Name

Professor

Course

Date

Economic or technological change that had the greatest impact on the way Americans thought about freedom in the late 19th century?

Introduction

The market revolution depicts an appropriate label for the 19th century economic transformation that took place in America. The market revolution is the economic change that had the greatest impact on the way Americans thought about freedom in the late 19th century. This recognizes that fundamental changes transpired and that the key to the changes were based within the size and character of the market. The 19th century Market Revolution produced specialization of commodities, providing self-made prosperity to the Americans. Although America was regarded as the fountain of opportunities, immigrants who flooded the nation searching for livelihood were met by oppression and exploitation. The flood of people, in search of jobs generated a prospect for businesses to take advantage of these people. The workplace environment in most places was heinous. This brought about the necessity for organized labor. Workers organized themselves because they supposed there was authority in numbers and most prominently, the working environment was unsafe, and unhygienic. Prior to the beginning of the 19th century Market Revolution, the American government was fundamentally elitist camouflaged as a democracy. Prior to the advent of the market revolution, elitism was tightly embedded in the American society and government.

Purkitt asserts that, while significant new expertise was introduced in a small number of industries, most of the era’s economic development was not associated to new technology. Prior to the market revolution, the majority of manufacturers maintained old methods and tools, and farmers were not gaining from new technologies until around 1850. But whilst the prominence placed on the phrase “market” is suitable, it is similarly significant that we identify the full denotation of the term. The phrase refers to the vivid expansion of the market by means of the construction of canals and roads. But the phrase depicts more than simply an expanded field of exchange. The new approach to market was most radical.

Haycox posits that, previously the majority of Americans took part in neighborhood markets. Regularly labeled pre-capitalist or traditional, these markets were incorporated within a wider web of obligations and associations binding community members as one. Neighbors traded commodities with neighbors, and business was administered by local principles.Eric asserts that, with the accessibility of more lucrative and distant, more people freed themselves from the traditional modes of exchange. Freedom from conventional economic dealings also signified freedom from conventional approaches to people’s sources of income. Producers that previously aimed at offering rational comfort for their families and themselves now thought in relation to maximizing their output. Farmers who had previously planted various crops so as to accomplish self-reliance now focused their labors on generating surpluses that might take full advantage of their monetary returns. Craftsmen who had previously operated tiny shops thought in relation to hiring additional employees so as to increase their sales. In brief, profiteering became more fundamental to the producers and, therefore, gained authenticity as the rationale of economic behavior.

CONCLUSION

The market revolution transformed the approach as well as the goals Americans applied to their labor. It turned farmers and craftsmen into businessmen, and it changed the dealings between buyers and sellers, employees and employers. In short, whereas the market revolution offered new opportunities and better freedom, it also produced great concern. Conventional markets had been restrictive, but they facilitated in anchoring communities and influenced social stability.

Works cited

Eric Foner. Give Me Liberty: An American History, New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2008. Print.

Haycox, Stephen. Alaska: An American Colony. Seattle: University of Washington Press,

2006. Print.

Purkitt, Helen. American History: World Politics. 2009/2010.NY: McGraw Hill, 2003. Print