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