8.3: Technological Innovation & Labor

Franklin Institute

published a journal; provided high-school-level instruction in chemistry, math & mechanical design;
This & similar organizations disseminated technical knowledge and encouraged innovation.
Resulted in: huge increase in patents issued

Tariff Bills

passed by Congress in 1816, 1824, and 1828, high tax on imported cotton and wool
Supported by Calhoun. You'll see the hypocrisy soon!

Eli Whitney

Invented the cotton gin and designed and built machine tools which produced interchangeable parts to make manufacturing more efficient. Started with military armaments.

Artisan Republicanism

Ideology of production based on liberty & equality espoused by craft workers following the American Revolution.

Labor Theory of Value

the price of goods should reflect the labor required to make them, and the income from their sale should go primarily to the producers, not to factory owners, middlemen, or storekeepers.

Unions

An association of workers, formed to bargain for better working conditions and higher wages. Motivated by the ideas of Artisan Republicanism and labor theory of value.

Waltham-Lowell System

Factory system that flourished in the 1820s and 30s and featured the use of young women as laborers; they lived in factory-owned boarding houses and were required to live by a strict moral code; they typically worked 80 hours a week. The system unintentionally encouraged empowerment of women and unionization.

National Trades' Union

the first national association of trade unions
formed in 1834

Black Ball Line

(1818) Shipping Line which carried cargo, people & Mail between NY & London, etc.
First regularly scheduled shipping service. How do you think this facilitated economic growth in the Market Revolution?