Loaf and Order : The Victorian Internet and Wheat Market Integration in 19th Century France
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With Marc Bourreau and Lukasz Grzybowski. The Chappe telegraph, also known as the optical telegraph, was a communication system developed and used in France between 1794 and the 1850s. It relied on visual signals trans- mitted along lines of semaphores to disseminate administrative information. In this paper, we analyze whether the development of the Chappe telegraph contributed to the integration of the French wheat market between 1807 and 1851. Our findings indicate that departments connected to the Chappe telegraph network had, on average, lower prices and reduced price dispersion. Prices also converged faster in departments connected to the Chappe network before 1807 compared to those that were never connected. Thus, improved administrative information dissemination had a positive impact on market efficiency.
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