Abstract

In this article, the authors attempt to advance discussions of mercantile concentration in British North America in the eighteenth century by employing two measurement tools common in the field of industrial organization-concentration ratios and the Hirschman-Herfindahl Index (HHI)—to measure and analyze concentration levels in Charleston, South Carolina between 1735 and 1775. These tools allow for the creation of standardized measures, easing comparisons with other mercantile groups across space and time. The principal results suggest that mercantile concentration levels in Charleston were not high by modern standards, and that concentration may even have declined a bit over the course of this 41-year period. The authors draw on insights from the literature in industrial organization and the new institutional history to explain their findings. In so doing, they suggest that the relatively low levels of concentration were related to and reflected the “open-access order” characteristic of British North America, even in eighteenth-century South Carolina.

摘要

在本文中，作者试图通过使用工业组织集中度领域中常见的两种测量工具和赫希曼-赫芬达尔指数 (HHI) 来衡量和分析 18 世纪英属北美商业集中度的讨论1735 年至 1775 年间南卡罗来纳州查尔斯顿的集中度水平。这些工具允许创建标准化度量，从而简化与其他商业集团在空间和时间上的比较。主要结果表明，按照现代标准，查尔斯顿的商业集中度水平并不高，而且在这 41 年期间，集中度甚至可能有所下降。作者借鉴了产业组织文献和新制度史的见解来解释他们的发现。