The invention, innovation, and manufacturing led to industrialization because they played a very vital role in the generation of the products that were demanded and the addition of value to commodities to be reused and advanced to improve the living standards and economic growth. Industrialization resulted in synergies between the agriculture and manufacturing sectors. The United States economy before 1790 was primarily based on agriculture which was used to produce crops for sustenance. Later on, agriculture was considered as “mostly poor quality” by scholars, and so people moved to be employed to workshops like those producing shoes and factories like cotton mills from agriculture (Meyer). Those moving to be employed in these manufactures were women and children with “limited productive possibilities” as the farms had become uneconomical. The place of invention, industrialization and innovation is “central” to American Industrialization and of the course of living standards (Sokoloff 345). There was increased “factory production” as compared to “household production” indicating expansion of manufacturing capacity (Sokoloff 345). This happened during the embargo and war years. More productivity increased in manufacturing. The increase was recorded in the period when intraregional trade within the Northeast grew amidst interruption in the supply of foreign manufactures. There is evidence that the rate of patenting was influenced by the “extent of the market” (Sokoloff 352) though the specific mechanism is unclear. The mechanism could have resulted from several factors including changes in culture and preferences, arising high competition due to the entry of distant producers in the market, and the reaction of potential innovators in responding to the demands posed by many customers. Design of machines as well as the breakthrough in mineral technology brought about or enhanced change of technologies, which was important to the invention.
The document work is crucial to the understanding of the work on the historical progress of the United States. The document explains the industrialization process and how innovation and manufacturing contributed to industrialization. The document can aid in the understanding of the process of industrialization and the factors that are related to industrialization. Manufacturing is closely related to market expansion, which resulted in gains through “greater specialization of factors, declines in seasonal unemployment” and “utilization of resources” among other factors (Sokoloff 348). There has been a fascinating linkage provided between the low cost of access to market centers with high levels of “patenting per capita” in some regions and urban centers (Sokoloff 352). Patenting that was more evident in some parts like southern New England and New York played a role in the invention during the Early American industrialization. The two had attained a patenting rate “more than twice” than the parts of the Northeast or thrice compared to the national average (Sokoloff 352). The rate of patenting per capita in1790-1860 increased by more than fifteen times. Expansion of market characteristics to early industrialization stages played a role in the rate of increase of patenting as evidenced by the fact that there was a rise in the number of patents that were related to the “macroeconomic conditions” filed before the War of 1812 (Sokoloff 351).
Although the document focuses on industrialization, it is historic in that the events leading to industrialization can be tracked over years. The document reveals the importance of patenting as a factor of industrialization and links the two processes. It aids in the understanding of how the inclusion of other areas in patenting was important to shift more resources and attention to commercial endeavors. Broadening of patenting, later on, occurred to capture those in the artisans, “those with limited investment in technical skills or other invention-generating capital” and other manual workers while there was a decrease in the contribution of those of the elite group as well as the merchants and professionals (Sokoloff 354). This expansion in patenting in this manner played a vital role in the inclusion of more resources and attention “towards commercial endeavors including invention and innovation” (Sokoloff 354). The document reveals that industrialization was enabled by manufacturing and patenting. It helps one to understand the systematic flow of the developments aiding industrialization as the years went by, and so is important to the history of the United States. Higher patenting rates have also been linked to higher manufacturing productivity, as efforts were being made to improve efficiency. The document can aid in the understanding of the historic progress of industrialization as well as the factors that were involved in American early industrialization. The interplay of the two; invention and manufacturing in industrialization as well as the place of market expansion in the industrialization can be well understood.
Works Cited
Sokoloff, Kenneth. “Invention, Innovation, and Manufacturing Productivity Growth in the Antebellum Northeast.” Gallman, Robert & Wallis, John (eds). American Economic Growth and Standards of Living before the Civil War. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, (January 1992): 345 – 384. Web.
Meyer, David. “American Industrialization”. Whaples, Robert (ed). 2008. Web.