Abstract
This chapter integrates the frontier into a model of staples production (where staples are defined as raw materials in high demand in the international market). Agricultural goods are produced with the aid of land and labor. The land has to be developed with the aid of capital before it can be put to use. Manufactures are produced with the aid of labor and capital (the manufactured good itself). Trade is opened when the price of agricultural goods increases. The frontier is then extended and agricultural production increases at the expense of manufactures. The staples model, however, also deals with factor movements, which in turn open the possibility of industrialization and in the end for a general expansion of the economy (both sectors).
Revised from ‘Natural Resources, “Vent-for-Surplus” and the Staples Theory’ by Ronald Findlay and Mats Lundahl, in Gerald M. Meier (ed.) From Classical Economics to Development Economics, 1994, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 68–93. With kind permission of Palgrave Macmillan.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Adas, Michael. (1974). The Burma delta: Economic development and social change on an Asian rice frontier, 1852–1941. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Baldwin, Robert E. (1956). Patterns of development in newly settled regions. Manchester School of Economic and Social Studies, 24, 161–179.
Baldwin, Robert E. (1963). Export technology and development from a subsistence level. Economic Journal, 73, 80–92.
Bulmer-Thomas, Victor. (1987). The political economy of Central America since 1920. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bulmer-Thomas, Victor. (1988). Studies in the economies of Central America. London: Macmillan.
Cardoso, Ciro F. S. (1977). The formation of coffee estate in nineteenth century Costa Rica. In Kenneth Duncan and Ian Rutledge with the collaboration of Colin Harding (Eds.), Land and labor in Latin America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Caves, Richard E. (1965). Vent-for surplus models of trade and growth. In Robert E. Baldwin et al. (Eds.), Trade balance of payments and growth. Chicago: Rand McNally.
Caves, Richard E. (1971). Export-led growth and the new economic history. In Jagdish N. Bhagwati et al. (Eds.), Trade, balance of payments and growth. Papers in international economics in honor of Charles P. Kindleberger. Amsterdam: North-Holland.
Caves, Richard E. & Holton, Richard H. (1959). The Canadian economy: Prospect and retrospect. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Chambers, Edward J., & Gordon, Donald F. (1966). Primary products and economic growth: An empirical measurement. Journal of Political Economy, 74, 315–332.
Clarida, Richard H., & Findlay, Ronald. (1992). Government, trade and comparative advantage. American Economic Review (Papers and Proceedings), 82, 122–127.
Cortés Conde, Roberto. (1985). The export economy of Argentina 1880–1930. In Roberto Cortés Conde & Shane J. Hunt (Eds.), The Latin American economies: Growth and the export sector 1880–1930. London/New York: Macmillan.
Díaz-Alejandro, Carlos F. (1970). Essays in the economic history of the Argentine Republic. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Díaz-Alejandro, Carlos F. (1984). No less than one hundred years of Argentine economic history. In Gustav Ranis et al. (Eds.), Comparative development perspectives. Boulder: Westview.
Di Tella, Guido. (1982). The economics of the frontier. In Charles P. Kindleberger & Guido Di Tella (Eds.), Economics in the long view: Essays in honour of W. W. Rostow (Vol. 1). London: Macmillan.
Easton, Stephen T., & Reed, Clyde G. (1980). The staple model. Mimeo. Vancouver: Simon Fraser University.
Ferns, H. S. (1969). Argentina. New York: Praeger.
Findlay, Ronald. (1970). Trade and specialization. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Findlay, Ronald. (1985). Primary exports, manufacturing and development. In Mats Lundahl (Ed.), The primary sector in economic development. London: Croom Helm.
Findlay, Ronald. (1987). Intermediate goods, export taxation and resource-based industrialization. In Henryk Kierzkowski (Ed.), Protection and competition in international trade. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Findlay, Ronald. (1988). Trade, development and the state. In Gustav Ranis & T. Paul Schultz (Eds.), The state of development economics. Oxford: Blackwell.
Findlay, Ronald. (1993). International trade and factor mobility with an endogenous land frontier. In Wilfred Ethier et al. (Eds.), Theory, policy and dynamics in international trade: Essays in honor of Ronald W. Jones. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Furnivall, J. S. (1957). An introduction to the political economy of Burma. New York: Institute of Pacific Relations.
Gunnarsson, Christer. (1979). Malaysian rubber production: Patterns of growth 1900–1975. Meddelande från Ekonomisk-historiska Institutionen, No. 6, Lund: Lund University.
Hansen, Bent. (1979). Colonial economic development with an unlimited supply of land: A Ricardian case. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 27, 611–627.
Hill, Polly. (1963). The migrant cocoa farmers of Southern Ghana. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hirschman, Albert O. (1977). A generalized linkage approach to development, with special reference to staples. Economic Development and Cultural Change, (Special Supplement), 25, 67–98.
Hlaing, Aye. (1964). A study of the economic development of Burma. Rangoon: University of Rangoon.
Holmes, A. Baron. (1970). The Gold Coast and Nigeria. In W. Arthur Lewis (Ed.), Tropical development 1880–1913. London: Allen and Unwin.
Innis, Harold A. (1930). The fur trade in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Innis, Harold A. (1940). The cod fisheries. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Jones, Ronald W. (1971). A three-factor model in theory, trade and history. In Jagdish N. Bhagwati et al. (Eds.), Trade, balance of payments and growth. Papers in international economics in honor of Charles P. Kindleberger. Amsterdam: North-Holland.
Kravis, Irving B. (1956). Availability and other influences on the commodity composition of trade. Journal of Political Economy, 64, 143–155.
Lewis, W. Arthur. (1954). Economic development with unlimited supplies of labour. Manchester School of Economic and Social Studies, 22, 139–191.
Lougheed, A. L. (1968). International trade theory and economic growth. Australian Economic History Review, 8, 99–109.
Maddock, R., & McLean, Ian W. (1984). Supply-side shocks: The case of Australian gold. Journal of Economic History, 44, 1047–1067.
McLean, Ian W. (1989). Growth in a small open economy: A historical view. In Bruce Chapman (Ed.), Australian economic growth: Essays in honour of Fred H. Gruen. Melbourne: Macmillan.
Meier, Gerald M. (1953). Economic development and the transfer mechanism: Canada 1895–1913. Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science, 19, 1–19.
Myint, Hla. (1958). The classical theory of international trade and the underdeveloped countries. Economic Journal, 68, 317–337.
North, Douglass C. (1966). The economic growth of the United States, 1790–1860. New York: Norton.
Roemer, Michael. (1979). Resource-based industrialization in the developing countries: A survey. Journal of Development Economics, 6, 163–202.
Samuelson, Paul A. (1971). Ohlin was right. Swedish Journal of Economics, 73, 365–384.
Solow, Robert M. (1956). A contribution to the theory of economic growth. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 70, 65–94.
Szereszewski, Robert. (1965). Structural change in the economy of Ghana 1891–1911. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
Turner, Frederick Jackson (1921). The frontier in American history. New York: Holt.
Viner, Jacob. (1924). Canada’s balance of international indebtedness 1900–1913. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Watkins, Melville H. (1963). A staple theory of economic growth. Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science, 29, 141–158.
Woodward, R. L., Jr. (1985). Central America from independence to c. 1870. In Leslie Bethell (Ed.), The Cambridge history of Latin America (Vol. 3). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2017 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Findlay, R., Lundahl, M. (2017). Natural Resources, ‘Vent-for-Surplus’ and the Staples Theory. In: The Economics of the Frontier. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-60237-4_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-60237-4_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-60236-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-60237-4
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)