Early American Industrialization. History Essay Paper

Early American Industrialization
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Market Revolution
At the beginning of the 19th century, Americans living in the rural areas produced their own goods that they traded to meet nearly all their needs. Farmers were self-sufficient, growing their crops and raising their animals for food. They also made their own clothing, candles, and soaps. They sold their produce in the markets and used the cash they got to purchase the products they needed such as horseshoes, sugar tea, coffee, and other products that they could not produce themselves. Towards 1850, there was more industrialization in the U.S more so in the Northeast which had elaborate factory systems and textile mills. The lives of the people in the North east were changed more and the workers here were able to spend their earnings to purchase goods produced from the farms in the south (Foner, 2013). There was a shift among the famers to specialization so that they produced one or two cash crops that they sold to local and foreign markets. The development of these events is what led to what is now known as “Market Revolution”. In this essay, I argue that market revolution was important to the economic development of the U.S
In market revolution, people bought goods and sold them instead of producing them for their own use. This revolution changed the lives of the people and the economy of the U.S to a large extent. During the period of market revolution, there were a lot of goods and services and incomes increased greatly. The growth that the economy realized in 1940s was the best recorded in the last 40 years (Rilling, 2005). The entrepreneurial spirit of the people is what led to the fast growth in the economy. Therefore, it was capitalism that saw this fast growth in the economy. In capitalism, it is the individuals and the private businesses that are in control of the means of production. The business people were responsible for supplying their own funds which made it possible for them to create capital. The entrepreneurs were not afraid to risk their money in investing in industries. They had a competitive spirit for they knew that there was a lot of risk involved but they were unafraid to undertake these risks because they looked at the positive sites of the potential huge gains. The entrepreneurs were more than willing to engage in coming up with new inventions so that they could make the lives of the people more comfortable (Foner, 2013). The growth of industrialization was fueled by production of clothing. This was made possible by the invention of the sewing machine. This made it easy to produce clothing in large quantity.
It is apparent that entrepreneurial activities were crucial to boosting the U.S economy during the market revolution. However, American agriculture continued to perform well because workers in the industrialized cities and countries needed to have food. Farmers improved their efficiency by using equipment that were produced in the factories. For this reason, farmers were important during the market revolution and they made important contributions to the economy. These farmers were important consumers of the items that were manufactured. In fact, they were important to ensuring...