Contemporary Issues in

Microeconomics 1st Edition Joseph E.

Stiglitz
Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://textbookfull.com/product/contemporary-issues-in-microeconomics-1st-edition-j
oseph-e-stiglitz/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

Freefall America Free Markets and the Sinking of the

World Economy 1st Edition Stiglitz Joseph E

https://textbookfull.com/product/freefall-america-free-markets-
and-the-sinking-of-the-world-economy-1st-edition-stiglitz-
joseph-e/

Taming Capital Flows: Capital Account Management in an

Era of Globalization: IEA Conference Volume No. 154 1st
Edition Joseph E. Stiglitz

https://textbookfull.com/product/taming-capital-flows-capital-
account-management-in-an-era-of-globalization-iea-conference-
volume-no-154-1st-edition-joseph-e-stiglitz/

Rewriting the Rules of the American Economy An Agenda

for Growth and Shared Prosperity 1st Edition Joseph E.
Stiglitz

https://textbookfull.com/product/rewriting-the-rules-of-the-
american-economy-an-agenda-for-growth-and-shared-prosperity-1st-
edition-joseph-e-stiglitz/

Contemporary issues in strategic management 1st Edition

Moutinho

https://textbookfull.com/product/contemporary-issues-in-
strategic-management-1st-edition-moutinho/
Principles of Microeconomics 13th Edition Karl E. Case

https://textbookfull.com/product/principles-of-
microeconomics-13th-edition-karl-e-case/

Contemporary Issues in Development Economics 1st

Edition Timothy Besley (Eds.)

https://textbookfull.com/product/contemporary-issues-in-
development-economics-1st-edition-timothy-besley-eds/

Global issues in contemporary policing 1st Edition John

A. Eterno

https://textbookfull.com/product/global-issues-in-contemporary-
policing-1st-edition-john-a-eterno/

International Economic Law Contemporary Issues 1st

Edition Giovanna Adinolfi

https://textbookfull.com/product/international-economic-law-
contemporary-issues-1st-edition-giovanna-adinolfi/

Contemporary Issues in Environmental Law The EU and

Japan 1st Edition Yumiko Nakanishi

https://textbookfull.com/product/contemporary-issues-in-
environmental-law-the-eu-and-japan-1st-edition-yumiko-nakanishi/
International Economic Association

CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN MACROECONOMICS

Lessons from the Crisis and Beyond
Edited by Joseph E. Stiglitz
CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN MICROECONOMICS
Edited by Joseph E. Stiglitz
CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
Edited by Timothy Besley
TAMING CAPITAL FLOWS
Capital Account Management in an Era of Globalization
Edited by Joseph E. Stiglitz and Refet Gurkaynak
LIFE AFTER DEBT
The Origins and Resolutions of Debt Crisis
Edited by Joseph E. Stiglitz and Daniel Heymann
INCOME CONTINGENT LOANS
Theory, Practice and Prospects
Edited by Joseph E. Stiglitz, Bruce Chapman and Timothy Higgins
THE INDUSTRIAL POLICY REVOLUTION I
The Role of Government Beyond Ideology
Edited by Joseph E. Stiglitz and Justin Lin Yifu
THE INDUSTRIAL POLICY REVOLUTION II
Africa in the 21st Century
Edited by Joseph E. Stiglitz, Justin Lin Yifu and Ebrahim Patel
THE CHINESE ECONOMY
A New Transition
Edited by Masahiko Aoki and Jinglian Wu
INSTITUTIONS AND COMPARATIVE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Edited by Franklin Allen, Masahiko Aoki, Nobuhiro Kiyotaki, Roger Gordon, Joseph E.
Stiglitz and Jean-Paul Fitoussi
COMPLEXITY AND INSTITUTIONS: MARKETS, NORMS AND CORPORATIONS
Edited by Masahiko Aoki, Kenneth Binmore, Simon Deakin and Herbert Gintis
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
The Contribution of Economic Theory and Related Disciplines
Edited by Lorenzo Sacconi, Margaret Blair, R. Edward Freeman and Alessandro Vercelli
IS ECONOMIC GROWTH SUSTAINABLE?
Edited by Geoffrey Heal
KEYNE’S GENERAL THEORY AFTER SEVENTY YEARS
Edited by Robert Diman, Robert Mundell and Alessandro Vercelli
CORRUPTION, DEVELOPMENT AND INSTITUTIONAL DESIGN
Edited by János Kornai, László Mátyás and Gérard Roland
MARKET AND SOCIALISM
In the Light of the Experience of China and Vietnam
Edited by János Kornai and Yingyi Quian
INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE AND ECONOMIC BEHAVIOUR
Edited by János Kornai, László Mátyás and Gérard Roland
INTERGENERATIONAL EQUITY AND SUSTAINABILITY
Edited by John E. Roemer and Kotaro Suzumura
PSYCHOLOCY, RATIONALITY AND ECONOMIC BEHAVIOUR
Challenging Standard Assumptions
Edited by Bina Agarwal and Alessandro Vercelli
MULTINATIONALS AND FOREIGN INVESTMENT IN ECONOMC DEVELOPMENT
Edited by Edward M. Graham
POST-CONFLICT ECONOMIES IN AFRICA
Edited by Paul Collier and Augustin Kwasi Fosu
STRUCTURAL REFORM AND MACROECONOMIC POLICY
Edited by Robert M. Solow
THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
Edited by Alan V. Deardorff
LATIN AMERICAN ECONOMIC CRISES
Trade and Labour
Edited by Enrique Bour, Daniel Heymann and Fernando Navajas
ADVANCES IN MACROECONOMIC THEORY
Edited by Jacques H, Drèze
EXPLAINING GROWTH
A Global Research Project
Edited by Gary McMahon and Lyn Squire
TRADE, INVESTMENT, MIGRATION AND LABOUR MARKET ADJUSTMENT
Edited by David Greenaway, Richard Upward and Katherine Wakelin
INEQUALITY AROUND THE WORLD
Edited by Richard B. Freeman
MONETARY THEORY AND POLICY EXPERIENCE
Edited by Axel Leijonhufvud
MONETARY THEORY AS A BASIS FOR MONETARY POLICY
Edited by Axel Leijonhufvud
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN SUBSAHARAN AFRICA
Proceedings of the Eleventh World Congress of the International Economic Association, Tunis
Edited by Ibrahim Elbadawi and Beno Ndula

International Economics Association

Series Standing Order ISBN 978–0–3337–1242–9 (Hardback)
978–0–3338–0330–1 (Paperback)
You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order.
Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with
your name and address, the title of the series and one of the ISBNs quoted above.
Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke,
Hampshire RG21 6XS, England
Contemporary Issues in
Microeconomics
Edited by

Joseph E. Stiglitz
University Professor, Columbia University, USA

and

Martin Guzman
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Columbia University Business School, USA, and
Associate Professor, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
Selection, introduction and editorial matter © Joseph E. Stiglitz
and Martin Guzman 2016
Individual chapters ©Contributors 2016
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2016 978-1-137-52970-1
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted
save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence
permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,
Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.
Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2016 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s, Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries
ISBN 978-1-137-57937-9 ISBN 978-1-137-52971-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137529718
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing
processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the
country of origin.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Stiglitz, Joseph E., editor. | Guzman, Martin, 1982– editor.
Title: Contemporary issues in microeconomics / edited by Joseph E. Stiglitz,
Martin Guzman.
Description: New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. | Series: International
economic association | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015043549 |
Subjects: LCSH: Microeconomics. | BISAC: BUSINESS & ECONOMICS /
Economics / Microeconomics. | BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Economics /
General. | BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / International / Economics.
Classification: LCC HB172 .C57296 2015 | DDC 338.5–dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015043549
Contents

List of Figures vii

List of Tables ix
Foreword x
Notes on Contributors xi

Introduction 1

Part I Inequality, Poverty, and Security 5

1 The UTIP Global Inequality Data Sets, 1963–2008: Updates,

Revisions and Quality Checks 7
James K. Galbraith, Béatrice Halbach, Aleksandra Malinowska, Amin
Shams and Wenjie Zhang

2 Multidimensional Poverty Measurement: The Mexican Wave 40

Gonzalo Hernández Licona

3 Inequality, Economic Growth and Natural Resources Rent: Evidence

from the Middle East and North Africa 50
Hamid E. Ali and Sara M. Sami

4 Inequality Impacts of Oil Dependence in the MENA 77

Sevil Acar

5 Housing and Saving in Retirement Across Countries 88

Makoto Nakajima and Irina A. Telyukova

Part II Income Contingent and Student Loans 127

6 Income-Contingent Loans: Some General Theoretical

Considerations, with Applications 129
Joseph E. Stiglitz

7 Income Contingent Loans as a General Risk Management Instrument 137

Bruce Chapman

8 Utilizing the Transactional Efficiencies of Contingent Loans – A

General Framework for Policy Application 145
Richard Denniss and Tom Swann

v
vi Contents

9 Income Contingent Loans for Social Policy: the Case of Paid Parental
Leave 159
Timothy Higgins

10 Illustrating the Trade-Off Between Interest Rates and Aggregate Loan

Recovery of the Student Loans Fund
in Thailand 169
Kiatanantha Lounkaew

11 The Financial Capacity of German University Graduates to Repay

Student Loans 184
Mathias G. Sinning

Index 194
List of Figures

A1.1 Income inequality in Brazil, 1960–2012 14

A1.2 Income inequality in Canada, 1960–2011 15
A1.3 Income and consumption inequality in China, 1952–2013 16
A1.4 Income inequality in Colombia, 1962–2012 17
A1.5 Income inequality in Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic,
1958–2013 18
A1.6 Income inequality in France, 1962–2012 19
A1.7 Income inequality in Germany, 1960–2012 20
A1.8 Income inequality in Hungary, 1955–2013 21
A1.9 Income and consumption inequality in India, 1951–2009 22
A1.10 Income inequality in Mexico, 1963–2012 23
A1.11 Income inequality in Poland, 1956–2013 24
A1.12 Income inequality in Russia, 1981–2011 25
A1.13 Income inequality in South Africa, 1960–2012 26
A1.14 Income inequality in the United Kingdom, 1961–2013 27
A1.15 Income inequality in the United States, 1960–2012 28
2.1 Population living in multidimensional poverty 44
3.1 Inequality and oil rent in high income economies in the MENA
region 60
3.2 Inequality and oil rent in upper middle economies in the MENA
region 61
3.3 Inequality and oil rent in lower middle income economies 63
5.1 Median net worth (thousands PPP-Adj. 2000 US$) 92
5.2 Median net worth normalized by age-65 income (thousands
PPP-Adj. 2000 US$) 94
5.3 Median unconditional housing assets (thousands PPP-Adj. 2000
US$) 95
5.4 Median housing assets, conditional on ownership (thousands
PPP-Adj. 2000 US$) 97
5.5 Homeownership rates 98
5.6 Median financial assets (thousands PPP-Adj. 2000 US$) 99
5.7 Age profiles of secured debt rates (percent) 101
5.8 Age profiles of unsecured debt rates (percent) 102
5.9 Mean and median net worth 104
5.10 Mean and median conditional housing wealth 106
5.11 Mean and median financial wealth 108

vii
viii List of Figures

5.12 Ratio of median net worth at age 86–90 to age 65–69, by country 111
5.13 Components of net worth change, age 65 to 85 112
5.14 Expected mean medical expenses by health, median-income
singles 116
5.15 Expected mean medical expenses by income, good health singles 118
10.1 SLF Repayments for the debt of 200,000 Baht 171
10.2 Cohort default rates 171
10.3 Illustrating proportion of borrowers defaulting on student loans 174
10.4.1 Marginal revenue 175
10.4.2 Marginal cost curve 175
10.4.3 Steepness of cumulative density function 176
10.5 Trade-off between interest rate subsidies and expected loan
recovery 177
10.6 Expected loan recovery 178
10.7 Proportion of graduate non-wage earners 180
11.1 Conventional 15-year loan repayment by level of debt (in real
terms) 187
11.2 Conventional 20-year loan repayment by level of debt (in real
terms) 188
List of Tables

1.1 Revised coefficient estimates relating UTIP-UNIDO to

Deininger–Squire 8
3.1 Inequality and economic growth relationship 54
3.2 Income level of the MENA countries 58
3.3 Sample of the panel data 59
3.4 Gini Coefficient 65
3.5 Description of variables and data unit 67
3.6 Fixed effect model dependent variable Theil Index 68
3.7 GMM model dependent variable Theil 69
4.1 Income distribution in the MENA region 80
4.2 Oil production in the sample countries (1980–2008
period averages) 81
4.3 Theil deterioration in the sample countries 82
4.4 Panel fixed effects estimation with robust (HAC) standard errors 84
5.1 Median conditional secured and unsecured debt at age 65 100
10.1 Indicators for excessive indebtedness of student loans (age 25–39) 172
10.2 Recovery-maximizing interest rate and expected loan recovery 179
11.1 Repayment burdens in the first year of the repayment period by
level of debt (in per cent) 189
11.2 Repayment durations of an income contingent loan (in years) 190
11.3 Debt ratio by level of debt (in percentages) 191

ix
Foreword

These essays were presented at the 17th World Congress of the International
Economic Association held in Jordan, June 6–10, 2014. It was organized in part-
nership with the Columbia Global Centres – Middle East (Amman) and with
generous support from a range of sponsors. The five-day program included five
plenary sessions, 24 invited sessions, 15 policy sessions and over 90 contributed
sessions, with over 600 people in attendance. The selection of papers in this vol-
ume gives a flavour of the range of issues that were discussed in the congress
sessions which brought together a group of established and younger scholars
from all over the world. The IEA is a fine example of international cooperation
in the discipline of economics. The success of the congress owed much to the
energy and commitment of the IEA President at the time, Joseph Stiglitz.

Timothy Besley, London, May 2015

x
Notes on Contributors

Sevil Acar is Assistant Professor of Economics at Istanbul Kemerburgaz Uni-

versity. Her research is on environmental and resource economics, particularly
natural capital accounting, sustainability indicators, and the resource curse. She
holds a Master’s from Istanbul Technical University (2007) and a PhD from
Marmara University (2011). Awarded with a Swedish Institute scholarship, she
conducted research at the Centre for Environmental and Resource Economics
(CERE) during her PhD studies. She took part in several projects including
the estimation of historical accounts for Swedish sustainable development and
analysis of carbon convergence across countries.

Hamid E. Ali is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Public Pol-
icy and Administration at the American University in Cairo (AUC), and one of
the founders of public policy program and former Director of Master of Global
Affairs at AUC. Ali taught at Southern Methodist University and Texas State Uni-
versity. He was a researcher at US Government Accountability Office (GAO),
where he was a major contributor on various reports to congressional commit-
tees. Ali obtained his Ph.D. in Economics and Public Policy from the University
of Texas at Austin in 2004. He is the author of Darfur Political Economy: A Quest
for Development (2014).

Timothy Besley is School Professor of Economics and Political Science and W.

Arthur Lewis Professor of Development Economics at the London School of Eco-
nomics. He served on the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee from
September 2006 to August 2009. He is a member of the Institutions, Organi-
zations and Growth Program of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research
and his research interests are focused on aspects of economic policy formation.
He is a Fellow of the British Academy and the Econometric Society and is a for-
eign honorary member of the American Economic Association and the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is also a past co-editor of the American Economic
Review and has served on the board of numerous academic journals. In 2010 he
served as president of the European Economic Association and from 2014 to
2017, he is serving as the President of the International Economic Association.
In 2005, he won the Yrjö Jahnsson Award for European economics.

Bruce Chapman is Professor of Economics at the Crawford School of Pub-

lic Policy, Australia National University. He is an applied education and labor
economist with a PhD from Yale University and over 200 published papers and
several books. He has been actively engaged in research and public policy debates

xi
xii Notes on Contributors

concerning income contingent loans for over 25 years with respect to and in
around 25 countries.

Richard Denniss is an economist, Executive Director of The Australia Institute,

and Adjunct Associate Professor at the Crawford School of Economics and Gov-
ernment at the Australian National University. Prior to taking up his current
position he was the Strategy Adviser to the Leader of the Australian Greens, Sena-
tor Bob Brown, and Chief of Staff to the then Leader of the Australian Democrats,
Senator Natasha Stott Despoja. Richard has published extensively in academic
journals, and was the co-author of Minority Policy: Rethinking governance when par-
liament matters (with Brenton Prosser), Affluenza (with Clive Hamilton) and An
Introduction to Australian Public Policy: Theory and Practice (with Sarah Maddison).

James K. Galbraith holds the Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr. Chair of Govern-

ment/Business Relations at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, the
University of Texas at Austin. His most recent book is The End of Normal. The
next, What Everyone Needs to Know About Inequality, is forthcoming. Galbraith is
chair of Economists for Peace and Security and Senior Scholar at the Levy Eco-
nomics Institute. In 2010 he was elected to the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei.
In 2012, he was President of the Association for Evolutionary Economics. He is
the 2014 co-winner of the Leontief Prize.

Martin Guzman is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Department of Eco-

nomics and Finance, Columbia University Business School and an associate
professor at the University of Buenos Aires. He is also a member of the INET
Taskforce on Macroeconomic Externalities and Instabilities.

Béatrice Halbach studied Economics and Asian Studies at the University of Texas
at Austin. Her main interest is in the role of emerging economies in global eco-
nomic development. She studies economic inequality as a Graduate Research
Assistant for the University of Texas Inequality Project, and is currently a Masters
student at the Lyndon. B. Johnson School of Public Affairs.

Gonzalo Hernández Licona is the Executive Secretary of the Mexican National

Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (CONEVAL). He directs
and coordinates the council’s activities, whose objective is to evaluate social
development policy and programs as well as to carry out the official mea-
surement of poverty in the country. He holds a PhD in Economics from the
University of Oxford, a Master’s in Economics from the University of Essex, and
a BSc in Economics from the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de Mexico (ITAM).
He lectures on Development Economics at ITAM.

Timothy Higgins is Senior Lecturer and Researcher in Actuarial Studies at the

Australian National University. Prior to academia he was in the Australian
Department of the Treasury, where he was involved in the design and costing
 Notes on Contributors xiii

of public policy, including the Australian income contingent loan scheme. He is

a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia and has consulted to the Aus-
tralian Government on social policy. He has written extensively on the design,
application and costing of income contingent loans.

Kiatanantha Lounkaew is an Australian Research Council’s Linkage Research

Fellow at Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University. He is
also the assistant to the vice president for research, Dhurkij Pundit University,
Thailand. He completed his PhD in economics from Crawford School of Public
Policy, Australian National University in 2011. His research focuses on educa-
tion and labor market outcomes, student loans, education reform and school
quality (SMEs). He has published in Economics of Education Review, Journal of Pop-
ulation Research, Economic Papers and Australian Journal of Labour Economics. Dr
Lounkaew contributes regularly to local newspapers, magazines, radio and TV
programs in Thailand on issues related to public policy.

Aleksandra Malinowska is a doctoral student in Education Policy and Plan-

ning in the Department of Educational Administration at the University of Texas
Austin. Her research interests include social and educational inequality, migrant
education, and immigrant education policy. She is a graduate student trainee at
the Population Research Center at the University of Texas Austin.

Makoto Nakajima is a senior economist in the Research Department of the

Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. His current research focuses on the role
of home equity in retirees’ savings decisions, the interaction between capital
income taxation and housing taxation, macroeconomic implications of con-
sumer credit and bankruptcy, and labor market dynamics over the business
cycle. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania. Before
joining the Philadelphia Fed, he was an assistant professor of economics at the
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Sara Sami is an assistant vice president in Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, where she
handles the foreign financial institutions investing in the Egyptian capital mar-
ket. Sara started her career as a Management Associate in Citibank and worked in
Frankfurt and London. She holds a Master’s in Public Policy from the American
University in Cairo.

Amin Shams is a PhD student in finance at the McCombs School of Business

at the University of Texas at Austin. His research has been primarily focused
on derivative market, corporate finance, and the financial crisis. He has also
contributed to several research projects on income inequality. He has a Master’s
in Global Policy from the LBJ School of Public Affairs and an MBA from Sharif
University of Technology.
xiv Notes on Contributors

Mathias Sinning is a senior lecturer at the Crawford School of Public Policy of

the Australian National University. He studied economics at the University of
Heidelberg and received his PhD in economics from the University of Bochum
in 2008. He has previously held academic appointments at the ANU and the
University of Queensland and has been a Visiting Fellow at Princeton University.
He is interested in the empirical analysis of issues related to economic inequality
and human capital investments. He is a Research Fellow of RWI Essen, IZA Bonn
and the CReAM Centre at the University College London.

Joseph E. Stiglitz is University Professor at Columbia University, USA. In 2001

he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics for his analyses of markets with
asymmetric information. He was the President of the International Economic
Association from 2011 to 2014.

Tom Swann is a researcher at The Australia Institute where he works on govern-

ment loans, higher education, renewable energy and fossil fuel divestment. With
Richard Denniss and Bruce Chapman, he is researching existing government
loan schemes and the scope for their expansion. He holds a BA in Philosophy
from the Australian National University where he is studying towards a Mas-
ter’s of Climate Change. He has been prominently involved in the fossil fuel
divestment movement.

Irina A. Telyukova is Assistant Professor of Economics at University of Cal-

ifornia, San Diego. She holds or has held visiting scholar positions at the
International Monetary Fund, Institute for Fiscal Studies, and several Federal
Reserve Banks. Her research focus is on household debt and saving, includ-
ing credit card and mortgage debt over the life cycle. In recent years, Irina’s
research has been primarily on housing and retirement, as well as implications of
macroeconomic policies on household inequality, in the US and other countries.

Wenjie Zhang is a visiting junior scholar at the Luxembourg Income Study Cen-
ter. Previously, she was a researcher at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public
Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. Her research primarily focuses on
the measurement and assessment of China’s pay inequality and its political and
social impacts on Chinese society during the transitional period.
Introduction
Martin Guzman
Columbia University Business School and University of Buenos Aires

Joseph E. Stiglitz
University Professor, Columbia University, USA

This volume presents a collection of essays presented at the 17th World Congress
of the International Economic Association held in Jordan, June 6–10, 2014 that
deal with contemporary issues in microeconomics. The volume includes theoret-
ical, empirical, and policy-oriented chapters based on the careful utilization of
theory and data analysis.
Part I focuses on the issues of inequality, poverty, and security.
In chapter 1, James K. Galbraith, Béatrice Halbach, Aleksandra Malinowska,
Amin Shams, and Wenjie Zhang contribute an important empirical study that
will surely be the basis of much empirical research on the issue of inequality.
They summarize a comprehensive revision and update the University of Texas
Inequality Project’s (UTIP) work on the inequality of pay and incomes around the
world, covering the years 1963 to 2008. The chapter also provides comparisons
of the Estimated Household Income Inequality (EHII) data set with a wide range
of measures and estimates drawn from other work. They show that EHII is a
reliable reflection of trends, and a reasonable, though not perfect, estimator of
the levels of inequality found in surveys.
In chapter 2, Gonzalo Hernández Licona tells the story of the Mexican expe-
rience of constructing and using a multidimensional poverty measurement, a
key tool in the Mexican Government’s strategy of reducing multidimensional
extreme poverty and hunger.
In chapter 3, Hamid E. Ali and Sara M. Sami investigate to what extent edu-
cation for girls and child labor affect economic inequality in the Middle East
and North Africa (MENA) region. Among other important findings, they show
that gender inequality is one of the main factors behind the rising economic
inequality in the region.
In chapter 4, Sevil Acar investigates the implications of oil wealth for pay
inequality in the MENA countries that produce oil, for the period 1980–2008.
The chapter analyzes the trends in and determinants of the Theil index, which is
a measure of earnings inequality computed by the University of Texas Inequal-
ity Project (UTIP) utilizing industrial, regional and sectoral data. The results

1
2 Contemporary Issues in Microeconomics

reveal that oil revenues have not been seized as an opportunity to correct pay
inequalities in the region’s countries.
In chapter 5, Makoto Nakajima and Irina A. Telyukova provide new insights
on the so-called “retirement saving puzzle,” the phenomenon that many house-
holds in the U.S. have significant wealth late in life, contrary to the predictions
of a deterministic life-cycle model. They collect facts on cross-country differ-
ences in saving behavior of retirees, in order to see whether such cross-country
comparisons can help resolve the puzzle. First, they find that countries in the
sample vary noticeably in the extent of the puzzle: one group of countries, in
South and Central Europe, look like the US, while in another group, in Northern
Europe, retirees spend down their wealth much more rapidly. Second, they show
that in order to understand the rates of dissaving across countries, one needs to
understand differences in housing assets, as housing constitutes the majority of
wealth for a median retiree in many countries, and dissaving in housing is highly
correlated with overall dissaving.
Part II turns to the issue of income-contingent loans (ICL), where the repay-
ment in any year depends on the income of the individual in that year. These
loans have proved to be an especially effective way of financing higher educa-
tion, but there has been experimentation of the use of these loans in several
other areas.
In chapter 6, Joseph E. Stiglitz reviews the basic theory of income-contingent
loans, which can be viewed as a cross between an ordinary loan and equity.
Such loans have distinct advantages both in terms of risk management and
transactions costs.
In chapter 7, Bruce Chapman revisits a series of studies on the prospects for
income-contingent loans (ICL) in many areas of social and economic policy, to
illustrate the disparate nature of possibilities and to help set the scene for the
development of a broad ICL theoretical framework.
In chapter 8, Richard Denniss and Tom Swann elaborate on the notion of
“transactional efficiencies” earlier noted by Stiglitz, and argues that recent tech-
nological developments have increased opportunities for governments to benefit
economies of scope and scale by utilizing the information, administration and
debt collection assets associated with the tax and transfer systems of a developed
nation state to provide a wide range of low-cost loans to individuals. The chapter
considers the broader range of “contingent” loans and provides examples from
multiple countries where tax and transfer systems are already being effectively
used as a “bank” to provide such financial services. The chapter also argues the
transactional efficiencies of what he refers to as “administrative banking” are
welfare enhancing. The main barrier to making greater use of the low transac-
tion costs associated with “administrative banking” would be ideological rather
than economic.
 Martin Guzman and Joseph E. Stiglitz 3

In chapter 9, Timothy Higgins argues that income-contingent loans can

provide an efficient and equitable alternative to funding parental leave.
In chapter 10, Kiatanantha Lounkaew provides empirical evidence of the trade-
off between interest rate subsidies and expected aggregate loan recovery. The
chapter explores the potential impact of eliminating, or radically reducing, inter-
est rate subsidies of the Thai Student Loans Fund (SLF). Three policy implications
are drawn from the exercise. First, the obligation to repay the loan should not
involve more than 8 to 10 percent of borrower’s income. Second, any attempt to
solve the high interest rate subsidies problem by setting the real rate of interest
at 3 percent is not a viable option because it is too expensive. The model predicts
that, at this level of real interest rate, the expected loan recovery rate will be
around 40 to 50 percent. Third, the current design of the SLF does not facilitate
consumption smoothing because it does not adequately take into account the
variations in the labor market outcomes of Thai university graduates.
In chapter 11, Mathias G. Sinning studies the financial capacity of German
university graduates to repay their student loans. He finds that conventional
mortgage-type loans are associated with very high repayment burdens, which
make it difficult for German university graduates to repay a debt of more than
C10,000. He designs a hypothetical income-contingent loan and argues that the
combination of a moderate loan subsidy with an income-contingent loan would
increase the financial capacity of university graduates to repay student loans of
up to C30,000–40,000. He also finds that university graduates are able to repay
their student loans as long as the total debt at the beginning of their working
lives does not exceed 7 percent of the present value of their lifetime income.
Part I
Inequality, Poverty, and Security
1
The University of Texas Inequality
Project Global Inequality Data Sets,
1963–2008: Updates, Revisions and
Quality Checks
James K. Galbraith, Béatrice Halbach, Aleksandra Malinowska,
Amin Shams and Wenjie Zhang
University of Texas Austin

1.1 Introduction

The UTIP-UNIDO data set of industrial pay inequality is a panel comprised of

the between-groups component of Theil’s T statistic measured in different coun-
tries and years across a stable and consistent set of industrial sectors. The Theil
method is described in full elsewhere (Conceição, Ferreira and Galbraith 1999).
Initially computed by Galbraith, Lu and Darity (1999) and updated by Galbraith
and Kum (2004), the UTIP-UNIDO data set has the virtue of providing dense,
consistent, accurate measures, and it has the limitation of being restricted to the
inequality of inter-industrial pay. Its principal direct interest for economists is
the study of common trends and of common factors affecting inequality, such
as interest rates, debt crises, changing financial regimes, technology and trade.
It has also proved to be a sensitive measure of major political events. Perhaps
most important, the UTIP-UNIDO measures prove to be an effective instrument
for estimating Gini coefficients for gross household income inequality, and this
permits the construction of a dense and consistent panel of such estimates,
complementing and extending the direct measurements available from other
sources.

1.2 Updating UTIP-UNIDO

Updating UTIP-UNIDO was more difficult than computing it originally, as main-

tenance of the underlying set (UNIDO’s Industrial Statistics) has been uneven
and categories have not always remained stable. The resulting anomalies in the
new Theil measures were of two types: spikes due to missing values and wholesale
shifts (data breaks) due to category changes. Each had to be evaluated separately,

7
8 Contemporary Issues in Microeconomics

Table 1.1 Revised coefficient estimates relating UTIP-UNIDO to Deininger–Squire

Dependent Variable: lnGiniDS*

Variable Coefficient Std. Err. T-statistic P > abs(t)

income -0.15 0.03 -4.58 0.000

household -0.79 0.02 -4.63 0.000

gross -0.06 0.02 -3.11 0.000

lnUTIPUNIDO** 0.1 0.01 8.64 0.000
mfgpop*** -2.84 0.24 -11.73 0.000
constant 4.2 0.04 93.53 0.000

Number of Observations: 430

F (5,424) 109.27
R-squared 0.56
Adj R-squared 0.56
Root MSE 0.159

*natural log of Deininger-Squire Gini Coefficient

**natural log of UTIP-UNIDO Theil statistic
*** ratio of manufacturing employment to population
Source: Authors.

and adjustments made – a daunting task considering that behind each Theil
value lies some 30 separate measures each of payroll and employment. These
issues were handled on a case-by-case basis, using judgment and common sense
to arrive at a set of “final revised values.” The end result was a data set with 4,054
country-year Theil values over, up from 3,554 in the previous version.

1.3 Updating EHII

The calculation of EHII from UTIP-UNIDO was based on a regression of overlap-

ping observations on the original Deininger–Squire data set of Gini coefficients,
published by the World Bank around 1996. The regression controlled for the
share of manufacturing in total population, and for the type of measure involved
– whether gross or net of taxes, household or personal income, and whether a
measure of income or expenditure – in the Deininger–Squire (DS) data set. Orig-
inally, 454 common country-year observations were found. The proliferation of
Gini-type inequality measures in later years posed a challenge, but we decided
to compute the new EHII so as to most closely resemble the previous version,
this time using 430 common observations. The coefficient estimates are given in
Table 1.1. They are very close to the originals.
EHII is then calculated using the coefficient estimates for the log of the UTIP-
UNIDO measures (lnUTIP-UNIDO) and the manufacturing/population ratio
(mfgpop), standardizing all coefficients on the concept of gross household
 James K. Galbraith et al. 9

income inequality. This estimates the effect of all cash inflows (including, for
example, pensions) but not the effect of taxes.1 The purpose of EHII is compar-
ative. It is, above all, to populate a panel data set with as many conceptually
consistent inequality measures as available data would reasonably allow. The
new EHII panel has 3,871 estimates for 149 countries.

1.4 Checking the quality of the estimates

The next issue is the quality of the estimates. This is a question we had not pre-
viously addressed, beyond reporting the regression residuals that separated our
EHII estimates from the corresponding DS values. That procedure had provided
only the most limited comparison, since there were (and are) nearly ten times
as many EHII observations as there are overlapping EHII-DS values. We felt it
would be useful to attempt to place the EHII estimates in the context of the
broader literature on economic inequality.
The difficulty in going beyond those first comparisons with DS was: what
inequality measurements to pick? Our solution was to undertake a wide (if not
comprehensive) literature search for Gini coefficients of all types for a sequence
of countries, including some that are very well-studied, and others less so. Each
coefficient was tagged by the country and year to which it applied, by its source
document, and by the precise description of the type of inequality being mea-
sured. These types were then classed into three major groups by greyscale. Black
represented measures of “market income inequality.” Dark grey represented mea-
sures of gross income inequality, which would (in general) include pensions and
other forms of cash income. Light grey represented measures of inequalities of
disposable income, after transfers and taxes.2 We used solid lines to represent
measures of the household distribution, and dotted lines to represent measures
of the personal distribution. Dense measures (annual or nearly so) are repre-
sented by continuous lines; measures with only sparse representation over time
are represented by isolated markers. Against these measures taken from the liter-
ature, we plot the EHII estimate for gross household income inequality in a thick
black line.
Figures A1.1 through A1.15 in the first appendix represent a selection of devel-
oped and developing countries.3 The first, striking fact is the wide range of
inequality measurements in this data, even for developed countries. In a typ-
ical, well-studied case for a small, seemingly homogeneous country, Denmark
has a market income inequality estimated to be near 45 Gini points, and dis-
posable income inequality measured at some 25 Gini points lower than that.
Similar disparities appear for all of the other advanced social democracies, includ-
ing Germany, France and Canada, and for the United Kingdom and the United
States.
10 Contemporary Issues in Microeconomics

A casual narrative has sprung up around these numbers, to the effect that the
most advanced countries have very unequal “primary” distributions, offset by a
great deal of redistribution. But this is not correct. The UTIP-UNIDO series, which
measure the inequalities of pay, show the Nordic and North European cases to be
among the world’s most egalitarian in their primary structures. On short reflec-
tion, though, the paradox disappears. Very high inequalities in “market income”
in countries with advanced welfare states must stem from the existence of many
households with zero market income – and no need for it. Household formation
is endogenous to the social structure and available sources of income. In coun-
tries with strong public pensions, it is possible for many elderly couples and for
single adults of all ages to form households on non-market income. One has to
suppose that, in many cases, this is exactly what they do. Such households will
be far more scarce in countries where market income is necessary for life.
Data for two distinct additional groups of countries appear to support this
interpretation. For Russia, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, we have
inequality measures which show a narrower, yet still distinct, difference between
“market-income inequality” and disposable-income inequality. We also have a
class of inequality measures based on consumption surveys. A virtue of the EHII
measure is that – being based on a data set of industrial pay inequality that
is neither income nor consumption and that can be calculated across regions
(Europe, the Americas) that have predominantly income-based surveys as well
as regions (South Asia, Africa) where surveys are predominantly consumption-
based – EHII provides a bridge that permits reasonable calibration of these two
very different types of survey.
For the transition countries, a plausible interpretation of the evidence is that
the post-communist countries do not have welfare states as developed as those
in Northern Europe. On the other hand, they also do not have the inequalities of
pay associated with Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and other parts of what
used to be called the Third World. Having said this much, it also seems clear
that some reported measures or estimates of market income inequality are too
variable and too erratic to be taken very seriously as indications of changing
economic conditions.
Once outside the familiar data environments of the long-industrialized coun-
tries, matters become murkier, in part because there are fewer independent
sources of information. For Mexico, for instance, all inequality measures apart
from EHII stem from a single source, the Institute of Statistics, Geography and
Informatics (INEGI) survey of household incomes. There exists a wide range of
inequality measures for Mexico, but evidently they all merely reflect sampling,
definition and computational choices made on the same underlying data set.
A similar situation holds for Brazil. We also found that in many cases it was not
possible for us to distinguish clearly from the source articles4 whether the income
 James K. Galbraith et al. 11

concept was gross or net. It is, nevertheless, significant that for these coun-
tries there is no distinct difference between market, gross and disposable income
inequality measures on average. The numbers reported in the published litera-
ture are an overlapping and indistinct jumble. We take this as general support for
the view that both market and disposable income inequalities are determined, in
part, by the social structures of the welfare state.
In almost all cases, the movement of the EHII estimates track the historical
pattern observed in other series reasonably well, which suggests – unsurprisingly
– that changing inter-industrial pay dispersion has a strong effect on household
income differentials. For a wide range of wealthy-country cases, the level of the
EHII estimates come in where we would have hoped: below the estimates of
“market income inequality,” above the measures of disposable income inequal-
ity, and close to the (relatively few in number) direct measures of gross income
inequality. We take both of these findings to be broad validation of the simple
model used to estimate EHII, though three classes of exception will be noted
below. The purpose of the EHII exercise was to take advantage of the dense and
consistent measures of industrial pay inequality in UTIP-UNIDO to construct a
panel of conceptually-consistent measures in a Gini coefficient format. Judging
against the broad literature of inequality measures, EHII appears to be well-suited
to this purpose.
A first important exception is the case of the United States. In the US, where
both sample surveys and tax records abound and are widely considered to be
reasonably accurate, EHII misses the great peaks of inequality that appeared in
the late 1990s and in the years before the great financial debacle of 2007. There
is no mystery as to the reason. Top incomes in the US are driven by capital asset
prices, either in the form of realized capital gains, stock options realizations,
financial commissions, or the wage/salary payout of venture capital investments
in high-technology firms. These fluctuate closely with the movement of the stock
market. EHII, on the other hand, depends wholly on the dispersion of pay in the
industrial economy, which is much more stable. Thus, the difference between
EHII and the reported measures of gross household income inequality in the US
can be taken as an indication of the extent to which capital market incomes drive
inequality in overall US incomes. This problem is largely limited to the US; few
other countries have a similar degree of dependence of incomes on the capital
markets or as accurate records of capital incomes.
The second big exception concerns some of the large emerging-market coun-
tries, including Mexico, Brazil and South Africa, and to a lesser degree Colombia,
among others. Here as elsewhere the EHII estimates track the trends found in
the survey literature well. But the values lie below measures of income inequal-
ity taken from household surveys. Some of this difference is impenetrable: when
there are only two independent sources of measurement, as with Mexico, and
they differ, the question of which one is “right” is impossible to resolve. We
12 Contemporary Issues in Microeconomics

have no reason to doubt the integrity of household surveys in any country. Yet
we also have no reason to know that the methods used in those surveys were
designed to give results consistent with those in other countries. Since there is
no international standard for the definition of income or the taking of surveys
– including for such sensitive issues as sampling the rich, the informal sector,
and top-coding, it’s quite possible that inequality values will diverge between
countries for reasons related to differing national methods, and that the EHII
approach generates the more-plausible basis for international comparisons.
That said, and on the other hand, it may be that the largest developing
countries have dimensions of inequality that smaller countries lack. Were Brazil
divided into two countries by the Amazon, or South Africa along racial lines, it’s
obvious that both resulting countries would be much more egalitarian than the
amalgam that actually exists. For India, however, the EHII estimates (51 Gini
points in 2006–7) are very close to the single data point for India reported by
the Luxembourg Income Studies in their first paper on Indian income inequal-
ity. These coefficients lie toward the high end of the EHII scale, and well
above the (very low, and plainly idiosyncratic) measures of Indian consumption-
expenditure inequality that have figured prominently in the literature until
recently, and that have sometimes conveyed a far more egalitarian picture of
India in international comparison than, we believe, a consistent conceptual
framework would warrant.
A third group of exceptions seems less significant. The EHII measures for Sub-
Saharan Africa are, generally, much lower than the available survey evidence
reports. However, for these countries the surveys themselves are extraordinarily
sparse. In most cases, there are just a small handful of available country-year
observations, scattered in time. What to make of them is a mystery to us, and
we do not know the economic history of post-colonial Sub-Saharan Africa well
enough to venture a view. Is Sub-Saharan Africa truly different from all other
regions in its degree of non-industrial inequality? Perhaps it is; or perhaps there
are idiosyncrasies in survey methods in the region.5 We like the EHII method – it
generates numerous useful estimates where previously there were very few – but
its application to every part of the world should not be pressed. We also note a
few cases, including Mexico, Brazil and China, where the EHII measures do not
have the same coverage in time as national surveys, or (in the case of China) our
own measures from the State Statistical Yearbook (Galbraith, Krytynskaia and
Wang 2004; Galbraith, Hsu and Zhang 2009; Zhang 2014).

1.5 Conclusion

The University of Texas Inequality Project is pleased to publish updated measures

of between-industries pay inequality for 167 countries over the years 1963–2008,
and updated estimates of gross household income inequality for 149 countries
 James K. Galbraith et al. 13

over the same period. These new data sets have 4,054 and 3,872 country-year
observations, respectively, the former in a Theil format and the latter as a Gini
coefficient. They represent a careful reassessment of the original measures, the
addition of new data points where the requisite information is available, and a
re-estimate of the statistical model linking pay to income inequality. We believe
these measures are a useful complement to the (more accurate, but limited)
survey-based micro-data being made available through the Luxembourg Income
Studies, and to the measures of top incomes from tax records compiled (for a rel-
atively narrow group of countries) by Atkinson, Piketty and Saez (2011). We also
believe that these measures are a useful alternative to other efforts to compile
broad-based panel estimates of inequality. They are more internally consistent
than the comprehensive compilations of the World Bank and WIDER, and (we
believe) relatively free of the anomalous cases one observes in the Standardized
World Income Inequality Database (SWIID).6
Further we have conducted a quality review of the estimated gross income
inequality measures for 15 countries,7 which consists of a systematic comparison
of our estimates with others, of all different types, to be found in the published
literature. Our general conclusion is that EHII works very well in most cases
for the analysis of trends. It is close to survey-based measures as an estimate
of the level of gross income inequality for advanced and transition economies,
especially as a measure of the inequality of earned incomes. It does not capture
fluctuation in capital income at the top of the income structure, which is due
mainly to the flux of asset prices; on the other hand, there is no reason why it
should have, and this is mainly a problem in the US case. For the large developing
countries EHII is again an effective index of trends, but it should be treated with
caution as a measure of their relative position.

Appendix 1: Comparisons and Sources for Fifteen Selected Countries

Legend
Calculation of UTIP-UNIDO
The UTIP-UNIDO data set is calculated by applying the formula for the between-
groups component of Theil’s T statistic to the industrial categories of the UNIDO
Industrial Statistics data base. Thus, for each industry, one has pi as the share of
that industry in total employment, and Yi /Y as the mean pay in that industry
divided by the mean pay in all of manufacturing. The “Theil element” is the
product:

pi *(Yi /Y) ∗ ln(Yi /Y)

and the between-groups component of Theil’s T is the sum of these elements

across all industries in the observed set.
14 Contemporary Issues in Microeconomics

Income Inequality in Brazil, 1960–2012

66

64

62

60

58
Gini Coefficient

56

54

52

50

48

46

44
19 0
19 2
19 4
19 6
19 8
19 0
19 2
19 4
19 6
19 8
19 0
19 2
19 4
19 6
19 8
19 0
19 2
19 4
19 6
20 8
20 0
20 2
20 4
20 6
20 8
20 0
12
6
6
6
6
6
7
7
7
7
7
8
8
8
8
8
9
9
9
9
9
0
0
0
0
0
1
19

Year

EHII LIS Keyfigs HH_Disp. SWIID HH_Market Cacciamali Pe_NA

DNS-AEB HH_Gross SWIID HH_Net IBGE Pe_Work
DNS-Fields HH_Gross IPEA Pe_NA
DNS-Fields Pe_Gross Neri 2010 Pe_NA
IBGE HH-Gross Neri-FGV NA
IBGE Pe_Gross SEDLAC HH_Total
WIID2-DNS Pe_Gross SEDLAC Pe_Total
WIID2-Ferreira Pe_Gross WDI_NA

Figure A1.1 Income inequality in Brazil, 1960–2012

 James K. Galbraith et al. 15

Income Inequality in Canada, 1960–2012

53
51
49
47
45
43
41
Gini Coefficient

39
37
35
33
31
29
27
25
23
21
19
60
62
64
66
68
70
72
74
76
78
80
82
84
86
88
90
92
94
96
98
00
02
04
06
08
10
12
19
19
19
19
19
19
19
19
19
19
19
19
19
19
19
19
19
19
19
19
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
Year

EHII Brzozowski HH_After tax, tr CANSIM HH_Market

Brzozowszki HH_Before Taxes CANSIM HH_After-tax CANSIM Pe_Market
CANSIM HH_Total CANSIM Pe_After-tax LBIFRE HH_Primary
CANSIM Pe_Total DNS-LIS HH_Net SWIID HH_Market
DNS-LIS HH_Gross DNS-LIS Pe_Net
DNS-LIS Pe_Gross LIS Keyfigs HH_Disposable
WIID2-CDBS HH_Gross SWIID HH_Net
Wolfson HH_Gross WIID2-Fre Pe_Disp 1
WIID2-Fre Pe_Disp 2

Figure A1.2 Income inequality in Canada, 1960–2011

16 Contemporary Issues in Microeconomics

Income and Consumption Inequality in China, 1952–2013

54
52
50
48
46
44
42
Gini Coefficient

40
38
36
34
32
30
28
26
24
22
20
19 2
19 4
19 6
19 8
19 0
19 2
19 4
19 6
68

19 0
19 2
19 4
19 6
19 8
19 0
19 2
19 4
19 6
88

19 0
1992
94

1996
98

20 0
20 2
04

2006
08
10
12
5
5
5
5
6
6
6
6

7
7
7
7
7
8
8
8
8

0
0
19

19

19

19

20

20

20
20
Year

EHII Chi Pe_Disp SWIID HH_Market Benjamin Pe_NA

WIID2-Dowling HH_Gross Chotika Pe_Disp Chen_NA
WIID2-Ying Pe_Gross LIS Keyfigs HH_Disp Jalil_NA
Sicular Pe_Disp Zheng_NA
Sicular-PPP Pe_Disp
Suther Pe_Disp
SWIID HH_Net
Wang Pe_Net
Whall_CASS Pe_Disp
Whall-SSB Pe_Disp
WIID2-Zhange Pe_Disp Kanbur Pe_Con
Wu Pe_Disp WDI_Con

Figure A1.3 Income and consumption inequality in China, 1952–2013

Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
Joseph’s encrease in Ægyt is out-stript here with vs. Our planters
hope to haue more then a hundred fould this yere: and all this while I
am within compasse; what will you say of two hundred fould and
vpwards? It is almost incredible what great gaine some of our
English Planters haue had by our Indian Corne. Credible persons
haue assured me, and the partie himselfe auouched the truth of it to
me, that of the setting of 13 gallons of Corne hee hath had encrease
of it 52 Hogsheads, euery Hogshead holding seuen Bushels of
London measure, and euery Bushell was by him sold and trusted to
the Indians for so much Beauer as was worth 18 shillings; and so of
this 13 Gallons of Corne which was worth 6 shillings 8 pence, he
made about 327 pounds of it in the yeere following, as by reckoning
will appeare: where you may see how God blessed husbandry in this
Land. There is not such greate and plentifull eares of Corne I
suppose any where else to bee found but in this Country: because
also of varietie of colours, as red, blew, and yellow, &c. and of one
Corne there springeth foure or fiue hundred. I haue sent you many
Eares of diuers colours that you might see the truth of it.
Little Children here by setting of Corne may earne much more
then their owne maintenance.
They haue tryed our English Corne at new Plimmouth Plantation,
so that all our seuerall Graines will grow here verie well, and haue a
fitting Soyle for their nature.
Our Gouernor hath store of greene pease growing in his garden as
good as euer I eat in England.
This Countrey aboundeth naturally with store of rootes of great
varietie and good to eat. Our Turnips, Parsnips and Carrots are here
both bigger and sweeter then is ordinarily to bee found in England.
Here are store of Pumpions, Cowcombers, and other things of that
nature which I know not. Also diuers excellent Pot-herbs grow
abundantly among the Grasse, as Strawberrie leaues in all places of
the Countrey, and plentie of strawberries in their time, and
Penyroyall, Wintersauerie, Sorrell, Brookelime, Liuerwort, Caruell
and Watercresses, also Leekes and Onions are ordinarie, and diuers
Physicall Herbs. Here are also aboundance of other sweet Hearbs
delightfull to the smell, whose names we know not, &c. and plentie of
single Damaske Roses verie sweete; and two kinds of Herbes that
beare two kinds of Flowers very sweet, which they say, are as good
to make Cordage or Cloath as any Hempe or Flaxe we haue.
Excellent Vines are here vp and downe in the Woodes. Our
Gouernour hath already planted a Vineyard with great hope of
encrease.
Also, Mulberries, Plums, Raspberries, Corrance, Chesnuts,
Filberds, Walnuts, Smalnuts, Hurtleberies, & Hawes of Whitethorne
neere as good as our Cherries in England, they grow in plentie here.
For Wood there is no better in the World I thinke, here being foure
sorts of Oke differing both in the Leafe, Timber, and Colour, all
excellent good. There is also good Ash, Elme, Willow, Birch, Beech,
Saxafras, Juniper, Cipres, Cedar, Spruce, Pines, & Firre that will
yeeld abundance of Turpentine, Pitch, Tarre, Masts and other
materials for building both of Ships and Houses. Also here are store
of Sumacke Trees, they are good for dying and tanning of Leather,
likewise such trees yeeld a precious Gem called Wine Benjamen,
that they say is excellent for perfumes. Also here be diuers Roots
and Berries wherewith the Indians dye excellent holding colours that
no raine nor washing can alter. Also, wee haue materials to make
Sope-Ashes and Salt-Peter in aboundance.
For Beasts there are some Beares, and they say some Lyons also;
for they haue been seen at Cape Anne. Also here are seuerall sorts
of Deere, some whereof bring three or foure young ones at once,
which is not ordinarie in England. Also Wolues, Foxes, Beauers,
Otters, Martins, great wild Cats, & a great Beast called a Molke as
bigge as an Oxe. I haue seen the Skins of all these Beasts since I
came to this Plantation excepting Lyons. Also here are great store of
squerrels, some greater, and some smaller and lesser: there are
some of the lesser sort, they tell me, that by a certaine Skill will fly
from Tree to Tree though they stand farre distant.

Of the Waters of New-England, with the

things belonging to the same.
 New-England hath Water enough both salt and fresh, the greatest
Sea in the World, the Atlanticke Sea runs all along the Coast thereof.
There are abundance of Ilands along the Shore, some full of Wood
and Mast to feed Swine; and others cleere of Wood, and fruitfull to
beare Corne. Also wee haue store of excellent harbours for Ships,
as at Cape Anne, and at Masathulets Bay, and at Salem, and at
many other places: and they are the better because for Strangers
there is a verie difficult and dangerous passage into them, but vnto
such as are well acquainted with them, they are easie and safe
enough. The aboundance of Sea-Fish are almost beyond beleeuing,
and sure I should scarce haue beleeued it, except I had seene it with
mine owne Eyes. I saw great store of Whales, and Crampusse, and
such aboundance of Mackerils that it would astonish one to behold,
likewise Cod-Fish in aboundance on the Coast, and in their season
are plentifully taken. There is a Fish called a Basse, a most sweet &
wholesome Fish as euer I did eate, it is altogether as good as our
fresh Sammon, and the season of their comming was begun when
wee came first to New-England in June, and so continued about
three months space. Of this Fish our Fishers take many hundreds
together, which I haue seene lying on the shore to my admiration;
yea their Nets ordinarily take more then they are able to hale to
Land, and for want of Boats and Men they are constrained to let a
many goe after they haue taken them, and yet sometimes they fill
two Boates at a time with them. And besides Basse wee take plentie
of Scate and Thornbacks, and abundance of Lobsters, and the least
Boy in the Plantation may both catch and eat what he will of them.
For my owne part I was soone cloyed with them, they were so great,
and fat, and lussious. I haue seene some my selfe that haue
weighed 16 pound, but others haue had diuers times so great
Lobsters as haue weighed 25 pound, as they assure mee. Also
heere is abundance of Herring, Turbut, Sturgion, Cuskes, Hadocks,
Mullets, Eeles, Crabbes, Muskles and Oysters. Besides there is
probability that the Countrey is of an excellent temper for the making
of Salt: for since our comming our Fishermen haue brought home
very good Salt which they found candied by the standing of the Sea
water and the heat of the Sunne, vpon a Rocke by the Sea shore:
and in diuers salt Marishes that some haue gone through, they haue
found some Salt in some places crushing vnder their Feete and
cleauing to their Shooes.
And as for fresh Water the Countrey is full of dainty Springs, and
some great Riuers, and some lesser Brookes; and at Masathulets
Bay they digged Wels and found Water at three Foot deepe in most
places: and neere Salem they haue as fine cleare Water as we can
desire, and we may digge Wels and find Water where we list.
Thus wee see both Land and Sea abound with store of blessings
for the comfortable sustenance of Man’s life in New-England.

Of the Aire of New-England with the

temper and Creatures in it.
The Temper of the Aire of New-England is one speciall thing that
commends this place. Experience doth manifest that there is hardly
a more healthfull place to be found in the World that agreeth better
with our English bodyes. Many that haue beene weake and sickly in
old England, by comming hither haue beene thoroughly healed and
growne healthfull strong. For here is an extraordinarie cleere and dry
Aire that is of a most healing nature to all such as are of a Cold,
Melancholy, Flegmatick, Rheumatick temper of Body. None can
more truly speake hereof by their owne experience then my selfe.
My Friends that knew me can well tell how verie sickly I haue bin and
continually in Physick, being much troubled with a tormenting paine
through an extraordinarie weaknesse of my Stomacke, and
aboundance of Melancholicke humors; but since I came hither on
this Voyage, I thanke God, I haue had perfect health, and freed from
paine and vomiting, hauing a Stomacke to digest the hardest and
coursest fare, who before could not eat finest meat; and whereas my
Stomacke could onely digest and did require such drinke as was
both strong and stale, now I can and doe often times drink New-
England water verie well; and I that haue not gone without a Cap for
many yeeres together, neither durst leaue off the same, haue now
cast away my Cap, and doe weare none at all in the day time: and
whereas beforetime I cloathed my selfe with double cloathes and
thicke Wastcoates to keepe me warme, euen in the Summer time, I
doe now goe as thin clad as any, onely wearing a light Stuffe
Cassocke vpon my Shirt, and Stuffe Breeches of one thicknesse
without Linings. Besides I haue one of my Children that was formerly
most lamentably handled with sore breaking out of both his hands
and feet of the King’s-euill, but since he came hither hee is very well
ouer he was, and there is hope of perfect recouerie shortly euen by
the very wholesomnesse of the Aire, altering, digesting and drying vp
the cold and crude humours of the Body: and therefore I thinke it is a
wise course for al cold complections to come to take Physick in New
England: for a sup of New-England’s Aire is better then a whole
draught of old England’s Ale. In the Summer time in the midst of July
and August, it is a good deale hotter then in old England: and in
Winter January and February are much colder as they say: but the
Spring and Autumne are of a middle temper.
Fowles of the Aire are plentifull here, and of all sorts as we haue in
England as farre as I can learne, and a great many of strange
Fowles which wee know not. Whilst I was writing these things, one of
our Men brought home an Eagle which hee had killed in the Wood:
they say they are good meate. Also here are many kinds of excellent
Hawkes, both Sea Hawkes & Land Hawkes: and my selfe walking in
the Woods with another in company, sprung a Partridge so bigge
that through the heauinesse of his Body could fly but a little way:
they that haue killed them, say they are as bigge as our Hens. Here
are likewise aboundance of Turkies often killed in the Woods, farre
greater then our English Turkies, and exceeding fat, sweet and
fleshy, for here they haue aboundance of feeding all the yeere long,
as Strawberries, in Summer all places are full of them, and all
manner of Berries and Fruits. In the Winter time I haue seene
Flockes of Pidgeons, and haue eaten of them: they doe fly from Tree
to Tree as other Birds doe, which our Pidgeons will not doe in
England: they are of all colours as ours are, but their wings and
tayles are far longer, and therefore it is likely they fly swifter to
escape the terrible Hawkes in this Country. In Winter time this
Country doth abound with wild Geese, wild Duckes, and other Sea
Fowle, that a great part of winter the Planters haue eaten nothing but
roast meate of diuers Fowles which they haue killed.
 Thus you haue heard of the Earth, Water and Aire of New-
England, now it may bee you expect something to bee said of the
Fire proportionable to the rest of the Elements. Indeede I thinke
New-England, may boast of this Element more then of all the rest:
for though it bee here somewhat cold in the winter, yet here we haue
plenty of Fire to warme vs, and that a great deale cheaper then they
sel Billets and Faggots in London: nay, all Europe is not able to
afford to make so great Fires as New-England. A poore seruant here
that is to possesse but 50 Acres of Land, may afford to giue more
wood for Timber & Fire as good as the world yeelds, then many
Noble men in England can afford to do. Here is good liuing for those
that loue good Fires. And although New-England haue no Tallow to
make Candles of, yet by the aboundance of the Fish thereof, it can
afford Oyle for Lampes. Yea our Pine-Trees that are the most
plentifull of all wood, doth allow vs plenty of Candles which are very
vsefull in a House: and they are such Candles as the Indians
commonly vse, hauing no other, and they are nothing else but the
wood of the Pine Tree clouen in two little slices something thin,
which are so full of the moysture of Turpentine and Pitch, that they
burne as cleere as a Torch. I haue sent you some of them that you
may see the experience of them.
Thus of New-England’s commodities, now I will tell you of some
discommodities that are here to be found.
First, in the Summer season for these three months, June, July,
and August, we are troubled much with little Flyes called Musketoes,
being the same they are troubled with in Lincolneshiere and the
Fens: and they are nothing but Gnats, which except they bee
smoked out of their houses are troublesome in the night season.
Secondly, in the Winter season for two months space, the earth is
commonly couered with Snow, which is accompanied with sharp
biting Frosts, something more sharpe then is in old England, and
therefore are forced to make great Fires.
Thirdly, the countrey being very full of Woods, and Wildernesses,
doth also much abound with Snakes and Serpents of strange
colours, and huge greatnesse: yea there are some Serpents called
Rattlesnakes that haue Rattles in their Tailes, that will not fly from a
man as others will, but will flye vpon him and sting him so mortally,
that hee will dye within a quarter of an houre after, except the partie
stinged haue about him some of the root of an Hearbe called Snake-
weed to bite on, and then hee shall receiue no harme: but yet
seldome falles it out that any hurt is done by these. About three
yeares since, an Indian was stung to death by one of them, but wee
heard of none since that time.
Fourthly and lastly, Here wants as it were good company of honest
Christians to bring with them Horses, Kine and Sheepe to make vse
of this fruitfull Land: great pitty it is to see so much good ground for
Corne & for Grasse as any is vnder the Heauens, to ly altogether
vnoccupied, when so many honest Men and their Families in old
England through the populousnesse thereof, do make very hard shift
to liue one by the other.

Now, thus you know what New-England is, as also with the
commodities and discommodities thereof: now I will shew you a little
of the Inhabitants thereof, and their gouernment.
For their Gouernors they haue Kings, which they call Saggamores,
some greater, and some lesser, according to the number of their
Subjects.
The greatest Saggamores about vs can not make aboue three
hundred Men, and other lesse Saggamores haue not aboue fifteene
Subjects, and others neere about vs but two.
Their Subjects aboue twelue yeares since were swept away by a
great & grieuous Plague that was amongst them, so that there are
verie few left to inhabite the Country.
The Indians are not able to make vse of the one fourth part of the
Land, neither haue they any setled places, as Townes to dwell in, nor
any ground as they challenge for their owne possession, but change
their habitation from place to place.
 For their Statures, they are a tall and strong limmed People, their
colours are tawny, they goe naked, saue onely they are in part
couered with Beasts Skins on one of their shoulders, and weare
something before their priuities: their Haire is generally blacke, and
cut before like our Gentelewomen, and one locke longer then the
rest, much like to our Gentelmen, which fashion I thinke came from
hence into England.
For their weapons, they haue Bows and Arrowes, some of them
headed with Bone, and some with Brasse: I haue sent you some of
them for an example.
The Men for the most part liue idely, they doe nothing but hunt and
fish: their wiues set their Corne and doe all their other worke. They
haue little Houshold stuffe, as a kettle, and some other Vessels like
Trayes, Spoones, Dishes and Baskets.
Their Houses are verie little and homely, being made with small
Poles pricked into the ground, and so bended and fastned at the
tops, and on the sides they are matted with Boughes and couered on
the Roofe with Sedge and old Mats, and for their beds that they take
their rest on, they haue a Mat.
They doe generally professe to like well of our comming and
planting here; partly because there is abundance of ground that they
cannot possesse nor make vse of, and partly because our being
heere will bee a meanes both of reliefe to them when they want, and
also a defence from their Enemies, wherewith (I say) before this
Plantation began, they were often indangered.
For their religion, they doe worship two Gods, a good God and an
euill God: the good God they call Tantum, and their euill God whom
they feare will doe them hurt, they call Squantum.
For their dealing with vs, we neither feare them nor trust them, for
fourtie of our Musketeeres will driue fiue hundred of them out of the
Field. We vse them kindly, they will come into our Houses sometimes
by halfe a douzen or halfe a score at a time when we are at victuals,
but will aske or take nothing but what we giue them.
 We purpose to learne their language as soone as we can, which
will be a meanes to do them good.

Of the present condition of the Plantation,

and what it is.
When we came first to Nehumkek, we found about halfe a score
Houses, and a faire House newly built for the Gouernor, we found
also aboundance of Corne planted by them, very good and well
liking. And we brought with vs about two hundred Passengers and
Planters more, which by common consent of the old Planters were
all combined together into one Body Politicke, vnder the same
Gouernor.
There are in all of vs both old and new Planters about three
hundred, whereof two hundred of them are setled at Nehumkek, now
called Salem: And the rest haue planted themselues at Masathulets
Bay, beginning to build a Towne there which wee doe call Cherton,
or Charles Towne.
We that are setled at Salem make what haste we can to build
Houses, so that within a short time we shall haue a faire Towne.
We haue great Ordnance, wherewith wee doubt not but wee shall
fortifie our selues in a short time to keepe out a potent Aduersary.
But that which is our greatest comfort, and meanes of defence
aboue all other, is, that we haue here the true Religion and holy
Ordinances of Almightie God taught amongst vs: Thankes be to
God, wee haue here plenty of Preaching, and diligent Catechizing,
with strickt and carefull exercise, and good and commendable orders
to bring our People into a Christian conuersation with whom wee
haue to doe withall. And thus wee doubt not but God will be with vs,
and if God be with us, who can be against us?
Here ends Master Higgeson’s Relation of
New-England.
 A Letter sent from New-England, by Master
Graues,
Engynere now there resident.
THus much I can affirme in generall, that I neuer came in a more
goodly Country in all my life, all things considered: if it hath not at
any time beene manured and husbanded, yet it is very beautifull in
open Lands, mixed with goodly woods, and againe open plaines, in
some places five hundred Acres, some places more, some lesse, not
much troublesome for to cleere for the Plough to goe in, no place
barren, but on the tops of the Hils; the grasse & weedes grow vp to a
man’s face, in the Lowlands & by fresh Riuers aboundance of grasse
and large Meddowes without any Tree or shrubbe to hinder the Sith.
I neuer saw except in Hungaria, vnto which I alwayes paralell this
countrie, in all our most respects, for euery thing that is heere eyther
sowne or planted prospereth far better then in old England: the
increase of Corne is here farre beyond expectation, as I haue seene
hereby experience in Barly, the which because it is so much aboue
your conception I will not mention. And Cattle doe prosper very well,
and those that are bredd here farr greater then those with you in
England. Vines doe grow here plentifully laden with the biggest
Grapes that euer I saw, some I haue seene foure inches about, so
that I am bold to say of this countrie, as it is commonly said in
Germany of Hungaria, that for Cattel, Corne, and Wine it excelleth.
We haue many more hopefull commodities here in this countrie, the
which time will teach to make good vse of: In the meane time wee
abound with such things which next vnder God doe make vs subsist,
as Fish, Foule, Deere, and sundrie sorts of fruits, as musk-millions
water-millions, India-Pompions, Indian-Pease Beanes, & many other
odde fruits that I cannot name; all which are made good and
pleasant through this maine blessing of God, the healthfulnesse of
the countrie which far exceedeth all parts that euer I haue beene in:
It is obserued that few or none doe here fal sicke, vnless of the
Scuruy that they bring from aboard the Ship with them, whereof I
haue cured some of my companie onely by labour. [Thus making an
end of an imperfect Description, and committing you to God, &c.
A Catalogue of such needefull things as
euery Planter doth or ought to prouide to go
to New-England
as namely for one man, which being doubled, may
serue for as many as you please, viz.
Victuals for a whole yeere for a man, and so after the rate for
more.
8 Bvshels of meale. 1 Gallon of Oyle.
2 Bushels of pease. 2 Gallons of Vinegar.
2 Bushels of Otemeale. 1 Firkin of Butter.
1 Gallon of Aquavitæ.

Apparell.
1 Monmoth Cap. 4 Paire of Shooes.
3 Falling bands. 2 Paire of Sheets.
3 Shirts. 7 Ells of Canuas to
1 Wast-coat. make a bed and
1 Suit of Canuase. boulster.
1 Suit of Frize. 1 Paire of Blankets.
1 Suit of Cloth. 1 Course Rug.
3 Paire of Stockings.

Armes.
1 Armor compleat. 1 Bandilier.
1 Long peece. 20 Pound of Powder.
1 Sword. 60 Pound of Lead.
1 Belt. 1 Pistoll and Goose shot.

Tooles.
 1 Broad Howe. 1 Broad Axe.
1 Narrow Howe. 1 Felling Axe.
1 Steele Handsawe. 1 Gimblet.
1 Whipsawe. 1 Hatchet.
1 Hammer. 2 Frowes.
1 Shouell. 1 Hand-Bill.
1 Spade. 1 Grindstone.
2 Augres. 1 Pickaxe.
4 Chissels. Nayles of all sorts.
2 Percers stocked.

Houshold implements.
1 Iron pot. 1 Spit.
1 Kettel. Wooden Platters.
1 Frying pan. Dishes.
1 Gridiron. Spoons.
2 Skellets. Trenchers.

Spices.
Sugar. Cinnamon.
Pepper. Nutmegs.
Cloues. Fruit.
Mace.

Also there are diuers other things necessary to bee taken ouer to
this Plantation, as Bookes, Nets, Hookes and Lines, Cheese, Bacon,
Kine, Goats, &c.
 The names of the most remarkable
places in New-England.
The old names. The new names.
Cape Cod. Cape Iames.
The Harbor of Cape Cod. Milford Hauen.
Chawum. Barwick.
Accomack. Plimouth.
Sagoquas. Oxford.
Massachusets Mount. Cheuit Hils.
Massachusets Riuer. Charles River.
Totan. Famouth.
A great Bay by Cape Anne. Bristow.
Cape Tragabig sanda. Cape Anne.
Naembeck. Bastable, so named by King
Charles: But by the new
Planters now called Salem.
Aggawom. Southampton.
Smiths Iles. Smiths Iles.
Passasaquack. Hull.
Accominticus. Boston.
Sassanows Mount. Snowdon hill.
Sowocatuck. Ipswich.
Bahanna. Dartmouth.
A good Harbor within that Sandwich.
Bay.
Ancociscos Mount. Shuters hill.
Ancocisco. The Base.
Anmoughcawgen. Cambridge.
Kenebecka. Edenborow.
 Sagadahock. Leth.
Pemmayquid. S. Iohns towne.
Segocket. Norwich.
Mecadacut. Dunbarton.
Pennobscot. Aberden.
Nusket. Low mounds.
Monahigan. Barties Iles.
Matinack. Willowbies Iles.
Metinacus. Haughtons Iles.
But whosoeuer desireth to know as much as yet can be discouered, I
aduise them to buy Captaine John Smiths booke of the description of
New-England in Folio; and reade from Fol. 203. to the end; and there
let the Reader expect to haue full content.

Finis.
SOME BRIEF COLLECTIONS
&c.
 Some brief collections out of a
letter that Mr. Higginson sent to his friends
at Leicester.

THERE are certainly expected here the next spring the coming of
60 familyes out Dorcettershire,[5] who have by letters signified so
much to the Goverour to desyre him to appoint them places of
habitations they bringing their ministers with them. Also many
families are expected out of Lincolnshire[6] and a minister with them,
and a great company of godly Christians out of London. Such of you
as come from Leister, I would counsell you to come quickly and that
for two reasons. 1st, if you linger too long, the passages of Jordan
through the malice of Sathan, may be stopped, that you can not
come if you would. 2dly, Those that come first speed best here, and
have the priviledge of choosing choice places of habitations. Little
children of 5 years ould may by setting corne one month be able to
get their owne maintenance abundantly. Oh what a good worke
might you that are rich do for your poore brethren, to helpe them with
your purses onely to convey them hither with their children and
families, where they may live as well both for soule and body as any
where in the world. Besides they will recompense the cost by helping
to build houses and plant your ground for a tyme; which shall be
difficult worke at the first, except you have the helpe of many hands.
Mr. Johnson out of Lincolnshire and many others, have helped our
godly christians hither to be employed in their worke, for a while, and
then to live of themselves. We have here about 40 goats that give
milke, and as many milch kyne; we have 6 or 7 mares and an horse,
and do every day expect the coming of half a score mares more, and
30 Kyne by two shipps that are to follow us.[7] They that come let
them bring mares, kyne, and sheepe as many as they can: Ireland is
the best place to provide sheepe, and lyes in the way. Bring none
that are in lambe, nor mares in foale; for they are in more danger to
perish at sea. Of all trades carpenters are most needful, therefore
bring as many as you can. It were a wise course for those of abilityes
to joyne together and buy a shipp for the voyage and other
merchandize. For the governour would that any man may employ his
stocke in what merchandises he please, excepting only beaver
skins, which the company of merchants reserve to themselves, and
the managing of the publique stocke. If any be of the mynde to buy a
shipp my cousin Nowell’s[8] counsell would be good. Also one Mr.
[Beecher] a very godly man and the master of the ship we went in,
and likewise one Mr. Graves the master’s maite dwelling in Wapping
may herein staund you in stead. The payment of the transportation
of things is wondrous deare, as 5l a man and 10l a horse and
commonly 3l for every tunne of goodes: so that a little more than will
pay for the passage will purchase the possession of a ship for all
together.
No man hath or can have a house built for him here unlesse he
comes himselfe, or else send servants before to do it for him. It was
an errour that I now perceive both in myselfe, and others did
conceive by not rightly understanding the merchaunts meaning. For
we thought that all that put in their money into the common stocke;
should have a house built for them, besides such a portion of the
land; but it was not so. They shall indeed have so much land allotted
to them when they come to take possession of it and make use of it,
but if they will have houses they must build them. Indeed we that are
ministers, and all the rest that were entertained and sent over and
maintained by the rest of the company, as their servants, for such a
tyme in such employments, all such are to have houses built them of
the comyanies charge and no others nor otherwise. They that put
money into the stocke, as they do a good worke to helpe forwards so
worthy a plantation, so all the gayne they are likely to have, is
according to the increase of the stocke at 3 years end, by the trade
of beaver, besides the lands which they shall enjoy when they will.
All that come must have victualls with them for a twelve month, I
meane they must have meale, oatmeale and such like sustenaunce
of food, till they can gett increase of corne by their owne labour. For,
otherwise, so many may come without provision at the first, as that
our small beginnings may not be sufficient to maintayne them.
Before you come be carefull to be strongly instructed what things
are fittest to bring with you for your more comfortable passage at
sea, as also for your husbandrey occasions when you come to the
land. For when you are once parted with England you shall meete
neither with taverns nor alehouse, nor butchers, nor grosers, nor
apothecaries shops to helpp what things you need, in the midst of
the great ocean, nor when you are come to land here are yet neither
markets nor fayres to buy what you want. Therefore be sure to
furnish yourselves with things fitting to be had before you come; as
meale for bread, malt for drinke, woolen and linnen cloath, and
leather for shoes, and all manner of carpenters tools, and a good
deale of iron and steele to make nails, and lockes, for houses, and
furniture for ploughs and carts, and glasse for windowes, and many
other things which were better for you to think of them than to want
them here.
Whilst I was writing this letter my wiffe brought me word that the
fishers had caught 1600 basse at one draught, which if they were in
England were worth many a pound.
NOTES