Industrial Revolutions occur with the invention of new machinery that facilitates working conditions and in turn will change a nation’s way of life. A series of sub revolutions take place and the final outcome is drastic. The first American Industrial Revolution is no different; it will forever alter the United States economy between 1815 and 1850. An economy once based solely on agriculture will totally change and become one based on industry and trade of finished goods.

Profit drives everything, so basic economic forces take place and 3 ways to increase profit appear. In order to increase profit more buyers are needed, a cheaper way to produce and a way to make more products are needed. Hamilton’s economic plan, as well as the Federalist and Republican plans, is successful in generating cash for the economy. The profits are coming from bonds issued to US citizens and taxes on imported goods that are also being made on United States soil thus promoting national sales over international sales. This is the very beginning of the first of 4 sub revolutions the commercial revolution.

The war of 1812 made the nation aware of a need for better roads to transport troops and materials

Before now skilled artisans made all the goods. An artisan has complete control over the trade; he is the one that teaches the young the skill. They become journeyman and then apprentices. All the products were completely hand made and generated for the local markets. Once new trade areas opened up with new transportation artisans began looking for new ways to increase their output and sell to new markets. Several ideas emerged. The “putting out system” was the first. The concept was to buy extra raw materials and have farmers in the fields put together the initial stages of production. This called for a big initial investment and problems emerged. Quality control became an issue, and production control. Just because the farmer agreed to assemble a certain amount of product didn’t mean he would come trough, he had his crops to tend to. These problems added cost to production, and a demand for more skilled craftsman was still needed to complete the final stages of production. The Putting out system did not satisfy the demand for product. The next solution was factories. Large work shops with power driven machines were workers would be supervised to control quality and production and a small amount of skilled labor could easily show unskilled labor what to do. The “Rhode Island System” emerged. The concept is go were the labor is, build large factories there. This proves to be impractical, there wasn’t the needed rivers to power the large plants exactly were the labor was, the land often was not suitable for construction. Farmers only worked trough the winter in the factories because in the summer they had their crops to tend to. Though the idea produced goods made at reasonable prices overall the system proved ineffective. It is the “Waltham System” the idea that revolutionizes industry. Bring the workers to the factories. Build the factories were it is ideal to build, recruit women from farms to live in factory dorms. Women loved it; it was independence and financial freedom as well as a second income for a household. Farmer’s wives and daughters were sent to work. In the beginning this was great but the women wanted a less rigid structure. Pro

Some topics in this essay:
West West, National Bank, Island System”, North West, Federalist Republican, Samuel Slator’s, Industrial Revolution, Witt Eli’s, Buffalo Railroads, Robert Fulton’s, sub revolution, industrial revolution, transportation sub, transportation sub revolution, american industrial revolution, american industrial, finished products, unskilled labor, weaving plants, farmers merchants, build factories, raw materials,