How did the Invisible Hand Handle Industrial Waste? By-product Development before the Modern Environmental Era
本文挑战了历史学家关于价格体系和竞争鼓励污染而非循环利用的观点，论证市场制度（包括利润动机和产权）实际上促进了工业副产品的利用，并认为前人在解决环境问题上的创造性和资源性应得到更多认可。
A growing number of historians have turned their attention to the past behavior of industrialists toward their waste. Many have argued that the price system and competition typically fostered a short-term outlook that rewarded pollution rather than encouraging “loop-closing,” a modern term that refers to the linkages between different industries in which the residual of one becomes the input of another. Others have identified precedents in this respect that are credited to Progressive Era reformers. Building on evidence that has, by and large, escaped the attention of the present generation of historical writers, this essay challenges both views by arguing that market institutions, which included both profit motive and property rights, actually resulted in the usage of industrial by-products. Although past industrial activities did create significant pollution problems, perhaps our ancestors should be given more credit than they generally are for the creativity and resourcefulness they displayed in profitably solving numerous environmental problems.