The Decline of Household Production

When Alexander Hamilton delivered his Report on Manufacturers to Congress in 1791, he estimated that from two-thirds to four-fifths of the nations clothing was homemade. Most food processing was also done in the home. Water power had not yet been harnessed for textile production and was used mainly for milling grain and cutting lumber, among other uses. Artisans in the towns worked by hand, producing shoes, hats, pots, pans, and tools.

By 1830, however, household manufacture had exhibited a marked decline in the East and, thereafter, home manufacture and small artisan shops serving local markets continued to decline dramatically in all but the least accessible places. The major causes of this decline were the progress of industrial organization and modern means of transportation. Wherever steamboats ran or canals, highways, and railroads were built, home and artisan manufactures declined quickly. Even on the frontier, most households had access to the products of American or European factories after the middle of the nineteenth century. Map 10.1 shows the influence of transportation on homemade versus factory-made manufactures. The shaded areas in the two maps of New York show the counties in the one-third of the state having the highest per capita output of woolen goods made

MAP 10.1

Canal Impact

Household manufacture of woolen cloth (an index of isolation from commercial routes) underwent a drastic change between 1820 and 1845 along the Erie Canal. The shaded areas are the counties in the one-third of the state with the highest home production of woolen goods during this period.

Source: Cole 1926, 280. Reprinted by permission of the publisher; © 1926 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College.

In the home in two different years, 1820 and 1845. Note that, in 1820, no county lying along the Hudson below Albany was in the top third. In 1845, the counties lying along the Erie Canal had similarly dropped in amount of home manufacture. In contrast, as late as 1865, nearly all the country people of Tennessee, especially those living in the mountain areas, wore clothing made at home. Primitive transport prolonged the wearing of homemade clothes. Recall Economic Reasoning Propositions 1, scarcity forces us to make choices; and 2, choices impose costs in Economic Insight 1.1 on page 9.