Impact of US Industrialisation (1877-1890)

Question 1

The 1873 Depression

Answer 1

• Happened under President Ulysses Grant
• A major economic reversal in Europe
• America’s banking system was in a poor state
• Local banks generally kept their deposits in larger, privately owned banks, especially New York banks
• Often invested in these deposits unwisely
• E.g. Jay Cook & Company, railroad speculator, went bankrupt
• New York Stock Exchange closed for 10 days, credit dried up
• 1873-1874: 1 in 4 labourers in NYC were out of work in the winter
• Construction of new railroad lines decreased from 7,500 miles to 1,600 between 1872-1874

Question 2

Urbanisation

Answer 2

• Chicago: 1850 = 30,000 inhabitants, 1890 = over a million inhabitants
• Railroad centre in Chicago served the upper-Midwest as a shipping hub for lumber, meat and grain
• 1870: Chicago took the lead for steel and meatpacking
• Growth of Industrial Cities:
• Alabama=Steel
• New Jersey=Silk
• Texas=Railroad cars
• Ohio=glass
• Oklahoma=oil industry

Question 3

Living Conditions

Answer 3

• Growth of Slums:
• Rapid influx of workers often led to hasty construction of poor quality housing
• Overcrowding and polluted
• ‘Boss’ System: ran many industrial cities
• ‘Boss’ was usually the local mayor, often corrupt
• Sold rights to the highest local bidder to provide housing, transport, etc, with all city employees, including the police, owing their job to the ‘Boss’
• Provided jobs/employment for immigrants and African Americans from the South
• In turn, they would vote for him in future elections

Question 4

Agriculture

Answer 4

• Did not prosper as it did during the Civil War
• Life of subsistent farming and debt for most farmers
• Incurred debts due to borrowing money for the purchase of land and mechanisation
• Many were over-dependent on unreliable overseas market
• Many small farmers, unsuccessfully, tried to compete with big ‘agribusinesses’
• Many in the South, were too dependent on single-cash crops, e.g. cotton
• Prices kept dropping years after the war, causing profits to drop too, affecting ability to pay off loans
• Bushel of wheat fell from $1.45 in 1866 to 76 cents in 1869