Name _________________________________ Date _______________________
While the loss of the Southern crop produced a steep war-long decline in production in the North's largest industry, cotton textiles, its woolen industry enjoyed a 100% production rise during the conflict. The second largest consumer industry in the Union, shoes and leather, also enjoyed tremendous growth, thanks to army contracts that more than offset the loss of the Southern market. Other war related industries, especially firearms, gunpowder, and wagon manufacturing, grew rapidly on the strength of military contracts.
The war years stimulated production of new inventions
and accelerated the growth of established technology. Due to a deluge of
government contracts, sewing machines became an integral part of the clothing
industry, and the 50-year-old system of machine-made interchangeable parts
became firmly entrenched in the production system. Agriculture-related
industrial goods also witnessed production spurts attributable to the war: Gail
Borden’s condensed-milk process, patented in 1856, became essential to the
diets of many Union soldiers, while implements including the thresher and the
rotary plow experienced sales booms as machinery took over work abandoned by
farm hands gone to war. In other ways, such as by easing unemployment and by
promoting the enactment of protective tariffs, the war encouraged wide-scale
industrial expansion. No wonder that by 1864 the Unions manufacturing index had
risen to a level 13% greater than that of the country as a whole in 1860.
|
Time Period |
% Increase in Pig Iron Production |
|
1855 – 1860 |
|
|
1861 – 1865 |
|
|
1866 – 1871 |
|
Answers
|
Establishments |
Total US Establishments |
Percent |
|
110,274 in the North |
128,300 |
85.95% of them were in the North |
|
18,026 in the South |
128,300 |
14.05% of them were in the South |
|
128,300 total |
|
100.00% |
|
Value of Property |
Total Business Property |
Percent of business
property |
|
$ 949,335,000 |
$ 1,050,000,000 |
90.41% of business property in the North |
|
$ 100,665,000 |
$ 1,050,000,000 |
9.59% of business property in the South |
|
$1,050,000,000 |
|
100.00% |
|
Percent of GDP |
Total GDP |
Dollar contribution to GDP |
|
92.50% from the North |
1.9 billion |
$
1.76 billion was the North’s contribution |
|
7.50% from the South |
1.9 billion |
$
0.14 billion was the South’s contribution |
|
100% |
|
$
1.90 billion total |
|
Time Period |
% Increase in Pig Iron Production |
|
1855 – 1860 |
17% |
|
1861 – 1865 |
10% |
|
1866 – 1871 |
100% |