Exam II - Essay III Flashcards
Thesis to the Q: Analyze the emergence of a commercial market economy from 1800-1860. How did the economy reflect individual sections in the country?
The emergence of a commercial market economy in the United States in the early 1800s was caused by a rise in communication and transportation technology, notably the steamboat, canals, railroads, and telegraph. These developments helped carve out individual sections in the country, most notably the West and the South as migration intensified.
Emergence of a Commercial Market Economy → a new economy
Economic transformation due to series of innovations in transport and communication
As Americans moved across the Appalachian Mountains into the westlands, they found themselves more isolated from markets
In 1800- American farm families produced at home most of what they needed (clothing, farm implements, etc) - what they couldn’t, they obtained from neighbours or local stores from rural craftsmen (blacksmiths and shoemakers)
Farmers far from cities & waterways found it challenging to market their products
Many americans wanted to solve the technological problems that inhibited commerce within the country
the steamboat, canals, railroad, and telegraph pulled america out of its economic past
Emergence of a Commercial Market Economy → a new economy
a) Roads & steamboats
Opened new land to settlement, lowered transport costs, enabled economic enterprises to sell their products more easily
Linked farmers to national and world markets and made them major consumers of manufactured goods
“Annihilated space and time” - Tocqueville (French diplomat)
Paved National road - 1806 congress authorized construction → improved water transport that most dramatically increased the speed and lowered the expense of commerce; expanded quickly
Steamboat being implemented (1811) made it possible for upstream commerce on major rivers; became popular quickly
Emergence of a Commercial Market Economy → a new economy
b) The Erie Canal
About 585 km long; completed in 1825
Allowed goods to flow between the Great Lakes and NYC
Attracted influx of famers migrating from New England → development of new cities (Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse)
Gave NYC primacy over competing ports in access to trade with the Old Northwest & therefore NYC’s success inspired other states - nearly 5000 km of canals built in response → creating a network!
Emergence of a Commercial Market Economy → a new economy
c) Railroads and the Telegraph
-Railroad opened new areas of american interior for settlement as well as opportunities for coal mining (railroad fuel), and manufacturing of iron (rails)
-Telegraph = instantaneous communication throughout america; Samuel Morse - 1830s
Boom (about 80,000km of wire laid in about 15 years)
Initially for businesses (especially newspapers)
Speed of info increase and uniformity of prices
Individual Sections -Rise of the West
Improvements in transport and communication made the west a powerful region
Massive migration: 1790 -1840 → 4.5 million people crossed the Appalachian mountains
Traveled in groups - cooperating to build establish communities
In 1840 - ⅖ of american pop lived beyond Appalachian mountains
Individual Sections - The Cotton Kingdom
One group of small farmers and planter with their slaves moved to the south to create the new Cotton Kingdom of Alabama, Mississippi, and Arkansas
Early industrial revolution (in Britain) produced cotton textiles → immense demand for cotton, a crop the Deep South was particularly suited for due to climate and soil fertility
“Cotton Gin” invention which separated seed from the cotton revolutionized the production of cotton & slavery in the U.S.
1808 = end of transAtlantic slave trade → created massive trade in slaves in USA supplying the labour force for new Cotton Kingdom; slave trade became well-organized business
Massive boom (less than thirty years: increase in cotton production by 165 million pounds)
Conclusions
Market society made of commercial farmers, growth of cities, and factory system
Caused growth of immigration (labourers needed) and internal migration, rise of nativism, transformation of law (support entrepreneurs to participate in the market rev), economic growth, slavery growth,
Development of technology in transport and communication started it all (steamboat, canal, railroad, and telegraph)
