Growth and Expansion
Mid 1700s
In the mid 1700s, people started building machines, like factories (mills), machines, and ports to make money, as well as save time.
A man named Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin which helped the picking of cotton happen faster, causing cotton production to increase rapidly.
At this time, ideas were being stolen, so a patent law was created to stop inventors ideas from being taken from them.
Samuel Slater was a man who brought textile secrets over from England to America.
Free Enterprise is a type of economy in which people are free to buy, sell, and produce whatever they want.
A man named Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin which helped the picking of cotton happen faster, causing cotton production to increase rapidly.
At this time, ideas were being stolen, so a patent law was created to stop inventors ideas from being taken from them.
Samuel Slater was a man who brought textile secrets over from England to America.
Free Enterprise is a type of economy in which people are free to buy, sell, and produce whatever they want.
Capitalism is a system in which money or other items, such as machines or buildings, are used to create wealth.
In the early 1800s, many New Englanders worked in factories. In the land north of the Ohio river, the land supported a thriving agriculture. From 1790 through 1820, cotton production increased 3,000 to 300,000 The effect of cotton production increasing meant that the number of slaves increased as well. From 1790 to 1810, the number of enslaved workers increased from 700,000 to 1.2 million. Robert Fulton created/built the first steamboat that made shipping goods cheaper and faster. Henry Clay petitioned for higher tariffs, a national bank, and internal improvements, but Congress spent little money on it at first. |
Small investors needed to make money somehow, so they invested in building new business.
During this time period, there were low taxes, minimum government regulations, private property, and competition that encouraged the free enterprise system. Large corporations sold stocks and had many owners. Congress approved funds for a national road to be built to the west in 1806 and turnpikes, otherwise known as toll roads were built to pay for the price of building this national road. In 1816, Congress approved the creation of a new bank, in which James Madison signed the bill. This bank brought stability and helped relieve the problem of the previous bank which had made too many loans, causing prices to go up extremely, which resulted in there being less you could buy with a dollar. The tariff of 1816 was passed to protect American manufacturers from high foreign taxes. The tariff acts of 1818 and 1824 angered Southerners. The charter for the first national bank of the United States expired in 1811. McCulloch v Maryland was a court case in 1819, that declared that the state couldn’t tax the bank. A monopoly is an economic term that in which in a market, there is only one provider. |