I know of no studies of prices and wages in New York during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.  Following are other works on prices and wages for later periods:

George F. Warren, "Prices of Farm Products in New York," Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin 416 (1923), 63pp.

S. E. Ronk, "Prices of Farm Products in New York State, 1841 to 1935," Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin 643 (1936), 76pp.

Frank A. Pearson, "Forty Years of Farm Prices in New York State . . .," New York State College of Agriculture, A.E. Bulletin 1015 (1955), 28pp.

Thomas J. Pressly and william H. Scofield,  Farm Real Estate Values in the United States by Counties, 1850-1959 (Seattle:  University of Washington Press, 1965).

Walter B. Smith, "Wage Rates on the Erie Canal, 1828-1881," Journal of Economic History, 23 (1963), 298-311. (Used canal payrolls now in New York State Archives.)

Jim Folts
New York State Archives



>>> [log in to unmask] 07/05/00 11:29PM >>>
Does anyone on the list know of a (consolidated) source that lists prices
for agricultural products, goods, and services in the late 18th and 19th
centuries?

I am working on a project examining rural migration for which it is
important to key track of the year by year fluctuations in the value of
agricultural productsparticularly wheat, potash, and lumber in the region
surrounding Albany. As well, I need to have a sense of what farm families
had to pay for various goods..

I know that there is good coverage on this subject for Vermont. As
example, I have come across a reference for a book entitled:  PRICES PAID
BY VERMONT FARMERS FOR GOODS AND SERVICES AND RECEIVED BY THEM FOR FARM
PRODUCTS, 1790-1940. But I have not been able to uncover a similar work
for New York State. I re-reviewed key footnotes and the bibliography of
David M. Ellis' LANDLORDS AND FARMERS (1944), and I saw that he was forced
to piece together farm prices for the late 18th and early 19th centuries
from a variety of sources (diaries, travel accounts, newspapers, etc).
Ellis's work is very good, so I presume that no consolidated work on
prices existed up to the point that he wrote the study.  But such a work
might have existed and/or have been published since then. Does anyone know
of such a work?

I can readily generate commodity prices in New York City from the various
"Prices Current" newspapers that were printed during the period. These
newspapers (published at least weekly) listed the current prices for a
whole range of goods. And there are readily available microfilm copies of
the papers for the period I am examining. Although, however, I would
prefer to generate a list of prices for the same period for the market at
Albany. However I want to avoid the tedious and problematic task of
generating prices for the Albany market by tracing merchants'
advertisements in the Albany newspapers.  Does anyone know of a "Prices
Current" existing for Albany?

A limitation of  the Prices Current is that they give the market value of
farm produce, but they do not provide information on the prices that
farmers had to pay for various goods and services (eg, provisions, labor,
a team of oxen, etc).

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks
Ian McGiver