Industrialization in the late 19th Century

Business Practices

• The free enterprise system was another factor that enabled the US to industrialize rapidly
• Laissez-faire meant "let people do as they choose."
• The government did not interfere in the economy other than to protect private property rights and maintain peace.
• Laissez-faire relies on supply and demand rather than the government to provide.

Transportation

• Inventions helped increasd the nation's productive capacity and improved the network of transportation and communications.
• Transportation not only in movement but in voice transportation too.
• Railroads expanded dramatically which connected the US almost fully.
• With the nation being connected, industry was able to grow because supplies could be shipped many places.

Example

• In the late 1800s, the prospect of making money in maufacturing and transportation attracted many entrepreneurs.
• Foreign investors found their was more opportunity for profit and growth in the US than at home, and their money helped to fund the nation's industrial buildup.

Government Deregulation

Labor

Example

• The invention of automobiles in 1893
• The railroad boom began in 1865 when President Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act.
• The Union Pacific began pushing westward from Omaha, Nebraska, in 1865

• The human resources available to US industry were as important as natural resources to industrialization growth
• When the population tripled it provided industry with a large workforce
• Population stemmed from two causes
• Large families
• Flood of immigrants
• Growing workforce helped factories icrease their production and furthering demands

• The US practiced laissez-faire economics in the late 1800s.
• State and federal governments kept taxes and spending low and didn't impose expensive regulations on industry.
• Tariffs were issued by the republicans when the South seceded.
• By the end of the Civil War, tariffs had nearly tripled.
• Aside from the problems tariffs created for trade, many businesses and congress believed they were necessary.
• By the early 1900s, many industries were large and highly competitive.

Example

• The Morril Tariff, that was passed by the republicans, reversed years of declining tariffs.
• One reason the US industrialized so rapidly in the 1800s was because it was one of the largest free trade areas in the world

• Industry began to grow at a time when social and economic conditions in China and eastern Europe convinced many people to leave their nations for the US.
• Between 1870 and 1910, roughly 20 million immigrants arrived in the US.

Natural Resources

Technology

Capital Resources

• The abundance of raw materials was one reason for the nation's industrial success.
• The US contained vast natural resources
• Water
• Timber
• Coal
• Iron
• Copper
• When petroleum was found, it was turned into kerosene
• Which was used for lanterns and stoves

• American entrepreneurs were people who risk their capital in organizing and running a business-appreciated the challenges and rewards of building a business and making profits for themselves
• Factories were able to quicken their production because of advanced assembly lines and numerous amounts of workers.
• There were craftmakers and manufacturers
• Bigger companies had higher fixed costs than a smaller company would, because a larger factory took more money to build and maintain.

• Everyone in the US felt the affects of technology growth
• Technology improved connections among people.
• Radio
• Productions grew because of the new technologies and industries also grew and expanded due to the production increase.

Example

• Larger factories had advantages, such as, being able to produce goods more cheaply and efficiently, and they could continue to operate in poor economic times by cutting prices to increase sales, rather than shutting down.

Example

• By the mid-1800s, the introduction of the Northern automatic loom allowed cloth to be made at an even faster rate.
• Power-driven sewing machines and cloth cutters rapidly moved the clothing business from small tailor shops to large factories
• In 1866 Cyrus Field laid a telegraph cable across the Atlantic Ocean for instant contact between the US and Europe

Example

• Edwin Drake drilled the first oil well near Titusville, PN.
• Oil fields from Pennsylvania to texas had been opened.
• As oil production rose, it fueled economic expansion.

Industrialization in the late 19th Century