This chapter examines the economic transformation that occurred during the quarter-century after 1815 and traces the connection between this process and the changes in American values and culture. The career of Chauncey Jerome illustrates many of the chapter's themes. The new market society depended on a stricter sense of time, and by providing inexpensive, mass-produced clocks and aggressively marketing them in the United States and even around the world, Jerome gained fame and wealth. However, the ups and downs of his career also demonstrated how fleeting success could be in the new boom-and-bust economy, as Jerome lost everything near the end of his life and died in poverty.

The National Market Economy

The development of widespread markets transformed the nature of economic opportunity in the United States, a change in which government played an important role. After 1815, Congress enacted a program of "new nationalism," including a protective tariff, a national bank, and federal aid for internal improvements, which primarily meant the development of canals, steamboats, and eventually railroads. The resulting transportation revolution stimulated economic growth by enabling producers to transport goods cheaply over land for the first time. The Supreme Court under John Marshall furthered this trend by adopting a pro-business stance that encouraged investment and risk-taking. Corporations became an increasingly important form of business organization to which the courts offered special legal protections and encouragements.

A People in Motion

Economic expansion generated social and intellectual change. Eager to succeed in the new competitive markets, Americans became a restless people, driven by dreams of wealth and haunted by fears of failure. During this period, they moved constantly, pouring steadily westward or flocking to the burgeoning cities in search of opportunity. The majority of new western settlers were farmers, but speculators bought much of the available land, inciting a boom and bust cycle that caused prices to swing up and down with the economy. At the same time, significant cities developed in not just the older regions of the country, but in the West as well.

The Rise of Factories

As markets developed, entrepreneurs reorganized their operations to increase production. For the first time, factories emerged in the United States, beginning in the textile industry. Eventually the owners combined all operations (from opening the cotton bales to weaving the cloth) on one site, with the work done largely by machines tended by semi-skilled operators. Lowell, Massachusetts, became the center of the textile industry and the symbol of this new mode of production. Factory work imposed a new discipline, oriented around the clock and strict schedules, on previously rural residents. In other sectors of the economy, the manufacturers reorganized the production process without machinery. The shoe industry, for example, broke production down into a series of steps, with workers performing only a single repetitive task, though all of the work was still done by hand until the 1850s. Convinced that labor was losing its traditionally respected status, workers increasingly protested against these changes by organizing unions, issuing political demands, and going on strike. The union movement flourished briefly in the 1830s, only to disintegrate during the depression that began in 1839.

Social Structures of the Market Society

As opportunities for profit expanded, wealth became more unequally distributed in American society. The rich became richer and controlled a larger proportion of the nation's total wealth. Nevertheless, the belief in opportunity and social mobility remained widespread. In reality, while white Americans still had the opportunity to improve their status, actual social mobility became more limited in this period. In addition, status increasingly came to depend upon wealth, rather than family ties or education. As a result, Americans frantically pursued material goods and success. The workings of the market revolution appeared in many of the changes occurring in American society, including the separation of commercial and residential areas of Kingston, New York, and the consequent division of those residential areas based on economic class; the development of commercial agriculture in Sugar Creek, Illinois; and the careers of mountain men, who entered the fur trade hoping to achieve wealth and status back home.

Prosperity and Anxiety

Prosperity also brought anxiety, as Americans feared economic downturns that were beyond the control of individuals would plunge their families into poverty. After 1815 the economy lurched forward in fits and starts, often in response to events in other countries, so wealth never seemed permanent or secure. Americans increasingly looked to government to relieve economic distress. Once again, social change precipitated political change.