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HIGH LEVELS OF UNEMPLOYMENT IN THE MERCANTILIST ERA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 April 2014

John M. Letiche
John M. Letiche*
Affiliation:
Professor Emeritus, Department of Economics, University of California, Berkeley.
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Abstract

This article draws attention to the high levels of unemployment in the mercantilist era, a parallel to conditions in the less developed countries at the present time. Understandably, distinguished economists of the twentieth century, writing before the publication of Keynes’ General Theory, tended to underestimate this problem. Actual causes of the high levels of unemployment are examined, including the fluctuating impacts of merchant entrepreneurs, agricultural revolutions, political unrest, and warfare, as well as nutritional deficiencies, which contributed directly to unemployment.

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Journal of the History of Economic Thought , Volume 36 , Issue 2 , June 2014 , pp. 237 - 251
Copyright
Copyright © The History of Economics Society 2014 

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