The Antebellum American South experienced rapid biological innovation centered around an active market for new cotton seed varieties, despite the absence of intellectual property rights. Contemporaries complained new seed was initially offered at high prices, which subsequently collapsed. Using local newspaper evidence, this paper documents this market’s operation. It then rationalizes the price movements given the potential of improved seed to multiply at finite rates. The initial prices were sufficiently high to provide meaningful incentives to innovate. This study also identifies information problems affecting the cotton seed market, leading observers to claim too many new varieties were released, not too few.

中文翻译：

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没有知识产权的生物创新：战前美国南部的棉籽市场

尽管缺乏知识产权，但战前美国南部经历了以活跃的棉花新品种市场为中心的快速生物创新。同时代人抱怨新种子最初以高价提供，随后价格崩盘。使用当地报纸的证据，本文记录了这个市场的运作。然后，鉴于改良种子有可能以有限的速率繁殖，它使价格变动合理化。最初的价格足够高，足以为创新提供有意义的激励。这项研究还确定了影响棉籽市场的信息问题，导致观察家声称发布了太多新品种，而不是太少。