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Boards Of Trade
The British set this up to regulate colonial commerce, therefore regulating the economy. Colonists did not protest this act because they understood and accepted mercantalism. -
Tobacco
Introduced by the British in the Chesapeake colonies, tobacco was the most valuable cash crop produced in the southern states. Tobacco was primarily grown by indentured servants or slaves, and played a huge role in the economic growth of the colonies. -
Slavery
Slavery is one of the largest factors in the economic growth of the United States. By the 1700s, it was legally established in all 13 colonies. It allowed cash crops to be grown in great quantiies and allowed for huge plantations run on free labor. Without slave labor, the country likely would not have been nearly as successful. -
Mercantilism
Mercantilism was the economic system of Great Britain in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In mercantilism, the many colonies of an empire all function economically to benefit the mother country, seeking to increase the wealth of that country as much as possible. -
Navigation Acts
These laws placed restrictions on certain goods that could only be exported to Britain. This was a subset of mercantilism, and supported the idea that colonies should export raw goods and import finished products. These acts essentially resulted in the economy of the colonies being entirely dependent on what ENgland wanted. -
Currency Act
The Currency Act forbade the colonies from issuing paper money, and this caused a great deal of discontent in the colonies. Colonists found that Britain was exerting too much control. Colonists were especially mad because this was passed during a postwar economic depression, and it only further hurt the economy. -
The Seven Years' War
The end of this war triggered a postwar economic depression, which further angered colonists because of all of the acts that England passed. -
Stamp Act
The stamp act was instated primarily to raise revenue to support British troops in America. Although later repealed because of widespread colonist anger, it was an example of one of the many taxes that put a strain on the colonies for the benefit of the British economy. -
Townshend Acts
These Acts, like the Stamp Act, taxed goods being directly imported from Britain. They also created more government offices to enforce England's power in the colonies. -
The LA Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase was the UNited States' greatest purchase of land and expanded the resources and land of the US government by an extreme amount, adding to the growth and prosperity of the economy. -
Clay's American System
Henry Clay's series of internal improvements included a great deal of transportation projects, like roads and canals. They connected the country in a new way, stimulating the economy and promoting trade. However, they created new tariffs to fund the improvements and other domestic industries. -
Bank Veto
Jackson vetoes the current system of a national bank, distributing the money to state banks. This hurts the economy severely and causes an expansion of credit and speculation. -
Manifest Destiny
This term refers to the American feeling that there was a right to expand and conquer the entire continent. This ultimately leads to the territorial, economical, and trade expansion of the entire country, as it will more than double in size by the time expansion ends. -
13th Amendment
This amendment essentially crashed the southern economy, as it outlawed the slave labor it was so dependent on. It set the south back decades and resulted in an extreme variance of wealth between the north and the south to this day. -
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The Gilded Age
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Panic of 1873
This financial crisis was caused by post-war inflation, trade deficit, and property loss from the Boston and Chicago fires. This all put a strain on the economy and the recession lasted until 1879. -
Duty Free Sugar for the US
In 1875, the United States made a treaty with Hawaii to import duty free sugar. However, the treaty was soon after overturned, and a tariff was placed on the sugar. -
Sherman Silver Purchase Act
This act refuted the gold standard and required the government to purchase a certain amount of silver monthly and print more money to represent the new silver. This caused inflation, lowering the value of the dollar and raising prices, an outcome desired by deeply indebted sharecroppers and tenant farmers. -
McKinley Tariff
This extremely high tariff was passed to protect national industry from foreign competition. While this greatly benefitted large, US-based corporations, Democrats and the lower class did not support the bill, as it resulted in corporations being able to raise their prices a great deal. -
Panic of 1893
Similar to the Panic of 1873, this economic crisis was caused by railroad overbuilding and shaky investments, and all of this resulted in bank failures. The depression was especially hard-hitting on western farmers, as the crop prices reached an all-time low due to increasing overproduction in an attempt to make a living. The cry for an alternative to the gold standard became much more prominent around this time. -
Wilson-Gorman Tariff
This tariff slightly lowered the high rates of the McKinley Tariff. It also imposed a 2% income tariff. This Act was supported by most of the Democratic Party, while scorned by the Republicans. The tariff remained high, however, and still raised prices and benefitted corporations. -
Total Wealth
In 1900, at the end of the Gilded Age, the nation's total wealth was about $88 billion dollars. This is about a 400% increase from 1860, and it is due to industrialization and the cutthroat capitalist policies utilized during this time period. -
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Progressivism
Progressivism: response to the societal ills caused by industrialization -
Elkins Act
This act allowed the Interstate Commerce Committee to fine railroads giving rebates, or discounts, to certain customers. This took financial sway out of the hands of massive railroads trusts that were able to influence the economy because of their power. -
Hepburn Act
This act banned free passes on railroads, a method of bribery that was used to influence large shippers into spending more on a certain railroad. This was one of many laws used to take economic influence away from corporations. -
Payne Aldrich Tariff
This was a high tariff supported by Taft. High tariffs supported large corporations and trusts and financially oppressed those in the lower class. While this provided more revenue to the government, it gave more economic sway to corporations. -
Sixteenth Amendment
The Sixteenth Amendment allowed to governmne tto leverage an income tax, providing it a source of revenue other than the tariff. This changed the government dramatically financially, ensuring that it would no longer have to rely singularly on the tariff to make money. -
Underwood Simmons Tariff
This tariff was supported by Wilson in his goal to lower tariff rates. In fact, this lowered rates by 15%. -
Federal Reserve Act
This Act created 12 regional federal reserve banks under mixed public/private control which could issue US dollars to banks in district so they could make loans. This system is still intact today and completely altered the way the economy was controlled: whereas previous to this act, large corporations and trusts had a great deal of sway on the current economic trends, this act created a system that took the control away from the corporations and was able to manipulate the economy on its own. -
Clayton Antitrust Act
The Clayton Antitrust Act stood to take power away from large corporations and trusts by outlining unfair methods of competition in the economy. This act served as a stronger version of the Sherman Antitrust Act, and took economic power away from corporations. -
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Roaring 20s
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Fordney McCumber Tariff
This was a high tariff passed by President Harding in 1922, and it intended to protect factories and farms. This displayed Congress' por-business attitude. -
The Crash begins
When people realized overproduction was occurring, they all rushed to take money out and the stock market value began to drop drastically. -
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The Great Depression
After a decade of buying stocks on margin, the stock market collapsed, and America went into a depression. Unemployment resulted because the consumer-based economy was failing without consumption. -
Attempted Relief
Wealthy bankers pour money back into the market by buying stock. This temporarily relieves some of the stress, but only lasts until Black Tuesday, the most drastic crash. -
Black Tuesday
The stocks ccrash again, with the market dropping by 50% in just one week. 60 million stocks were sold, and the Great Deprression begins. -
Hawley-Smoot Tariff
Hoover passed this extremely high tariff and made things even more expensive. Many historians agree that this tariff unneccessarily prolonged the global depression. -
FDR: First 100 Days
FDR is inaugurated March 4, beginning the first 100 days of his presidency in which he instilled a large amount of legislation to help alleviate the recession, especially bank runs, which were essentially immediately stopped. -
Bank Holiday
FDR announces a 4-day Bank Holiday in which all banks nationwide are shut down and inspected. Only those who were healthy and self-sufficient were allowed to reopen, while those that were not were given federal aid to get them back on their feet. This stopped bank runs almost immediately. -
Emergency Banking Act
This act is passed during the end of the Bank Holiday and allows the federal government to give aid to all banks that would otherwise be unable to sustain themselves. -
Glass-Steagall Act
This act sets up banking insurance and caps the interest rates on banks. All accounts are insured for at least $5,000, meaning that people no longer had to worry that they were completely without money if their bank failed. -
Securities and Exchange Commission
This was the first government legislation that regulated the stock market. This was created so that a crash of the same magnitude would never happen again. -
Social Security Act
This added a tax that provided monthly checks to the unemployed and elderly. -
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WWII
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War Production Board
This executive order stopped factories from making common products so they could make war materials instead. This allocated scarce materiel, and prioritized distribution of military goods. -
Iron Curtain
Stalin bans American trade from his satellite states because he didn't want American influence. -
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Early Cold War
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Truman Doctrine
This Doctrine was geared towards putting the strategy of containment into effect. In Greece and Turkey, there were communist resisting rebels. To help, America gave $400 million. The doctrine also established the NSC and CIA -
The "fall" of China
In 1949, Truman failed to prevent communism from spreading into China, when Mao Zedong was the new leader of the People's Republic of China. However, Jiang Jieshi, the previous leader of China formed a nationalist government in Taiwan calling it the Republic of China. Since it's not communist, the U.S. supplies money and other things to the Taiwanese government. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Led by Martin Luther King Jr., this protest lasted over a year and was geared to economically hurt Montgomery businesses and bus company by boycotting and walking everywhere. While this was a huge step in the civil rights movement, this type of protest hurt the economy by taking away business. -
Interstate Highway System
Eisenhower signed this into effect in 1956, to build a national highway system. Meant to be used in military emergencies, this eased the public's mind about the Cold War. However, this project was very expensive. Internal improvements such as these raise taxes for funding but also create jobs and fuel the economy that way. -
Eisenhower Doctrine
The Eisenhower Doctrine sent military aid and supplies to the Middle East to stop communism. This was the focus because the U.S. needed oil from there, so it could not be under control of the USSR, -
NASA
Eisenhower created NASA to get ahead in the Space Race against the USSR. This created a great deal more jobs in science, and more funding towards STEM fields by the US government. -
Federal Budget on Defense
NSC-68 was the blueprint for the Cold War, meaning a review of the defense policy and plans for the future. It called for bigger military, more weapons, and a larger budget. By 1960, about 50% of the federal budget was defense. Some argue that this influenced Truman's decision to enter the Korean War. -
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The 1960s/70s
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Vietnam War
The Vietnam War greatly affected the US economy. For example, the demands of the war put a strain on the industries and their capabilities. Also, the governments military spending and sending funds overseas made the American dollar weaker at home. The main problem was that the unpopularity of the war caused the level of consumerism to drop dramatically, which fueled inflation and the upcoming economic problems of the future decades. -
Counterculture
The Summer of Love in 1967 was the height of counter culture, or hippies. The problem with hippies was that they were against the capitalist system, and didn't work, which was not good for the economy. -
Stagflation
The economy was terrible in the 1970s, due to "stagflation" which is a word formed from the mix of stagnation, or the lack of growth of the economy, and inflation. The unemployment rate had risen from the 60s, and the economy remained sluggish throughout the decades.
