51
economic change that occurred. The simple statement of
income or wealth figures, no matter how couched with
qualifications, cannot serve to reflect adequately the
35
scope of economic "progress."
Nor can the increased importance of metals to
the economy be discerned easily from figures showing
qzT
increased rates of metals production and consumption.
The effects of increased metals use were pervasive; every
conceivable productive process, whether concerned with
manufacturing, agriculture, transportation, communications,
or services, was affected by the application of power
and machinery. Xn turn, mechanization and mass pro
duction generated an increased dependence upon metals
and an increased metals demand, and while economic
progress in terms of quality was astonishing, changes in
quantity were astonishing as well.
Mechanization virtually revolutionized the
37
agricultural industry. Output per worker increased
35
Changing volume of production as shown by
employment, income, and physical output figures is shown
in Appendix A.
o/T
Figures for copper, iron, and steel production
are included in Appendix B, as are figures showing
apparent consumption of those metals.
37
Whether the change was revolutionary or
evolutionary is a matter of definition. But agricultural
production and productivity increased very rapidly between
i860 and 1880; thereafter the rate of growth declined until
lpUO, after which a new revolution in the way of fertilizers,
insecticides, hybrid seeds took place. C_f. Wayne D.
Rasmussen, "The Impact of Technological Change on American
Agriculture, 1862-1962," Journal of Economic History, XXII
(December, 1962), 578-91-