Title: Abraham Lincoln and the Global Economy
Headings: Abraham Lincoln and the Global Economy
Abraham Lincoln and the Global Economy
A Nation in Turmoil
Lessons for the Global Economy
Economic Opportunity for All
To Lincoln, the promise of upward mobility was key both to the nation’s economic growth and to its social stability.
A Unified National Economy
An Active Government Role
Policies to Fit the Place
Opportunity Amid Turmoil
Emerging Economies Across the Years

Content: Competition no longer came from the next town but from producers in many parts of the country—and from industries abroad. People traveled farther and more often. New technologies also changed the workplace, as Americans used to laboring for themselves or in small shops began to take jobs in the nation’s growing number of factories. The rise of factory-based mass production and frenetic railway construction led to an economic boom. But the nation’s growth was interrupted by financial crises—known at the time as panics—in 1819, 1837, and 1857. These produced sharp increases in unemployment, large numbers of bankruptcies and farm foreclosures, and frequent runs on banks. Except for slavery, the subject of trade and tariff levels was the most regionally divisive topic in American politics during the nineteenth century. Not surprisingly, many antebellum Americans resented the developments that led to this volatility, whatever the long-term economic benefits. Most Americans still thought of themselves primarily as residents of their own states—which were often referred to as “countries”—rather than as citizens of a wider American nation. To many, the erosion of the economic boundaries separating communities and states, and the increasing competition from other regions, came as a shock.