TOWARD A NATIONAL
ECONOMY
• Gentility and the Consumer Revolution
– new attitudes toward material goods and
new ways of producing them brought a
major economic readjustment; the
industrial revolution would change America
– ironically, widespread emulation of
aristocratic behavior followed America’s
democratic revolution
– in Europe, gentility was the product of
ancestry and cultivated style; in America,
possession of material goods largely
defined gentility
– Americans were demanding more goods
than traditional craftsmen could produce
– producers expanded their workshops,
trained more artisans, laid in large stocks
of materials, and acquire labor-saving
machines
– these developments constituted the market
revolution of the early 19th century
– the industrial revolution came on its heels
• America’s Industrial Revolution
– technology fueled the revolution in
manufacturing; spinning machines, cotton
gin, and the steamboat wrought profound
changes
– artisans still produced vast bulk of goods
used by Americans
– skilled craftsmen performed every stage of
fabrication
– virtually all of these producers supplied
only local needs
• Birth of the Factory
– Britain began mechanizing in 1770s,
bringing workers together in buildings
called factories and using power from
water and later steam
– America depended on Britain for
manufactured goods until Revolution
– first American factory began production in
1790
– not long after, Boston Associates, a group
of merchants headed by Francis Cabot
Lowell, established Boston Manufacturing
Company at Waltham
– Lowell revolutionized textile production
– his operation combined machine
production, large-scale operation, efficient
management, and centralized marketing
• An Industrial Proletariat?
– the changing structure of work widened
gap between owners and workers and
blurred distinctions between skilled and
unskilled workers
– as the importance of skilled labor declined,
so did the ability of workers to influence
working conditions
– some historians argue that the frontier
siphoned off displaced or dissatisfied
workers
– America’s expanding economy provided
opportunities for workers to rise out of
working class and therefore prevented the
formation of strong working class identities
– conditions in early shops and factories
represented an improvement for people
who worked in them
– Most factory workers were drawn from
outside regular labor market
– textile mills in particular relied on the
employment of women and children
• Lowell’s Waltham System: Women as
Factory Workers
– the Boston Associates developed the
“Waltham System” of employing young,
unmarried women in their new textile mills
– women came from farms all over New
England to work for a year or two in mills
and lived in strictly supervised company
boardinghouses
– discontent manifested in two strikes in
1830s
– declining prices in 1840s led to the
– by then young women had begun to find
work as schoolteachers and clerks
– Millowners turned to Irish immigrants to
operate the machines
• Irish and German Immigrants
– population of U.S. more than doubled in
the period from 1790 to 1820; growth
resulted almost entirely from natural
increase
– 1815, immigration began to pick up; most
immigrants came from Germany, Ireland,
Britain, and Scandinavia
– immigrants were drawn by the prospect of
abundant land, good wages, and economic
opportunity
– others sought religious or political freedom
– immigration stimulated the American
economy
– however, the influx of the 1830s and 1840s
depressed living standards
– native-born workers resented immigrants
for their willingness to accept low wages
and, in the case of the Irish, for their
Catholicism
• The Persistence of the Household
System
– technological advances alone did not mean
the immediate advance of the industrial
system
– seemingly minor advances in water
wheels, transmission belts and metal gears
enabled larger technological advances
– After the War of 1812, imporovements in
paper, glass and pottery manufactureing
slowly changed the American household
• Rise of Corporations
– corporations provided a means to gather
capital
– in early days of nation, states chartered
only a few corporations, and very few of
these engaged in manufacturing
– most people believed only quasi-public
projects deserved privilege of incorporation
– during the War of 1812, considerable
capital was transferred from commerce to
industry
– manufacturing gave rise to more and larger
• Cotton Revolutionizes the South
– South began to produce cotton to supply
textile factories of New England
– a high quality, long staple “sea island”
cotton could be grown only in limited areas,
and the lint of heartier “green seed,” or
upland, cotton could not easily be
separated from the seed
– Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin led
to an enormous expansion of cotton
production
– Cotton stimulated economy of the entire
nation
– most of it was exported, which paid for
• Revival of Slavery
– slavery declined in decade of Revolution,
but racial prejudice blunted logic of
Revolution’s libertarian beliefs
– revolutionary generation had a great
respect for property rights
– forced abolition therefore had few
proponents
– the bloody uprising in Saint Domingue led
many whites to reconsider ending slavery
– the Revolution had led to manumission of
many slaves; as number of free blacks
rose, tighter restrictions were imposed on
– some opponents of slavery hoped to solve
the “problem” of free blacks by establishing
colonies of freed slaves (usually in Africa)
– colonization movement did establish a
settlement in Liberia; few American blacks
had any desire to migrate to an alien land
– cotton boom of early 19th century virtually
halted colonization movement
– boom also gave rise to an interstate slave
trade
– in the northern states, blacks faced legal
liabilities, denial of suffrage, and
segregation or exclusion
• Roads to Market
– advances in transportation played a crucial
role in settlement of West
– barges could bring goods downstream, but
transportation upstream was prohibitive;
importance of roads linking Mississippi
Valley to eastern seaboard
• Transportation and the Government
– most of improved highways and bridges
were built by private developers, who
charged tolls for the use of their roads
– local, state, and national governments
contributed heavily to internal
improvements
– the obvious need for roads linking the
trans-Appalachian west with eastern
seaboard called for action by national
government, but sectional rivalries in
Congress prevented such action
– until the coming of railroads, overland
shipping remained uneconomical, so
inventors concentrated on improving water
• Development of Steamboats
– rafts and flatboats could move downstream
only; the steamboat answered the problem
of moving upstream
– with advent of the steamboat, freight
charges plummeted, and Northwest
became part of the national market
• The Canal Boom
– Canals improved the network of
transportation
– although canals cost more to build than
roads, they were more efficient for moving
goods than overland transportation until
advent of railroad
• New York City: Emporium of the
Western World
– New York had already become the nation’s
largest city
– Erie Canal solidified its position as the
national metropolis
– Pennsylvania, desperate to keep up with
New York, began constructing canals at a
feverish pace
– States beyond the mountains displayed an
even greater zeal for the construction of
canals; this proved excessive and many
states overextended themselves resulting
• The Marshall Court
– Chief Justice John Marshall believed in a
powerful central government
– he also regarded business community as
an agent of progress
– in a series of cases between 1819 and
1824, Marshall upheld the “sanctity” of
contracts and the supremacy of the federal
government
– Dartmouth College v. Woodward gave a
wide interpretation to the “contract” clause
of the Constitution
– in McCulloch v. Maryland, Marshall
endorsed the constitutionality of Second
Bank of the U.S. and struck down attempts
by states to tax it
– the decision adopted the Hamiltonian, or
“loose,” interpretation of the Constitution
and strengthened the implied powers of
Congress
– Gibbons v. Ogden established federal
supremacy by broadly construing the
“commerce” clause