Q: Can you talk about what Florida's economy looked like at its inception?

A: After the Civil War, the industries that I refer to as the ''sunshine'' industries took off. They consisted of some agricultural industries and tourism. We're familiar with citrus and oranges especially, but actually also they had a big pineapple industry beginning after the Civil War that lasted up to the end of World War I.

Then you had winter vegetables. [Farmers] found whoever got to market earliest or could keep being in the market later made big profits. That fact plus the reduction in transportation costs in the latter part of the 19th century meant the areas that supplied big cities like New York, Philadelphia and Chicago gradually moved away geographically. Florida was able to make highly profitable vegetables after the transportation network reached Florida.

Before the Civil War, Florida's economy was really an extension of the economy of the deep South: cotton and tobacco, slave-based plantations. These were up in northern Florida, from Jackson County on the west bank of the Apalachicola River all the way across to Madison County, where the Panhandle joins the peninsula. After the second Seminole War ended in the 1840s, the cotton economy pushed southward into the Gainesville and Ocala areas. That was most of the economy [then]. There was a small tourist industry of people who were sick, who were suffering from TB-type infections. They were advised by doctors to go to a warm climate in the winter.

There's big controversy among economists as to the role of the railroads and the development of the United States. What the railroad did was reduce the cost of transportation. In Florida, you had a state that was covered by forests, and the railroad enabled people to cut down the trees and sell the lumber up north. The railroads helped move the vegetables and citrus. The speed with which you could deliver that was important, and then of course, was the speed in which you could deliver tourists to Florida.

Q: Any suggestion for what Florida should do to help strengthen its economy now, given the current economic conditions?

A: Well, the recommendations would be the same as the national economy. If you're talking about the role of government, for example, it would be to improve the quality of the educational system, to develop as favorable a business climate as you can, foster basic research.

For example, until about five years ago the state was very discouraging of new medical schools. Now the state has permitted a number of schools to develop medical schools, on the grounds that they will be engines of research which will have an economic development influence. The attitude has shifted, and it's that kind of change that's required so that we can maximize our potential in the new type of world we'll be living in this century.

Florida is an example of how industries come and go -- you can't freeze the economy the way it is now. The economy 50 years from now will not be the same as the economy of today. And so it's best not to try to pick winning industries. You need to develop your labor force and business climate. Develop the conditions for a good economy rather than try to direct the economy in a particular direction.

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