ABSTRACT
Between 1789 and 1860 the chief occupation of the American people was agriculture, but the beginnings of industrialism came in this period, too. Before the War of 1812 the United States was dependent upon Europe for the finer manufactured goods; thereafter the factory system became firmly established and the demand for manufactured goods was for the most part met by domestic producers. In this period, manufacturing assumed an independent economic status and ceased to be merely an auxiliary part of merchant capitalism.
