Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T15:12:34.408Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Information Sharing During the Klondike Gold Rush

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2007

Douglas W. Allen*
Affiliation:
Burnaby Mountain Professor, Department of Economics, Simon Fraser University. Burnaby, BC V5A 1S6, Canada. E-mail: [email protected].

Abstract

When George Carmack struck gold in the Yukon territory on 17 August 1896, he freely shared the details and started what would eventually be three waves of rushes. This reflected a social norm of the Klondike, namely that any miner who struck gold would share this information. Miners did not behave this way in other nineteenth-century gold rushes. The article's hypothesis is that the extreme mining conditions and local geography of the Yukon led to very secure property rights over mining claims. Therefore, it took only a small incentive payment to induce miners to act in the social interest.

Type
ARTICLES
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Allen, Douglas W. Purchase, Patronage, and Professions: Incentives and the Evolution of Public Office in Pre-Modern Britain. Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics 161, no. 1 (2005): 57–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
AllenDouglas W., and Clyde Reed Douglas W., and Clyde Reed. The Duel of Honor: Screening for Unobservable Social Capital. American Law and Economics Review 8, no. 1 (2006): 81–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Adney, Tappan. The Klondike Stampede. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1900.Google Scholar
Anderson, Terry, and Hill, Peter J.. The Not So Wild, Wild West: Property Rights on the Frontier. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2004.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bergstrom, Theodore, and Stark, Oded. How Altruism Can Prevail in an Evolutionary Environment. American Economic Review 83, no. 2 (1993): 149–55.Google Scholar
Berton, Pierre. Klondike: The Last Great Gold Rush, 1896–1899. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1972.Google Scholar
Billard, Walter. The Klondyke Mines and The Golden Valley of the Yukon. Jersey City, NJ: Albert Datz Publisher, 1897.Google Scholar
Blake, William. Observations on the Extent of the Gold Region of California and Oregon. American Journal of Science and Arts 20 (1855): 73–74.Google Scholar
Boissery, Beverley. Beyond Hope: An Illustrated History of the Fraser and Cariboo Gold Rush. Toronto: Dundurn Group, 2003.Google Scholar
Canada. Annual Report of the Mineral Production of Canada. Ottawa: Dominion Bureau of Statistics, 1926.Google Scholar
Chicago Daily Record, Klondike, Book for Gold Seekers. Chicago: Monarch Book Company, 1897.Google Scholar
Clay, Karen, and Wright, Gavin. Order Without Law? Property Rights During the California Gold Rush. Explorations in Economic History 42, no. 2 (April 2005): 155–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clements, J. I. The Klondyke: A Complete Guide to the Gold Fields. Los Angeles: Baumgardt and Co., 1897.Google Scholar
Coolidge, L. A. Klondike: and the Yukon Country. Philadelphia: Henry Altemus, 1897.Google Scholar
Dunham, Sam C. The Alaskan Gold Fields and the Opportunities They Offer for Capital and Labor. Bulletin of the Department of Labor. Washington, DC: No. 16, May, 1898.Google Scholar
Ellickson, Robert C. Order Without Law: How neighbors Settle Disputes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1991.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eshel, Ilan, Samuelson, Larry, and Shaked, Avner. Altruists, Egoists, and Hooligans in a Local Interaction Model. American Economic Review 88, no. 1 (1988): 157–79.Google Scholar
Greif, Avner. Contract Enforceability and Economic Institutions in Early Trade: The Maghribi Traders' Coalition. American Economic Review 83, no. 3 (1993): 525–48.Google Scholar
Hallagan, William S. Share Contracting for California Gold. Explorations in Economic History 15 (1978): 196210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, A. C. Alaska and the Klondike Gold Fields. Washington, DC: Library of Congress, c. 1897.Google Scholar
Haskell, William. Two Years in the Klondike and Alaskan Gold-Fields. Hartford, CT: Hartford Publishing Co., 1898.Google Scholar
Holliday, J. S. The World Rushed In: The California Gold Rush Experience. NY: Simon & Schuster, 1981.Google Scholar
Innis, Harold. Settlement and the Mining Frontier. Toronto: Macmillan Co., 1936.Google Scholar
Johnson, William. The Forty-Niners. New York: Time Life Books, 1974.Google Scholar
Kirk, Robert C. Twelve Months in Klondike. London: William Heinemann, 1899.Google Scholar
KnoxJohn, and J. Pratt John, and J. Pratt. All About the Klondyke Gold Mines. New York: Miners' News Publishing Co, c. 1897.Google Scholar
La Croix, Sumner. Property Rights and Institutional Change During Australia's Gold Rush. Explorations in Economic History 29 (April 1992): 204–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ladue, Joseph. Klondyke Facts: Being a Complete Guide Book to the Gold Regions of the Great Canadian Northwest Territories and Alaska. New York: American Technical Book Co., 1897.Google Scholar
Libecap, Gary. Contracting For Property Rights. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.Google Scholar
London, Jack. The Economics of the Klondike. The American Monthly Review of Reviews 20 (1900): 70–74.Google Scholar
McConnell, R. G. Report on the Klondike Gold Fields. Ottawa: Geological Survey of Canada, 1905.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ogilvie, William. Early Days on the Yukon. Ottawa: Thorburn & Abbott, 1913.Google Scholar
Palmer, Frederick. In the Klondyke: Including an Account of a Winter's Journey to Dawson. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1899.Google Scholar
Paul, RodmanCalifornia Gold: The Beginning of Mining in the Far West. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1947.Google Scholar
Sola, A. E. Ironmonger. Klondyke: Truth and Facts of the New El Dorado. London: The Mining and Geographical Institute, 1897.Google Scholar
Stanley, William. A Mile of Gold: Strange Adventures on the Yukon. Chicago: Laird and Lee, 1898.Google Scholar
Stansbury, Charles F. Klondike: The Land of Gold. New York: F. Tennyson Neely, 1897.Google Scholar
Steffens, J. Lincoln. Life in the Klondike Gold Fields: Personal Observations of the Founder of Dawson. CIHM/ICMH Microfiche series; no. 16207, 1897.Google Scholar
Stone, Thomas. Miners' Justice: Migration, Law and Order on the Alaska-Yukon Frontier, 1873–1902. New York: Peter Lang, 1988.Google Scholar
Treadgold, A. N. C. An English Expert on the Klondike. Toronto: George N. Morang & Co., 1899.Google Scholar
Tyrrell, J. B. Concentration of Gold in the Klondike. Economic Geology June (1907): 343–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, Graham. The Klondike Gold Rush: Photographs from 1896–1899. Whitehorse, YT: Wolf Creek Books, 1997.Google Scholar
Umbeck, John. A Theory of Property Rights: With Application to the California Gold Rush. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1981.Google Scholar
Umbeck, John. Might Makes Rights: A Theory of the Formation and Initial Distribution of Property Rights. Economic Inquiry 19 (January 1981): 3859.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zaslow, Morris. The Opening of the Canadian North: 1870–1914. Toronto: McClelland and Steward Ltd, 1971.Google Scholar
Zerbe Jr., Richard O., and Anderson, C. Leigh. Culture and Fairness in the Development of Institutions in the California Gold Rush. This Journal 61, no. 1 (2001): 114143.Google Scholar