The decline of household production and the rise in craftshops, mills, and factories dramatically changed the structure and location of manufacturing. By 1860, the total manufacturing labor force was nearly 1,530,000 (compared with almost 5,880,000 in agriculture). More than 96 percent of those engaged in manufacturing worked in 10 industries. These 10 industries are ranked in Table 10.1 by value added (value of total product minus raw material costs). Cotton goods ranked at the top, having grown from infancy 50 years earlier. Lumbering was a close second to cotton textiles. Looking now at ranking by number of employees, boots and shoes (third by value added) was the top employer, and men’s clothing (fifth by value added) was nearly tied with cotton goods as the next highest employer. If iron products and machinery had been combined in a single category, their value added would have been the highest. Between 1850 and 1860, the doubling of the output of primary iron products and machinery forecast the shape of America’s industrial future.
The leading regions. The figures for the Midwest reflect in part the rapid antebellum industrial growth of the Ohio Valley and the burgeoning of the Chicago area.
During the period from 1810 to 1860, the total value of manufactures increased from about $200 million to just under $2 billion, or roughly tenfold. Farming was still in first place as a means of earning a livelihood: The value added by manufacture in 1860 was markedly less than the value of three of America’s major crops—corn, wheat, and hay— and capital investment in industry totaled less than one-sixth the value of farm land and buildings. Even then, however, the United States was second only to Great Britain in manufacturing.49 Soon it would be the world’s industrial leader as well as its agricultural leader. How was this remarkable achievement accomplished?
World History
