Railroads and capital: money, credit, and the industrialization of shoemaking - Special Invited Issue: Money, Trust, Speculation and Social Justice - Part 2: Trust and Money

American Journal of Economics and Sociology, The, Oct, 1998 by Robert Enoch Buck

Notes

1. Although there is some disagreement with regard to the approach of Hammond and other members of the "soundness school" (e.g., Rockoff, 1971; Temin, 1969), there is little doubt of the problems faced in the smaller towns of New England, whether it be with regard to the shoemaker faced with no option but to be paid entirely in soap, or the shoe boss who exchanged his shoes on long credit, for a bale of cotton and the difference in credit, or for notes on southern banks that were depreciated by as much as half or more in exchange (LHSBP; LHSSB 11).

2. Sturges and a number of other members of the board were later major investors in Western railroads. See Johnson and Supple, 1967, p. 45.

3. It has been suggested by John Kenneth Galbraith, among others, that in many cases, British bond holders of U.S. railroads often did not get paid back. It is not known whether or not this was such a case.

4. The state did not deem it necessary to place a director on the board of the railroad to oversee the use of its capital See Johnson and Supple 1967, p.45.

5. This resulted in a deepening debt crisis, culminating in the issuing $750,000 in convertible bonds in 1847, again, with the great majority taken by Barings See Supple and Johnson 1967, p. 46.

6. This increase was clearly driven by a desire to keep up with the expansion of others, and enabled by the railroad through providing a means for manufacturers to greatly expand the putting out system, which eventually distributed uppers to be bound to cottagers throughout New England. See Faler, 1981, p. 224.

References

Unpublished Sources

Buckfield Historical Society. Scrapbooks of the Buckfield Historical Society (BHSSB).

Long, Zadoc. n.d. The Journal of Zadoc Long (Diary).

Loring, Lucius. (1887). "Reminiscences." Collection of the Buckfield Historical Society.

Lynn Historical Society Scrapbooks of the Lynn Historical Society (LHSSB).

-----. Account Books (LHSAB).

-----. Breed Family Papers (LHSBP).

Lynn Public Library. Scrapbooks of the Lynn Public Library (LPLSB).

Selectmen's Records, Buckfield, Maine. v.d. The Annals of Buckfield, Oxford County, Maine (BA).

-----. v.d. Tax Rolls of Buckfield, Oxford County, Maine (BTX).

-----. v.d. Town Records (BTR).

U.S. Bureau of the Census 1850 Manuscript Census of Buckfield.

Published Sources

Blewett, Mary. (1988). Men, Women, and Work: Class, Gender, and Protest in the New England Shoe Industry, 1780-1910. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

Braudel, Fernand. (1984). Civilization & capitalism 15th.-18th. Century, Vol. 3: The Perspective of the World. New York: Harper and Row.

Bruchey, Stuart. (1990). Enterprise: The Dynamic Economy of a Free People. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Buck, Robert Enoch. (1993). "Protestantism and Industrialization: An Examination of Three Alternative Models of the Relationship Between Religion and Capitalism." Review of Religious Research 34:210-224.

Burrill, Ellen Mudge. (1914). Essex Trust Company, Lynn, Massachusetts, 1814-1914.

Chandler, Alfred D., Jr. (1978). The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.