| Badassbab said: Keeping to your original topic which is to say 19th century US Economy post Civil War (since that's when the economy took off and presumably this is the period you are talking about)- Geography- Mass arable farming land and one of the best interconnected navigable rivers in the world so low transport investment required. Some of the worlds best natural habours and all year round warm water ports. Barrier islands protects US coasts from bad weather. Pacific and Atlantic protected it from the major land armies of Europe. Peace with Canada and Mexico meant no large standing armies required to the north or south despite the long borders. Natural resources- Huge reserves of coal, oil, iron, timber and the aforementioned farmland greatly helped 19th century US economy boom. State directed investment in building railroads transported coal and other resources across the country. Protectionism- The US employed the highest import tariffs in it's history to protect it's domestic manufacturing base from cheaper foreign imports. Only once did they become competitive on the world market did it lower the tarrifs. E.g the average tarriff during 1870 was 44.6%, today it's less than 2%. |
Yes, fantastic, you listed the US's natural resources, and protectionist policies. The point of my post clearly went over your head, though.
