THE MARKET REVOLUTION

Chapter 9.1

Chapter and Section Objectives

Chapter Objective:

• To understand the causes and consequences of western settlement and to summarize the events surrounding the independence of Texas and the War with Mexico.

Section Objectives:

• Describe how industrialization and capitalism impacted the U.S. economy

• Identify the inventions that enhanced people’s lives and helped fuel the country’s economic growth

• Explain how improved transportation and communication systems helped to link America’s regions and make them interdependent.

U.S. Markets Expand

• Early 1800s: rural Americans were self-sufficient;

only bought what they couldn’t make

– Grew crops and animals for food

– Made own clothing, candles, soap

– Sold wood, eggs, butter for cash

– Cash used to purchase coffee, tea, sugar,

horseshoes they couldn’t produce themselves

• Industrialization signaled a shift to

specialization and a market revolution

– Specialization: Farmers began raising 1-2

cash crops to sell

– Market Revolution: People buy and sell goods

rather than make them

U.S. Markets Expand

• U.S. economy dependent on

capitalism

– Capitalism: private control of

the means of production to

generate profit

– Business capital: assets

needed for a business to

produce goods and/or services

– Entrepreneurs: People who

undertake a business venture

and the risk that goes with it

New Inventions

• Inventor-entrepreneurs develop

new products

– Charles Goodyear creates

vulcanized rubber in 1839

– Elias Howe patents sewing

machine

• I.M. Singer adds foot pedal

• Factory production of clothing

now possible

– clothing prices drop by over

75%

Impact of Inventions

• Farmers use mechanized farm equipment

– Mechanical reaper allows 1 man to do the work of 5-8 men

– boosts farming output

• Improved technology and factory processes lowered cost of goods

– Farmers and workers became consumers

• Example: Handcrafted clock cost $50 in 1800; only cost $0.50 in 1850

Economic Revolution

• Impact on Communication

– Samuel F. B. Morse develops

electromagnetic telegraph

• messages tapped in code, carried

by copper wire

• businesses, railroads transmit

information

• Impact on Transportation

• 1807, Robert Fulton’s

steamboat – 150 miles upriver

in 32 hours

• By 1830 steamboats on western

rivers cut freight costs, travel

times

"What hath God wrought.”

Emergence of Railroads

• 1840’s, railroad shipping more

expensive than steamboat

– But…railroads faster, operate in winter,

can go inland

– train travel uncomfortable for

passengers

• 1850’s rail expansion = drop in

cost, safety increased

– railroad usage increases dramatically

• Improved communication,

transportation connected

American regions

– Regions begin to specialize

New Markets Link Regions

• New York City emerges

as the center of

commerce in the U.S.

– Eerie Canal links

agricultural South,

livestock-centered West,

industrial North to

European markets via

NYC