The Market Revolution
Origins of an American Industrial Revolution

1. Manufacturing

   1. Machinery and factories begin to replace work by hand at home

      1. Will change the way people think about time

      2. Will boost individualism - no more working as families on family farm

   2. Textiles industrialize first

   3. Basis of early industrialization

      1. Industrial espionage (steal ideas from Britain)

      2. Abundant natural recourses

      3. Abundant water power

      4. Technological innovations (sewing machines, harvesters, and the like) 

      5. The transportation revolution -- roads, canals, steamships, railroads

      6. Decline in New England agriculture produces cheap labor

      7. Abundant good land in South and West will retard industrialization there

      8. Large population eager for cheap basic goods

   4. Lowell Mills

      1. Founded 1823 in what is now called Lowell, Massachusetts

      2. First textile factories to bring all spinning and weaving operations under one roof

      3. Mean cloth could be made cheaply in large quantities, cheap enough that most Americans could afford

2. Market expansion

   1. Economy and population grows, meaning greater purchasing power in economy

   2. Interregional trade grows

      1. In colonial period, most states' main trading partner was Britain

      2. Increasingly, it's each other

      3. Under Constitution, no tariff barriers between states

      4. Less dependence in foreign trade

   3. Urbanization

      1. Initially, production depended on the "putting out" system

         1. much of the manufacturing was done as piece work at farms, homes, or small shops

         2. pieces would then be gathered for assembly at the main factory

         3. this allowed workers to maintain traditional living arrangements in rural areas and small towns

      2. The shift away from piecework to full industrialization would force workers to move close to the factories

      3. This caused a rapid growth in the size of cities, especially in industrial areas

      4. These growing cities depended on cheap agricultural products

      5. Western farmers can sell to Eastern cities and provide a market for manufactured goods

   4. Palmer vs. Mulligan

      1. Part of a series of decisions that promoted growth by creating business-friendly law

      2. Laid down the principle that property ownership included the right to develop property for business purposes

3. The Transportation Revolution

   1. National Road - State and Federal governments cooperate to build road from Maryland to Illinois (begun 1811)

   2. Canals

      1. Erie Canal, built 1818-1825, from Buffalo to Albany

      2. Biggest engineering project in USA up to that point

      3. Connected Great Lakes to Hudson and New York City

      4. Connected Midwest to Northern Atlantic

   3. Steamboats

      1. Began to appear 1820-1830

      2. Made travel common on major rivers and Great Lake

4. Sectionalism

   1. West and Northeast drawn together

   2. South developing differently, less well linked

   3. North and Northwest industries

      1. Textiles

      2. Machines and machine tools

      3. Meatpacking

   4. South increasingly dependent on cotton

   5. Commercial centers remain in Northeast and New York

   6. South continues to depend more on England

   7. Two complementary systems developing

      1. North and Northwest trade manufactured goods for food

      2. South and England trade cotton for manufactured goods

   8. Transportation

      1. Roads and canals link North and West

      2. Few roads go North-South

5. Class

   1. Market Revolution creates winners and losers

   2. Creates a more individualistic society

   3. Creates modern classes

      1. Working class 

         1. factory workers, transportation workers

         2. Urban poor - day laborers and unskilled workers

      2. Middle class

         1. professionals, managers, shopkeepers, highly skilled workers.

         2. Their values come to define morality

      3. Upper class - larger, more visible, and richer than before

      4. Class consciousnesses increases

         1. Class hostility increases

         2. Hope for mobility declines

   4. Growing social problems

      1. Alcoholism goes up

      2. Prostitution increases

      3. Family violence, divorce, etc. increase

   5. Increased urban violence -

      1. U.S. cities were slow to create modern police forces

      2. Increased social and racial tensions resulted in numerous riots

      3. The Philadelphia Merry-Go-Round Riot (1834)

         1. A mostly Irish crowd of several hundred people attacked a racially mixed neighborhood over two days

         2. While racial motivations were important, this was also a conflict between members of the underclass in competition with each other

         3. Also reflected the crowded, dirty, unhealthy conditions of a city in the early stages of industrialization

6. Family

   1. All members of urban poor families must work for survival

   2. Patriarchy (authority of fathers) decreases - can not support family alone

   3. Urban poverty linked to increasing violence

   4. Children liberated from parental control

      1. Don's have to wait for marriage, with availability of wage paying jobs

      2. Rural children can leave family for the city

      3. Lowell Girls

         1. Women aged 15-30

         2. Worked in factories, lived and ate at boarding houses away from family

7. End of Jeffersonian Republic?

   1. Yeoman farmer tied increasingly to market

   2. Wage laborers dependent on bosses fro jobs