Industrialization - The Growth of Industry

Increase in the Size of Industrial Establishments
(Number of workers per average establishment)

 

1860

1900

Agricultural implements 

8

65

Cotton goods

112

287

Iron and steel

65

333

Paper

15

65

Shipbuilding

15

42

Meatpacking 

20

61

Tobacco  

30

67


Questions for Discussion

  1. Why do you think the size of industrial establishments grew after the Civil War?
  2. What difference might this make to the lives of employees?

 

Increasing Industrial Output, 1870-1910

 

Coal

Steel

1870

20 million tons

850 million tons

1890

111 million tons

6,746 million tons

1910

417 million tons

24,216 million tons


 

Value added per worker (in 1879 dollars)

 

Agriculture

Manufacturing and Mining

1870

$256

$521

1900

$358

$984

increase

43%

76%


Questions for Discussion

  1. Why do you think industrial output increased so rapidly in the late 19th century?
  2. Which increased more rapidly--value added per worker in agricultural or in manufacturing and mining? Why?

 

Value added per worker (in 1879 dollars)

 

Agriculture

Manufacturing and Mining

1870

53 percent

33 percent

1900

33 percent

58 percent


Questions For Discussion

  1. In what sense is the United States an industrial nation by 1900?
  2. What public policy implications might this have?

Metadata

Era: The Rise of Industrial America, 1877-1900
Sub Era: The Gilded Age
Theme: Economics
Curriculum Subject: Economics, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math
Keywords: agriculture, Closing the Western Frontier

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