Economic Growth Flashcards
Reasons for Industrial Growth After the Civil war
What was the impact of the Civil War on America financially? - positive
- what was set up?
- increased the need for manufactured goods so mass production and distribution developed
- Set up financial infrastructure such as high tariffs, a capital-raising system, the introduction of paper currency and the evolution of the banking system
Reasons for Industrial Growth After the Civil war
How did the Availability of Land change?
- Increased westward development
- Further railroad development
- Fertile land led to the expansion of farming and the increased mechanisation of agriculture
Reasons for Industrial Growth After the Civil war
How did Transport Change?
- railroads
- travel time
etc
- 1869 - the first transcontinental railroad to the far west
- Travel time New York to San Francisco went from 6 months to 6 days
- Amount of railroad track x3, 1860-1880
- Employed thousands of workers
Required roads to railways, steel and coal and engine manufacturers
Reasons for Industrial Growth After the Civil war
How did the population change?
- Rose from 31.5 million (1860) to 50 million (1880)
- Cheap labour and increased consumers
Reasons for Industrial Growth After the Civil war
How did the availability of capital change?
- Highly developed stock markets
- 1865, annual stock market turnover = $6 billion
- Increase in investment and shares
- By 1890, 2nd largest money market in the world
Reasons for Industrial Growth After the Civil war
How did the role of the government impact growth?
- Laissez-faire
- No taxes on profit
- No laws restricting labour hours
- Protective tariffs
- No tradition of trade unions
- During strikes it was employers that received government support
Reasons for Industrial Growth After the Civil war
How did Corporations impact industrial growth?
How did ‘trustees’ impact industrial growth?
- Corporations buy, sell and own properties
- ‘Trustees’ avoid state laws that prevent ownership of shares in more than 1 company or state by owning shares on someone else’s behalf
- This was the development of the corporation model
Reasons for Industrial Growth After the Civil war
How did technological innovation affect industrial growth?
Carnegie brings the ‘Bessemer Converter’ to steel production in the US
Technology allowed businesses to keep prices low and reinvest the profit
The impact of Industrial Growth
Why was the Depression of 1873?
What was The Depression of 1873 caused by?
What was the Depression?
What were its effects?
- major economic reversal in Europe
- problems with American banking system
- Local banks kept their deposits in larger banks but these large banks invested the money unwisely e.g when Jay Cooke and Company (a railroad speculator) went bankrupt it took hundreds of other banks and companies with it
- The New York Stock exchange closed for 10 days and credit dried up
- ¼ New York labourers and 1 million people nationally were unemployed winter 1873-74
- Railroads failed and construction of new track went from 7,500 miles in 1872 to 1,600 miles in 1874
The impact of Industrial Growth
What was the impact of Industrial growth on Urbanisation?
- how did population change in chicago?
What was the ‘Boss’ system?
- Chicago population went from 30,000 (1850) to over 1 million (1890)
- Manufacturing and population in cities increased dramatically
- Rapid influx of slum housing, often overcrowded and polluted
- The ‘Boss’ system developed with the ‘Boss’ being a corrupt local mayor who bought votes by selling housing and other necessities to the highest bidder
The impact of Industrial Growth
What was the impact of Industrial Growth on Agriculture?
- The development big ‘agribusinesses’ wiped out smaller farms
- Farmers went into debt trying to afford more land and mechanisation
- The South was too dependent on just cotton - single cash crops
- Prices of goods kept dropping (e.g a bushel of wheat went from $1.45 in 1866 to 76 cents in 1869)
