AJ - Industrialization and the American System (Lesson)

Industrialization and the American System

During the first quarter of the 19^th century Henry Clay and members of the Whig Party argued against the Democrats that the federal government should provide funding and help develop infrastructure of the United States. Today, do you think the federal government should be involved in building factories, roads, canals, ports or other infrastructure that supports industry?

Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain during the 18^th Century. As farmers moved to urban centers, the economy shifted from hand-made home goods to mass produced manufactured goods. Skilled laborers were no longer as necessary as machines in factories produced goods in large quantities in a fraction of the time required to produce goods by hand. The British tried desperately to keep their manufacturing methods a secret and to control certain goods and markets. However, industrial espionage resulted in the spread of the secrets.

One of the first factories of the Industrial Revolution in the United States was Samuel Slater’s water-powered textile mill in Rhode Island. Shortly thereafter wars, both foreign and domestic, resulted in the United States’ dependence on American-made goods. The blockade of the United States by the British during the War of 1812 only increased the reliance on domestic industries. The Industrial Revolution in the United States was aided by a number of steps taken to improve production. First, the United States government passed protective tariffs to help American industries. Like Slater’s mill, water was used to provide a power source directly and later indirectly through steam. With water- and steam-powered factories and mills, production ramped up to new heights. Finally, the rise of the consumer culture and the mass production of manufactured goods required an improved transportation network across the country as the nation’s economy shifted from locally produced goods to mass produced goods that had to be moved from the factory to the markets.

 

Improved Transportation

Industries of today could not exist without an extensive network of transportation to not only sell goods, but also to transport raw goods and materials for production needs. As you read this, look around, pick one item, and think about the transportation required to bring that item to where you currently see it. Today’s transportation process mirrors that of the first industrialized areas of America.

The United States’ vast supply of raw materials had to be harnessed and transported to either be used or sold to world markets. Private companies originally built roads to reach these resources and transport them to their destination. Most of these early roads were toll roads or turnpikes in which fees were charged to travel the road in order to pay for the road’s construction and maintenance. Likewise, companies charged for the use of ferries and barges to transport goods where the cost of a bridge would have been excessive. Later, the invention of the steamboat revolutionized water transport and the efficiency by which goods could be transported. The steamboat was transformative because it could go against the current of strong rivers and push through still waters. The canal was another advancement in transportation that resulted from the invention of the steamboat. Canals are man-made waterways that were built where roads and rivers could not meet. Often canals were built wide enough for a single barge to be pulled back and forth by animals along the banks of the canal in order to transport goods. Later the steamboat further advanced the usefulness of canals.

The most famous canal of the era was the Erie Canal. The Erie Canal connected the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes. The Erie Canal, as with most other canals, effectively lowered the price of goods as it increased the cost efficiency of the transportation of goods. Furthermore, canals, especially the Erie Canal, opened up access to land that had yet to be developed. For instance, the cities of Syracuse, New York and Buffalo, New York were directly established as a result of the creation of the Erie Canal.

Additionally, railroads boomed in the United States during the 1800s, as another mode of transportation was introduced to help improve the transportation of goods, lower the cost of goods, and open up new lands for Americans. With the expansion of the steam engine to locomotives, railroads typically were less expensive to build as opposed to roads. By the mid- 1800s, thousands of miles of railroads connected industries to materials, ports and cities. Together the connected system of roads, waterways, canals, and railroads created a more unified, industrialized nation.

The American System

Speaker of the House Henry Clay sought to strengthen the economy, and industries, of the United States with the advancements in transportation. Clay believed the federal government should take responsibility with building and maintaining infrastructure to support the United States’ economy. As such, Clay introduced an economic policy known as the “American System.”

The American System was comprised of three factors.

• First, Henry Clay urged Congress to issue a number of protective tariffs to protect domestic industries.
• Second, the United States would fund improvements of American infrastructure. This would include the construction, maintenance, and improvements to transportation infrastructure throughout the United States. The federal government therefore would oversee large scale transportation projects which would be controlled via the interstate commerce oversight of the federal government.
• The third part of Clay’s American System was the need for a National Bank to help fund the infrastructure projects, secure the national economy and establish new industrial initiatives.

The infrastructure improvements would link the United States together both physically and economically. Clay promoted the idea that each of the regions should focus on its economic strengths and collectively strengthen the overall United States economy. The North would focus on industry. The South and West would focus on agriculture and raw materials that could be used in those industries. The raw materials or food would be transported via the transportation networks and likewise the produced goods would be transported to the South and West. Clay’s American System pushed the American South to depend more on its agricultural production using slave labor, while pushing the American North to focus on industrial output. Later, tensions between the two regions created a division as distinct as their economic emphasis.