that it included everything except agriculture and the professions. The Census of 1820 reported 14 per cent of the population engaged in manufacturing and mechanical industries. The shift in the importance of agriculture, manufacturing, and mining since 1850 is shown in the preceding table. In 1900, the value added by manufacture first exceeded the value of agricultural products. However, it was not until 1920 that the gainfully employed in manufacturing exceeded those in agriculture. The occupation distributions in 1910 and 1920 were as follows: Occupation A Agriculture Manufacturing and Mining Trade and Transportation Other b Total United States Bureau of the Census, Fourteenth Census: Occupations. Washington, 1923. Includes persons employed in public service, professions, domestic and personal service, and clerical work. The United States produces an extraordinary variety of agricultural products. The opening of vast areas of land since 1850 caused a westward migration of farmers. The available supply of the more desirable land has been so diminished that, since 1900, further additions to the farm area have been at a much slower rate. The outstanding products are cereal grains and cotton. Each dominates a section of the country. They are important as export commodities. The leading crops in order of acreage are corn, wheat, oats, and cotton; in order of value, corn, cotton, wheat, and oats. American wheat reaches the market beginning with July; cotton beginning with August. One explanation of the rapid economic development of the United States is doubtless its vast natural resources. Not only is there fertile soil, but all important mineral products except tin are found in large deposits. In its output of coal, iron, lead, and copper, the United States leads the world. It also ranks first in petroleum. The industrial awakening of the United States proceeded at first at a much slower rate than did that of England, and the factory system really gained its first foothold during the years of embargo and the War of 1812. Further aid came from the first protective tariff, that of 1816. The manufacture of cotton and wool passed rapidly from the household to the mill; but the methods of domestic and neighborhood industry, even in these lines of manufacture, continued to predominate down to and including the decade between 1820 and 1830. It was not until 1840 that the factory method of manufacture penetrated to any considerable degree into widely varied industries, but it then began to force from the market the handmade products with which the community had hitherto supplied itself. By 1899, there were 207,514 establishments with 4,712,763 wageearners. In 1920, the number of establishments had increased to 290,105, with 9,096,372 employees. Their activities are extremely varied, though the textile and iron and steel industries each recorded twice as many wage-earners as any other general group of industry. In a country the size of the United States, the development of adequate transportation facilities is a matter of great importance. Numerous canals have been built, and the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River furnish excellent waterways. Moreover, railroad development has been such that, in 1920, the United States possessed 36 per cent of the mileage of the world. The expansion has been as follows: Prior to 1890, December 1; 1890 and thereafter, July 1. "United States Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, Statistical Abstract, 1923. Washington, 1924. Switching and terminal companies excluded, 1910 and 1920. The period of most rapid expansion of railroads was the 1880's. The rate of increase at the present time is very slight. Foreign trade plays a less important part in the economic life. of the United States than in that of most other countries. Estimates made by the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce place the proportion of goods actually exported to those which might have been exported at 9.6 per cent in 1914 and 8.5 per cent in 1923.1 The significant changes in the nature of the exports and imports during the last hundred years are shown in the following table: Yearly Average b Total Per Cent of Total Value * ManuFinished Crude Crude factured Semi-manu- ManuMaterials Foodstuffs Foodstuffs factures factures "United States Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, Statistical Abstract, 1921, and Commerce Yearbook, 1924, Washington. b Beginning with 1915, foreign trade figures were for calendar years, previously for years ending June 30. Domestic exports only. The notable changes in importance among the various groups have been, in imports, the increase in crude materials, such as silk and rubber, and the decline in the shipments of manufactured goods from other countries; in exports, the decrease in relative importance of crude materials, and marked increase in the sale of domestic manufactured goods in foreign markets. At all times, cotton has been the leading export, government records indicating that generally about two-thirds of the crop is shipped to foreign markets. Since the Civil War, foreign trade has claimed about one-fourth of the wheat crop each year. Leading imports, in order of importance in 1924, were sugar, silk, coffee, rubber, and newsprint paper. Leading exports were cotton, refined mineral oil, wheat and flour, automobiles, and machinery. Until the 1870's, imports generally exceeded exports. Since then, the balance has been usually favorable. 1 The banking system of the United States has passed through United States Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, Trade Information Bulletin No. 387, Washington, 1925. many phases. Prior to the establishment of the National Banking System in 1862, two attempts had been made by the government to dominate the individual banks by means of a state bank, but currency and credit remained in the hands of private banks, and the money market was chaotic. The establishment of national banks introduced a degree of government supervision. It was not until the establishment of the Federal Reserve System in 1914, however, that the banks were brought into a unified system. The Federal Reserve Banks act as bankers' banks, and also control the currency to a large degree through the issue of Federal Reserve notes. The earliest recorded depression in America came in New England in 1640, and followed a period of ten years of rapid growth. The severity of the early recession is described by Dr. Clark as follows: "When the check came, there was a sudden and disastrous fall in prices of land, produce and American commodities. Cattle a year previously worth $100, could not be sold for a fourth or fifth that sum, land was a drug on the market, and there was nothing to exchange for the foreign manufactures that still arrived." The various colonies had independent periods of depression, but that which began at the end of the seventeenth century and continued into the eighteenth was felt generally. In 1750, a money panic caused a severe crisis in New England, and depression ensued. John Adams reports: "I am old enough to remember the war of 1745 and its end, the war of 1755 and its close, the war of 1775 and its termination, the war of 1812 and its pacification. Every one of these wars has been followed by a general distress, embarrassments of commerce, destruction of manufactures, fall of the price of produce and lands." The ten years prior to the breaking out of the Revolutionary War were years of economic depression in nearly every colony. During the war, the natural economic activities of the country were of course seriously disrupted. Immediately after the war, in 1783, a short boom ensued, but like most post-war booms, soon collapsed. The depression which followed was most severe in 1785 and 1786. Shays's Rebellion, in 1786, indicates the distress felt in New England. Gradually, improvement appeared, and at the beginning of the annals, in 1790, the United States was approaching prosperity. It should be noted that the annals which follow portray for the 'Clark, Victor S., History of Manufactures in the United States, 1607-1860. Washington, 1916. For an elaborate description, see Osgood, Herbert L., The American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century. 3 vols. New York, 1904-07. very early years chiefly the conditions which prevailed in the New England and Middle Atlantic states. For the years of the Civil War, the records of both the northern and southern states are given. 1790 1791 1792 1793 1794 Revival; prosperity. Rapid and steady increase in activity by summer, except in South; manufacturing expands; foreign trade recovers. Federal government assumes state debts after heated controversy; funding scheme adopted, July. Wheat crop abundant. Rhode Island last state to ratify Constitution, May; unsuccessful Indian War in Northwest, autumn. Prosperity. Increased activity; further expansion in manufacturing; many new projects launched; South depressed; foreign trade growing. Money eases but tightens late in year; United States Bank organized, July; active speculation, especially in bank stock. Poor wheat crop. Disastrous Indian War; ten amendments to the Constitution declared in force, December. Prosperity; financial distress. Continued activity and expansion, little affected by financial difficulties; South depressed; exports increase, marked decrease in imports. Active speculation, especially in United States Bank stock, brings financial crisis and short panic, January; money eases, spring, and speculation again vigorous, autumn. Excellent wheat crop. Washington reëlected without opposition; United States Mint established, April; higher tariff, May; outbreak of Whiskey Rebellion. Prosperity. Continued prosperity; rapid revival in South ascribed to inven- Uneven prosperity. Continued activity despite many unfavorable circumstances; further improvement in South; foreign trade temporarily checked by Embargo, April and May. Culmination of Whiskey Rebellion, Pennsylvania, after calling out of militia; Indian War concluded, autumn; Genet's recall requested. |