Floods

Eric L. Jones
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Eric L. Jones: University of Buckingham

Chapter Chapter 13 in Barriers to Growth, 2020, pp 109-123 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract Literature on floods describes physical losses but neglects changes in the capital at risk. The propensity for flooding is best reflected in drainage schemes. The history of the East Anglian Fens is commonly over-emphasised and the role of the Dutch exaggerated. Allowing for these distortions, examples can be assembled to reveal peaks in major projects about 1600 and 1800, and to ask why the mid-eighteenth century ‘agricultural revolution’ was by-passed. A second issue is how viable was the undrained wetlands economy dependent on natural resources. Adequate in its own terms, it was concerned with income equality rather than economic efficiency; the traditional system was not as expansible or productive as farming on drained land.

Keywords: East Anglian Fens; Role of the Dutch; Major projects about 1600 and 1800; Mid-eighteenth century schemes lacking; Viability of previous wetlands economy; Natural resources (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palscp:978-3-030-44274-3_13

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-44274-3_13

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