A. One-Sentence Identifications (40 points): Briefly state the importance of each of the following people/places/things/concepts for American economic history. A fgood strategy is to tie each ID into one or more of the major factors of production: land, labor, capital, technology, and institutions.
J.P. Morgan, Leland Stanford, International Harvester, Alexander Hamilton, Eli Whitney, smallpox, Hernan Cortez, Erie Canal, Northwest Ordinance, Louisiana Purchase, Gilded Age, 1808, Mississippi River, Bessemer steel-making process, Potato Famine, Chinese Exclusion Act, Merrill Land Grants, Tariff of Abominations, American system of manufactures, Triangle Trade.
B. One-Paragraph Discussions (40 points): Write one paragraph (three to six sentences) answering each of the following questions:
- Engerman and Sokoloff's discussion of the contrast between North America and Latin America divides colonies into types--three major types, in fact. What do they think the major types are? What difference does it make what type a colony is?
- Were there important economic causes of the Civil War? If there were, what were they?
- Why was America a relatively equal country (for white guys) until after the Civil War? Why did it then become an unequal country in the next half-century?
- British observers before the Civil War wrote back that America was a labor-scarce economy. What difference did they think this scarcity of labor made for American economic development before the Civil War?
- Did the roles of natural resources and of education as key factors driving American econonic growth remain the same from 1776 to 1929? If not, how did their roles change?
C. Essay: Write an essay on one of the two following topics (40 points):
As of the start of the twentieth century, the American economy was almost universally regarded as successful. What were the major aspects of this economic success? Why did they come to pass? Why did so much go so right for the American economy?
For those of us who have read a few too many alternate history novels: How would the U.S. economy have been different in 1860 if the U.S. government had followed a zero-tariff policy since 1787?
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