HIST103: World History (1600–Present)

The aim of this paper has been to provide a historical overview of the Columbian Exchange, with a particular emphasis on aspects of the exchange that have generally been neglected by economists. The New World provided soils that were very suitable for the cultivation of a variety of Old World products, like sugar and coffee. The increased supply lowered the prices of these products significantly, making them affordable to the general population for the first time in history.

The production of these products also resulted in large inflows of profits back to Europe, which some have argued fueled the Industrial Revolu­tion and the rise of Europe. The Old World also gained access to new crops that were widely adopted. Potatoes were embraced by the Irish and Eastern European societies, chili peppers by the cultures of South and Southeast Asia, tomatoes by Italy and other Mediterranean societies, and tobacco by all nations of the world.

Table 4: Origins of New World Populations

The exchange also had some extremely negative impacts. Native American populations were decimated by Old World diseases. This depopulation, along with the production of valuable Old World crops like sugar cane and coffee, then fueled the demand for labor that gave rise to the transatlantic slave trade. The result was the forced movement of over twelve million slaves from Africa to the Americas and devastating political, social, and economic consequences for the African continent.

Following the slave trade, the African continent was divided and brought under European colonial rule, an event that some have argued would have been impossible without the discovery of quinine in the New World. Moreover, the knowledge of how to harvest and process rubber learned from natives of the Andes had particularly regrettable consequences for those in Africa’s Congo region.

Our hope is that this broad overview will spur further research examining the neglected aspects of the exchange. One interesting question that is particularly relevant for the exchange is the effect that diseases have on domestic institutions, social structures, and development generally. The recent book by Mann argues that the New World was much more politically, economically, and technologically developed than scholars have presumed, and one reason for this mischaracterization is the large negative impacts Old World diseases had on New World societies.

The study by Hersh and Voth provides estimates of English welfare gains from the increased supply of sugar and coffee that arose after the discovery of New World virgin soils. Their study makes one wonder about the welfare gains that arose from the introduction of various New World crops. For example, what were the welfare gains from tomatoes in Italy, maize in Lesotho, chili peppers in Asia, or cassava in West-Central Africa? Another interesting avenue of research is to exploit the introduction of new food crops to examine the effects of agri­cultural productivity and health on paths of development.

Our findings in Nunn and Qian suggest that the improvement in agricultural productivity from the introduction of potatoes had significant effects on historic population growth and urbanization. This raises the natural question of whether the adoption of potatoes brought any additional effects.

For example, how did the introduction of the new food crop affect health outcomes? Given the evidence that the introduction of potatoes eased population pressures and increased incomes, it is natural to ask whether the adoption of potatoes had any effect on conflict or warfare. If so, how did this, in turn, affect state formation and subsequent institutional development?

These examples provide a small sample of the many questions that one could investigate to further our understanding of the effects of the Columbian Exchange. These questions lie in virgin soils, waiting to be explored.