The country that they built: The dynamic and complex indigenous economies in North America before 1492

Ann Carlos

No 22-13, QUCEH Working Paper Series from Queen's University Belfast, Queen's University Centre for Economic History

Abstract: The economic history of the United States is that of Europeans and their institutions. Indigenous nations are absent. This absence is due partly to lack of data but in large measure to a perception that Indigenous communities have contributed little to US growth. This paper argues that this erasure of Indigenous activity overestimates the contributions of European colonists and immigrants. Three case studies explore the economic complexity and social stratification across different nations/regions. Migrants to the Unites States did not come to an empty land but one with settled agriculture, complex production processes and extensive trade relations.

Keywords: Indigenous economic history; North America (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J15 N31 N51 N91 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-evo and nep-his
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/268229/1/1830484486.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:qucehw:202213

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in QUCEH Working Paper Series from Queen's University Belfast, Queen's University Centre for Economic History Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics ().