Regional differences in real wages: The United States, 1851–1880

Abstract

The 30 years from 1851 through 1880 was a period of rapid change and growth in the United States economy. A number of major events occurred. Foremost among these was the Civil War, the nation’s most costly conflict in terms of human life; this was the era of railroad building; two major financial panics occurred, one in 1857 and another in 1873; the Great Depression and period of falling prices began, lasting until 1896. Industrialization and urbanization proceeded rapidly in some parts of the nation. Large-scale internal migration together with increasing immigration from abroad comprised an integral part of these changes. There were, however, substantial differences in the direction and degree of these changes among the various regions of the United States. One consequence of these differences, variations in regional costs of living, has been examined by the authors in a previous study.3 The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of regional price differences upon levels of real wages in United States regions using wage data compiled and published in the Census