Suchergebnisse

Abstract The industrialization of shoemaking occurred in small towns in antebellum New England in which capital formation was severely hampered by currency and credit problems prior to the Legal Tender Act of 1862. In a comparison of two communities, it was discovered that the construction of a railroad had different results depending on the structural ties between the community and the railroad. In one community, the railroad drew external capital to the community that provided the basis for a crucial expansion of scale of shoe production prior to the rise of the factory system. In the other, it depleted local capital, ending the shoe industry and damaging most other local economic activities as well.