Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the
Graduate Council of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
SCARCITY OR PLENTY; THE ROLE OF METAL RESOURCES
IN THE GROWTH OF THE UNITED STATES ECONOMY, I86O-I96O
By
Melvin W. Harju
August, 1972
Chairman: William F. Woodruff
Major Department: Economics
According to a great deal of contemporary thinking,
the nations of the world might almost reasonably be
divided roughly into two groups, the rich and the poor,
or, more euphemistically, and more abstractly, the
developed and the developing. Much economic theory has
been generated, particularly since the Second World War,
to account for observed differences in relative material
wealth; and economic growth and development, with
industrialization as a goal, has come to be viewed as an
on-going process. With that end in mind, theorists have
attempted to generate, whenever possible, universally
applicable explanations of growth and development. While
such theories are valuable, they suffer from limitations
not always made explicit. The peculiarities of different
peoples and regions rarely are considered and theories
often are divorced almost entirely from any historical
or geographical consideration.
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