Market Revolution
Encyclopedia
The Market Revolution in the United States
was a drastic change in the manual labor system originating in south (but was soon moved to the north) and later spread to the entire world. Traditional commerce was made obsolete by improvements in transportation and communication. This change prompted the reincarnation
of the mercantilist ideas that were thought to have died out. This is thought to have been caused by increasing industrialization, such as Eli Whitney
's invention, the Cotton Gin
. As a result of the revolution, isolationism
became dominant and North America
was left waiting to explode into the American Civil War
. In other words, northern cities started to have a more powerful economy that was starting to challenge the economies of some mid-sized European cities at the time.
It also was in part influenced by the need for national mobility, shown a problem in the War of 1812
, after which the government increased production of roads, canals, and later railroads.
Following the War of 1812
, the American economy was altered from an economy partly dependent on imports from Europe to an economy that evolved into an empire of internal commerce. In 1817 James Monroe
replaced James Madison as president of the U.S. The Republicans continued policies begun in Jefferson’s administration. With a new generation of leaders the Republican Party came to embrace the principles of government activism and the development of large-scale domestic manufacturing. Despite all of the promises that characterized the United States, discrepancies loomed: the survival of slavery, treatment of the Indians, the deterioration of some urban areas, and a mania for speculation. The nation was not just growing through the addition of land, but population shifts brought about new states to the Union and when Missouri petitioned for statehood in 1819, the issue of slavery was thrust on the national agenda. Thomas Jefferson wrote that the issue awakened him "like a firebell in the night." That the Missouri question coincided with the nation’s worst financial crisis awakened anxieties in many Americans. By the 1820s Americans recognized a rough regional specialization: plantation-style export agriculture in the south, a north built on business and trade, and a frontier west. The regions were interdependent but in time their differences would become more obvious, more important, and increasingly more incompatible.
The market revolution also brought about a change in industry and agriculture. Eli Whitney
perfected a system of producing muskets with interchangeable parts
. Prior to Whitney’s invention, most muskets—and all other goods—had been handmade with parts especially designed for each particular musket. The trigger of one musket, for example, could not be used to replace a broken trigger on another musket. With interchangeable parts, however, all triggers fit the same model of musket, as did all ramrods, all flash pans, all hammers, and all bullets. Manufacturers in many different industries soon took advantage of Whitney’s invention to make a variety of goods with interchangeable parts.
Many new products revolutionized agriculture in the West. John Deere, for example, invented a horse-pulled steel plow to replace the difficult oxen-driven wooden plows that farmers had used for centuries. The steel plow allowed farmers to till soil faster and more cheaply without having to make repairs as often.
In the 1830s, Cyrus McCormick invented a mechanical mower-reaper that quintupled the efficiency of wheat farming. Prior to the mower-reaper, wheat farming had been too difficult, so farmers had instead produced corn, which was less profitable. As in the South after the cotton gin, farmers in the West raked in huge profits as they acquired more lands to plant more and more wheat. More important, farmers for the first time began producing more wheat than the West could consume. Rather than let it go to waste, they began to transport crop surpluses to sell in the manufacturing Northeast.
An excerpt from Charles seller's book The Market Revolution: Jacksonian America,1815-1846 talks more about the changes and events during the era.
Here's excerpt from John Lauritz Larson's book The Market Revolution in America:Liberty, Ambition, and the Eclipse of the Common Good talks about the events and progression into the revolution.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
was a drastic change in the manual labor system originating in south (but was soon moved to the north) and later spread to the entire world. Traditional commerce was made obsolete by improvements in transportation and communication. This change prompted the reincarnation
Reincarnation
Reincarnation best describes the concept where the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant...
of the mercantilist ideas that were thought to have died out. This is thought to have been caused by increasing industrialization, such as Eli Whitney
Eli Whitney
Eli Whitney was an American inventor best known for inventing the cotton gin. This was one of the key inventions of the Industrial Revolution and shaped the economy of the Antebellum South...
's invention, the Cotton Gin
Cotton gin
A cotton gin is a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, a job formerly performed painstakingly by hand...
. As a result of the revolution, isolationism
Isolationism
Isolationism is the policy or doctrine of isolating one's country from the affairs of other nations by declining to enter into alliances, foreign economic commitments, international agreements, etc., seeking to devote the entire efforts of one's country to its own advancement and remain at peace by...
became dominant and North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
was left waiting to explode into the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. In other words, northern cities started to have a more powerful economy that was starting to challenge the economies of some mid-sized European cities at the time.
It also was in part influenced by the need for national mobility, shown a problem in the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
, after which the government increased production of roads, canals, and later railroads.
Following the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
, the American economy was altered from an economy partly dependent on imports from Europe to an economy that evolved into an empire of internal commerce. In 1817 James Monroe
James Monroe
James Monroe was the fifth President of the United States . Monroe was the last president who was a Founding Father of the United States, and the last president from the Virginia dynasty and the Republican Generation...
replaced James Madison as president of the U.S. The Republicans continued policies begun in Jefferson’s administration. With a new generation of leaders the Republican Party came to embrace the principles of government activism and the development of large-scale domestic manufacturing. Despite all of the promises that characterized the United States, discrepancies loomed: the survival of slavery, treatment of the Indians, the deterioration of some urban areas, and a mania for speculation. The nation was not just growing through the addition of land, but population shifts brought about new states to the Union and when Missouri petitioned for statehood in 1819, the issue of slavery was thrust on the national agenda. Thomas Jefferson wrote that the issue awakened him "like a firebell in the night." That the Missouri question coincided with the nation’s worst financial crisis awakened anxieties in many Americans. By the 1820s Americans recognized a rough regional specialization: plantation-style export agriculture in the south, a north built on business and trade, and a frontier west. The regions were interdependent but in time their differences would become more obvious, more important, and increasingly more incompatible.
The market revolution also brought about a change in industry and agriculture. Eli Whitney
Eli Whitney
Eli Whitney was an American inventor best known for inventing the cotton gin. This was one of the key inventions of the Industrial Revolution and shaped the economy of the Antebellum South...
perfected a system of producing muskets with interchangeable parts
Interchangeable parts
Interchangeable parts are parts that are, for practical purposes, identical. They are made to specifications that ensure that they are so nearly identical that they will fit into any device of the same type. One such part can freely replace another, without any custom fitting...
. Prior to Whitney’s invention, most muskets—and all other goods—had been handmade with parts especially designed for each particular musket. The trigger of one musket, for example, could not be used to replace a broken trigger on another musket. With interchangeable parts, however, all triggers fit the same model of musket, as did all ramrods, all flash pans, all hammers, and all bullets. Manufacturers in many different industries soon took advantage of Whitney’s invention to make a variety of goods with interchangeable parts.
Many new products revolutionized agriculture in the West. John Deere, for example, invented a horse-pulled steel plow to replace the difficult oxen-driven wooden plows that farmers had used for centuries. The steel plow allowed farmers to till soil faster and more cheaply without having to make repairs as often.
In the 1830s, Cyrus McCormick invented a mechanical mower-reaper that quintupled the efficiency of wheat farming. Prior to the mower-reaper, wheat farming had been too difficult, so farmers had instead produced corn, which was less profitable. As in the South after the cotton gin, farmers in the West raked in huge profits as they acquired more lands to plant more and more wheat. More important, farmers for the first time began producing more wheat than the West could consume. Rather than let it go to waste, they began to transport crop surpluses to sell in the manufacturing Northeast.
An excerpt from Charles seller's book The Market Revolution: Jacksonian America,1815-1846 talks more about the changes and events during the era.
Here's excerpt from John Lauritz Larson's book The Market Revolution in America:Liberty, Ambition, and the Eclipse of the Common Good talks about the events and progression into the revolution.
Further reading
- Eric FonerEric FonerEric Foner is an American historian. On the faculty of the Department of History at Columbia University since 1982, he writes extensively on political history, the history of freedom, the early history of the Republican Party, African American biography, Reconstruction, and historiography...
, Give Me Liberty! An American History, Norton Seagull Ed. 2005. - Charles Seller, The Market Revolution: Jacksonian America, 1815-1846
- John Lauritz Larson, The Market Revolution in America:Liberty, Ambition, and the Eclipse of the Common Good