Economy of the USA 1820-1877

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  • Economy of the USA 1820-1877
    • Forms of wealth creation
      • North
        • Industrialising
          • Only 4 Northern manafacturing industries employed over 50,000
          • Produced 90% of nations manafactured output in 1850's
          • 1800 - 68% in agriculture 1860 - 40%
          • 85% factories located in the North
        • North West dominantly rural
        • Farmland was on a far smaller scale
          • Only 16% of large farms in the South
        • Based on manafacturing
      • South
        • King Cotton
          • 1850 cotton sales made up 50% of US exports
          • Better geographical location for farming
            • 84% Of large farms located in the South
            • Fertile soil
            • Climate
          • Cotton became the most important crop after Ely Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin 1793
          • 1850 cotton industry valued 1 billion 1860 it valued 2.3 billion
        • Industrialising
          • The Tredegar Iron works in Virginia ranked fourth among nations producers of iron products
        • Slower rate of industialisation
          • 1800 - 82% in agriculture 1860- 81%
          • Only 15% of industry located in the South
        • Slavery
          • Slave prices increased by 50% in 1850
          • 1840-1860 rate of increase in per capita income in the South exceeded the rest of the USA
          • 35% more efficient than small scale faming
          • Impending crisis of the South 1857
          • Didnt utilise the pottentail skills of the labour force
          • Poor investment could of been spent on indusrty
          • 1850 one in 3 Southern families owned slaves by 1860 only one in 4 were slave owners
    • Growth in population
      • 1840 - 17 Million
      • 1860 - 31 Million
      • Reasons for growth
        • Natural increase
        • Immigration Irish and German
          • Between 1830 -1860most of the 5 million immigrants that entered the USA settled in the NOrth
          • One in 6 Northerners in 1860 was foreighn born compared to 1 in  30 in the South
      • Western expansion
        • 1815 - 1850 population West of the Appalachians grew 3 times faster than the original 13 states
        • 1850 - 1 in two lived in the West
      • North
        • Huge population increase due to immigration
        • 21 million
      • South
        • 1/3 of population slaves
        • 1860-9 milllion
    • Impact of western expansion
      • Manifest destiny
        • Opitunity to gain land
      • Railroads, such as the Union Pacific and Transcontinental, were built
      • Railroads' economic profit helped to develop more towns along the way
      • Immigration occured with huge numbers due to oppurtunity to own land
      • It reduced food prices for people in the East
        • Could produce food much more efficiently and cheaply than Eastern farmers generally could.
      • Calafornia gold rush
      • Trail of tears
    • Expansion of urbanisation and industrialisatin
      • Industrilisation
        • Mirrored Britains industrial revolution
        • Technological developments
          • Iron and steel
          • Textiles
          • Use of steam power
          • Mashines introduced and contunously improved
          • Transportation
            • Steamboats
              • By 1850 there were over 700 steamboats operating on the Mississippiand its tributaries
            • Railway
              • 3000 miles of track 1840 by 1860 had 30,000+ more than the world combined
      • Urbanisation
        • Fewer than 1 in 10 lived in town in 1820
        • 1 in 5 Americans lived in towns in 1860
        • Some cities experienced spectacular gowth e.g Chicago had population of 40 in 1830 by 1860 had 109,000
        • New York had over 800,000 inhabitants in 1860
        • One in 14 Southerners lived in a town in comparison to  in 4 in the North
        • New Orleans with a population of 175,000 inhabitants was the only city that compared to that of the North

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