为经济史上的经典。詹克斯那篇文章的特别贡献不在于它的观点新颖，而在于它简洁地总结了那些经历过“铁路革命”的人和后来通过流逝的时间来分析这场革命的人的结论。从这个总结中，铁路成为19世纪最后三分之二时间最重要的创新。它是美国经济增长的必要条件，是农业西进、公司兴起、现代制造业快速发展、工业区域区位、城市化格局和区域间贸易结构形成的主要力量。
Leland Jenks's article describing the pervasive impact of the railroad on the American economy first as an idea, then as a construction enterprise, and finally as a purveyor of cheap transportation, has become a classic of economic history. The particular contribution of the Jenks article was not the novelty of its viewpoint, but the neat way in which it summarized the conclusions both of those who lived during the “railroad revolution” and those who later analyzed it through the lens of elapsed time. Out of this summary the railroad emerges as the most important innovation of the last two thirds of the nineteenth century. It appears as the sine qua non of American economic growth, the prime force behind the westward movement of agriculture, the rise of the corporation, the rapid growth of modern manufacturing industry, the regional location of industry, the pattern of urbanization, and die structure of interregional trade.