How did the Invisible Hand Handle Industrial Waste? By-product Development before the Modern Environmental Era

Datos Bibliográficos

ID12679477
AutoresPierre Desrochers (0000-0002-7200-3847, autor de correspondencia)
Año2007
Volumen8
Número2
Páginas348-374
Fecha de publicación2007-05-30
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaEnterprise & Society (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1467-2227 • E-ISSN: 1467-2235
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/es/khm024
OpenAlexW4249090537
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas6
Referencias citadas30

A growing number of historians have turned their attention to the past behavior of industrialists toward their waste. Many have argued that the price system and competition typically fostered a short-term outlook that rewarded pollution rather than encouraging “loop-closing,” a modern term that refers to the linkages between different industries in which the residual of one becomes the input of another. Others have identified precedents in this respect that are credited to Progressive Era reformers. Building on evidence that has, by and large, escaped the attention of the present generation of historical writers, this essay challenges both views by arguing that market institutions, which included both profit motive and property rights, actually resulted in the usage of industrial by-products. Although past industrial activities did create significant pollution problems, perhaps our ancestors should be given more credit than they generally are for the creativity and resourcefulness they displayed in profitably solving numerous environmental problems

Business · Closing (real estate · Competition (biology · Creativity · Economics · Environmental pollution · Environmental protection · Industrial Revolution · Law and economics · Market economy · Neoclassical economics · Political science · Product (mathematics · Profit (economics · American Environmental and Regional History · American History and Culture · Law