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Globalization, if defined as the integration of international commodity markets, started in the eighteenth century and progressed gradually and with some setbacks into the nineteenth century, instead of suddenly appearing at some point after the 1820s. We use grain prices in Europe and the Americas to determine the extent and dynamics of market integration throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. An innovative methodology, with special attention being paid to changes in residual dispersion of the univariate models of relative prices between markets, permits us to obtain a measure of market integration over time.

In this paper we analyse the market integration process of the relative price distribution, develop a model to analyze market integration, and present a formal test of increasing market integration. We distinguish between the economic concepts of price convergence in mean and in variance. When both types of convergence occur, prices are said to converge in distribution. We present concepts and definitions related to the market integration process, link this to price convergence in distribution, argue that the Law of One Price (LOP) is not a sufficient condition for market integration, and present a formal test of price convergence in distribution.In the empirical analysis, we analyze integration of the inland grains market in 19th Century USA.

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