Three R’s of Economic Development: Real Estate, Rice, and Railroads Economic Growth through Expansion of Territory and Agriculture Utilizing Railroads

Abstract

The history of the United States is a complex development of race, religion, and independent spirit, but all of these have been driven by economic factors that can easily be identified and quantified, no more so than in the Southern parts of the country during the time right before the Industrial Revolution and to just after it. The confluence of real estate, railroads, and the most important crop of the time, rice, lead to an explosion of both commerce and industrial growth. These enterprises allowed the country to not only grow, but to also become accountable to itself and its people, for example, after the Civil War there was introduced what was colloquially known as “Forty Acres and a Mule”, which allowed returning soldiers and freed slaves recompense for their hard labor and unpaid wages during their indentured servitudes. This allowed for even more growth in the agricultural businesses, which required more land, more transportation, and more innovation. This is still evident in the economies of the South today.