Economic History Commons^™

To Know The Land With Hands And Minds: Negotiating Agricultural Knowledge In Late-Nineteenth-Century New England And Westphalia, Justus Hillebrand

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ever since the eighteenth century, experts have tried to tell farmers how to farm. The agricultural enlightenment in Europe marked the beginning of a long arc of new experts aiming to change agricultural knowledge and practice. This dissertation analyzes the pivotal period in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in Germany and the United States when scientists, improvers, and market agents began to develop comprehensive ways to communicate agricultural innovation to farmers. In a functional approach to analyzing the negotiation of agricultural knowledge through its communication in things, words, and practices, this dissertation argues that the process of change …

A Climate Chronology, Sharon S. Tisher

School of Economics Faculty Scholarship

The most challenging of all endeavors in human history will likely be that of understanding the impact of our industrial and technological enterprises on the planet’s climate and ecosystems, and responding effectively to the threats posed by that impact. I began writing this chronology while developing a climate policy course at the University of Maine. It has grown substantially during the ensuing nine years, and continues to grow.

By juxtaposing developments in climate science, U.S. policy, and international policy over the previous two centuries, I hope to give the reader new insights into where we have been, where we are …

Past, Present And Future Of Maine's Pulp And Paper Industry, Ariel Listo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The pulp and paper industry has historically been of paramount importance for the state of Maine, both from cultural and economic perspectives. The industry has been a vital part of the forest products economy and a large contributor to employment and state gross domestic product (GDP). However, the number of pulp and paper mills in Maine has declined sharply in the last few decades, deeply harming employment levels, local economies and the forest products sector of the most heavily forested state in the nation. This phenomenon has sparked efforts to understand the factors behind the downfall of Maine's pulp and …

The Bodwell Granite Company Store And The Community Of Vinalhaven, Maine, 1859-1919, Cynthia Burns Martin

Maine History

From the late 1850s to the late 1910s, Bodwelll Granite Company on Vinalhaven Island operated a Company Store from which employees could purchase a wide variety of consumer goods. In the early decades of its existence, the Company Store was generally popular with the company’s employees and the island community. Because of certain competitive advantages, and because the company was guaranteed a profit through federal contracts, the company store often had lower prices than its competitors. But by the late nineteenth century, the store’s prices were often higher than its competitors and the store became part of the growing rift …

A Company Of Shadows: Slaves And Poor Free Menial Laborers In Cumberland County, Maine, 1760 – 1775, Charles P.M. Outwin

Maine History

Although slaves and poor, free menial laborers were by no means a majority of the population in late colonial-era Maine, they represented a culturally and socioeconomically significant part of commercial society there, especially at Falmouth in Casco Bay (now Portland) and in coastal Cumberland County. This essay uncovers the lives of the Falmouth’s small slave population and its larger poor menial laborer population from 1760 up to the port city’s destruction by the British in 1775. The author was granted a Ph.D. in history from the University of Maine in 2009. He is a member of the Maine Historical Society, …

“Taking Up The Slack”: Penobscot Bay Women And The Netting Industry, Nancy Payne Alexander

Maine History

Between 1860 and 1900 the economy of Penobscot Bay communities changed dramatically, from the steady growth and prosperity of their natural resource-based economy to the decline in population and a painful transition to manufacturing and service industries. Both men and women had enjoyed independence in their labor in the old economy. The new cash economy made it necessary for them to seek out new ways of supporting their families, with home manufacture, or putting out work, one way of earning an income. They remained independent from an employer’s direct supervision and earned cash payment, a change from the face-to-face economy …

Competitive Market Socialism: A Practical Alternative For Sectors Of The Cuban Economy, Melvin Burke

School of Economics Faculty Scholarship

The focus of this paper is to test for evidence of technical and scale efficiency in the commercial banking sector in Malaysia. In this context, the study attempts to evaluate if there are any differences between the efficiency of domestic and foreign owned Malaysian banks by applying the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The result indicates that Malaysian commercial banks did not efficiently combine their inputs and that technical inefficiency was attributed to scale inefficiency.

Beaver, Blankets, Liquor, And Politics Pemaquid’S Fur Trade, 1614-1760, Neill Depaoli

Maine History

The trading posts at Pemaquid typified the transactions, administrative phases, and cross-cultural contacts that made up the New England fur trade in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Using archaeological and documentary evidence, Neill DePaoli explores this important yet volatile industry through several stages, including early informal transactions, a merchant entrepreneurial phase, provincial supervision, and illegal exchanges during the closing years of the fort's significance.

Estudios Críticos Sobre La Economía Boliviana, Melvin Burke

School of Economics Faculty Scholarship

Land reform and its effect on production and productivity in the region of Lake Titicaca. Land reform in the region of Lake Titicaca. The private sector in the Bolivian economy and the need for credit. From national corporatism national populism (the case of Bolivia, 1952-1970).

History Of Tanning In The State Of Maine, George Archibald Riley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Working Women In Bangor, Eleanor George Dow

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The study of labor conditions, especially in relation to women, is a comparatively untouched field in the state of Maine.

In the past few decades the financial contribution to the family by women working outside the home has steadily increased. Therefore, the employment of women constitutes a problem of economic importance.

The employed woman is a problem which is of vital interest to society, for it is a conceded fact that social progress depends much on the woman, as the mother of future generations. The conditions under which the employed woman works, the occupations which she enters, and the earnings …