Exploring the affinity of wheat and slavery in the Virginia Piedmont

摘要: Abstract Wheat was an important slave crop in the Virginia Piedmont. In random samples of Piedmont farms 1850 and 1860 wheat production per worker increased with slaveholding size. I evaluate two explanations for this pattern: “trade-offs,” which suggests that larger specialized at opportunity cost other crops; “scale effects,” efficiency scale. Simple econometric tests provide no support trade-offs approach, but are consistent scale effects. The results suggest parallels between (in Piedmont) more familiar crops.