Estimating Grain Storage with Probate Inventories: Kent and Cornwall, 1600-1750
The paper titled "Estimating Grain Storage with Probate Inventories: Kent and Cornwall, 1600-1750" by Liam Brunt and Edmund Cannon has been published in Explorations in Economic History.
Abstract
We show how probate inventories can be used to measure the seasonal pattern of grain stocks and hence provide direct information on both intra-year and inter-year storage (“carryover”). The correct procedure to quantify total carryover is a ratio-of-means statistic that consistently estimates the appropriate weighted average of individual carryover decisions. Using an existing data base of inventories, we show that the seasonal pattern is plausible, robust to alternative specifications and consistent with an alternative way of estimating carryover. We find that average carryover in the period 1600-1750 was very low in Kent and virtually zero in Cornwall.