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.By doing so, new inventions were likely to be diffused morerapidly throughout the economy and any unexploited economies of scalecould be captured.The discussion in this section provides a large number of possibleeffects of immigration.Not every theoretical effect has been investigatedby economic historians or is able to be investigated for the antebellumeconomy.In many cases, the needed data are simply not extant.Theremainder of this chapter, therefore, reviews the findings on a subset ofthe previously mentioned areas.Specifically, the following five topics areexamined:1.How did immigration affect the development of manufacturing,including its effects on the relative wages of skilled and unskilledworkers?2.How did immigration affect the development of the antebellumtransportation infrastructure?3.Did immigration affect the level of real wages during the 1840s and1850s?4.What was the connection between immigration and the outbreaksof nativism?5.How did immigration affect the long-term growth potential of theUnited States?Developments in ManufacturingThis section examines the connections between antebellum immigrationand three aspects of antebellum manufacturing.First, this period saw con-siderable expansion of manufacturing in the U.S.economy.In 1810, only3 percent of the labor force worked in manufacturing, whereas the per-centage rose to 14 percent in 1850.Second, the expansion was connectedto an increase in firm size in manufacturing and a change in how goodswere produced.Third, one theoretical prediction is that the large amountof unskilled labor entering the United States should have led to a relativedecrease in the wages of unskilled workers.Investigating these issues iscomplicated by the fact that events other than immigration  in particular,transportation costs fell  also affected the antebellum economy.The dis-cussion is also complicated by the important changes that occurred in theskill level and the volume of immigration.Although explained in detailin the remainder of this section, the major developments that occurred inantebellum manufacturing are illustrated in Figure 8.4.The Effects of Immigration on the United States 203A.Before 1840sIncrease in Limited Change to Increase in Decrease inDemand for Supply of Less-Skilled Demand for Skilled toManufactured Skilled Production Unskilled UnskilledGoods Labor Methods Workers Wage RatioB.1840s and After1.Increase in Skilled to Unskilled Wage RatioLarge Increasein Unskilled 2.Reinforcement of Move to Less-Skilled Production MethodsImmigrant Volume3.Change to Immigrant Work Force in Manufacturingfigure 8.4.Developments in Antebellum Manufacturing.To at least some extent, the expansion of manufacturing reflects higherper capita incomes because people then have money available to spendon products other than food.To actually produce more manufacturedgoods, however, entrepreneurs had to open new firms and find moreresources that could be used in the sector.Given the high skill level ofthe immigrant stream before the 1840s, it is not surprising that manyof the manufacturing entrepreneurs were immigrants, especially in theimportant textile industry.British immigrants filled about half of the newmanagerial and machine-making positions created between 1824 and1831.28 Many owners of textile firms in 1850 in the Philadelphia regionwere immigrants.In Kensington, forty-three of forty-five manufacturersfor whom nativity could be determined were immigrants.In German-town, the figure was twenty-seven of thirty.In Manayuank, the figure wastwenty-four of thirty-three, and another five owners were sons of immi-grants.29 Because virtually all of the owners would have been in the UnitedStates for a number of years, it is apparent the early skilled immigrantsplayed an important role in developing some of the new manufacturingfirms.3028Jeremy, Transatlantic Industrial Revolution, p.161 [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]