Nunn and Qian (2010 JEP) The Columbian Exchange. A History of Disease, Food, and Ideas PDF

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Journal of Economic Perspectives—Volume 24, Number 2—Spring 2010—Pages 163–188

The Columbian Exchange: A History of Disease, Food, and Ideas Nathan Nunn and Nancy Qian

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he mbian Exchange nge refers seas s, food heColumbian Columbian Exchange referst o tot he theexchange exchangeof ofdisea diseases, ideas, food Colu Excha di seases, ideas, idea crops, and ppopulations the New New World World the Old Old WWorld crops, , and opulations etween rld aand nd t he orld crops opulations bbetween etween the Wo following ng the he voy y age to he Amer merica hri r Columbus olumbus in 4 92. following voyage tothe byChr pher in14 followi tthe vo tthe AAmericas mericas icas by CChristo hri stopher phe CColumbus in 11492. TheOld OldW World—by whichwe wemean mean justEurope, Europe,but but theent entire Eastern The orld—by n nnot ot just t t he t ire Easter stern orld—by which mea bu en Ea stern Hemisphere—gained Columbian inaanu ofways. Hemisphere—ga gained rom the he Columbian n Exchange xchange in u mber of ays. Dis isco Hemisphere— gained from ffrom tthe Columbia EExchange nnumber wways. DDiscoviscov coveriesofofnew newsupplies supplies metals areperhaps perhapsthe thebest bestknown. Butthe theOld Old World eries pplies ofofmet t al s are nown. But d World orld also so su me kknown. Ol W alalso gai i ned ne e w staple s potatoes atoes, oes, mai i ze, and ssava. ess gained staple crops, crops,such suchas potatoes, sweetpotatoes, potatoes, maize, andcas cassava. ga nnew aas pot atoes, sweet potat ma ca sava. Les LLess ess foods, suchasastomatoes, tomatoes,chili chili peanuts, pineapcalor lorieds, li ppeppers, eppers, cao, peanuts anuts, nd pineapcacalorie-intensive lorie-intensive ie-intensive foods oo ds, such chi eppers, cacao, cacacao, pe anuts, aand pineap ples so introduced, duced, and l inar ny Old orld pleswere werealso introduced, andare arenow nowcul centerpiecesininmany many OldWWorld alalso intro cuculinary inar y centerpieces ma countries, namely Mediterranean countries countries, ies, namely mely Ita aly, reece, aand nd other her Mediterr r anean ies (t(tomatoes), omatoes) countr na ItItaly, ly, GGreece, otother Mediter anean countries countr omatoes), India andKorea Korea(chili (chili peppers), Hungary (paprika, madef rom fromchili chili peppers), and India ia and ), Hunga ar y (papr i peppers) ), and Ind chi li peppers) peppers Hung (papri papri ka, ka, made chil peppers Malaysia Thailand (chili peppers, peanuts, andpineapples) pineapples). Malay laysia nd Thai i land ili s, peanu nut ). To ob acco, aanother nother Ma laysia and aand Tha land (ch (chil ch il i peppers, pepper pea nut s, and pineapples TTobacco, New rld crop, s so iversal me to sed as s aasubst itute NewWorld World crop,was was sounivers universally adoptedthat thatititcame came beuused substitute Wo wa un iversally al ly adopted that ca totobe aas substitute ubst forccurrency inmany many theworld. world. exchangeaalso increased for urrency ny pparts art ld. TThe he exchange lso ddrastically r astical sed urrency i n ma art s ofoft he wor stic ally al ly i ncreased ncrea tthe he avai ailabi ny Old rld crops, s, such s ssugar ugar nd coffee, fee, which availability ofmany many OldWorld World crops, such aas coffee, whichwere were av ai labil labi l ity of ma Wo crop ugar aand cof particularly well-suited forthe thesoils soils theNew NewWorld. World. part rticu - suited s ofofthe orld. pa rticula icu larly larly wellwell su ited for soil the W The n ly brought t ggains, ains lso losses ses. n cont t act The exchange exchange not not oonly brought but aalso losses. European contact brough ai ns, ns, but los ses. European Europea con ansmission didiseases prev isisolated commun wh enabled ansmi smission ofofdisea sease seases ses totopreviously iously isolated olated communities, ities, which ich enabledt he thet rtransmission previously communities, which

Nathan Nunn isis an an Assistant Assistant Professor ofof Economics Economics, Harvard University, Cambridge, ■ Nath h an Nunn nt Professor nomics, vard University, y, Cambr r idge, Nat Assista Eco nomics, Harvard Har Universit Camb idge, TTrione Massachusetts. Duringthe the22009–2010 academic year, hewa VisitingProfessor Professorofof Massachusetts. s. During 009–20 ic year, , he a s th e Trio rione Massachusett 009 –201 –2010 academic academ year wwas ththe rione Visiting Economics atStanford StanfordUniversit University, Stanford, California. Nancy Qianisisan anAssistant AssistantProfessor Professor Economics mics at rsity, o rd, California. nia. Nancy y Qian Econo Unive rsity, Stanfo Stanf Califor Nanc of mics, YYale ale rsity, aven, onnecticut. oth authors so Faculty y of Economics, Economics, University, New H Haven, authorss are are also also Faculty Econo al e Universit Unive rsity, New aven, CConnecticut. onnecticut. BBoth author al Facult RResearch esearch ows, omic RResearch esearch (NBE ER), Cambr r idge, Fellows, NationalBureau BureauofofEconomic Economic (NBER), Cambridge, Massachuesearch Fellows Fell ows, National Econ (NB Camb idge, Massachusett liate Bu RResearch Econo De (BR setts, andAffi Affiliates, liates, Bureau forRe andEconomic Economic AnalysisofofDevel Development (BREAD). setts, s, and s, Bureau reau for e search and mic Analysis velopm velopment opm ent (BRE EA D). The ee-mail addre nnun arvard.edu 〉 and 〈nancy. nanc yale.edu 〉. Their ir e- m ail addresses sses are [email protected] [email protected] arvard.edu y.qi y.qian qian@ an@ yale.edu Their addresses are 〈nnunn@fas. [email protected]〉 [email protected]〉 doi=10.1257/jep.24.2.163

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devastation exceedingt hat thatofofeven event he theBlack BlackDeath Death infourteenth fourteenth-century caused stat r exceeding h in teenthcau sed devast deva station ation far fafar Deat four teenth- century centur y Europe.Europeans Europeans brought deadlyvviruses bacteria, suchaas smallpox, measles, Europe. ns brought ught deadly iru nd bacteri eria, s smal l lpox , Europea bro iru ses aand bact eri a, such sma lpox , measles, measles cholera, which Native hadnno (Denevan, ttyphus, y phus, aand nd choler r a, ffor or which ich Native ive AAmericans merican o iimmunity mmunit an, 11976). 976) chole wh Nat mericans icans had mmunity ity (Denevan, (Denev 976). On r n home, e, European n sai i lors brought t sy phil e. Although lthough less Ontheir theirretur return home, European brought Europe. less their retu hom Europea sasailors brough sysyphilis phi l is totoEurope. Europ AAlthough deadly, theddisease was havecaused caused social throughout deadly ly, iseas s kknown nown totohave sed ggreat reat socia ial sruption t dead ly, the isease was wa cau soc ial disr didisruption sruption t hroughout hroughou tthe he Old orld r man, 07). Old Worl World (Sherman, 2007). W orld (Sher (She man, 2007) 20 07). Theeffect theCColumbian Exchange werenot not isolated thepparts the The fects olumbian Exchange nge were t isolated ed t otot he art efeffects fects ofoft he Excha no isolat art s ofoft he worldmost most participating theexcha exchange: Europeaand theAAmericas. world st direct rectly rtic change: nd the merica so mo didirectly rectly part pa rticipati ic ipating ipati ng inint he ex change: Europe mericas. icas. ItItalso alalso hadlarge, lessdirect direct, impacts onAf European exploration had rge, although lthough less rect, s on f r ica and nd Asi sia. n explorat ploration lalarge, aalthough di rect, impact i mpacts mpact AAfrica aand AAsia. si a. European Europea ex ploration and oniz st t ropical ions ofoft hese t inents wwas as aaided ided by andcolon colonization thevast tropicalregions regions thesecont continents byt he the col onizat ization ation ofofthe vavast reg con NewW World quinine, thefifirst rsteffect treatment formala malaria. Moreover, New orld discove scover nine, fective ment lar oreover, didiscovery scover y ofofquini qui ni ne, t he efeffective fective t reatmen reat ment for ma lar ia. Moreover M oreover, thecultiv cultivation nancially lucrative theAmer thedevas devast he ivat ncial ive crops rops ininthe merica long with ith the ascult ivation ation ofoffifinancia na ncial ly lucrative lucrat ccrops the AAmericas, mericas, icas, along aalong wwith the dev as tation at of nat popul f di resu in a demand for lab t w as tation native populations fromdisea disease, resulted labor that was ion ofnative ive populat ations rom sease, lted in a demand forlabor or that hat ations from sease, resulted met ith ion aand nd forced ed movement nt ofofover llion f r icans ing metwwith theabduction abduction forced movement over12 12mill million during ith the abduct forc moveme mi ll ion AAfricans icans during dur thesixteen sixteenth tonineteen centuries (Lovejoy, 2000; Manning, t he eent ineteent ies , 2000; 0; Ma anning, 9 90). sixt eent h to nnineteenth ineteent h centurie centur ie s (Lovejoy, (Lovejoy 200 M nning, 19 11990). 90). The olumbian EExchange xchange has s provided ided economists s interested TheCColumbian has provided economists interestedi nint he thelonglongha prov economist term oneconomic economicdevelopment development richhistor laboratory. term m ef f fects ofofhistor story ent wit ith istorica oratory ter eeffects hihistory story on developm wwith ith aar ich hhistorical istorical ical laborator lab orator y. Economic studies have t hus thus f ar far mainl mainly focused on how how European European institutions, Economic udies have nly used an i nstitut itutions, ststudies mai nl y focus foc used on Europe nst itutions, t hrough l ism, were n splanted totonon n - European t s ofoft he d . TThe he throughcolonial colonialism, weret ran transplanted non-European parts theworld world. colonia ra no European part par worl semina nal s by ngerman nd SSokoloff okolof 19 97), a Porta, a, LLopez-de-Silanes, opezseminal papers by EEngerman Porta, semi nal papers paper ngerman aand okoloff loff ((1997), 97), LLa Port opez- dede - Silanes Sil anes, anes, Shleifer, and Vishny Vishny (1997, 1998), and AAcemoglu, Johnson, and Robinson Robinson Shleifer fer, shny (19 9 97, , and cemoglu, h nson, and nson ((2001) 200 Shlei fer, and Vi (1 97, 1998), 1998) cemoglu, Joh Jo Robi 2001) examine theeffect effects European contact, formof offormal formal informal exami mine fects hat European n cont t act, aking tthe he form l aand nd informa formal exa mi ne the ef fects tthat Europea con ac t, ttaking forma in formal colonial hadon onother other societies. colon onia ule, had her societies. .1 col onial ial rule, rrule, ot societies Int h this paper, weattemp attempt broaden thescope scopeofofeconomic economicstudies the In is paper er, empt den t he udies ofoft he pap er, we att empt t otobroaden broa ststudies Columbian mbian Exchange nge by udyi spect nge t hat s Columbian Exchange bystudy oft he theexchange exchange thathave havereceived receivedless less Colu Excha ststudying udyi ng aaspects spe cts cts of excha les attention. st, we r t icular s that at the change n attention.First, First, wepay paypar particular attentiontotothe theeffects effects that theexcha exchange hadon Fir pa icul ar attention effect th ex change had oon theOld OldWorl World, than examining outcomes inthe theNew NewWorld. World. Second,rather rather t he orld, ather than n exami i ning outcomes es in rld. Second, her W orld, rather rrather tha exam outcom Wo rat than concentrating onthe theef ofthe theexchange exchange thatwork workthrough throughinst institutional t han n concentr ntrat f fects of nge that itutional ha conce ntrati ati ng on the eeffects the excha that through i nstitut nst itutional and ical r ucture s- stud ssandpolitica political wefocus focuson ont he theless less-studied, butno noless chanpolit ical str ststructures, uctures, ure s, we les studied, ud ied, but leless-important ss- i mporta mportant chanchan nels;namely thebiological biological exchange food cropsand andddisease. Our hopeisisthat that nels; amely, al excha change d crops isea r hope at nnamely, amely, t he biologic ex change ofoffood foo isease. ease. Our Ou th our d descript iptive view ofofsome s ofofthe mbian ourbroad broad descriptive overview someofofthe theneglected neglectedaspect aspects theColumbian Columbian broa descr iptive overv over the aspects spect the Colu Excha il l spur morestud lolong-term Exchange nge wwill ill r ther more-r r igorous studies ies ofoft he ng-ter ng-term term consequences Exchange spurf ufurther more-rigorous studies thelongconsequencesofof tthese hese aspect aaspects tthe of the exchange. spects he exchange. spects of areaware awareof ofonly onlyaahandful handful ofeempirical papers thateither focuson onthe the WWe e are l of mpirical paper r s that ther focus handfu pape eieither effect change on d WWorld orld ls other effectofofthe theexchange exchange ont he theOld Old orfocus focuson onchannels channels othert han thanlegal legal ex Ol orld or channe institutions. ns. Acemogl moglu, , and 2005 xamine fect institutions. Acemoglu, Johnson, andRobinson Robinson((2005) theeffe oft he the institutio Ace moglu, Johnson, ohnson 2005) eexamine xamine the efeffects fects cts of three-corner Atlantic tradeon onEEurope. argue thatt he theprofi profit stsf rom from thetrade trade three-c corner Atlantic lantic t rade u rope. hey ue t hat m the threeAt rope. TThey hey argue arg ro strengthened themerchant merchant class,which which resultedininstronger stronger probusiness institutions strengt gthe chant class, ch resulted er probusiness business institutions stren gthened hened the mer whi strong pro andincrea increased growth. have recently explored theeffect effects from and eased onomic h. TTwo wo st udies have ve recen ent ored ects incr eased econ ececonomic onomic growth. growt ststudies ha rec ent ly explore expl ored the eff ects from

1 Subsequent studies have since added to the understanding of the long-term effects of colonial rule and European contact on New World Societies. See for example Mitchener and McLean (2003), Berkowitz and Clay (2005, 2006), Acemoglu, Bautista, Querubin, and Robinson (2008), Dell (2008), and Nunn (2008a), as well as the review by Nunn (2009).

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thebotanical botanical exchange. Nunnand andQian Qian (2009), generalized the ical exchange change. n (2009 9), uusing sing aagene ner fferen botan ex change. InInNunn Qia 200 ge ner alized ali zed differ didifferencefferenceencein-d d iffe irical y, we nd ction ofofpotatoes ld in-differences empirical strategy, wefifi ndt hat thatt he theintroduction introduction potatoestotothe theOOld inifferen ferences rences empir emp irical strategy strateg introdu resulted signifi cant increaseininpopu population andurbanization. urbanization.Our Our nding WWorld orld ted inina asignifi fic ant t increase u lation r fifi nding orld resulted resul signi an pop lation and Ou complements earlierresearch research byMok Mokyr (1981) thatestimates estimates the effects ofthe thepotato potato comp mplem h by kyr (1 981 mates t h e effect t s of co mplemen lement ent s earlier researc Mo 981) t hat esti effec onpopulation population growth Ireland. Hersh examine thebenefi benefi on n growth h within ithin Irela land rsh and nd VVoth oth (200 2009 mine the fitsts populatio growt wwithin Ire land. nd. Hersh He aand ((2009) 2009) examine exa bene that m t he ase ininland nd for r cultivating ating the orld p s coffee e and thatarose arosefro from theincrea increase cultivating theOld OldWWorld crops coffee and from ro incre laland fofor cultiv the orld crop cro coffe sugar ording tototheir ir calculatio ions ir table ), the sugarafter after1492. 1492.According According their calculations (seetheir their table99), theincreased increased Acc the calculat ions (see the availability sugarincreased Englishwelfa welfare percent 1850,while whilethe theggreater availability y ofofsugar creased English lfare ent reater availabilit inincreased we lfare byby88percen perc ent byby1850, reater availability increasedwelfare welfareby by1.5 percent. availability y ofofcoffee offee increased .5 percen cent. availabilit ccoffee 11.5 per cent. In he followi lowing ion, we mine tthe he most astat nd uunfortunate n fortunat Int the following section, weexam examine mostdeva devastating ol lowi ng section, sect exa dev stating ating aand fortunate unate consequences the CColumbian which from t he the exchange exchange ofof consequence e s ofoft he olumbian xchange, ich aarose rose consequenc olumbian EExchange, xchange, which wh rose f rom disea sease etween t he nd New orlds. , we n totot he fects theOld Oldaand NewWWorlds. Next, wet urn turn theeffect the didisease sease bbetween orlds. Next, Next ur efeffects fects ofoft he exchange t hat aro f rom t t ra of foods b et t New a nd Old Wo exchange thatarose arose the rans transfer the New and OldWorld Worlds. se fromthe he nsfer etween ween the he rlds. nsfer of foods between rld s. thenexam examine theindirect indirect consequences theexcha exchange onAAfrica andAAsia. WWe e then amine rect con n sequences ofoft he change f r ica and sia. ex amine the indi co ex change on sia. Thefifinal nal section ofthe thepaper paperoffers offersconcluding concludingthough thoughts. The l section ion of t s. na sect the thought hough

Dis Disease Diseas ease SSpread Di frfrom th TThe he Spr prea sea om th e Old ofDise Disease the OldWorld Worldto tothe theNew New pr ead ead of seas e from to the Thelist listofofinfectious infectious diseases that spreadf rom fromt he theOld OldWorld World theNew Newi sis The fectious disea seases at spread rld t otot he in di seases that th Wo long; illers e smallpox, llpox, measles, sles, whooping long;t he themajor majorkkillers include smallpox, measles, whoopingcough, cough,chicken chickenpox, pox, il lers i nclude nclud ma mea bubonicplag plague, malaria (Denevan, Because native populabubonic g ue, t ytyphus, phu nd mala lar n, 11976, 976, p. . 5) ). Because ause native ve popula lapla phu s, aand ma lar ia (Denevan, (Deneva pp. 55). Bec nati popu lationshad hadno noprev contact OldWorld World theywere werei mmunologica immunologically t ions revious ntact ith rld disea iseas ically pprevious rev ious cont co ntact wit wwith ith Old Wo ddiseases, iseases, they they mmunolog ically defenseless. n s (1 9 83, p.p.34) ) wr r ites that before asion ofofppeoples eoples ofofthe defenseless.Dobyn Dobyns (1983, 34) that“be theinva invasion the Doby (1 34 wwrites that ““before be fore t he inv New orld by hogens that hat evolved mong inhabita abitants he Old orld, Native ive NewWorld World bypathogens pathogens evolvedamong inhabitants ofthe OldWorld, World, Native W pat tthat aamong inh abitants of tthe W Nat lived in in aa relati relatively disease-free environment. Before Europeans AAmericans merica i vel sease ironment. . .. .. . Befo fore ropeans mericans icans l ived relat vel y disea di seasese - f ree environment. env Be fore Europea Eu ropeans theColumbia germs thepeoples peoples theAmerinitiat itiated olumbian xchange ofofgerms s and nd vir iruse oples ofofthe merininitiated itiated the the CColumbian olumbian Exchange EExchange germ aand vviruses, ir uses, use s, the the pe the AAmericas suffered nosmallpox, smallpox, measles, nochickenpox, chickenpox, noinfl influenza, uenza, noty no icas s suf f fered no lpox, no o measles, sles, no x, no a, no y phus, no ica su smal nno mea chickenpo uenz ttyphus, parathyroid fever, noddiphtheria, nocholera, cholera,no nobubonic bubonicplague, plague, t ytyphoid phoid ororpar r athyroid , no ipht ue, nno o pa athyroid fever, fever iphthe hther her i a, no plag scarlet rlet fever r, no ugh, and nd no r ia. scarlet fever, no whooping whooping cough, cough, no malar malaria.” sca feve co aand mala ia.” lthou gh we ma kknow the exa mmagnitudes depopu at ion, ititisis AAlthough lthough y never now the ct mag agnit ag nitude nitudes udes ofofthe l ation, wemay may neverknow theexact exact thedepopul depopulation, es i ma t at u rd o 8 – 95 p of t Nat A ic n p ation wa wwas estimated thatupw upwards of 80–95 percent theNative Native American population est t mate ted h pwa f 80 0 perc ercent he ive Ame mer opul as te d th pwardss of erc ent ofthe me r icaa popu opu l ation decimated thefifirrst years following (Newson, deci i mate ith st 1100–...