At the beginning of the 19th century, America’s fast and early economic growth was caused by a combination of factors, including unique geographical, cultural, and economic conditions. These conditions influenced modes of production through goals and belief systems. American society achieved stable forms of production and growth, provided important cases for thinking about the relations of modes of production.
David Landes underlines that culture has a great impact on economic growth of the country and its development. For North America, culture became a turning point in economic growth generated by unique puritan values and beliefs, labor relations and perception of wealth and money. “Latin American scholars and outside sympathizers explained the failure of Latin American development, all the worse by contrast with North America, as the consequence of the misdeeds of stronger, richer nations” (Landes 3).
They were set up primarily in response to the need for labor to conquer a continental wilderness and lay the basis for a new economic society. Nor was the dominant ideology appreciably affected by the novel and radical doctrines that penetrated the intellectual barriers of the nation in the early twentieth century, as the shift in the tide of immigration carried in millions of strange faces and strange tongues from the South and East of Europe. Following Gordon “But mercantilism coincided with powerful economic self-interests among merchants and manufacturers who wanted protection from foreign competition” (Gordon 41).
This craving for social recognition helped to break down old tabus against cosmopolitan culture The enrichment of personal living through enjoyment of the beautiful had long been thought unmanly or immoral, thus the population demanded luxury goods and lifestyle. “Americans were quickly ceasing to think of themselves as colonial dependents of a mother country. Clear sign of that is the growing production of luxury goods in the colonies” (Gordon 52, 48).
Another important factor was lesser dependant upon England and slavery. Gordon states that “increased as the fear of rebellion and the economic necessity to get more work out of the slaves increased” (20). These processes shaped the sense of unity and cooperation between diverse populations. When apprised that the prevailing enthusiasm for personal liberty held grave dangers for the larger cause of independence, state officials wrung their hands and said there was little they could do about it.
Religion, as a part of culture, influenced the land and its economic growth. “To the honor of Almighty God, the enlarging of Christian religion, and to the augmentation and revenue of the general plantation in that country, and the particular good and profit” (Gordon 10). Meanwhile the states went about their affairs in their own ways. They enacted legislation to regulate commerce, raised tariff barriers against one another, and engaged in lively trade wars with their neighbors.
The masses of the people were still hungry for religion, for a vital, personal religion that would touch them directly and deeply. Mainly was this true of the shopkeepers and artisans, the less successful farmers, and former redemptioners who had found no place in colonial society. North America ”exploited [its] superiority to transfer product from the dependent economies, much as the earlier colonial rulers did. The pump of empire becomes the pump of capitalist imperialism” (Landes 3).
In sum, early economic growth was forced by unique cultural traditions based on a combination of religious and national factors, economic relations with Britain and a new culture of consumption.
Works Cited
- Gordon, J. S. An Empire of Wealth: The Epic History of American Economic Power. New York: Harper Collins, 2004.
- Landes, D. S. Culture Makes almost all the difference. In L. E. Harrison & S. P. Huntington (Eds.), Culture Matters: How Values shape Human Progress 2000, pp. 2-13.