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History 1301

U.S. to 1877

Unit 3 - Lecture 2

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Americas EconomicRevolution

Unit 3 Lecture 2 Hollinger 1301 2

Changing America: American industrial revolution was due to

advances in transportation,communications, manufacturing & newsystems of business organization. Before war of 1812 economy was local and

agrarian

By 1860 - National economy and semi-Industrial

Transportation linked NE, MA, and Mid-west tobecome The North

Internal market spurred by cheap land andfood, meant higher wages, more technologyisolated from European industrial powers

Erie Canal proposed 1808 / began 1817 /opened 1825 Clockwise Nation as GreatLakes took over water routes from Mississippi

Demographics:

Population 1790 - 4M / 1820 10M / 1840 -17M Better public health

High birth rate average of 6.4 children perwoman

After 1830 high immigration much of itIrish / German

Changing America (continued) :

More people lived in towns and cities:

26% of US was living in towns of 2500 ormore 14% increase (South was 6% up to

10%) NYC 1840 321K / 1860 800K Uneconomic NE farming forces people to

cities & west

1800 1860:

Rural growth 2.9X to Urban 14.5X

1.9 M workers to 11M (20% were inNorthern factories)

Immigrant boom spawned politicalresistance and ethnic settlement

Rich get richer 1800 10% controlled 45%/ 1860 70%



Transportation Revolution:

Turnpike age: ($10K per mile)

4 horses could take 1 ton, 18 miles a day

Cost of 30 miles over-land same as NY toEngland

Canal Age: 1820 1830s rapid buildingboom for cheaper transportation costs($25K per mile)

Quick way to beat Mississippi / Overland route

NYS Erie Canal and Great Lakes 1817 / 1825

Cut transportation costs by 90%

Canals in Indiana and Ohio to feed lakes andErie brought Midwest products to easternseaboard fast and cheap

PA had 1K miles by 1840

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Transportation Revolution II :

Rail Roads began in 1830s but took off in1840s ($35k per mile)

1830 first RR - Baltimore and Ohio by 1836 1Kmiles of track by 1860 27K miles of track 25 30 mph average

1853 Trunk lines across Chicago to NYC

Required massive amounts of capital govtfunding in forms of public land grants ($300Min land in 1850)

1830 NYC Chicago 3 weeks / 1850s twodays 4X more efficient than canals

Technology breeder & Technology / CostRace

Telegraph:

1835 Morse developed system / 1843 Firstcommercial use / 1846 fed NYC newspapers

1860 50K miles of wire

Fast communications and made RR moreeffective



Commerce and Industry:

Business Evolution to drive and supportrevolution

Transportation to evolving consumers &markets

Capital & organization

New forms of organization Incorporation 1800 limited to public works efforts

1822 NY, Special Partnership laws limitedliability to amount of investment

1830s States pass general incorporation laws

Bankruptcy Laws of 1840s

1850s Corporations evolve to limited liability


Commerce and Industry (continued) :

Factory method

War of 1812 industry in households orworkshops

Concentration of process to leverage of highcost labor and high yield (but high cost)machinery

Available low cost energy waterthen coal

Semi-skilled steps close together

On-site professional managementdifferent than ownership

Interchangeable workers

Rhode Island system

Waltham system

Fall River System - wage ties only

Immigrant workers

1820s 129K immigrants 1830s 540K

1840s 1.5 M

1850 2.8M


Industrialization:

Economy of scale Growth of the Factory System

1840 $483M from factories / 1860 $2B

1.3M Industrial workers (938K wereNE/MA )

Lowell Ma States second largest city 10K employees & 1M yards of cloth a week

Transportation - Roads to Canal to Railroad

Cost effective on investment

Efficiency key to cutting cost andmaximizing profit

Machine Tools or tools that make tools advances in machine tools

High skill / increasing rate of change,volatility of business operational

environment. Faster more precise

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Industrialization (continued) :

Pig Iron production (foundation for steelproduction) ~ 1810 54K tons / 1820 540K

Coal replaced water & wood 1820 50K tons / 1860 14M tons

Requires expensive deep mining operationsand railroad to markets & lots of cheap labor

Invention

Patent system holdover from England

1830 ~ 544 patents / 1860 ~ 4778

1839 Charles Goodyear Vulcanization ofRubber

1846 Elias Howe Sowing machine / Singer



New Society:

Urban growth: Western cities grew rapidly boom conditions

Growth of urban middle class

Transiency for jobs regional & intra-city

Urban housing became differentiation inevolution of ethnic & classneighborhoods around 1820

Eastside v Westside intra-citytransportation

Mirrored in smaller towns by 1850

Police and urban services 1820 1840s

Restriction of vice / Public Safety

Population control & management

Immigrant slums

Rigorous racial segregation

New Society (continued) :

Wealth rules: 45% of the industrialized value in 10% of

people

Owning more important than doing Idle Rich

Belief in social / economic mobility (actuallyfew )

Rich: Northern money grows money

Anonymous investment allows owners tobe totally free of Noblesse obligeconstraints

Technology or transportation innovation /Investments

Western Land

South concentration of land or move west formore of the same



New Society II:

Middle Classes:

Skilled wage earners / professions

Delayed families during occupationalestablishment

Who you know connections

One step away from failure

Household possessions and technology (iceboxes)

Fashion and formal, complex dressrequirements

Food / Health crazes

Fewer Children Child Centered Family

1860 average 3 children to middle classhomes

Prophylactics and Abortion

Abstinence and attitude

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New Society II (continued) : Protestant / Self-denial / Results of hard work

Temperance

Job centered life - Male

Work away from home in or near factory

Separate life ~ Work v Home twocharacters

Home centered life - Female

Few professions nursing / teaching butlittle outside

Women Superior to men in DomesticVirtue

Servants in homes

Cult of domesticity (even on farms)

Respectability & Control

Provide a civilized refuge and raisevirtuous children

Chief consumer / Householdtechnology

Children's Character not occupation



New Society III: Working Classes:

Upper echelon

Holding on to lagging technology

Conservative

Fearful of competition Nativist

Political control / system Tammany Hall

Belief in social mobility

Self-help and Evangelicals

Lower echelon

New World slums better than Old WorldSlums

Widows, orphans and free Blacks Blacks are objects of intense and complete

segregation

Immigrant fed

Economic times destroyed combinationpower

Fearful of female labor

New Society III (continued) :

Northern Agriculture Market based

Labor shortage drove intense use oftechnology

Cheap labor

Leisure: Eastern Urban theater

Taverns

Reading

Sports

Boxing / Horse Racing

Spectacle PT Barnum & Freak -shows

Public Oration


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