Five Factors of Industrialization

Factor #1 (Land) land refers not just to surface (acreage) for farms, factories, and transport. What is on and under the land, especially minerals, is important. Large deposits of raw materials helped American industry develop. The early railroads and canals brought iron, coal, copper, and steel to the developing industrial cities like Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Cleveland.

Factor #2 (Labor) Labor is the human element of industrialization. Many hands were needed in the early factories. Mechanizing farms in the early mid-19th century freed up some labor to go into the factories, but foreign shores were the chief source of labor. Immigrants provided he muscle for the factories. The human factor also included the entrepreneurs, or people, who arranged financing, organized workers and material, operated, and assumed the rich for business firms. Most were honest and energetic, some were ruthless, and a few were dishonest. The entrepreneurs of this age, however, had vision and talent. They thought and acted on a large scale, and drew together the forces that made the United States and industrial giant by the beginning of the 20th century.

Factor #3 (Capital) Capital is the money, productive machinery, and the factories themselves. Capital is the means that allows labor to process materials into products. Before the Civil War, small American factories could not produce enough excess profits to finance large expansion. Most of the funding for early railroads and canals came from European investors. During the Civil War, demand for arms and supplies by the government provided capital for expansion. Banks risked money to finance new companies. More important, thousands of investors bought small shares (stocks) in new corporations and received dividends for their effort. Once the new factories were built and connected to markets, corporations began producing on a large scale. Profits were made and reinvested.

Factor # 4 (Connections) Connections are key elements in industrial development. Transportation links raw materials, producers, and consumers. Communication includes the postal system and telegraphs that carry messages among suppliers of raw materials, producers, and consumers. Economists call the combined network of transportation and communication infrastructure. It is the foundation and framework of economic growth. The waterways, roads, canals, bridges, and railroads that developed in the early and middle 19th century provided the vita links for industrialization. Civil War demand stimulated organization of the different types of transportation into a functional system, especially for the North. The first telephone system in the 1870’s connected Salem and Boston in Massachusetts, Chicago and Milwaukee. By 1880, there were 148 new telephone companies. In the 1890’s long distance lines connected New York and Chicago. A call could be made across the country by 1915.

Factor #5 (Technology) technology is the application of science to industrial or commercial uses. In the 19th century America moved from simple water and steam power for machinery toward turbines, internal combustion engines, and electricity. Thousands of inventions in the 19th century helped to mechanize and refine manufacturing processes, making hem more efficient and raising productivity. Background: To grow on a significant scale, industrialization needs several key elements. They are land, labor, capital, technology and connections. Without a generous supply of these basic elements and the ability to organize them, a people cannot develop into an industrial society.

Impact on Factor Summary Industrialization

 Space Westward expansion afforded the United States the space LAND  Natural Resources and raw materials needed for production

Immigrants make up a large  Leadership percentage of the work forces

LABOR  Workers Entrepreneurs take risks and create needed capital for industrialization

Entrepreneurs “incorporate” to  Refers to the money raise $ and build factories CAPITAL and the factories themselves Government invests $ in industrial ventures (Railroads) The creation of the Erie Canal  Roads and the transcontinental  Canals railroads allow goods to be  Railroads shipped faster and cheaper. CONNECTIONS  telegraph Telegraph allows for faster communication between buyers and sellers

 Assembly line and TECHNOLOGY  application of science Bessemer process to industrial uses allow good to be produced faster and cheaper than ever.