Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History最新文献

{"title":"The British business census of entrepreneurs and firm-size, 1851–1881: New data for economic and business historians","authors":"Carry van Lieshout, R. Bennett, Harry Smith","doi":"10.1080/01615440.2019.1707140","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01615440.2019.1707140","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The British census asked employers to record their workforce numbers. The responses to this instruction provide a unique resource on firm size. While the responses were digitized and included in the Individual Census Microdata (I-CeM) deposit, their format limits their utility. A further data deposit, the British Business Census of Entrepreneurs (BBCE), overcomes I-CeM’s deficiencies by infilling data gaps and parsing employer and workforce data into separate fields. This paper evaluates the coverage in I-CeM and BBCE data for this specific census question, and compares these with the published census analysis of the same data. The results prove the benefits of the BBCE data over I-CeM on the subject of firm size, and demonstrate the need for caution in using the published tables.","PeriodicalId":154465,"journal":{"name":"Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History","volume":"37 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114281389","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Increasing returns to scale in the towns of early Tudor England","authors":"Rudolf Cesaretti, J. Lobo, L. Bettencourt, Michael E. Smith","doi":"10.1080/01615440.2020.1722775","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01615440.2020.1722775","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Urban agglomeration economies make cities central to theories of modern economic growth. There is historical evidence for the presence of Smithian growth and agglomeration effects in English towns c.1450-1670, but seminal assessments deny the presence of agglomeration effects and productivity gains to Early Modern English towns. This study evaluates the presence of increasing returns to scale (IRS) in aggregate urban economic outputs—the empirical signature of feedbacks between Smithian growth and agglomeration effects—among the towns of 16th century England. To do so, we test a model from settlement scaling theory against the 1524/5 Lay Subsidy returns. Analysis of these data indicates that Tudor towns exhibited IRS—a finding that is robust to alternative interpretations of the data. IRS holds even for the smallest towns in our sample, suggesting the absence of town size thresholds for the emergence of agglomeration effects. Spatial patterning of scaling residuals further suggests regional demand-side interactions with Smithian-agglomeration feedbacks. These findings suggest the presence of agglomeration effects and Smithian growth in pre-industrial English towns. This begs us to reconsider the economic performance of Early Modern English towns, and suggests that the qualitative economic dynamics of contemporary cities may be applicable to premodern settlements in general.","PeriodicalId":154465,"journal":{"name":"Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History","volume":"36 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-03-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127807758","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Routes as latent information—spatial analysis of historical pathways on the peripheries of the Victorian gold fields","authors":"Richard J. MacNeill","doi":"10.1080/01615440.2020.1728458","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01615440.2020.1728458","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article argues that the existing network of roads, arising from socially mediated human behavior, represents a well-preserved feature present across a broad region and contains latent historical information that can be retrieved using appropriate analytical techniques. It presents a method combining iterative cost path modeling and proximity analysis to reconstruct patterns of historical movement, and uses the results of this analysis as a heuristic tool to delineate regional social distinctions evident in characteristics of land appropriation and settlement within an area on the peripheries of the goldfields of central Victoria. The results of the least-cost route and proximity analysis presented in this paper delineate variations in patterns of movement across the study area that suggest distinctions in community development and character, adding depth and nuance to histories of the gold fields and their later years and supporting alternatives to assumptions of linear historical change.","PeriodicalId":154465,"journal":{"name":"Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History","volume":"37 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-03-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131405077","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"How Many Household Formation Systems Were There in Historic Europe? A View Across 256 Regions Using Partitioning Clustering Methods","authors":"M. Szołtysek, Bartosz Ogórek","doi":"10.1080/01615440.2019.1656591","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01615440.2019.1656591","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper reconsiders one of historical demography’s most pertinent research problems: the fiddly concept of historical household formation systems. Using a massive repository of historical census micro-data from the North Atlantic Population Project and the Mosaic project, the four markers of Hajnal’s household formation rules were operationalized for 256 regional rural populations from Catalonia in the west to central Siberia in the east, between 1700 and 1926. We then analyze these data using the Partitioning Around Medoids algorithm in order to empirically derive the “natural groups” based on the similarity and the dissimilarity of their household formation traits. Although regional differences between European household formation systems are readily identifiable, the two statistically most valid clustering solutions (k = 2; k = 4) provide a more complex picture of household formation regimes than Hajnal and his followers have been able to compile. Our finding that when regional populations cluster on similar household formation characteristics, they often come from both sides of Hajnal’s “imaginary line,” calls into question strict bipolar divisions of the continent. By and large, we show that the long-lived idea of two household formation systems in preindustrial Europe obscures considerable variability in historical family behavior, and therefore needs to be amended.","PeriodicalId":154465,"journal":{"name":"Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History","volume":"72 12","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114043394","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Population density and the accuracy of the land valuations in the 1798 federal direct tax","authors":"Frank W. Garmon Jr.","doi":"10.1080/01615440.2019.1678444","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01615440.2019.1678444","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The peculiar operation of the 1798 federal direct tax has led scholars to question whether tax officials reported the land valuations from their districts faithfully. Peter Lindert and Jeffrey Williamson argue that southern tax assessors systemically under reported the value of southern real estate, and they adjust their income estimates to account for the likelihood of corruption. This paper affirms the reliability of the tax returns by demonstrating that population density, rather than corruption or lax enforcement, can explain nearly all of the variation between the assessment districts. Accepting the tax valuations as accurate would lower Lindert and Williamson’s income estimates, imply slower growth rate between 1774 and 1800, and suggest a higher growth rate between 1800 and 1850.","PeriodicalId":154465,"journal":{"name":"Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History","volume":"14 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126851473","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Reconstruction of regional and national population using intermittent census-type data: The case of Portugal, 1527–1864","authors":"Nuno Palma, Jaime Reis, Mengtian Zhang","doi":"10.1080/01615440.2019.1666762","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01615440.2019.1666762","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract We offer a new methodology for the construction of annual population stocks over the very long run. Our method does not require the assumption of a closed economy, and can be used in situations in which local annual gross flows are obtainable. Combining gross flows with intermittent census-type data, it is possible to arrive at local, regional and national population stock estimates at annual frequencies. We provide an application to early modern and nineteenth century Portugal, using a large sample of parish-level statistics up to the first modern census of 1864. All six major regions of the country are considered.","PeriodicalId":154465,"journal":{"name":"Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History","volume":"83 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122597744","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Working with the public in historical data creation","authors":"H. Southall, Don Lafreniere","doi":"10.1080/01615440.2019.1629720","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01615440.2019.1629720","url":null,"abstract":"Historians engage with the nonacademic public in diverse ways, from blogging their research, to publicfriendly periodicals, to the art and practice of public historians. Within this special issue we present another way to engage with the broader public, through the shared creation of historical data. The four papers in this special issue arise from a session on historical crowdsourcing at the 42nd Annual Meeting of the Social Science History Association, in Montreal in 2017. Each paper presents a different approach to using webbased interfaces to co-create historical data with a broad nonacademic audience. Scholars from across the historical sciences can use the lessons learned within this issue to guide development of their own public-facing data creation projects. There are a multitude of approaches to involving the broader public in the research process, and Lafreniere et al. herein presents an extensive overview. However, one fundamental distinction is between true crowdsourcing and “citizen science”. The former means asking the public to contribute historical knowledge, such as Pooley and Turnbull (1998) asking family historians for their ancestors’ migration histories, or seeking personally-held historical documents, such as HistoryPin’s online assembly of geo-located old photographs (www. historypin.org). None of the projects presented here prioritized this approach, though some include elements, instead they broadly follow a citizen science or public participatory model by providing the public with the historical documents to work on. However, none operated under the formal umbrella of the Citizen Science Alliance (CSA; www.citizensciencealliance.org), which developed out of the paradigmatic Galaxy Zoo project. The projects herein all aimed to broaden engagement, involving the public in designing the software, funding the project or simply feeling part of a shared endeavor. GB1900 (Aucott et al.) worked with the National Libraries of Scotland and Wales, and 1,200 online volunteers, to transcribe the 2.55 million text strings on the Ordnance Survey’s second edition County Series six inch maps of Great Britain published 1887–1913, a scale showing and naming all major streets. The project’s history and outputs are described elsewhere (Southall et al. 2017; Aucott and Southall 2019), so this paper focuses on the volunteers, presenting detailed analyses of individual “transcribing histories”, an online questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. This project attempted to also gather personal names for places, but both the interface and publicity emphasized transcription, and results were very limited. The Keweenaw Time Traveler Project (KeTT; Lafreniere et al.) employed a public participatory GIS model that asks “Citizen Historians” to create historical GIS data from Sanborn fire insurance plans, produced between 1880 and 1950. The project included the public in the design of the webapps by utilizing an in-person user-centered design approac","PeriodicalId":154465,"journal":{"name":"Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130637267","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Creating an audience: Experiences from the Surinamese slave registers crowdsourcing project","authors":"Cornelis W. van Galen","doi":"10.1080/01615440.2019.1590268","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01615440.2019.1590268","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Crowdsourcing for research promises great rewards, but it is often hard to get the public involved in such a way that they are willing to spend their time and money on such a project. The Surinamese Slave Registers crowdsourcing project is an attempt to tackle this problem by combining a crowdfunding campaign with the recruitment of volunteers. To get the public interested, we focussed on inclusion, the sense that we worked together to make this history visible, both in our communication and towards volunteers in the transcription phase. This proved to be a successful combination. Within a month we raised the necessary funds and enlisted hundreds of volunteers, who transcribed a dataset including some 70,000 enslaved persons in little more than three months.","PeriodicalId":154465,"journal":{"name":"Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123746051","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A graph-based analysis for generating geographical context from a historical cadastre in Spain (17th and 18th centuries)","authors":"B. Zaragozí, P. Giménez-Font, Antonio Belda-Antolí, Alfredo Ramón-Morte","doi":"10.1080/01615440.2019.1590269","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01615440.2019.1590269","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The cabreves are notarial documents prepared between the 13th and 19th centuries in the Catalan and Valencian regions of Spain. These historical records were published before the first cadastral maps and contain geographical information that could help spatially reconstruct historical landscapes. However, these documents have not been used to their full potential mainly because of their semi-structured and complex nature. In this article, we propose a new graph-based interactive methodology for partially reconstructing historical landscapes. We have successfully applied this methodology for reconstructing the historical landscape of the Barony of Sella in the 18th century and the methodology has also helped us locate “El Poblet,” a previously unknown archeological site abandoned after the expulsion of the Moriscos in 1609.","PeriodicalId":154465,"journal":{"name":"Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History","volume":"30 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116216229","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Sex ratios and life tables: Historical demography of the age at which women outnumber men in seven countries, 1850–2016","authors":"Michael S. Hollingshaus, R. Utz, Ryan Schacht, Ken R. Smith","doi":"10.1080/01615440.2019.1605863","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01615440.2019.1605863","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The male/female sex ratio (SR) and its age-specific patterns vary considerably across time and place. The SR generally begins male-biased at birth and becomes female-biased later in life, but this relationship should respond to historical trends and events. Temporal trends in SRs remain largely unstudied and formal demographic relationships are not well defined. We (1) define SRs in a life table framework, (2) estimate the age at which the number of males and females achieves parity—the sex ratio crossover (SRX)—using basic life table methods, and (3) explore historical and international patterns in these trends. Using publicly-available data from the Human Mortality Database, we construct SR and SRX measures from period and cohort life tables. Analyses explore temporal patterns for seven countries in different global regions since 1850. Overall temporal trends show the SRX advancing to older ages. The SRX also appears to respond to historical events such as wars and epidemics. The measure is simple to construct from life table data, and provides additional insight into the historical context of gender dynamics.","PeriodicalId":154465,"journal":{"name":"Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History","volume":"62 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133796951","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}