What 300 Years of Firewood Prices Say About the Economy
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Hello and welcome to another episode of the Oddlots Podcast. I'm Tracy Alloway.
And I'm Joe Weisenthal.
Joe, you know what's been missing in my life?
Go on. Chickens.
Oh, yes, actually. Chickens still missing in my life, but also a comprehensive series of historical firewood prices in the US for the past 300 years.
You know what? I we have data on literally every other commodity in the world, but I don't have a 300 year time series on firewood prices. And I always feel like if I just had that number, then I would have the complete picture of commodity.
Well, I know we're sort of joking, but this is actually important because if you think about the US in the seventeen hundreds or the eighteen hundreds, people used firewood. The vast majority of America's energy consumption came from
wood. Wait, do you remember a couple of months ago when I was that guy who brought up wages of destruction in every chat?
Are you gonna do it again?
No.
Oh Well you just did.
No, now I'm gonna be the guy who brings up Moby Dick in every conversation. Yeah, I know. Because I've been reading Moby Dick, and so I'm really interested in energy transitions in the eighteen hundreds because one of the things that uh you know has come up in some of our past conversations, such as with Bob Brackett, etc. Whale oil is basically the only energy source that we've completely eliminated. Every other historical energy source that we've had, we're still using it to degree. They never totally disappear. And so I'm very interested in the phenomenon of like past historical energy transitions. People talk about the transition now, but it's interesting to sort of examine other periods when one form of fossil fuel or other fuel like went out of style, so to speak, or became uneconomical.
Well, I have to say, as the uh proud owner of a wood burning stove now and formerly a coal burning stove
You're interested in energy transition too.
Absolutely. So I am very pleased to say that we have the perfect guest. We are going to be speaking with the author of a paper that's called Firewood in the American Economy, 1700 to 2010. And it is all about collecting historical data on firewood prices and then figuring out how that fits into the wider economy and measures of other things like output and productivity. and things like that. So we have Nicholas Muller. He is the Lester and Judith Lave Professor of Economics, Engineering, and Public Policy over at Carnegie Mellon. So Nick, welcome to the show.
Thank you so much. It's a pleasure to be here.
Why don't I start out with why firewood? Um, and I know I mentioned that firewood was a majority of US energy consumption for many, many years. Is it right to think of it sort of as like oil?
Why is firewood considered the “oil of the 1800s” and why does it matter for today’s economy?
The eighteen hundreds equivalent of oil powering the entire economy?
Yeah, so there are two reasons why I focused on this particular topic in a paper. One, as you said, somewhere around or before the Civil War, back before the American Revolution and the founding of the country. Essentially all the energy in the US economy, whether it was in households or firms doing primitive things, it was all coming from firewood. And so the fact that the academic literature and government statistics didn't really have A reasonably comprehensive time series of these prices seemed Like a really big gap to me. And so that was one reason to just set out filling that knowledge gap. The other was prior to being at Carnegie Mellon, I taught at Middlebury College in Vermont.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–3:33
2
Why is firewood considered the “oil of the 1800s” and why does it matter for today’s economy?
3:33–14:30
3
How did Nicholas Muller uncover 300‑year‑old firewood prices and fill the historical data gap?
14:30–24:46
4
What do the firewood price series reveal about price volatility and real‑price trends from 1700‑1900?
24:46–31:25
5
Why did firewood prices rise sharply between 1800 and the Civil War?
31:25–39:20
6
How did the rise of railroads both lower transport costs and increase wood demand?
39:20–44:57
Speakers
8 identifiedMore from Odd Lots
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