Decisive British victory 1812?

The only power remotely capable of economically beating the US during the 19th century was Britain. True; but (according to Bairoch via Kennedy) the relatives shares of world manufacturing output were 4.3 percent (UK) to .8 percent (US) in 1800, 9.5 to 2.4 in 1830, 19.9 to 7.2 in 1860, 22.9 to 14.7 in 1880, and 18.5 to 23.6 in 1900; the US was number two in the world by 1880, after passing France sometime between 1860 (7.9 percent) and 1880 (Germany was third, at 8.5); the path is pretty clear.

The trouble with these stats are they don't show who invested in the countries to produce the increase in manufacturing output.
By far the largest investor in the US was the UK, outstripping home investment until the late 1890's and coming a close second right up until the outbreak of WWI.

Without this investment the US would have stayed a mainly an agrarian society and even more inwardly looking than it was.
 

TFSmith121

Banned
Not really relevant, however; the City was not bound

The trouble with these stats are they don't show who invested in the countries to produce the increase in manufacturing output. By far the largest investor in the US was the UK, outstripping home investment until the late 1890's and coming a close second right up until the outbreak of WWI.

Not really relevant, however; the City's choices in foreign investment was not bound by government policy in a free trade environment, as witness the debates over Imperial Preference. As it was, the British (really, the English) had lots of capital to place, so much that between 1865 and 1914, as much British investment went to Africa, Asia, and Latin America as to the United Kingdom itself. Reasonable sources on this is Davis and Huttenback's Mammon and the pursuit of empire: the political economy of British imperialism, 1860—1912 (Cambridge, 1986),

Basically, capital seeks the best return, and there was a much better return for British investment in the US than anywhere else in the Nineteenth Century "peripheral" world economy - the US was industrializing, and had a huge domestic market for manufactured goods; Africa and Asia were not, in any real sense.

And the Americans were aware of that; also the reason for the debate between "American System" type protectionists and free traders.

Best,
 
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