I.  From moral economy to market economy

• During 17th and 18th centuries, most Americans had stood along the edge of the market economy
• market economy based on producing goods and crops for market
• most Americans did not produce primarily for market--only along navigable waterways did you find many people growing crops to sell
• Moral economy (aka pre-capitalist economy)
• During this period (and even later in some parts of the country), people lived in interdependent communities
• They grew crops for their own subsistence
• Traded goods and labor with neighbors
• sort of a personal credit system (not a true barter)
• in New England, people frequently kept diaries or account books with detailed accounts of these transactions
• although people kept close track of who owed what, they would forgive debts for those in too deep
• Any surplus crops or products--especially high value farm products such as whiskey, maple sugar, botash, and salted beef or pork--would be sent to market for cash or used to pay bills or taxes
• labor and products of both men and women critical to household in this type of economy
• in this moral economy, men and women had different duties
• Women were responsible for the keeping up the inside of the house, cooking, food preservation, gardens, poultry, dairy animals, and making textiles (carding, spinning, weaving, dyeing, quilting, sewing, and mending)
• men attended the field crops, livestock, bubildings, firewood, hunting and fishing, and repairing buildings
• basically two family economies, one managed by the husband and the other by the wife
• Martha Ballard diary
• who is Martha Ballard
• moved to Maine in late 1780s with her husband Ephraim
• she was midwife to the town of Hallowell
• left a diary that recorded her daily transactions
• household economy
• she baked and brewed, pickled and preserved, made soap and dipped candles, spun and wove cloth
• also served as a trusted healer and midwife--in 25 years she delivered nearly 1,000 babies
• her (and her daughters') labors formed a critical element of their households' economy
• visiting--women's community based on their work
• In the early 19th century, shift away from moral economy began
• people began to grow crops and produce goods for the marketplace
• money received from these sales went to purchase goods produced by other people
• system encourages specialization
•  Factors leading to change
• Specialization of labor
• Industrialization
• Early industry
• clothing industry one of first branches of economy to switch to factories
• during 18th century, people wore clothes they made at home--from either imported fabric or from homespun
• wealthy person might have a tailor make individual clothes
• Early mills
• putting-out system--women would receive thread from mill owners, then turn it into finished cloth--subtle yet important change--no longer making cloth for self, but for market
• other mills frequently had tailors oversee the operation, journeymen cut the fabric, fabric panels would be put out to women working at home who sewed seams, then returned to mill (or shop) for finishing
• beginning in 1790, some early mills began to rely on water-powered spinning machines constructed from British models
• Waltham System (Lowell, Mass.)
• In 1813 the Boston Manufacturing Company constructed the first American power loom (water-powered) just outside of Boston
• Led by Francis Cabot Lowell, it was a well capitalized firm, allowing it to build large factory
• Combined all elements of the manufacturing process--spinning, weaving, and cutting--in one factory, thus eleminating problems associated with putting-out system
• produced cloth so inexpensive that many women in area began to purchase cloth rather than make it themselves--took less time and effort
•  Eli Whitney and interchangeable parts
• developed the concept of using precision machinery to produce interchangeable parts--parts that could be switched without extra filing or fitting
• needed precise machine tools to produce these parts
• first real applications came in 1820s with the making of armaments--Springfield and Harper's Ferry arsenals
• began to import machine tools to Europe--describe testing of rifles (taking parts from different crates)
• Steam power
• changed manufacturing completely
• no longer did mills have to be next to streams
• did not come about until 1840s and easy transportation of coal
• Technology
• Transportation
• roads
• canals
• Erie Canal--first really successful canal
• In 1817, Gov. DeWitt Clinton persuades N.Y. state legislature to finance the canal project
• work was completed 1825 for $7 million
• connected New York City with Great Lakes and midwestern states
• cut freight rates (from $100 to an avg. of $9 per ton) and travel time
• so popular that had to be widened and deepened (carried $15 million per year)
• Canal building spread rapidly in following years
• Many canals failed
• either bad ideas, or
• underfunded
• railroads
• began in U.S. around 1830
• by 1850, 9,000 miles of track laid, mostly in northeastern U.S.--10 years later over 30,000 miles
• most lines failed to connect with one another
• provided a year-round, all-weather system of transportation
• steamships
• water transportation remained important
• cheapest way to transport large bulk of goods, especially if close to waterways
• first steamship in 1807, gradually began to replace sailing ships
• Telegraph
• early 1840s, Samuel Morse introduces telegraph
• by 1860, 50,000 miles of telegraph line laid down.
• speeded communications--gave rise to modern journalism
• Urbanization
• entrepot and hinterlands
• NYC as entrepot for U.S.
• Explain how cities develop--point to Savannah
• hinterlands
• Urban centers also provided centers for financing
• banking and credit
• investors
• Migration
• first wave--1840s and the Irish
• lack of employment in Ireland
• 1846--potato famine
• 1850s--increased German immigration--1848 revolution
• Internal migration
• gradual movement of people from countryside to cities

people in cities moved frequently--1/2 of Boston's population changed every 10 years
• Corporations--from legislative charters to general charters
• Government investment in business
• Federal government limited its investment in business ventures
• State governments played an active role in investing in transportation systems and in the banking industry
• Life in factories
• Cyclical nature of market economy
• Economy went through cycles of boom and bust
• Caused severe hardships, especially for factory workers
• Unemployment was way of life for most--average worker usually unemployed at least part of the year
• Mill Girls
• Lowell factories deemed a model of using young women for factory work
• Lowell designed a "model" community--courtyards, secure dormitories for girls to live in, prepared meals, religious exercises, etc.
• many women came straight from the farms of New England, frequently with other female relatives or friends from home
• most only worked for a few years, then left to get married
• Mill owners begin to seek more from their employees for less
• competition for jobs became stiff
• speedup and stretch-out
• wage cuts
• workplace begins to become depersonalized
• Birth of labor movement
• conflict between skilled laborers (journeymen, etc.) and owners of factories
• National Trades Union--founded in 1834
• successful for about five years
• fell apart when jobs became scarce during business downturn in early 1840s
• organized labor had little impact before the Civil War
• Reemphasize that this shift in economic system and in work habits is gradual, and is just really beginning in the decades before the Civil War--most Americans still live in small communities as farmers