Shropshire Routes to Roots

5. Industry in America

Source

October 27 1848

Hundred men put out of employ at these works some are able to do without work this winter and others are forced to go and seek work this country cannot manufacture Iron quite so cheap as England and the Tariff is to light and the English merchants have filled the Order for T Rails and and our Business is rather dull at this time the wages are higher here than in England but we expect to put in a Whig president next week and then we shall have the duty put on English Iron and that will give a good trade again

[Shropshire Archive reference: 4543/5/1]

Questions

1. What are the three problems that mean that it is harder to make a profit manufacturing iron in America?
2. How does Barnaby expect these problems will be overcome?
3. Looking at all the sources, and using your own imagination, list the advantages and disadvantages of emigrating to America and the advantages and disadvantages of remaining in England.
4. Which country would you have preferred to live in, and why?

Background: The future of America

With the increase in people, land and industry there came to be two Americas: the manufacturing North and the agricultural South. They increasingly came into conflict. Southerners resented the fact that their products were sold by businessmen in the North, who made huge profits; Northerners believed that slavery was holding the South back morally and financially. It was on the issue of slavery that the two sides eventually came to fight. In 1861, the American Civil War broke out.

Although it was divisive and brought hardship to many, the war also had an integrating effect. By siding themselves with the Confederate or Union sides, immigrants were forced to admit that they had become American nationals, rather than being foreigners in a foreign country.

In the twentieth century, America, not Britain, was the world leader in industry. It was here that the inventions which shape the economy today were developed: powered flight, the light bulb, the mass production line.

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