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Market Revolution Research Paper

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1) What was the market revolution and why is it essential for the study of early American history? During the Market, Revolution America experienced many changes. They include rapid improvements in the transportation and expansion westward. A move from an agrarian society to the production of goods for sale at the market. Emerging technologies and the rise of factories with a shift in population and an economic boom with the rise of capitalism. Transportation methods and building project excelled during the Market Revolution. The Erie Canal reduced travel across New York from “weeks to days” (Feller 18). The efficiency of the canal was much higher than expected. It increased the value of land, lowered the cost of goods and increased the flow of immigrants (Feller 19). This innovation created “transportation revolution” per Sellers, “Philadelphia with a state canal across the mountainous Pennsylvania to Pittsburgh, Baltimore seized on the latest technology to push the world’s longest railroad up the Potomac to Wheeling and Boston tapped the Erie’s western trade with a railroad to Albany” (43). As the canals came to prominence the use of the steamboat surged moving people and goods up and downstream. “Travel times shrank as improvements made steam navigation swiftest and more reliable. (Feller 24). The transportation innovation increased revenue to the states and allowed for greater freedom of movement for goods and people westward. The revolution in transportation

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