Title: Industrial Revolution: 1816-1860 | 5-Minute Economist
Headings: Industrial Revolution: 1816-1860
Industrial Revolution: 1816-1860
ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE HISTORY
EPI DATA FOR UNITED STATES: 1816 - 1860

Content: Development of a system of internal improvements (such as roads and canals) which would knit the nation together and be financed by the tariff and land sales revenues. Portions of the American System were enacted by the United States Congress. The charter of the Second Bank of the United States was renewed in 1816 for 20 years. High tariffs were maintained from the days of Alexander Hamilton until 1832. Millions of settlers moved to the more fertile farmland of the Midwest, partially encouraged by government-created national roads and waterways, such as the Cumberland Pike (1818) and the Erie Canal (1825). Other Whig-sponsored improvements were frustrated by the Democratic Party and most notably, President Andrew Jackson (1829–1837), who vetoed a bill in 1830 allowing the Federal government to purchase stock in a road company which had been organized to construct a link between Lexington and the Ohio River in the state of Kentucky. Jackson also opposed the Second National Bank, which he believed favored the interests of his political opposition. After a political struggle, Jackson succeeded in closing the Bank by vetoing its re-charter passed by Congress and withdrawing U.S. funds in 1833. The bank’s functions were absorbed by local and state banks which also became the beneficiaries of U.S. funds. This led to an expansion of credit and speculation.