AN UPDATE ON THE HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE OF THE POTATO. I have posted before on the important role of the potato in economic growth. For example, I posted here on Professor William Mcneill’s argument that: “…in northern Europe, … by feeding rapidly growing populations, [potatoes] permitted a handful of European nations to assert dominion over most of the world between 1750 and 1950.”
Amanda Foreman had an article in the Wall Street Journal (November 15) with the headline HOW POTATOES CONQUERED THE WORLD. In particular, she cited an article published in 2011 by Nathan Nunn and Nancy Quian in the Quarterly Journal of Economics which estimated that up to a quarter of the world’s population growth from 1700 to 1900 can be attributed wholly to the introduction of the potato.