4.5 Market Revolution
LEARNING OBJECTIVE: Explain the causes and effects of innovations in technology, agriculture, and commerce over time.
INTRODUCTION
In the early 1800s, the Jeffersonian dream of a nation of independent farmers remained strong in rural areas
Innovations and new technology would steadily decrease working demand in agriculture
- demand for people working in commerce increased
- Jeffseron would see his ideal nation of small farmers overwhelmed by an economic revolution based on new knowledge
An increasing number of Americans were swept up by the economic changes of hte Industrial revolution
- political conflicts over tariffs, internal improvements, and the bank of the US, reflected the importance to people’s live of a national economy (that was rapidly growing)
DEVELOPMENT OF THE NORTHWEST
The old northwest consisted of six states that joined prior 1860
Consisted of Ohio (1803), Indiana (1816), Illinois (1818), Michigan (1837), Wisconsin (1848), and Minnesota (1858)
- states came from territories formed out of land ceded to the national government by one of the original 13 states
- procedure for turning territories into states was part of the Northwest Ordinance passed in 1787
The old northwest was unsettled frontier during the early 19th century
- part of the territory relied upon the Mississipi to transport grain to southern markets and the port of New Orleans
- region became close tied to other northern states during the mid century (military campaigns drove Natives away & canals and railroads established common markets)
AGRICULTURE
In the old northwest, corn and wheat were very profitable and fed people in growing urban areas
Steel plow (by John Deere) & mechanical reaper (by Cyrus McCormick)—→
- more efficent family farms
- could plant more acres, less hired workers needed for harvest time.
Part of the crop was used to feed cattle, hogs, and also supply grain for making whiskey and beer
- farmer shipped grain quickly to avoid spoilage
TRANSPORTATION
Industrical economy was an efficient network of interconnecting roads, and canals for moving people, raw materials, and manufactured goods (vital to the economy)
ROADS
Pennslyvania’s Lancaster Turnpike
Connected Philadelphia with rich farmlands around Lancaster
- success stimulated construction of other privately built and relatively shore toll roads (soon connected most of the country’s major cities)
States’ rights advocates blocked the spending of federal funds on internal improvements
- construction of highways that crossed state lines was unusual
- notable exception was the national/cumberland road (paved highway and major route to the west, stretched from Marlyand to Illinois, used both federal and state money, with different states receiveing ownership of part of the highway)
CANALS
Completion of the Eerie Canal was major event in linking economies of western farms and eastern cities
Success of canal in stimulating economic growth touched off a frenzy of canal building in other states
- canals joined together all of the major lakes and rivers east of the Mississipi
- improved transportation meant lower food prices in the east, more immigrant settling west, and stronger economic ties between two sections
STEAM ENGINES AND STEAMBOATS
Development of the steam-powered engines revolutionized the location of factories
Factories originally ran on power of moving water
- had to be located on a stream
Steam engine could be set up anywhere
- mills, mines, factories
- first became widely used in Britian, but spead to the US.
Age of mechanized steam-powered travel began with successful voyage up the Hudson River of Clermont
Steamboat (by Robert Fulton)
- could travel upriver at speeds of 5 miles per hour
- commercially operated steamboat lines made round-trip shipping fast and cheaper
- hauling freight from Cincinnati to New York went from 7 weeks to less than 3 weeks
RAILROADS
Even more rapid and reliable links between cities became possible with the US railroad lines in the 1820s
Early railraods were hampered at first by safety problems
- they were soon competing directly with canals as an alternative method for carrying passengers and frieght
- combination of railroads with major improvements rapidly changed small western towns (Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detorit, and Chicago) into booming commericial centers that expanded national economy
- improvements in transportation linked regions of North and Midwest (people in growing cities east purchased wheat and corn raised in smaller states west)
- railraods were less common in the south (continued to rely on rivers more than rails)
COMMUNICATION
Changes in transportation brought country closer together (changes could only travel as fast as ships could sail or horses could run)
Samuel F. B. Morse demonstrated the successful telegraph
- transmitted messages along wires instantaneously
- wires strung around the country (along tracks, under oceans)
- for the first time in history, people were able to communicate as fast as electricty could travel
- managers, government official, and militray leaders could direct people miles away more easily than ever before.
GROWTH OF INDUSTRY
Manufacturing economy barely begun early 19th century, but surpassed agriculture value by mid-century, and became world’s leader by the end of the century.
Rapid industrial growth was a result of a uniqye combination of factors
MECHANICAL INVENTIONS
Inventors looked forward to handsome rewards for their new tools or machines (protected by patent laws)
Eli Whitney developed cotton gin (1793)
- was the most famous of hundreds who spent hours tinkering in their workshops to imrpove technology
During the war of 1813, Whitney developed interchangable parts
- identical components that could be assembled to make final product.
- rifles were not standardized at the time so they couldn’t be replaced for another.
- under Whitney’s system, each part could be mass-produced and put together to make a gun—→
- increased efficiency of making guns and other items
- interchangable parts then became the basis for mass productionn methods in northern factories
CORPORATIONS FOR RAISING CAPITAL
New York passed a law that made it easier for businesses to raise capital (money) by selling shares of stock
Many states soon followed this law
- owners of corporations risked only the amount of money they invested in.
- owners were not personally responsible for the losses incurred by the corporation
- changes in state corporation laws facilitated the raising of large sums of capital necessary for building factories, canals, and railroads
FACTORY SYSTEM
Samuel Slater emigrated from Britian and memorized the system and technology used in British cotton mills and applied these secrets to the US textile factory
The embargo act and war of 1812 stimulated domestic manufacturing and protective tariffs enacted by Congress helped new factories prosper.
New England emerged as the country’s leading manufacturer
- result of the region’s abundant waterpower for new machinery and seaports for shipping goods
- New England’s maritime industry made capital available for manufacturing, while the decline of farming in the region provided labor.
- other northern states with similar resources and problems followed New England’s lead.
The growth of the factory system—→
- growth of financial businesses (banking and insurance).
LABOR
Facotry owners had difficultly finding workers for their mills
Factory life could not compete with lure of cheap land in the west
- textile mills in Lowell, Massachusetts, recruited young farm women and housed them in company dormitories—→ other factories began to imitate the Lowell system
- factories also made extensive use of child labor (children young as seven left home to work in factories)
- northen manufactrers began to employ immigrants in large numbers during the middle of the century.
UNIONS
Trade unions were organized in majoir cities and increased in number as factory systems took hold
Many skilled workers had to seek employment in factories because their small shops could no longer compete with lower-priced, mass-produced goods.
- long hours, low pay, and poor working conditions led to widespread discontent among factor workers
- prime goal of unions was to reduce workday to ten hours
Obstables to union success followed
- immigrant replacement workers
- state laws outlawing unions
- frequent economic depressions with high unemployment
COMMERICAL AGRICULTURE
Farming became more of a commericial enterprise and less of a means of providing subsistence for the family
Several factors premoted this switch to cash crops
- large areas of western land were made available at low prices by the gov
- state banks made acquring land easier by providing loans at low interest
- Initially, western farmers were limited of sending their products down to southern markets—→ development of canals and railraods opened new markets in growing factory cities east.
COTTON AND THE SOUTH
During the 19th century, the principal cash crop of the south was cotton
Eli Whitney’s cotton gin transformed agriculture of the entire region
- southern planters found cotton more profitable and efficient than tobacco and indigo (leading crops during colonial period)
- Southern planters invested their capital in the purchase of ensalved African Americans and new lands in Alabama and Mississipi
Cotton industry connected south with global economy
- mills in New England and europe depened on cotton grown in south
- northern shipping firms, banks, and insurance companies prospered through their roles transporting cotton
- in order to devote all of their land to growing cotton, planatation owners purchased pork, corn, and other foods from the midwest.