I am going to tell you about the 3 economic/political policies of the British that led to the American Revolution. So, the first reason for the American Revolution to begin was a very strict policy of the British Empire towards colonies, particularly, the restriction of commerce to the limits of internal trade; the colonies should have imported a greater number of goods from England. The second policy is the stamp act (1765), which presupposed that some tax should be paid when transmitting some documents. The third policy consisted in the change of governors and adoption of laws that fitted the colonies’ needs.
Alexander Hamilton is considered one of the major architects of American Capitalism, because he was one of the Founding Fathers, “he sent reports to Congress on the public credit and on the national bank. Hamilton argued that if the nation was to grow and prosper, its credit would have to be sound to encourage both foreign and domestic investment” (Ketcham 1). He offered a suggestion “to pay the nation’s debts in full and also to assume the unpaid debts of the various states” (Ketcham 1), and that “a national bank [should] be established to help the federal government manage the nation’s trade and finance”.
Now I am going to discuss 3 major examples of the Transportation Revolution in the early 19th century. Henry Clay had brought revolutionary technologies and decisions into the system of transportation with help of engaging federal funds. Thus the first example is that with the help of the new system of railroads the goods could be transferred to the customers; and it took less time and costs than if moved by the canal systems.
The second example is that railroads were no longer tied to different water sources, such as rivers and canals in order to begin construction of the new lines of transportation, which made them more reliable. And the third example is that a great number of state authorities were selling the public lands even without the agreement of people and bought some amount of shares in railroad companies with the money from the State Treasury.
The Supreme Court of the United States of America made a decision in order to support the concept of free enterprises and to protect the contracts in the years before the American Civil War. Thus the maintenance of free enterprise became a profitable and secured deal, as the decision of the Supreme Court was legal and the citizens had to follow it. The decision also presupposed the protection of contracts, namely, rights and freedoms of workers, the working conditions, the wages, and different compensations; but now people knew their rights and had an opportunity to defend them.
Before the American Civil War the Southern regions were developing slower than the Northern ones, because there was no ground for the establishment of an industrial economy. The economy of the South was based on the principles of slavery, labour of slaves was free of charge and it did not involve further expenses on the machinery, education of working staff, modernization of technical equipment. The inhabitants of the South got used to their way of life and did not want to change anything, thus they did not want industrial revolution as it would involve collapse of their economy based on labour of slaves.
The example of technological advancement and creative entrepreneurship involved with the expansion of the American railroads in the late 19th century consists in the improvement of locomotive technology. Thus trains became longer and weighted much heavier, cars for passengers were getting larger, first became longer, and then wider as their suspensions improved. Some cars were built for American use, other for European, thus the ones for European use had some slight differences from the American cars; thereby there were side door compartments, while American cars had a single pair of doors.
The difference between the Robber Baron theory and the Industrial Statesmen in regard to the rise of Big Business in the United States consists in that the robber baron was considered a leading American whose business was really enormous. This stereotype rose from the previous relations towards workers, and now people thought successful businessmen to be cruel. These businessmen opposed unionization. Thus robber baron was a rich businessman who earned his money on other people’s suffering; and the industrial statesman was a businessman who involved progress and did not oppose unionization.
The example of how J. P. Morgan prevented economic disaster in his career as the country’s most important financial capitalist consists in that Morgan took over troubled businesses to reorganize it in order to reach profitability. He had a reputation of a financier and a banker, and when in 1893 there appeared the great Panic Morgan was asked by the President to create his own syndicate on Wall Street to have a chance to give a great sum of gold to the U.S. Treasury. Thus J. P. Morgan prevented economic disaster.
Theodore Roosevelt’s position on the role of the federal government as it impacted American business was as follows, “We demand that big business give the people a square deal; in return we must insist that when anyone engaged in big business honestly endeavors to do right he shall himself be given a square deal” (Roosevelt 1). Thus Roosevelt supported the development of big business on the basis of square deal, which involved legal regulations of all kinds of relations between business organizations and the federal government.
The AFL succeeded as the country’s major labor union in the late 19th/early 20th century, because it was one of the first labour unions on the federal territory. The American Federation of Labour was an organization with a decentralized system; it recognized the self-dependence of each of its members of the national unions of workers. From the very beginning the AFL made emphasis on the importance of skills for workers being members of this union. The union’s task was to provide certain help for its members. Thus the wages became higher after the union interfered into the business of its members, and the working day became shorter and from now it consisted of less quantity of hours, there appeared the compensation for workmen on the basis of the union’s work, the government employees enjoyed an 8-hr day; the lawfulness of child labor was under the question; one more advantage that was provided by unions was the release from antitrust legislation.
The impact of the Progressive Movement on tariff, banking, and immigration was very perceptible. The American business became supportive of the regulation of the American economy, because it had a wide range of privileges granted by the governmental acts, decisions of the Supreme Court and other regulatory documents. The business became an essential part of the society as it presupposed not only supply but also demand of goods, produced by American companies, thus the American society became the society of consumers. And one of the major roles in this fact belongs to Henry Ford who moved America to a nation of consumers by producing more goods than demanded.
Works Cite
Ketcham, Ralph. “Alexander Hamilton”. The American Revolution Homepage. 2004. Ronald W. McGranahan. Web.
Roosevelt, Theodore. Letter to Sir Edward Gray, 1913.