Have to show there was one before show the cultural battles.
I'm a geography geek and think everyone should explore the US
    EVERYPLACE u go is situated around this story. just place it.
        for example, why is San Jose different than San Francisco?

Lecture 17: One root? Yep. Transportation and Pricing 


1) A new domestic economy rather than an Atlantic-based one


a) this change to a real domestic economy is what Latin America wont do
    In the 19th century, the world economy created core core and periphery regions

b) cotton, though, keeps it all running
    the most important crop in the world
    the capital that built the new railroads and the new factories


c) I say the key change was  actually that markets were created simply by transportation

 



2) Possibilities that didnt work


a) Roads

 

gravel/drainage ditch/reduce grades with cuts and fills

but cant take COMMERCE

”the plank road” boom and bust

     came from Russia—but moist soil in midwest!

     20 year disaster

no solution until 20th century and hard-surface roads

 

 

b) So canals are the crucial invention

 

Can take commerce

what “canals” actually are

     4 feet (!) deep

     sometimes not even a “tow path”

          just poles!


The example of the Erie Canal is b/c it MADE a market revolution


Besides Erie:

     Illinois and Michigan

Miss Valley To Great Lakes at Chicago!


The greatest “capital” expansion of the time

     $60m in 3 years of 1835-1837

          part of the bust

     States actually lost their credit status!


Ends by 1840 but will be kept in existence for 20-30 more


c) Canals work b/c of steamboats on the rivers

 

Fulton—1807 (guess which river?)

The New Orleans on the Ohio & Miss. In 1811

     750 boats by 1855

 

Flat-bottomed w/huge superstructures

Coal-fired by 1840s

     Huge boiler explosions common

     Westerners stayed with high pressure anyways


Ends by 1860 but lingers for 30 more

 

 

3) ALL replaced by the “urban geography creator”

 

a) Developed in Britain by 1825

     But by 1840 US has 2x all of Europe. Why?

     Made for US

          Vast space & Cheap Land

          English paid more for land than America on

               everything


b) Deserves its image as symbol of capitalism

     Rivers are symbols for older merchant capitalism

 

 

c) 2 major gauges

     4 feet 8½ in NE—English gauge

     5 feet in south

11 gauges in 1860

     8 changes between Charleston and Philly

N&S connect at only 1 point in Ky. (Bowling Green)

 

 

d) Much of the capital was public    

     This is where Jacksonians charge trouble!

Much was foreign— especially British

     A quarter by 1853

 

e) Triumph by 1860—Commerce can take place now

    Timing of the Civil War coincidence? i say no




4) The changes


a) First Changes—Freight Rates

 

1816—1 ton to move and $9 to pay

     3000 miles on the Atlantic

     30 miles internally

This is why no domestic economy and a resource for Europe

 

 

By 1860—95% reduction

So that by value in 1860

     $687m in foreign trade

    

     $525 on Erie Canal/RRs from NY west

     $500m on the Great Lakes

     $185m to New Orleans

 

b) Second Change—Commodity Prices

 

Equalized

     Corn and wheat are roughly similar

          Chicago/Cincy

               To

          New York/New Orleans

 

Sign of integrated, modern capitalism

MANY MARKETS BECOME ONE MARKET

HELLO MODERN WORLD!