Economic Growth of the Gilded Age Flashcards
Agriculture
Number of farms rises from 10 million in 1865 to 25
million in 1890. Caused by Homestead Act. Increase in large scale agriculture and development of new markets. Farmers had little control over prices and depended on banks, railroads and local merchants to get their produce to distant markets
The Northeast
Benefitted from expanding markets and new cities
and towns. Chicago and Pittsburgh become wide distribution networks and ship products to urban areas and timber to the Great Plains. Railroads were important for the Northeast but monopolies set freight prices very high. Northern farmers were also dependant on market forces they could not control
The South
Still dominated by ‘King Cotton’. Small farmers (black and white) were unable to buy or keep their own land and became tenant farmers. They were easily exploited by big business. Economic development in ‘New
South’: railroad expansion, tobacco, sugar and cotton. Trade and Shipping expands in ports like Mobile, Alabama and New Orleans in Louisiana. Economy lagged behind rest of the country and in 1879, thousands of black farmers moved to Kansas for better opportunities
The West
Colonisation of Native American lands was virtually complete by 1877. Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889 (Congress giving 2 million acres of Native land away for free) saw six thousand land claims in 2 months. Railroads lent out money to Homesteaders to acquire land and bought crops off them. 76,000 Americans lived West in 1860, increased to 6 million in 1890. Life West was hard with natural disasters, drought from 1887 and unpredictable prices such as the boom in wheat in mid 1870s
Urbanisation
Industrialisation, mass immigration and improvements
in transportation accelerated the process of urbanisation. New cities experienced population growth and urbanisation caused new markets, job opportunities and a vast work force. Chicago has
109,000 people in 1860, has 452,000 in 1890
Industrialisation
Boom in coal, oil and steel industries. From 1859,
oils wells were developed in Pennsylvania and spreading into West Virginia and New York. 1874, small oil companies merge into Standard Oil. New developments in making steel were adopted by Bethlehem Iron and Steel company by 1860 and increased because of the Civil War
Railroads
Almost 200,000 miles of track by 1893. Northern Pacific
railway completed in 1883. Able to ship goods across the USA and greater competition meant more money for the government. Easy for weaker companies to be bought by larger ones. Railroads established monopolies and eliminated competition. Needed steel and oil but vital for supplying raw materials
