THE PIONEERS OF AMERICAN INDUSTRY n 



rise to this remarkable movement towards state enterprise 

 here in America, where of all places in the world we should 

 least expect to find it. 



To form a correct judgment of the influences which pro- 

 duced this movement, it is necessary to understand the gen- 

 eral character of our economic development during the period 

 when it occurred. We will begin, therefore, with a brief 

 sketch of that development during the first forty or fifty 

 years of the nineteenth century. The most important event 

 in our economic history during this period was the opening 

 of the west. By the opening of the west I do not mean the 

 early settlement of the region west of the mountains, which 

 took place on a large scale during the thirty years after the 

 revolution. This in itself, as I shall attempt to show, had 

 very little influence upon the economic life of the country. I 

 refer rather to that improvement in the economic condition 

 of the west which set in about the time of the second war 

 with England, and which in a decade or two entirely changed 

 the relation of that region to the rest of the country, lifting 

 it for the first time into that important place in our economic 

 life which it has until recently occupied. This event marks 

 the shifting of the center of interest in our economic activity 

 from the ocean and foreign commerce to the interior and in- 

 ternal commerce. It was the ending of the colonial period in 

 our economic development, and the beginning of what has 

 been the chief object of our economic activity ever since; 

 namely, the application of capital to the settlement of the 

 interior and the development of its natural resources. In 

 order to appreciate the significance of this change to the 

 movement we are studying, it will be necessary to trace its 

 history in considerable detail. 



The settlement of our new territory and the pushing of 

 the frontier back into the interior are features of American 

 life which began in colonial times. At the end of the revolu- 

 tion the back country of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the Caro- 

 linas was full of people, and had its special frontier character- 

 istics in industry and social life. Following the revolution, 

 these backwoodsmen and many emigrants from the tide water 

 region, who had been ruined by the war and the exhaustion 



