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Full American Economic History 8Th Edition Hughes Test Bank Online PDF All Chapter
Full American Economic History 8Th Edition Hughes Test Bank Online PDF All Chapter
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Chapter 8
Transportation, Internal Improvements,
and Urbanization
◼ True/False
Read each statement carefully. Identify whether it is true or false using the economic historian’s way of
thinking.
1. The early U.S. canals and railroads were built by private enterprise without the aid of governments.
Answer: False
2. According to Fishlow’s (1972) work, the U.S. railroads before the Civil War were typically built
“ahead of demand” by private capital.
Answer: False
4. The percentage of the population that lived in urban areas rose from approximately 5% in 1790
to 40% in 1860.
Answer: False
7. During the antebellum period, factories grew, in part, due to internal economies of scale.
Answer: True
8. The Gallatin Plan (1808) was not passed because some individuals questioned its constitutionality.
Answer: True
9. Roads during the 1800s proved to be a preferred transportation alternative to railroads and thus
competed successfully for profits.
Answer: False
13. The benefits of urbanization include: crime, pollution, increased taxation and congestion.
Answer: False
15. Contrary to many researchers’ views, Hurst (1969) claims the government needed private investors
to fund internal improvements.
Answer: True
◼ Multiple Choice
Using the economic way of thinking and holding all else constant, choose the best answer among those
provided.
1. Which transportation industry did government invest most heavily in before 1860?
(a) Turnpikes
(b) Canals
(c) River steamboats
(d) Railroads
Answer: (d)
2. Which of the following is not a valid criticism of Fogel’s (1964) methodology in his study of
railroads?
(a) The canal prices used for 1890 were low.
(b) The impact of railroads on financial markets is ignored.
(c) The nonpecuniary gains from using railroads could have been considered.
(d) The amount of land cultivated would have been reduced.
Answer: (d)
6. During the great canal-building era, from roughly 1815 to 1843, Hughes and Cain (2011) claim that
(a) most canals earned normal profits.
(b) no canals earned profits.
(c) all canals in the initial period of construction earned normal profits but none did in the later
period because of over-construction and competition from the railroads.
(d) the Erie Canal was one of the few, perhaps the only one, to earn normal profits.
Answer: (d)
7. The Gallatin Plan (1808) to provide internal land and water transport in the eastern part of the
country was a plan that
(a) called for the federal government to finance and build the transport system.
(b) called for the eastern states to join together to finance and build the system.
(c) called for private financing and building with some federal government assistance
in coordinating and planning the transport system.
(d) relied primarily on city and county governments to provide the bulk of the financing and
building of the transport system.
Answer: (a)
15. The growth of cities was due to the existence of important scale economies, which include all of the
following except
(a) Central water and sewer systems
(b) Education systems
(c) Crime, congestion and pollution
(d) Police and fire protection
Answer: (c)
16. Why do historians argue that there was a mixture of enterprise, partly private and partly
governmental, in building our transportation system?
(a) Private individuals took the initiative and were able to extract special privileges and financial
assistance from government for the purpose of enhancing their profits.
(b) Political leaders, who wanted transportation improvement for reasons of local or national
ambition, took the initiative and coaxed private enterprise into building the transportation
system by the offer of special financial advantages.
(c) The sheer size of the investment required for a transportation system was beyond the capability
of private enterprise alone.
(d) All of the above ideas have been used by historians to explain the mixture of enterprise in
building our transportation system.
Answer: (d)
21. Funding for canals came from which of the following sources?
(a) Private investments and tolls
(b) Taxes
(c) Borrowing on government credit
(d) All of the above
Answer: (d)
◼ Essay Questions
1. Discuss the changes in the distribution system (how goods get from the locus of production to the
locus of consumption) of the antebellum American economy.
2. What advantages did the railroad have over the other means of transportation during the pre-Civil
War era? Why has modern scholarship deflated the importance of the railroads’ role in U.S. history?
3. In general, when were transportation and communications costs significant barriers to developing an
integrated internal market system in the U.S.? Why did these costs vary between North and South?
Between East and West? What broke down these barriers?
4. Interpret the economic importance of Figures 8-1 and 8-2. Identify the advantages and disadvantages
of the canal and railroad systems of transportation. Discuss the economic debate over the railroad
system’s contribution to economic growth.
6. Why did the U.S. transportation systems and urban areas attract many human and material resources
away from agriculture?
7. Explain why productivity may rise when railroads, turnpikes, canals and roads help decrease
transportation costs. Discuss the roles of specialization and operating on the basis of comparative
advantage in a world of low transportation and transactions costs.
8. How was the development of the canal and railroad systems in the U.S. funded? Discuss the
economic pros and cons of these funding resources.
9. Discuss the roles that improvements and investments in the different kinds of transport, specifically
turnpikes, canals, riverboats, ocean transport and railroads, played in the growth of the American
West’s economy. Cite the work of noted economic historians.
10. Analyze the role that improvements and investment in transportation played in the rise of
interregional trade in the U.S., especially with respect to the West. Discuss specific changes
in water and overland transportation methods.
11. What is a business cycle? Discuss whether business cycle swings and turning points had any link
to developments in (i) canals and (ii) railroads.
12. Identify and describe the traits of U.S. urbanization during the antebellum period.
13. Compare and contrast external and internal economies. Explain the links of both to urbanization.
"Read it! Read it! No, I should think not, John. You don't
think I could ever be so wicked, John, as to read a letter
from him, do you?"
"Trouble?"
"I shall never forget that I have had you to love and
cherish ever since then, my dear," said John, gallantly.
CHAPTER XXIII.
A MONTH OF WONDERS.
CHAPTER XXIV.
"COALS OF FIRE."
They had not to wait many days. The winds and waves
were propitious; and as they sat at breakfast on the fourth
morning after their departure from home, news came that
the ship—having coming up from Gravesend on the
previous day—was then in the—docks. No time was to be
lost, therefore. But hurried as were their movements that
morning, we must precede the Tincrofts some short space
of time, and take our station on the quarter-deck of the Sea
Bird.
"I don't like it, father," the girl returned, with a shudder.
"But it is not all like this—ships and water, piers and
warehouses—I suppose?"
"And then you are to get well again, you know, father,
and strong, and we will be happy—so happy again."