The objective of this article is to examine the history of the language of development theory in order to elucidate the nature of its terminology. The history of the principal terms of development theory (economic/sustainable/human development, Third World, and North/(Global) South) is examined by way of a quantitative study of the frequency of the usage of these terms during the 20th century based on a dataset of millions of digitised books made available by Google Books. The author argues that the results of the study provide empirical evidence that the language of development theory is a historical-ideological construction which is embedded in the structure of the world economy.

The rise of coffee in the Brazilian southeast: tariffs and foreign market potential, 1827-40 † By CHRISTOPHER DAVID ABSELL * During the period spanning independence in 1822 to mid-century, Brazil's southeast shifted from specializing in the export of cane sugar to coffee. This article explores the mechanism underlying this shift by exploiting a wealth of new monthly data on the Brazilian and international coffee and cane sugar markets during the period 1827-40. It argues that the timing of the coffee boom was driven by a rapid increase in foreign market potential associated with the abolition of the tariff on coffee in the US. It estimates that American tariff reform served to increase coffee exports and African slave imports by around one-fifth. American firms, with indirect links to the slave trade, rapidly became major players in the export market in Rio de Janeiro, while non-American firms, traditionally specialized in continental European destinations, turned their sights on the American market.

El surgimiento de la Alianza Bolivariana para los Pueblos de Nuestra América-Tratado de Comercio de los Pueblos (ALBA-TCP) representa una novedad de importancia regional e internacional; sin embargo hasta la fecha el trabajo académico sobre la organización ha sido escaso y se ha caracterizado por tener un enfoque metodológico descriptivo carente de investigación empírica comprensiva. En este artículo sostengo que este enfoque metodológico ha imbuido la literatura de un sesgo positivo a favor del ALBA-TCP y sus proyectos de desarrollo. El objetivo de este artículo es examinar esta literatura para determinar una agenda de investigación para el estudio del ALBA - TCP

To date, research on the economic history of Brazil during the 19th century has relied on official foreign trade statistics, the accuracy of which has repeatedly been put into question. This paper provides insights into the accuracy of the official series by examining the accuracy of the export and import series for Brazil during the 19th century. We re-estimate the official import series using trading partner sources, and find that the official series was marginally under-valued during certain periods of the 19th century. Furthermore, we provide new upper- and lower-bound estimates of the export series by testing different assumptions regarding the size of the cost, insurance and freight to free on board factor adjustments. Finally, we introduce a new import price index for the period 1827-1913.

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