Although the scientific study of marketing is relatively new, certain aspects of it have been analyzed in considerable detail. A body of literature exists, for example, on the various phases of retailing and advertising. It is only in the last decade or two, however, that much attention has been given to the study of wholesalers and wholesaling. The field occupies an important place in the economy, and in this study of the development of the wholesaler in the United States, Bill Reid Moeckel provides the historical basis for understanding the present nature of the wholesaling business, with pointers for the future of the wholesaler and the wider retail economy in which it resides. First published 1986.

Research by economists and economic historians has greatly expanded our knowledge of labor markets and real wages in the United States since the Civil War, but the period from 1820 to 1860 has been far less studied. Robert Margo fills this gap by collecting and analyzing the payroll records of civilians hired by the United States Army and the 1850 and 1860 manuscript federal Censuses of Social Statistics. New wage series are constructed for three occupational groups—common laborers, artisans, and white-collar workers—in each of the four major census regions—Northeast, Midwest, South Atlantic, and South Central—over the period 1820 to 1860, and also for California between 1847 and 1860. Margo uses these data, along with previously collected evidence on prices, to explore a variety of issues central to antebellum economic development. This volume makes a significant contribution to economic history by presenting a vast amount of previously unexamined data to advance the understanding of the history of wages and labor markets in the antebellum economy.