New York’s Addictive Economy

An interesting article about the role of human capital in New York’s economic development (albeit from – in my opinion – an overly conservative source). But the subtext is perhaps even more interesting referencing New York’s recovering from the American Revolution by exporting an aphrodisiac to China, then supplying sugar to an addicted US population, and finally the ultimate addictive aphrodisiac: money – with side trips about pirating books and the economic uplifting virtues of the brasserie.

The Reinventive City - City Journal - Edward L. Glaeser – 13 July 2009

…Over the centuries, New York City has survived crisis after crisis…But none of these shocks struck as hard as the American Revolution…after Cornwallis’s defeat at Yorktown…New York’s population declined by roughly 60 percent. The city’s trade model was also under attack, as British and Spanish colonies imposed severe restrictions on American commerce, leaving New York’s large shipping community empty-hulled.

The Revolution had, however, freed American merchants from the British East India Company’s monopoly on trade with China. One of them, Daniel Parker, learned that the Chinese were mad for ginseng, allegedly an aphrodisiac. He also knew that American ginseng, grown in Appalachia, cost far less than European, giving American shippers a decided advantage. Armed with this information, he launched a successful venture that, by sending a ship from New York to Canton and back in 1784 and 1785, established the viability of the China trade…

The harbor also encouraged the growth of industry, such as sugar refining, the city’s primary industry in the early nineteenth century…Manhattan’s largest industry today, printing and publishing, also grew out of its port…New York’s shipping prominence allowed the Harper brothers to get pirated British books before their Philadelphia competitors could…

the competitive maelstrom ignites industrial diversity and innovation. Forty years ago, Jane Jacobs pointed out that the brassiere was invented not by lingerie specialists but by an experimenting New York dressmaker…

Starting in the early 1970s, Michael Milken began convincing money managers that high-yield corporate debt, though it looked like junk, had high returns relative to its historical risk when bundled together into diversified portfolios…Meanwhile, Robert Dall was pioneering mortgage-backed securities at Salomon Brothers…