CHAPTER XI
THE PROBLEM EXPRESSED: THE NATURE
OF OUR INQUIRY
It has been our argument that economic progress
can be viewed only as economic change and that economic
change cannot be divorced from the peculiar circumstances
of people, place, and time. In this sense, the economic
experience of the United States during the past hundred
years must be viewed as exceptional; not least because
of its initial abundance of natural resources.
The United States was rich in natural resources
in i860. By the 1960s, although the United States
remained a rich land, a great deal of its natural wealth
had been consumed. Its position with regard to some
very basic minerals, such as iron, which are needed to
maintain a high level of domestic output, had changed
dramatically. In fact, increased production had been
achieved through increased extraction. Herein lies the
aspect of economic history which it has been our purpose
to study. We are concerned to examine more closely the
relationship between production in general and the
extraction of certain materials, namely iron and copper,
within the United States during the past century, and to
determine the extent to which increases in production have
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