MeatEater's Steven Rinella on the Economic History of Hunting
Timestamps are as accurate as they can be but may be slightly off. We encourage you to listen to the full context.
Podcast Summary
This podcast explores the overlooked role of hunting in American economic history, featuring Steven Rinella, founder of MeatEater and expert on hunting history. The conversation reveals how animal products, particularly deerskins, were the second-largest colonial export after rice. (10:00) The discussion spans from colonial long hunters like Daniel Boone to the devastating buffalo trade of the 1800s, when 15 million buffalo were killed in just 11 years for industrial leather belting. (37:07) The episode demonstrates how hunting shaped American culture differently from Europe's aristocratic system, creating a democratic approach where wildlife belongs to all Americans rather than landowners. Modern hunters have established a self-funded conservation system through licenses and an 11-13% excise tax on hunting equipment.
• Main themes: The transformation of hunting from survival necessity to regulated sport, the economic impact of wildlife commodities on American development, and the evolution from resource depletion to modern conservation models.Speakers
Steven Rinella
Steven Rinella is the founder of MeatEater and a professional writer who has built a career in the outdoor space since 2000. He grew up in a hunting family in Michigan and initially pursued fur trapping before becoming a long-form magazine writer and author. Rinella transformed MeatEater into a full-fledged media and outdoor gear business with four companies under its umbrella, and he's the creator of "MeatEater's American History," an audio series exploring wildlife commodity trades in American history.
Tracy Allaway
Tracy Allaway is co-host of the Odd Lots podcast on Bloomberg, focusing on economics and finance topics. She brings curiosity about American economic history and recently experienced deer damage to her garden, sparking personal interest in hunting as population management.
Joe Wiesenthal
Joe Wiesenthal is co-host of Bloomberg's Odd Lots podcast, known for exploring unusual economic topics and market dynamics. He demonstrates genuine curiosity about historical connections between seemingly unrelated economic phenomena.
Key Takeaways
Hunting Democratized American Society Unlike European Models
Colonial America developed a fundamentally different hunting system than Europe, where hunting was restricted to aristocrats and landowners. (14:45) In the New World, colonists adopted Native American hunting practices out of necessity, creating an egalitarian system where anyone could hunt for survival and profit. This represented a radical departure from England's system where poaching on aristocratic lands could result in execution or having your eyes gouged out. The democratic nature of American hunting became embedded in the national character, establishing wildlife as public property rather than private privilege.
Wildlife Commodities Drove Early Economic Expansion and Risk
Deerskins were colonial America's second-largest export after rice, demonstrating how wildlife resources fueled early economic growth. (10:00) Long hunters like Daniel Boone could be away for months or years, building up deer skin inventories worth about a dollar each - substantial money at the time. However, this created a boom-bust dynamic where hunters would completely exhaust local wildlife populations before moving to new territories, establishing a pattern of resource extraction that would later devastate buffalo populations.
Industrial Revolution Accelerated Wildlife Depletion Through Technology
The buffalo trade illustrates how technological advancement can rapidly destroy natural resources. (37:07) When railroads reached Dodge City, Kansas in 1872, it enabled massive-scale buffalo hunting for industrial leather belting. In just 11 years, hunters reduced the Great Plains buffalo population from 15 million to near extinction. The efficiency of railroads, large tanneries, and professional hunters created an industrial killing machine that processed wildlife faster than any previous method, showing how technology can accelerate resource depletion.
Market Failures Don't Always Create Conservation Incentives
The buffalo trade reveals a critical flaw in relying on market mechanisms for conservation. (38:35) Even after buffalo were nearly extinct, hide prices remained stable because alternative leather sources were readily available from cattle and international markets. This meant there was no price signal to slow the killing, and hunters could exhaust the entire species without economic consequence. The resource was economically insignificant to overall leather production, making the extinction purely wasteful rather than necessary for industrial development.
Modern Hunters Created Self-Funded Conservation Systems
Contemporary American hunters voluntarily imposed an 11-13% excise tax on themselves for firearms and ammunition, creating a unique self-funded conservation model. (50:09) Combined with hunting licenses and permits, this generates billions in conservation funding without relying on general taxpayers. This system represents a remarkable instance of an industry taxing itself to ensure long-term sustainability, demonstrating how stakeholders can solve collective action problems when they recognize their dependence on shared resources.
Statistics & Facts
- Deerskins were colonial America's second-largest export commodity after rice, demonstrating the massive economic importance of hunting. (10:00) Steven Rinella explained this based on historical research showing the value of white-tailed deer skins in the late colonial period prior to the Revolutionary War.
- 15 million buffalo were killed in just 11 years (1872-1883) when industrial-scale hunting began on the Great Plains. (37:07) This represents one of the most rapid wildlife extinctions in history, enabled by railroad access and industrial tannery demand.
- 94% of the approximately 500,000 bison that exist today are privately owned, showing how private ownership helped save the species from complete extinction. (45:13) This highlights the role of private conservation efforts when government protection failed.
