Charting Modernization
- U.S. Manufactures, 1860
- ranked by value added from manufacturing, not value of total product, thus favoring industries with large capital investment (cotton goods) and large labor force (boots and shoes).
- Ten Leading Manufactured Products, 1860
- ranked by value of total product, not value added by manufacturing, thus favoring industries with a large number of mills (flour) rather than capital investment.
- Manufacturing by Sections, 1860
- Total capital invested was only 1/6 of investment in farm land and buildings.
- Consumer Prices, 1800-65
- Wholesale price index fell 40% after the War of 1812, but the wage of $10 per week was barely able to sustain a family of 5 in 1851, according to a report in the New York Tribune. Lincoln earned only $.50 per day as a rail-splitter, and thus understood the powerful appeal of the Whig and Republican parties.
- Origins and Religion of Businessmen
- The Protestant Ethic was strongest in New England.
- Roll-Call Votes in Seven Legislatures 1832-49
- Whigs voted for modernizing issues.
- Urban, Agriculture, Capital, Literacy
- Free states were modernizing faster than slave states.
- Population Growth 1790-1860
- Population grew fastest in the West. The total U.S. population in 1860 was 31,443,321 including 4,096,753 foreign-born and 3,953,760 slaves out of 4,441,830 counted as "Negro"
- Workers from Migration 1800-1860
- Immigration from Germany and Ireland increased after 1840.
- Erie Canal 1820-1845
- Household manufacture of woolens declined.
- Inland Freight Rates 1820-1860
- River and canal rates were far lower than land rates. By 1860, there were 3000 steamboats on American rivers
- Canals, 1860
- Starting with the Erie Canal in 1825, the North built 3700 miles of canals. Interegional trade increased between East and West helping to unite the free states.
- Railroads 1850-1860
- The North built 31,000 miles of railroads, more than the rest of the world combined.
- Staple Crop Regions of the South, 1860
- King Cotton dominated southern agriculture.
revised 2/1/06 | Takeoff | Lowell | 2nd Party | Immigration | P. Stewart | C&I | Topics | Modernization
