The Long Depression was a worldwide economic recession, that began in 1873 and ended around 1896. It was the most severe in Europe and the United States, which had been experiencing strong economic growth fueled by the Second Industrial Revolution in the decade following the American Civil War. At the time, the episode was labeled the Great Depression and held that designation until the Great Depression of the 1930s. Though a period of general deflation and low growth, it did not have the severe economic retrogression of the Great Depression.^[1]

It was most notable in Western Europe and North America, at least in part because reliable data from the period are most readily available in those parts of the world. The United Kingdom is often considered to have been the hardest hit; during this period it lost some of its large industrial lead over the economies of Continental Europe.^[2] While it was occurring, the view was prominent that the economy of the United Kingdom had been in continuous depression from 1873 to as late as 1896 and some texts refer to the period as the Great Depression of 1873–96.^[3]

In the United States, economists typically refer to the Long Depression as the Depression of 1873–79, kicked off by the Panic of 1873, and followed by the Panic of 1893, book-ending the entire period of the wider Long Depression.^[4] The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the contraction following the panic as lasting from October 1873 to March 1879. At 65 months, it is the longest-lasting contraction identified by the NBER, eclipsing the Great Depression's 43 months of contraction.^[5][6]

In the US, from 1873–1879, 18,000 businesses went bankrupt, including hundreds of banks, and ten states went bankrupt,^[7] while unemployment peaked at 14% in 1876,^[8] long after the panic ended.

Background[link]

The period preceding the depression was dominated by several major military conflicts and a period of economic expansion. In Europe, the end of the Franco-Prussian War yielded a new political order in Germany, and the £200 million reparations imposed on France led to an inflationary investment boom in Germany and central Europe.^[9] New technologies in industry such as the Bessemer converter were being rapidly applied; railroads were booming.^[9] In the United States, the end of the American Civil War and a brief post-war recession (1865–1867) gave way to such an investment boom, focused especially on railroads on public lands in the West - an expansion funded greatly by foreign investors.^[9]

Causes of the crisis[link]

Run on the Fourth National Bank, No. 20 Nassau Street, New York City, 1873. From Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, October 4, 1873.

The Panic of 1873 has been described as "the first truly international crisis".^[9] The optimism that had been driving booming stock prices in central Europe had reached a fever pitch, and fears of a bubble culminated in a panic in Vienna beginning in April 1873. The collapse of the Vienna Stock Exchange began on May 8, 1873 and continued until May 10, when the exchange was closed; when it was reopened three days later, the panic seemed to have faded, and appeared confined to Austria-Hungary.^[9] Financial panic arrived in America only months later on Black Thursday, September 18, 1873 after the failure of the banking house of Jay Cooke and Company over the Northern Pacific Railway.^[10] The Northern Pacific railway had been given 40 million acres (160,000 km²) of public land in the West and Jay Cooke sought $100,000,000 in capital for the company; the bank failed when the bond issue proved unsalable, and was shortly followed by several other major banks. The New York Stock Exchange closed for ten days on September 20.^[9]

The financial contagion then returned to Europe, provoking a second panic in Vienna and further failures in continental Europe before receding. France, which had been experiencing deflation in the years preceding the crash, was spared financial calamity for the moment, as was Britain.^[9]

Others have argued the depression was rooted in the 1870 Franco-Prussian War that hurt the French economy and, under the Treaty of Frankfurt (1871), forced that country to make large war reparations payments to Germany. The primary cause of the price depression in the United States was the tight monetary policy that the U.S. followed to get back to the gold standard after the Civil War. The U.S. was taking money out of circulation to achieve this goal, therefore there was less available money to facilitate trade. Because of the monetary policy the price of silver started to fall causing considerable losses of asset values; by most accounts, after 1879 production was growing, thus further putting downward pressure on prices due to increased industrial productivity, trade and competition.

In America the speculative nature of financing due to both the greenback which was paper currency issued to pay for the US Civil War and rampant fraud in the building of the Union Pacific Railway up to 1869 culminated in the Credit Mobilier panic. Railway overbuilding and weak markets collapsed the bubble in 1873. Both the Union Pacific and the Northern Pacific lines were center in the collapse; another railway bubble was the UK railway mania.

Because of the Panic of 1873, governments depegged their currencies, to save money. The demonetization of silver by European and North American governments in the early 1870s was certainly a contributing factor. The Coinage Act of 1873 in America was met with great opposition by farmers and miners, as silver was seen as more of a monetary benefit to rural areas than to banks in big cities. In addition, there were Americans who advocated the continuance of government-issued fiat money (United States Notes) to avoid deflation and promote exports. The western US states were outraged—Nevada, Colorado, and Idaho were huge silver producers with productive mines, and for a few years mining abated. The resumption of the US government buying silver was enacted in 1890 with the Sherman Silver Purchase Act.

Monetarists believe that the 1873 depression was caused by shortages of gold that undermined the gold standard, and that the 1848 California Gold Rush, 1886 Witwatersrand Gold Rush in South Africa and the 1896–99 Klondike Gold Rush helped alleviate such crises. Other analyses have pointed to developmental surges (see Kondratiev wave), theorizing that the Second Industrial Revolution was causing large shifts in the economies of many states, imposing transition costs, which may also have played a role in causing the depression.

Course of the depression[link]

Like the later Great Depression, the Long Depression affected different countries at different times, at different rates, and some countries accomplished rapid growth over certain periods. Globally, however, the 1870s, 1880s, and 1890s were a period of falling price levels and rates of economic growth significantly below the periods preceding and following.

Between 1870 and 1890, iron production in the five largest producing countries more than doubled, from 11 million tons to 23 million tons, steel production increased twentyfold (half a million tons to 11 million tons), and railroad development boomed.^[11] But at the same time, prices in several markets collapsed - the price of grain in 1894 was only a third what it had been in 1867,^[12] and the price of cotton fell by nearly 50 percent in just the five years from 1872 to 1877,^[13] imposing great hardship on farmers and planters. This collapse provoked protectionism in many countries, such as France, Germany, and the United States,^[12] while triggering mass emigration from other countries such as Italy, Spain, Austria-Hungary, and Russia.^[14] Similarly, while the production of iron doubled between the 1870s and 1890s,^[11] the price of iron halved.^[12]

Many countries experienced significantly lower growth rates relative to what they had experienced earlier in the 19th century and to what they experienced afterwards:

Growth rates of industrial production (1850s–1913)^[15]

	1850s–1873	1873–1890	1890–1913
Germany	4.3	2.9	4.1
United Kingdom	3.0	1.7	2.0
United States	6.2	4.7	5.3
France	1.7	1.3	2.5
Italy		0.9	3.0
Sweden		3.1	3.5

GNP of the Great Powers of Europe
(in billions USD, 1960 prices)^[16]

	1830	1840	1850	1860	1870	1880	1890
Russia	10.5	11.2	12.7	14.4	22.9	23.2	21.1
France	8.5	10.3	11.8	13.3	16.8	17.3	19.7
United Kingdom	8.2	10.4	12.5	16.0	19.6	23.5	29.4
Germany	7.2	8.3	10.3	12.7	16.6	19.9	26.4
Austria-Hungary	7.2	8.3	9.1	9.9	11.3	12.2	15.3
Italy	5.5	5.9	6.6	7.4	8.2	8.7	9.4

Austria-Hungary[link]

The global economic crisis first erupted in Austria-Hungary, where in May 1873 the Vienna Stock Exchange crashed.^[9] In Hungary, the panic of 1873 terminated a mania of railroad-building.^[17]

France[link]

France's experience was somewhat unique. Having been defeated in the Franco-Prussian War, the country was required to pay £200 million in reparations to the Germans and was already reeling when the 1873 crash occurred.^[9] The French adopted a policy of deliberate deflation while paying off the reparations.^[9]

While the United States resumed growth for a time in the 1880s, the Paris Bourse crash of 1882 sent France careening into depression, one which "lasted longer and probably cost France more than any other in the 19th century".^[18] The Union Générale, a French bank, failed in 1882, prompting the French to withdraw three million pounds from the Bank of England and triggering a collapse in French stock prices.^[19]

The financial crisis was compounded by diseases impacting the wine and silk industries^[18] French capital accumulation and foreign investment plummeted to the lowest levels experienced by France in the latter half of the 19th century.^[18] After a boom in new investment banks after the end of the Franco-Prussian War, the destruction of the French banking industry wrought by the crash cast a pall over the financial sector that lasted until the dawn of the 20th century.^[18] French finances were further sunk by failing investments abroad, principally in railroads.^[17] The French net national product declined over the ten years from 1882 to 1892.^[20]

Italy[link]

A ten-year tariff war broke out between France and Italy after 1887, damaging Franco-Italian relations which had prospered during Italian Unification. As France was Italy's biggest investor, the liquidation of French assets in the country was especially damaging.^[20]

Russia[link]

The Russian experience was similar to the US experience - three separate recessions, concentrated in manufacturing, occurred in the period (1874–1877, 1881–1886, and 1891–1892), separated by periods of recovery.^[21]

United Kingdom[link]

The United Kingdom, which had previously experienced crises every decade since the 1820s, was unusually insulated from the effects of this financial crisis, even though the Bank of England kept interest rates as high as 9 percent in the 1870s.^[9]

Building on an 1870 reform, and the 1879 famine, thousands of Irish tenant farmers affected by depressed producer prices and high rents launched the Land War in 1879, which resulted in the reforming Irish Land Acts.

United States[link]

Real gross national product per capita of the United States 1869-1918

In the United States, the Long Depression began with the Panic of 1873. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the contraction following the panic as lasting from October 1873 to March 1879. At 65 months, it is the longest-lasting contraction identified by the NBER, eclipsing the Great Depression's 43 months of contraction.^[5][23] Figures from Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz show net national product increased 3 percent per year from 1869 to 1879 and real national product grew at 6.8 percent per year during that time frame.^[24] However, since between 1869 and 1879 the population of the United States increased by over seventeen and one-half percent,^[25] per capita NNP growth was lower. Following the end of the episode in 1879, the U.S. economy would remain unstable, experiencing recessions for 114 of the 253 months until January 1901.^[5]

The dramatic shift in prices mauled nominal wages - in the United States, nominal wages declined by one-quarter during the 1870s,^[10] and as much as one-half in some places, such as Pennsylvania.^[26] Although real wages had enjoyed robust growth in the aftermath of the American Civil War, increasing by nearly a quarter between 1865 and 1873, they stagnated until the 1880s, posting no real growth, before resuming their robust rate of expansion in the later 1880s.^[27] The collapse of cotton prices devastated the already war-ravaged economy of the southern United States.^[13] Although farm prices fell dramatically, American agriculture continued to expand production.^[22]

Thousands of American businesses failed, defaulting on more than a billion dollars of debt.^[26] One in four laborers in New York were out of work in the winter of 1873-1874^[26] and, nationally, a million became unemployed.^[26]

The sectors which experienced the most severe declines in output were manufacturing, construction, and railroads.^[22] The railroads had been a tremendous engine of growth in the years before the crisis, yielding a 50% increase in railroad mileage from 1867 to 1873.^[22] After absorbing as much as 20% of US capital investment in the years preceding the crash, this expansion came to a dramatic end in 1873; between 1873 and 1878, the total amount of railroad mileage in the United States barely increased at all.^[22]

The Freedman's Savings Bank was a typical casualty of the financial crisis. Chartered in 1865 in the aftermath of the American Civil War, the bank had been established to advance the economic welfare of America's newly emancipated freedmen.^[28] In the early 1870s, the bank had joined in the speculative fever, investing in real estate and unsecured loans to railroads; its collapse in 1874 was a severe blow to African-Americans.^[28]

The recession exacted a harsh political toll on President Ulysses S. Grant. Historian Allan Nevins says of the end of Grant's presidency:^[29]

Various administrations have closed in gloom and weakness ... but no other has closed in such paralysis and discredit as (in all domestic fields) did Grant's. The President was without policies or popular support. He was compelled to remake his Cabinet under a grueling fire from reformers and investigators; half its members were utterly inexperienced, several others discredited, one was even disgraced. The personnel of the departments was largely demoralized. The party that autumn appealed for votes on the implicit ground that the next Administration would be totally unlike the one in office. In its centennial year, a year of deepest economic depression, the nation drifted almost rudderless.^[29]

Recovery began in 1878. The mileage of railroad track laid down increased from 2,665 mi (4,289 km) in 1878 to 11,568 in 1882.^[22] Construction began recovery by 1879; the value of building permits increased two and a half times between 1878 and 1883, and unemployment fell to 2.5% in spite of high immigration.^[19]

The recovery, however, proved short-lived. Business profits declined steeply between 1882 and 1884.^[19] The recovery in railroad construction reversed itself, falling from 11,569 mi (18,619 km) of track laid in 1882 to 2,866 mi (4,612 km) of track laid in 1885; the price of steel rails collapsed from $71/ton in 1880 to $20/ton in 1884.^[19] Manufacturing again collapsed - durable goods output fell by a quarter again.^[19] The decline became another financial crisis in 1884, when multiple New York banks collapsed; simultaneously, in 1883-1884, tens of millions of dollars of foreign-owned American securities were sold out of fears that the United States was preparing to abandon the gold standard.^[19] This financial panic destroyed eleven New York banks, more than a hundred state banks, and led to defaults on at least $32 million worth of debt.^[19] Unemployment, which had stood at 2.5% between recessions, surged to 7.5% in 1884-1885, and 13% in the northeastern United States, even as immigration plunged in response to deteriorating labor markets.^[19]

This second recession led to further deterioration of farm prices. Kansas farmers burned their own corn in 1885 because it was worth less than other fuels such as coal or wood.^[19] The country began to recover in 1885.^[19]

Reactions to the crisis[link]

Protectionism[link]

The period preceding the Long Depression was one of increasing economic internationalism, championed by efforts such as the Latin Monetary Union, many of which were derailed or stunted by the impacts of economic uncertainty.^[30] The extraordinary collapse of farm prices^[12] provoked a protectionist response in many nations. Rejecting the free trade policies of the Second Empire, French president Adolphe Thiers led the new Third Republic to protectionism, leading ultimately to the stringent Méline tariff in 1892.^[31] Germany's agrarian Junker aristocracy - under attack by cheap, imported grain - successfully agitated for a protective tariff in 1879 in Bismarck's Germany over the protests of his National Liberal Party allies.^[31] In 1887, Italy and France embarked on a bitter tariff war.^[32] In the United States, Benjamin Harrison won the 1888 US presidential election on a protectionist ticket.^[33]

As a result of the protectionist policies enacted by the world's major trading nations, the global merchant marine fleet posted no significant growth over the period 1870-1890, before nearly doubling in tonnage in the prewar economic boom that followed.^[34] Only the United Kingdom and the Netherlands remained committed to low tariffs.^[32]

Monetary responses[link]

In 1874, a year after the 1873 crash, the United States Congress passed legislation called the Inflation Bill of 1874 designed to confront the issue of falling prices by injecting fresh greenbacks into the money supply.^[35] Under pressure from business interests, President Grant vetoed the measure.^[35] In 1878, Congress overrode President Hayes's veto to pass the Silver Purchase Act, in a similar but more successful attempt to promote "easy money."^[22]

Labor unrest[link]

The United States endured its first nationwide strike in 1877, the Great Railroad Strike of 1877.^[22]

New Imperialism[link]

The Long Depression contributed to the revival of colonialism leading to the New Imperialism period, symbolized by the scramble for Africa, as the western powers sought new markets for their goods.^[36] According to Hannah Arendt's The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951), the "unlimited expansion of power" followed the "unlimited expansion of capital".^[37]

In the United States, beginning in 1878-1879, the rebuilding, extending, and refinancing of the western railways, commensurate with the wholesale giveaway of water, timber, fish, minerals, in what had previously been Indian territory, characterized a rising market. This of course led to the expansion of markets and industry, together with the robber barons of railroad owners which culminated in the genteel 1880s and 1890s. The Gilded Age was the outcome for the few rich. The cycle repeated itself with another huge market crash in 1893.

Recovery[link]

In the United States, the National Bureau of Economic Analysis dates the recession through March 1879. In January 1879, the United States returned to the gold standard which it had abandoned during the Civil War; according to economist Rendigs Fels, the gold standard put a floor to the deflation, and this was further boosted by especially good agricultural production in 1879.^[38] The view that a single recession lasted from 1873 to 1896 or 1897 is not supported by most modern reviews of the period. It has even been suggested that the trough of this business cycle may have occurred as early as 1875.^[39] In fact, from 1869 to 1879, the US economy grew at a rate of 6.8% for real net national product (NNP) and 4.5% for real NNP per capita.^[40] Real wages were flat from 1869 to 1879, while from 1879 to 1889, nominal wages rose 23% and prices fell 4.2%.^[41]

Explanations[link]

Irving Fisher believed that the Panic of 1873 and the severity of the contractions which followed it could be explained by debt and deflation. Fisher believed that a financial panic would trigger catastrophic deleveraging in an attempt to sell assets and increase capital reserves; this sell-off would trigger a collapse in asset prices and deflation, which would in turn prompt financial institutions to sell off more assets, only to further deflation and strain capital ratios. Fisher believed that had governments or private enterprise embarked on efforts to reflate financial markets, the crisis would have been less severe.^[42]

David Ames Wells (1890) wrote of the technological advancements during the period 1870-90, which included the Long Depression. Wells gives an account of the changes in the world economy transitioning into the Second Industrial Revolution in which he documents changes in trade, such as triple expansion steam shipping, railroads, the effect of the international telegraph network and the opening of the Suez Canal.^[43] Wells gives numerous examples of productivity increases in various industries and discusses the problems of excess capacity and market saturation.

Wells opening sentence:

“The economic changes that have occurred during the last quarter of a century -or during the present generation of living men- have unquestionably been more important and more varied than during any period of the world’s history”.

Other changes Wells mentions are reductions in warehousing and inventories, elimination of middlemen, economies of scale, the decline of craftsmen and the displacement of agricultural workers. About the whole 1870-90 period Wells said:

"Some of these changes have been destructive, and all of them have inevitably occasioned, and for a long time yet will continue to occasion, great disturbances in old methods, and entail losses of capital and changes in occupation on the part of individuals. And yet the world wonders, and commissions of great states inquire, without coming to definite conclusions, why trade and industry in recent years has been universally and abnormally disturbed and depressed."

Wells notes that many of the government inquires on the “depression of prices” (deflation) found various reasons such as the scarcity of gold and silver. Wells showed that the U.S. money supply actually grew over the period of the deflation. Wells noted that deflation only lowered the cost of goods that benefited from improved methods of manufacturing and transportation. Goods produced by craftsmen did not decrease in value, nor did many services, and the cost of labor actually increased. Also, deflation did not occur in countries that did not have modern manufacturing, transportation and communications.

Nobel laureate economist Milton Friedman, author of A Monetary History of the United States, on the other hand, blamed this prolonged economic crisis on the imposition of a new gold standard, part of which he referred to by its traditional name, The Crime of 1873.^[44] This forced shift into a currency whose supply was limited by nature, unable to expand with demand, caused a series of economic and monetary contractions that plagued the entire period of the Long Depression.

Interpretations[link]

Most economic historians see this period as negative for the most industrial nations.^{[citation needed]} Many argue that most of the stagnation was caused by a monetary contraction caused by abandonment of the bimetallic standard, for a new fiat gold standard, starting with the Coinage Act of 1873.^{[citation needed]} Other economic historians have complained about the characterization of this period as a "depression" due to conflicting economic statistics that cast doubt on the interpretation of this period as a depression. They note that this period saw a relatively large expansion of industry, of railroads, of physical output, of net national product, and real per capita income.

As economists Friedman and Schwartz have noted, the decade from 1869 to 1879 saw a 3-percent-per annum increase in money national product, an outstanding real national product growth of 6.8 percent per year in this period, and a phenomenal rise of 4.5 percent per year in real product per capita. Even the alleged "monetary contraction" never took place, the money supply increasing by 2.7 percent per year in this period. From 1873 through 1878, before another spurt of monetary expansion, the total supply of bank money rose from $1.964 billion to $2.221 billion—a rise of 13.1 percent or 2.6 percent per year. In short, a modest but definite rise, and scarcely a contraction.^[45] Although per-capita nominal income declined very gradually from 1873 to 1879, that decline was more than offset by a gradual increase over the course of the next 17 years.

Furthermore, real per-capita income either stayed approximately constant (1873–1880; 1883–1885) or rose (1881–1882; 1886–1896), so that the average consumer appears to have been considerably better off at the end of the 'depression' than before. Studies of other countries where prices also tumbled, including the US, Germany, France, and Italy, reported more markedly positive trends in both nominal and real per-capita income figures. Profits generally were also not adversely affected by deflation, although they declined (particularly in Britain) in industries that were struggling against superior, foreign competition. Furthermore, some economists argue that a falling general price level is not inherently harmful to an economy and cite the economic growth of the period as evidence of this.^[46] As economist Murray Rothbard has stated:

"Unfortunately, most historians and economists are conditioned to believe that steadily and sharply falling prices must result in depression: hence their amazement at the obvious prosperity and economic growth during this era. For they have overlooked the fact that in the natural course of events, when government and the banking system do not increase the money supply very rapidly, freemarket capitalism will result in an increase of production and economic growth so great as to swamp the increase of money supply. Prices will fall, and the consequences will be not depression or stagnation, but prosperity (since costs are falling, too) economic growth, and the spread of the increased living standard to all the consumers."^[46]

Accompanying the overall growth in real prosperity was a marked shift in consumption from necessities to luxuries: by 1885, 'more houses were being built, twice as much tea was being consumed, and even the working classes were eating imported meat, oranges, and dairy produce in quantities unprecedented'. The change in working class incomes and tastes was symbolized by 'the spectacular development of the department store and the chain store'.

"Prices certainly fell, but almost every other index of economic activity - output of coal and pig iron, tonnage of ships built, consumption of raw wool and cotton, import and export figures, shipping entries and clearances, railway freight clearances, joint-stock company formations, trading profits, consumption per head of wheat, meat, tea, beer, and tobacco - all of these showed an upward trend."^[47]

A large part at least of the deflation commencing in the 1870s was a reflection of unprecedented advances in factor productivity. Real unit production costs for most final goods dropped steadily throughout the 19th century, and especially from 1873 to 1896. At no previous time had there been an equivalent 'harvest of technological advances...so general in their application and so radical in their implications'. That is why, notwithstanding the dire predictions of many eminent economists, Britain did not end up paralyzed by strikes and lock-outs. Falling prices did not mean falling money wages. Instead of inspiring large numbers of workers to go on strike, falling prices were inspiring them to go shopping.^[48]

See also[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Long Depression

• Economic history
• Kondratiev wave
• List of recessions in the United States
• New Imperialism
• Panic of 1893
• Second Industrial Revolution

References[link]

v t e Economy of the United Kingdom World economy Companies Co-operatives Employee-owned companies FTSE 100 Index FTSE 250 Index FTSE Fledgling Index FTSE SmallCap Index Government-owned companies Currency, governance and regulation Bank of England Governor of the Bank of England Budget Company law Competition Commission Department for Business, Innovation and Skills Financial Services Authority Gilts HM Revenue and Customs HM Treasury Chancellor of the Exchequer Monetary Policy Committee Office for Budget Responsibility Office of Fair Trading Pound sterling Banknotes Coinage Taxation UK Debt Management Office UK Statistics Authority UK Trade & Investment History 1926 general strike 2008 bank rescue package 2009 bank rescue package Agricultural Revolution Big Bang Black Wednesday Corn Laws Economic geography Free trade Gold standard Great Depression Industrial Revolution Late-2000s recession List of recessions Long Depression Marshall Plan Nationalization Navigation Acts New Imperialism Panic of 1796–1797 Privatization Second Industrial Revolution Winter of Discontent Nations, regions and cities England Atlantic Gateway Birmingham Big City Plan Bristol Cornwall Croydon Croydon Vision 2020 Devon Expansion plans for Milton Keynes Fishing Leeds List of counties by GVA Liverpool London East London Tech City London Plan M4 corridor M11 Corridor Manchester Reading Sheffield Silicon Fen Thames Gateway Tourism Transport Northern Ireland Belfast Transport Scotland Aberdeen Agriculture Edinburgh Fishing Oil and gas Renewable energy Silicon Glen Tourism Transport Whisky Wales Cardiff (Cardiff Bay) Swansea Tourism Transport People and labour Billionaires Businesspeople Demography Income Poverty Labour law Equal opportunities Minimum wage Working Time Directive Pensions Trade unions Trades Union Congress Unemployment Sectors Agriculture Cinema Construction Education Energy North Sea oil Renewable energy Forestry Gambling Healthcare Internet Manufacturing Aerospace Automotive Pharmaceuticals Media Television Mining Science and technology Telecommunications Tourism Transport Aviation Financial services Baltic Exchange Banking Canary Wharf The City Euronext.liffe Glasgow International Financial Services District Insurance Lloyd's of London LCH.Clearnet London Interbank Offered Rate London Metal Exchange London Stock Exchange Alternative Investment Market Trade and business organisations Business and employer associations British Bankers' Association British Chambers of Commerce Confederation of British Industry EEF the manufacturers organisation Federation of Small Businesses Industry trade groups Institute of Directors UKPA Category  Commons

This article is about human hair. For other uses, see Longhair (disambiguation) or Hair

Boy with shoulder length hair on a beach in Melanesia.

Long hair is a hairstyle. Exactly what constitutes long hair can change from culture to culture, or even within cultures. For example, a woman with chin-length hair in some cultures may be said to have short hair, while a man with the same length of hair in some of the same cultures would be said to have long hair.

Scientists view long hair as playing a large part in natural selection among many species, since long, thick and healthy hair or fur is frequently a sign of fertility and youth.^[1] As hair grows slowly, long hair reveals several years of a person's health status and reproductive fitness. Hair length is significantly correlated with female attractiveness, as rated by men as well as women.^[2] Hair length and quality can act as a cue to especially a woman's youth and health, signifying reproductive potential.^[3] The prevalence of trichophilia (hair partialism or fetischism) is 7% in the population, and very long hair is a common subject of devotion in this group.^[4][5]

Ways of life often viewed as more rigid, such as soldiers and religious cultures, often have explicit rules regarding hair length. For example, Buddhist monks shave their heads as part of their order of worship.^[6] Even outside religious structures, cultures often associate male long hair with ways of life outside of what is culturally accepted. Subservient cultures, for example, are sometimes detected by their rulers through hair length, as was the case with the Gaelic Irish under English rule and the Moors under Spanish rule in Medieval Spain.^[7]

Again, though, there are exceptions to these rules, notably among the long-haired and religiously devoted Nazarites of the Hebrew Bible (Samson being a famous example)^[8] and among the Sikhs.^[9]

East Asian cultures have traditionally seen long, unkempt hair in a woman as a sign of sexual intent or a recent sexual encounter, as usually their hair is tied up in styles such as the ponytail, plait, or any bun.^[10]

Transferred meaning[link]

The traditional connotation of "long hair" in English meant, roughly, someone artistically knowledgeable or wise, an aesthete.^[11] As a descriptive term, it has been applied to Merovingians and classical music enthusiasts, as well as hippies and aesthetes.^[11]

Hair lengths[link]

A Polish woman with hair reaching the mid-back

A Swedish male with waist-length hair

Painting of a woman with hair grown down to her hips, by Franz Xavier Winterhalter

Woman with knee-length braided hair

Hair length is measured (in centimeters or inches) from the line of the scalp on the forehead up over the highest point of the skull to its termination. In cosmetology, hair lengths are usually categorized according to the part of the body where the bulk of the longest hair terminates.^[12] Hair usually takes about two years to reach shoulder length,^[13] and at approximately 80–90 cm (32–36 inches) for most people, waist-length hair usually takes about seven years to grow, including occasional trims.^[12][13]

Maximum hair length[link]

The maximum hair length that is possible to reach is about 15 cm for infants (below the age of 1), about 60 cm for children (below the age of 13), and generally 100 cm for adults. Documentation for decrease of the maximum length with age cannot be found in the literature. Some individuals can reach excessive lengths. Lengths greater than 150 cm are frequently observed in long hair contests.^[14] Xie Qiuping had the longest documented hair in the world, measuring 5.627 m (18 ft 5.54 in) in May 2004.^[15]

The maximum terminal hair length depends on the length of the anagen (period of hair growth) for the individual. Waist-length hair or longer is only possible to reach for people with long anagen. The anagen lasts between 2 and 7 years, for some individuals even longer, and follows by shorter catagen (transition) and telogen (resting) periods. Between 85% and 90% of the hair strains are in anagen.

Psychological significance[link]

Anthropologists speculate that the functional significance of long head hair may be adornment, a by-product of secondary natural selection once other androgenic/somatic hair (body hair) had largely been lost. Another possibility is that long head hair is a result of Fisherian runaway sexual selection, where long lustrous hair is a visible marker for a healthy individual. For some groups or individuals, however, short hair is the selected trait.^[1]

By seven to nine months, infants can tell the sexes apart based on hair length, voice pitch and faces.^[16][17]

Cultural history[link]

Hair is one of the most important ways humans have of presenting themselves, being one of the parts of their body which is easiest to manipulate. Also, males having short, cut hair (or a shaven head) is often viewed as being under society's control, such as while in military service or prison or as punishment for a crime, while males having long hair signifies being outside of the mainstream.^[18]

In Jewish and Christian scriptures[link]

In the Old Testament, the Nazirites would go for long periods of time without cutting their hair to show devotion to God.^[19] Samson is one example; his strength depended upon his refraining from cutting his hair.^[8] The New Testament says, "Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering,"^[20] something followed by women in some apostolic pentecostal denominations in some countries as an act of holiness.

Western culture[link]

Ancient Greece and Rome[link]

In ancient Greece, long male hair was a symbol of wealth and power, while a shaven head was appropriate for a slave. The ancient Greeks had several Gods and heroes who wore their hair long, including Zeus, Achilles, Apollo, and Poseidon. Greek soldiers are said to have worn their hair long in battle. Such warriors considered it a sign of aristocracy and are said to have combed it openly in order to show off. Also, in order to keep enemies from getting a hold of it in battle, they were known to cut the front short, but leave it long in the back, where it was more out of reach. A widely held alternative interpretation of the conventional belief that they cut it short in the front in order to keep their enemies from getting a hold of it during battle is that, they did not in fact cut it in the front, but rather tied it back in a style known as a pony tail in order to keep it out of their enemies' reach. The pony tail method allowed warriors, who often traveled to battle with a minimal amount of equipment in order to avoid excessively heavy loads over long marches, to keep their hair manageable with a small piece of string to hold their pony tail in place and a knife to cut the back to length with one simple slice. Around the sixth century, however, the Greek men shifted to shorter hairstyles, with the exception of the Spartans. Women in the culture remained with the longer style, which for them showed freedom, health, and wealth, as well as good behavior.^[21] In men, it was considered a sign of false pride by this time.^[22] Women in Roman times valued long hair, usually with a center part. Men's hair was usually shorter than women's, (but in the early times, the custom was quite the same as in Greece) although other cultures of the time, such as Greeks in the east, considered long hair to be typical of philosophers, who were thought to be too engrossed in learning to bother with hair.^[23] Strictly in the province of Rome, however the shorter hairstyle was especially popular.^[22] When Julius Caesar conquered the Gauls, who favored long hair, he ordered it to be cut short.^[24]

Middle Ages[link]

In the European middle ages, shorter hair often signified servitude and peasantry, while long hair was often attributed to freemen, as was the case with the Germanic Goths and Merovingians.

The Gaelic Irish (both men and women)^[25] took great pride in their long hair—for example, a person could be heavily fined for cutting a man's hair short against his will.^[26] When the Anglo-Normans and the English colonized Ireland, hair length came to signify one's allegiance. Irishmen who cut their hair short were deemed to be forsaking their Irish heritage. Likewise, English colonists who wore their hair long in the back were deemed to be forsaking their role as English subjects and giving in to the Irish life. Thus, hair length was one of the most common ways of judging a true Englishman in this period. Muslims in Christian areas were ordered to keep their hair short and parted, as their longer style was considered rebellious and barbaric.^[7]

Empress Elisabeth of Austria wearing thigh-length hair in 1865.

A long hair fad was widespread among English and French men in the 11th and 12th centuries, though otherwise it was considered, mostly because of endorsement of the Roman Catholic Church, proper for men to have shorter, and women, longer hair. The fad was largely brought about by monarchs who rejected the shorter hairstyle, causing the people to follow. Wulfstan, a religious leader, worried that those with longer hair would fight like women, and be unable to protect England from foreign invasion. This idea can be found in later military leaders as well, such as those of the American Confederacy.^[27] Knights and rulers would also sometimes cut or pull out their hair in order to show penitence and mourning, and a squire's hair was generally shorter than a knight's. Married women who let their hair flow out in public were frowned upon, as this was normally reserved for the unwed, although they were allowed to let it out in mourning, to show their distressed state. Through these centuries it was expected of Eastern Christians to wear long hair as well as long beards, which was especially expected from clergy and monks.

In England, during the English Civil Wars of 1642 to 1651, male hair length was emblematic of the disputes between Cavaliers and Roundheads (Puritans). Cavaliers wore longer hair, and were less religious-minded, thought of by the Roundheads as lecherous. The more devout Roundheads had short hair, although there were exceptions.^[6]

Recent meanings[link]

A man with waist length hair

Before World War One men generally had longer hair and beards. However, short hair on men has often been enforced as a mean of control, in police, military and other forces that require obedience and discipline. Slaves and defeated armies were often required to shave their heads. The trench warfare in 1914 to 1918 exposed men to flea and lice infestations, which prompted the order to cut short hair, establishing a norm that has persisted.^[12]

Beat poets during the 1950s wore longer hairstyles, as did many of the urban gay culture, although long hair was far from popular. By 1960, a small "beatnik" community in Newquay, Cornwall, England (including a young Wizz Jones) had attracted the attention and the abhorrence of their neighbors for growing their hair to a length past the shoulders, resulting in a television interview with Alan Whicker on BBC television's Tonight series.^[28] The 1960s also introduced The Beatles, who started a more widespread longer hair fad. The social revolution of the 1960s led to a renaissance of unchecked hair growth,^[12] and long hair, especially on men, was worn as a political or countercultural symbol or protest. This cultural symbol extended to several Western countries in the Americas, Western Europe, South Africa, and Australia.^[29] Specific long hairstyles such as dreadlocks have been part of counterculture movements seeking to define other alternative cultures and lifestyles since this time.^[10] Longer hair in general remained popular among the youth rebellion throughout the liberal decade of the 1960s.^[29] Homosexual men, many of whom had adopted a long hairstyle in the early 1950s, have largely abandoned this trend. Some people saw the long hair fad as a threat to gender identity, cultural, and religious norms as it grew with the spread of the hippie movement in the 1960s.^[29] Notably, some country-and-western performers during this period (and many fans) also sported longer hair.^[30][31]

In the 1970s, the popularity of Jamaica's reggae music and musician Bob Marley prompted interest in dreadlocks internationally. The anti-establishment philosophy of Rastafari, echoed in much of the reggae of the time, resonated with leaning youth of all ethnicities — especially and primarily among African Americans and other Blacks, but among counterculture whites as well.^[32] The Eastern Christians are encouraged to wear long hair with long beard. In the 1980s the view of long hair as a solitary signifier of political or counter-cultural identity was countered and parodied in films such as Rambo and many other militaristic heroes of media which challenged then-contemporary views of what was masculine.^[33] Today, longer hairstyles remain popular among rock enthusiasts.^[34] Long hair may be grown for the purpose of being donated to an organization, such as Locks of Love, for hairpieces to help those who could not have hair otherwise, such as those who are diagnosed with alopecia areata.

Women[link]

Women often have a stronger inclination towards long hair than men do. Younger women tend to have longer hair than older women. Hair length and quality can act as a cue to a woman's youth and health, signifying reproductive potential.^[35] Growing and wearing long hair was almost universal among women in the western world until World War One.^[12]

Sikhism[link]

The Sikhs were commanded by Guru Gobind Singh at the Baisakhi Amrit Sanchar in 1699 to wear long uncut hair called Kesh at all times. This was one of the 'five requisites of faith', collectively called Kakars that form the external visible identifiers to clearly affirm a Sikh's commitment and dedication to the order (Hukam) of the tenth master and made one a member of the Khalsa. The Khalsa is the "Saint-Soldier" of Guru Gobind Singh who stated the following: "He does not recognize anyone else except One Lord, not even the bestowal of charities, performance of merciful acts, austerities and restraint on pilgrim-stations; the perfect light of the Lord illuminates his heart, then consider him as the immaculate Khalsa." (Guru Gobind Singh in the Dasam Granth page 1350)

The Kesh or unshorn long hair is an indispensable part of the human body as created by Vaheguru that is the mainstay of the 'Jivan Jaach' and the Rehni that was prescribed by Guru Gobind Singh Sahib by which a Sikh is clearly and quickly identified, Kesh. The kanga, another requisite of faith is usually tucked behind the "Rishi Knot" and tied under the turban. The uncut long head hair and the beard in the case of men forms the main kakar for the Sikhs.

KESADHARI, a term defining a Sikh as one who carries on his head the full growth of his kes (hair) which he never trims or cuts for any reason. Anyone, Sikh or non-Sikh, may keep the hair unshorn, but for the Sikh kes, unshorn hair, is a requisite of faith and an inviolable vow. The Sikh Rahit Maryada published by the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee, statutory body for the control and management of Sikh shrines and by extension for laying down rules about Sikh beliefs and practices, issued in 1945, after long and minute deliberations among Sikh scholars and theologians, defines a Sikh thus: Every Sikh who has been admitted to the rites of amrit, i.e. who has been initiated as a Sikh, must allow his hair to grow to its full length. This also applies to those born of Sikh families but [who] have not yet received the rites of amrit of the tenth master, Guru Gobind Singh. ".

Islam[link]

Transjordanian Bedouin with shoulder length hair, during World War II

In the Muslim world, it seems the trend of hair styles is now favouring short over long in men. In the past, Bedouin Muslims often wore their hair in long braids, but western influences brought on the view that such styles were feminine in nature. Now, Bedouins are much less likely to have long hair.^[36] Islamic countries in North Africa such as Egypt view long hair in men as homosexual and in one case the Egyptian police viewed it as satanic and a sign of an infidel^[37].

Muslims regard Prophet Muhammad as the best example to live by, and try to emulate him whenever possible. The Islamic Prophet Muhammad reportedly in Sahih Muslim had hair that "hung over his shoulders and earlobes".^[38] Sahih Bukhari, regarded the most authentic of hadith, also supports this using a prime example of the prophet Isa.^[39] The Prophet Muhammad has also described Jesus as "having long hair reaching his ear lobes."^[40] Malik's Muwatta 51.2.6 reported, Yahya related to me from Malik from Yahya ibn Said that Abu Qatada al-Ansari said to the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, "I have a lot of hair which comes down to my shoulders, shall I comb it? The Messenger of Allah. may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "Yes, and honour it." Sometimes Abu Qatada oiled it twice in one day because the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said to him. "Honour it."

With regards to women, neither Qur'an nor Sunnah explicitly state that women cannot cut their hair. Hadith does mention that women should not imitate men, and vice versa, and hence many scholars on this assumption, decree that women should let their hair grow longer than the hair of the Prophet, reaching beyond their shoulders, as hadith mentions that the Prophet had his hair between his shoulder and his earlobes. (He described Jesus's hair, which hung to his earlobes, as long.^[41])

However culturally, some Muslims are opposed to men having long hair as it is also important in Islam to have clear differences (in appearance) between sexes. And generally these cultures encourage women to have long hair and men to have short hair.^[42] The Taliban in Afghanistan viewed long hair for men as a western influence, and punished it by arrest and forced haircuts,^[43] albeit this would be a direct contradiction of the sunnah of the Prophet. Similar measures have been taken by Islamists in Iraq.^[44] In spite of this, several Taleban affiliated members of the Mehsud clan are recognisable by their long hair. The Saudi Islamist fighter Amir Khattab was also notable for his long hair. Dervishes of some Sufi orders, such as the Kasnazani, often have long hair and whirl it around during rituals.^[45]

Native Americans[link]

Yakima boy with mid-back level hair. (Photo by Edward S. Curtis, 1868–1952.)

Many Native American men wore long hair before the arrival of western influences on their culture or rather eastern influences for them. (In Cherokee legends, for example, males said to be handsome were often described as having "long hair almost to the ground" or similar formulas.^[46]). Both men and women of these cultures have frequently struggled to maintain their tradition, but have faced heavy opposition. Many consider it a sign of giving in to western influences to have their hair cut.^[47][48] Early American settlers saw long-haired, native men as rebelling against their civilized society. Mountain men and trappers who adopted the customs were also considered amoral, and often identified by their long hair.^[49] Since the cultural movements of the sixties and seventies, however, Native Americans have felt less pressure to have short hair, as different movements have defended their cultural rights.^[50] For example, several states have loosened prison regulations, allowing Native Americans to wear long hair during incarceration, along with other cultural allowances.^[51] There has been resistance to these changes, however, as long hair is sometimes used to hide drugs, as well as to identify with a gang.^[52]

Sub-Saharan Africans[link]

Ngbandi girls with waist-length hair, central Africa, 1905

In West African cultures, women with long hair were highly valued. Long, thick hair was seen as a sign of health, strength, and capability to bear many children. In keeping with this general theme, women who were too young for marriage would shave a portion of their heads to signal so. This tradition, however, did not extend to every African tribe, as several valued shorter hair.^[53]

African Americans[link]

When African slaves were freed in the Americas, they struggled with comments from whites calling their hair ugly and nappy. Many African-American women began straightening their hair. However, there was and always will be a variety of hairstyles, such as dreadlocks, twists, short hair, long hair, curly hair, straight hair, etc. Social pressures were heavily influencing African-American females to have long straight hair. Although African Americans have short or long hair, they can do a lot with their hair. Therefore, they have hair shows to show the large variety of hairstyles. African Americans, as well as other thick curly-haired people, are often pressured to not wear their natural hair in today's society. When they wear their hair natural, it's soft and easy to manage. However, when it comes to not wanting to wear natural hair, it becomes more difficult to manage. Therefore, African Americans are wearing natural hair more, so it's finally becoming more accepted.

Asia[link]

Japanese woman combing her long hair. (Colour woodblock print from 1920 by Hashiguchi Goyō.)

Illustration of The Tale of Genji, painted by Tosa Mitsuoki (1617-1691).

Historically, East Asian cultures viewed long hair as a sign of youth and aesthetic beauty. Long hair is associated with private life and sexuality. East Asian cultures see long, unkempt hair in a woman as a sign of sexual intent or a recent sexual encounter, as usually their hair is tied up.^[10] Lay Buddhists have long hair, while Buddhist monks have shaved heads.^[6]

For Sikhs, Kesh is the practice of allowing one's hair to grow naturally as a symbol of devotion to God and lack of worldliness.^[9]

In Jewish and other cultures, shortening hair signifies mourning and sadness.^[18]

Around the seventeenth century, the Manchu people forced all men in China to adopt a hairstyle called a queue, which was basically a long braid down the back with the hair on the front part of the head shaved. This style lasted well into the nineteenth century, when the Chinese began immigrating to America. Americans at first judged them to be poor workers because their long hair brought an association with women.^[54] Both Islamic and Christian missionaries to the Chinese were strong advocates of shorter hair for their converts, but this was a small group.^[55] Around the Destruction of Four Olds period in 1964, almost anything seen as part of Traditional Chinese culture would lead to problems with the Communist Red Guards. Items that attracted dangerous attention if caught in the public included jewelry and long hair.^[56] These things were regarded as symbols of bourgeois lifestyle, that represented wealth. People had to avoid them or suffer serious consequences such as tortures and beatings by the guards.^[56] More recently, long hair was ridiculed in China from October 1983 to February 1984, as part of the Anti-Spiritual Pollution Campaign.^[57] Li Yang, an unorthodox Chinese English teacher who brands the popular Crazy English, claims the following on his website:

"What [America, England and Japan] want most is for China’s youth to have long hair, wear bizarre clothes, drink soda, listen to Western music, have no fighting spirit, love pleasure and comfort!"^[58]

In Southeast Asia and Indonesia, male long hair was valued in until the seventeenth century, when the area adopted outside influences including Islam and Christianity. Invading cultures enforced shorter hairstyles on men as a sign of servitude, as well. They were also confused at the short hairstyles among women in certain areas, such as Thailand, and struggled to explain why women in the area had such short hair. They came up with several mythical stories, one of which involved a king who found a long hair in his rice and, in a rage, demanded that all women keep their hair short.^[55]

In rural areas in certain Asian countries, for example India, girls still usually let their hair grow long, and knee-length hair is not unusual.^[59]

In the medieval Japan, heian gentleman were not very interested in a woman's physical beauty and rarely had an opportunity to see it. The only physical attribute of interest was a woman's hair, which had to be thick and longer than she was tall. The fascination with long hair was one reason why a woman's becoming a nun was regarded with such seriousness - it could never again grow to its full length. This explains why Genji refuses to let Murasaki (his de facto wife in the classical Japanese novel the Tale of Genji) take the tonsure when she is ill.^[60]

See also[link]

• Grooming
• Haircut
• Hair extensions
• Hairstick
• Lady Godiva
• Long hair fetishism, a form of Trichophilia
• Rapunzel

Images[link]

• Female long hair in art (Gallery at Wikimedia commons)
• Female long hair photos (Gallery at Wikimedia commons)
• Male long hair in art (Gallery at Wikimedia commons)
• Male long hair photos (Gallery at Wikimedia commons)

References[link]