中文摘要
我总结了经济学家对北美原住民经济史所作贡献的现状。在简要交代背景之后, 我描述了当前文献的状况: 这些文献主要由聚焦 1800 年之后时期的研究主导, 而该时期距最初接触已逾 300 年。除少数例外, 文献大体描绘出这样一幅图景: 在皮毛贸易中经济相互依存的黄金时代之后, 原住民经历了被剥夺与衰落。这一叙事固然有其价值, 但我认为它只是北美经济史中某种在实质上更为重要、更为根本之事物的一瞥。认识到原住民在广义的北美经济史中的中心地位, 以及原住民作为经济行为体的持续存在, 为修正我们对北美经济发展的理解提供了迄今尚未显现的机会。不仅如此, 研究北美原住民历史还为我们理解并重新构想以下问题提供了新的契机: 国家与经济体系如何兴起、衰落, 如何与不断变化的生态系统相互作用, 又如何在剧烈变革面前得以存续。
Abstract
I summarize the current state of economists’ contributions to the economic history of Indigenous Peoples in North America. After briefly providing some context, I describe the current state of the literature, which is dominated by studies focusing on the period post-1800, over 300 years after contact. With a few exceptions, the literature largely paints a story of dispossession and decline after a golden era of economic interdependence in the fur trade. While valuable, I suggest this story is just a glimpse of something substantively more significant and fundamental to the economic history of North America. Understanding the centrality of Indigenous Peoples in North American economic history broadly and of Indigenous Peoples’ continued existence as economic actors offers yet unseen opportunities to revise our understanding of North American economic development. Beyond this, studying Indigenous North American history offers new opportunities to understand and reimagine how nations and economic systems rise, fall, interact with changing ecological systems, and persist in the face of dramatic change.