POLI 100K, Railroads and American Politics: Topic 8, Railroads and Industrialization

Employment and Manufacturing: 1840 - 1920

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1. Urbanization – By 1920 more people lived in urban areas (2500 or more inhabitants) than in rural areas (less than 2500 inhabitants).
   
   
   
   
2. Employment – Railroads were the single largest employer before World War I. Agriculture employment peaks in 1910 and declines thereafter.
   
   
   
   
3. Manufacturing – By 1914 the U.S. accounted for 36 percent of the manufactured goods in the World. The pace of industrialization was so rapid in the U.S. that the index of manufacturing doubled between 1900 and 1914. Another measure of manufacturing is value added. This is defined as the difference between the value of the manufactured good minus the cost of materials, energy, and contract work (but not depreciation and taxes). Robert Gallman, an economic historian, has calculated that value added increased by a factor of six between 1869 and 1899.