Market Revolution (1793–1909)
The Market Revolution (1793–1909) was a transformative period in American history marked by significant advancements in economy, industry, technology, and transportation. Originating from concepts introduced during the earlier European Industrial Revolution, this movement greatly impacted the United States, particularly through innovations in agriculture, notably the cotton gin invented by Eli Whitney in 1793. This device allowed for a dramatic increase in cotton production, which in turn fueled the growth of the textile industry in the North and facilitated international trade.
As agricultural productivity surged, new technologies such as the steel plow and mechanical mower-reaper further enhanced farming efficiency, particularly in the growing Western territories. The revolution also catalyzed improvements in transportation and communication, leading to the establishment of steamboats, canals, and railroads, which connected markets more effectively. This period saw a shift from small-scale subsistence farming and traditional crafts to a capitalist economy characterized by larger factories and mass production, influenced by principles like interchangeable parts.
While the Market Revolution spurred national prosperity and laid the groundwork for the United States to emerge as an industrial superpower, it also exacerbated socio-economic divides, particularly between the slaveholding South and the antislavery North. Ultimately, this era reshaped American society, moving it from an agrarian base towards a more interconnected and industrialized future.
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Market Revolution (1793–1909)
The Market Revolution (1793–1909) was a period of great development in economy, industry, technology, and transportation. The movement, though based on ideas from the earlier Industrial Revolution in Europe, began in the United States with the introduction of groundbreaking agricultural technology in the southern states. Increased agricultural yields in the South and then the West led to a booming textile industry and other businesses in the North. It also led to great innovations in transportation and the strengthening of the United States into a largely self-sufficient international power. The developments of the Market Revolution fundamentally changed the agrarian traditions of the United States and brought on the capitalist society of modern times.
Background
Prior to the Market Revolution, the United States and other nations followed forms of economy based on ancient traditions. In temperate regions with good soil, such as the southern United States, most people engaged in small-scale subsistence farming. Farm owners, their families, and perhaps paid or enslaved workers planted, tended, and harvested crops by hand. Crop yields were generally small. If the farm produced surplus, it could be traded with neighbors or sold at small town markets.
In more-urbanized areas, including the northern United States, many people engaged in activities such as manufacturing. Businesses were generally small. They employed skilled craftspeople to create goods manually. In most cases, one worker or a small group of workers created every part of relatively complex products individually. For instance, a firearms manufacturer would handcraft each of the dozens of parts—barrels, triggers, springs, plates, stocks—before assembling an individual musket. A single product might take hours, days, or weeks to complete and, for that reason, might be prohibitively expensive.
These traditional forms of economy and industry paralleled other old-fashioned ways of life in the United States. In general, roads were poor. Long-distance travel and transportation of goods were seldom attempted. Communication was primitive. The fastest means of spreading messages was a horse courier. Low product yields and poor transportation and communication meant little interstate commerce, which stifled the growth and unification of the United States. These factors also made the United States more dependent on foreign imports, thus limiting its international prominence.
The 1700s saw rapid changes in these traditional forms of economy, however. The first major influence in modernizing world economies was the Industrial Revolution, which began in Europe around the mid-1750s. This period saw huge innovations in industrial technology. New manufacturing machines could produce products once made slowly by hand much more quickly and easily. Many people decried the way machines replaced traditional craftspeople, but the benefits were too great to ignore. Businesses could produce more goods faster and less expensively, allowing consumers unprecedented abundance and lower prices.
Overview
The innovations of the Industrial Revolution took hold, first in England and then in much of the world. Its ideals traveled across the Atlantic Ocean during the 1700s to the American colonies and then the young United States. American inventors and businesspeople embraced these revolutionary concepts and ultimately used them to transform the economic fundamentals of the nation during a period known as the Market Revolution. This time of radical change transformed American culture and ways of life and had a tremendous international influence.
One of the first and most important steps of the Market Revolution took place in the southern United States, where the agricultural economy had remained largely unchanged from ancient traditions. In 1793, an inventor named Eli Whitney unveiled a new machine, the cotton gin. The cotton gin used mechanical gears to separate cotton into fibers and seeds. Traditionally, separating the fibers had been a difficult and time-consuming project.
The cotton gin was a revolutionary device. It allowed struggling cotton growers to dramatically increase their production and profit. Suddenly, the rare material was abundant, and cotton growers were able to export tons of valuable fiber to other regions of the United States and to other countries. Port cities such as New York, Boston, and Baltimore prospered as rich cotton crop shipments passed through them en route to Europe and other lands. Both profits and the demand for cotton skyrocketed.
Meanwhile, developing territories in the American West received an enormous boost from agricultural technology. Poor wooden plows and a lack of workers and animals had hampered western farmers. New inventions allowed them to produce greater crop yields with less effort. Among the most important innovations was the steel plow, introduced by John Deere in 1838, which allowed farmers to till large amounts of soil with relative ease. Similarly, Cyrus McCormick's mechanical mower-reaper enabled farmers to quickly multiply their harvests of wheat, which had became a highly valuable asset in national and international trade.
The agricultural boom was also largely responsible for a major change in the northern states. Northerners in urbanized areas could buy surplus wheat and other foodstuffs from other regions more easily. They brought in huge amounts of southern cotton, which they used to create textiles. The cotton-fueled northern textile industry led to many of the first modern factories in the United States. The factory system, based on principles of the Industrial Revolution, was aided by other groundbreaking innovations such as interchangeable parts, which allowed for the mass production of identical items. This principle created the basis for the factory system and assembly-line manufacturing later pioneered by Henry Ford.
The combined effect of these changes on the United States was enormous. Increased interstate commerce necessitated better roads and new forms of transportation—steamboats, canals, railroads—and communication via telegraph and, later, telephone. The push for more agricultural land helped speed expansion into western territories. The need for more agricultural workers to work the land led to a greater reliance on the slave system, though this fact led to tension between the slaveholding South and the antislavery North.
Ultimately, the economic changes led the United States to become much more self-sufficient and more powerful internationally. For millions of American people, the Market Revolution meant drastic lifestyle changes. Many workers used to small, self-sufficient farms or shops began working in large, mechanized facilities. Many jobs paid poorly and required many hours of tedious repetitive actions, but they led to greater national prosperity and availability of manufactured goods.
The Market Revolution transformed the United States from a disjointed assemblage of small, local, traditional markets into a huge, thriving, national market. It shifted the country from its agrarian roots into a capitalist society. By the beginning of the twentieth century, the United States had become an industrial superpower and an increasingly important player in world affairs.
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