Mingyang WangT’ChocosENG 100 D/EMay 14, 2014Academic Paper #3
America’s Opportunity and Competition
How does the United States progressed to the strongest country in the world from
the late of 18th century to the early of 19th century? What does China, as a developing
country learned from the United States of America? During the Second Industrial
Revolution which also called Technology Revolution. There is a great summarization
of U.S.’s achievement during the Second Industrial Revolution by Kevin Hillstrom
and Laurie C. Hillstrom. In their essay The Industrial Revolution in America: Iron and
Steel, Railroads, Steam Shipping they said that:
The Industrial Revolution in America was a 150-year era that began in the mid-
eighteenth century and was characterized by profound technological, economic,
and social innovations that transformed pastoral America into an industrial
superpower.
That is to say the U.S. had a rapid development in new technology industries such
as electrification, chemical and machine tools. During this period, the United States of
America successfully surpassed old developed countries such as Britain and German,
became the strongest country in the world. Why did this great achievement belongs to
the U.S. but not Britain or German? What can those developing countries learn from
the successful experience of the United States. (use China as an example)? There are
five reasons for the succeed of the United States. The United States has rich sources
and huge market, it focused on the development of new technology, U.S. has virtuous
circle of high salary and mechanical, politicians pay more attention on new
technology and the trade protection policy.
First of all, compare to the European countries, the U.S. has richer resources and
huger market. At the beginning of the Second Industrial Revolution, the U.S. did not
have any advantage on technical research, especial the basic science research was far
behind the technology in Europe. However, the domestic market demands of
European countries are too small. Although Europe had new technologies, they did
not have a market for the technology, so they can not make the technology become
productive. On the converse side, the U.S. introduced the newest technologies into
America market and made them much more productive. As D. C. Coleman mentioned
in his research Industrial Growth and Industrial Revolutions, there are three main
forms of economic or technical “revolutions”. The first one is “the application to a
particular industry”. It means that a new technique or machine is introduced and used.
In this case, the U.S. used new technic on steel, iron, electricity industries and had a
cheerful result of the economic development. Scale production in the U.S. makes the
technology more practical and perfect. Market demand encouraged the railway
construction and the development of Ship manufacturing, because transport of goods
and people’s traveling both needs a cheap remote transportation.
China has the same advantages with the U.S.. They have similar land area
and China have even more population which provides an even bigger market. In D. C.
Coleman’s essay Industrial Growth and Industrial Revolution he says that “And
finally, its technical and economic history follows a course similar to that of other and
better known industries”. Since that, developing country like China should learn from
the developing history of the U.S.. For example, like the U.S. introduced new
technology from Europe and makes it more productive relies on the huge domestic
market. German has the most developed high speed rail in the world now, but China
has huge demand for this. Maybe China can introduce the high speed rail technology
from German and well use it.
Second, the U.S. focused more on new technology development during the
Second Industrial Revolution while the Britain was still developing traditional
industry. Before the Second Industrial Revolution, there is no doubt that European
countries are the first class countries. The cotton textile industry was always one of
the strongest points of Britain, although the U.S. developed a lot on this industry, the
U.S. is still a cotton textile net imports country. The history shows that it is impossible
for the developing country surpass developed country on traditional industry by lower
the cost of labor and resource. But the U.S. finds the other way to encourage its
economy, it is developing new technology. Thanks to Thomas Adison, mother nature
gives us the sunshine and Thomas gives us the electric light and this electric light
lights up the future of the U.S.. Also, the U.S. had great achievement on chemical,
wireless, machine tools, rail, steel, iron and so on.
For this part, China should think about its economic structure which should not
only focus on lower the cost of labor and resources, it should also pay more attention
on new technology development.
Third, the U.S. had virtuous circle of high salary and mechanical tools. Because
of the huge domestic market demand, the United States needs it’s people help the
ability to purchase goods. So they pay higher wage to workers than European
countries. As the result of this decision, employers preferred to use mechanical tools
rather than paying the high labor cost. However, more machines made the cost of
labor became higher, and higher cost of labor force employers choose more machines
which encourage the development of mechanical. There is a definition of the Second
Industrial Revolution from O.E.D. in D. C. Coleman’s essay Industrial Growth and
Industrial Revolutions: “the rapid development in industry owing to the employment
of machinery, which took place in England in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth
centuries”. It shows that during the Second Industrial Revolution, companies began to
have more machine as their employees. As this essay mentioned above, this is the
virtuous circle of high salary and mechanical tools.
This is an important lesson for developing countries, they should remember that
lower the cost of labor is not a perfect way to develop the economy. Sometimes
improve the cost of labor may help a country for its domestic economy development
because this increases the size of domestic market.
Forth, American politicians pay more attention on new technology. Benjamin
Franklin is an outstanding politician in American history, he is also famous as a
scientist. As a scientist, he discovered Gulf Stream, investigated electricity, researched
wave theory of light and so on. As a politician, he created the first firefighting
company in America – Union Fire Company, founded American Philosophical
Society and contributed to the Declaration of Independence. Not only him, many
American politicians are scientists or interested in science. That’s one of the reasons
that American politicians are more concern about technology. People from upper level
become interested in science and creation may set up a great environment for
invention. For example, European had the original theory about electricity, but
Thomas Edison and Bell used it to create a series of products.
From this part, China should know how important technology and spirit of
creation is. Copying can makes a country grows fast, but it can never makes a country
become an independent developed country, only creation and technology can do that.
Fifth, the U.S. has trade protection for their local commercial. Unlike Chinese
government actively introduce foreign enterprises, U.S. seems prefer to give more
support on their local business. The U.S. usually just introduces new technologies and
develops the technology by their own work. This makes the economy of the U.S.
becomes more independent.
Above all, the U.S. becomes economic superpower during the Second Industrial
Revolution because of five points: rich sources and huge local market, focused on the
development of new technology, virtuous circle of high salary and mechanical,
politicians pay more attention on new technology and the trade protection policy. In
the essay The Industrial Revolution in America: Iron and Steel, Railroads, Steam
Shipping, the author Kevin Hillstrom and Laurie C. Hillstrom said that “The Industrial
Revolution in America series, is a unique effort that fills a void in the reference
literature by providing a comprehensive source for researchers and students interested
in this influential era in American history”. It talks about the influence of the
Industrial Revolution in America on literature. But besides this part, it also provides
the U.S. as a successful example of country development by revolution. Developing
country like China should learn from the experience of U.S. and find their way of
development. As the most of America would said that “ God bless America”.
References
Industrial Growth and Industrial RevolutionsBy D. C. ColemanPage 3 of 1-22
The Industrial Revolution and the Industrious RevolutionBy Jan De VriesThe Journal of Economic History, Vol. 54, No. 2, pp. 249-270
Consumerism and the Industrial RevolutionBy Ben Fine, Ellen LeopoldSocial History, Vol. 15, No. 2 (May, 1990), pp. 151-179
The Industrial Revolution in America: Iron and Steel, Railroads, Steam Shipping. By Kevin Hillstrom, Laurie C. HillstromVol. 45, No. 2 (Winter 2005), pp. 172-173