the market revolution, part i: economic change 1790s-1850s

The Market Revolution, Part

I:Economic Change

1790s-1850s

The US in 1800Jefferson’s republic – rural and agrarian• 93% lived in rural areas (<2500 people)• 84% were farmers

o large majority: semisubsistence farmers• limited access to markets• produced little more than necessary• neighborhood interdependence

o local division of laboro barter

• labor provided by familieso large familieso need for abundant land

• Exceptionso cities & townso areas near coasts & waterwayso Southern plantations

Clash of CulturesSubsistence Culture

• Communal cooperationo emphasis on extended

family ties

• Fierce independence strong embrace of Jeffersonian republicanism

• distrust of outsiders & distant authority

• celebration of equality• scorn for luxuries

• Patriarchyo manliness based on

physical abilities/courageo ironclad authority over

family

Market Culture• Individualism/

competitiono immediate family over

extended family

• Stability/social order favored Hamilton’s worldview over Jefferson’s

• stronger central government• accepting of social

distinctions/hierarchy• pursuit of material gain

• Paternalismo manliness based on family

responsibilityo more egalitarian, loving

relationships

The View from the Country

• The outside, market-oriented world was threateningo commercial agriculture required credit & depended on

markets a downturn could lead to ruin, even loss of land

o market values seemed foreign & immoral• materialism, no sense of family/community

• Yet the market was also inviting o extra income manufactured goods

• labor-saving tools and machines• pre-woven cloth, premade clothes• variety in foods & food preparation• “nice things”

Market Expansion• Began in southern New England in the 1790s

o market economy & culture already more widespread there• “Yankee” values

o land crisis• by 1790s, too little land to continue to subdivide among

childreno eroded patriarchal authority smaller families

• farmers tried to buy more land o increased debto brought more & more families into a cash economy

• commercial farming• employment

• large-scale migrationo New Hampshire & Vermont, upstate New York

The Industrial Revolution

• Meanwhile, industrialization was beginningo the “Rhode Island System”

• Samuel Slater• employed many farm families, housed

them nearby• spinning at the factory, everything else

“put out”

o the “Lowell System”• 1807-1814: with trade cut off, Boston’s

merchant elite invested in factorieso first true factory (all under one

roof) – Waltham, 1813o Lowell mill was founded in 1823

• employed local farm girls o these “mill girls” lived in strictly

run dormitorieso sent most of their pay home to the

farm

Westward Migration• By the 1810s, cheap land

was unavailable in upstate New Yorko migrants Ohio, Indiana,

Illinoiso by 1830s, Mich., Wisc., & Minn.

• Migration was fueled by a Transportation Revolutiono commercial expansion &

transportation innovations were mutually intensifying

o 1780s-1820s: roads • macadamization

o 1790s-1820s: steamboatso 1820s-1840s: canals

• Erie Canal, 1825o 1840s-1930s: railroads

• Westward migration accelerated expansion of the market into the interioro cheaper goods became

available to more areaso more people bought household

& farm items once made at home

o more and more farmers involved in commercial agriculture• NW: corn, wheat, cattle• NE: dairy, vegetables

• By 1850, o the large majority of farming

was commercialo the Northwest was fully

integrated into a national commercial network• tied especially strongly to the

Northeast

Westward Migration

Negative Consequences

• For many, the market revolution meant instability o In cities, the traditional artisan

system was seriously disrupted• mass-production devalued

skilled laboro apprentices & journeymen

unskilled wage workers first labor unions

• economic downturns strikes, riots

o Farmers required credit to produce for market• had to sacrifice their independence• could become wealthy, could lose their land• those unwilling to enter market economy were left behind

o rising land values, inability to barter for services

Positive Consequences• widespread access to

manufactured goodso labor-saving tools and machinery, luxury

items

• growth and spread of cities and townso ever-increasing economic opportunities

• professions, service industries, merchants• rapid growth of an urban middle class

o expansion of education

• rapid technological advancemento constantly improving industrial machinery,

transportation technology• Whitney & interchangeable parts – the

“American system” • farm equipment – e.g., automated thresher,

McCormick reapero communications

• telegraph – Samuel Morse, 1844• the “penny press”