TY  - JOUR
AU  - Mancall,Peter C.
AU  - Rosenbloom,Joshua L.
AU  - Weiss,Thomas
TI  - South Carolina Slave Prices, 1722-1809
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Historical Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 123
PY  - 2000
Y2  - March 2000
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/h0123
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/h0123.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Peter Mancall
Department of History
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA 90089
E-Mail: mancall@usc.edu

Joshua Rosenbloom
Department of Economics
University of Kansas
Snow Hall 436
1460 Jayhawk Blvd
Lawrence, KS  66045-2113
Tel: 785/864-2839
Fax: 785/864-5270
E-Mail: jrosenbloom@ku.edu

Thomas J. Weiss
Department of Economics
University of Kansas
Lawrence, KS  66045
Tel: 785/840-6878
Fax:  785/864-5270
E-Mail: t-weiss@ku.edu
AB  - Based on data from several samples of probate inventories we construct and analyze a time series of slave prices for South Carolina from 1722 to 1809.  These estimates reveal that prices fluctuated without trend prior to the 1760s and then began to rise rapidly, more than doubling by the early nineteenth century. Estimates of supply and demand functions indicate that while long-run slave supply was highly elastic, the short-run supply function was quite inelastic.  Our analysis of the slave price series indicates that the price of rice was the major determinant of the demand for slaves and in turn largely explains the rise in slave prices.   These findings have important implications for the interpretation of evidence on rising yields in rice production over the eighteenth century and the sources of wealth accumulation in South Carolina.
ER  -