A Study On Agriculture Development Of Northeast America In The Gilded Age

The late nineteenth century is also known as the “gilded age”. The United States evolvedfrom an agricultural country into an industrial country. In this process, agriculture hasachieved remarkable achievement. However, agriculture is no longer the most importantsector in national economy, and meets many problems in the late nineteenth century. Thenortheast America is the center of the industrialization in the United States, and it is one of theareas in which agriculture has made a dramatic change. Agriculture development in northeastAmerica is different from the west and south part of the United States. Continuous, systematicand diversity is the most important characteristics. The farm land in northeast America hasbeen well cultivated, and with excellent infrastructure. The process of urbanization and theincrease of the urban population have expended the local market. The innovation of theagricultural technology, farm management and traditional concept, and the well interactionwith the industrialization process, formed a unique path of the agriculture development in latenineteenth century.Based on the research of scholars at home and abroad, the perspective of history, and themethods used in history and other related disciplines, this paper has analyses the statisticaldata and government reports, has research the agriculture development of northeast Americain the gilded age from the three main aspects: commercialization, capitalization andindustrialization. The main part of this paper is divided into four chapters. The first chapterreviews the process of agricultural development of the United States in the late nineteenthCentury as a whole, and the theme of the “extensive” development and the “intensive”development of American agriculture. This chapter analyzes problems in the development ofAmerican agriculture, and s summarizes the characteristics of agricultural development in thenortheast America. The second chapter focuses on the sprout and development of commercialagriculture in the northeast America; the relationship between urbanization and thecommercial agriculture; and the acceptance and recognition of the commercial agricultureidea among farmers. The third chapter the analysis two processes of capitalization of thenortheast agricultural. They are the infiltration process of non agricultural capital come intoagricultural production, and the transition process of agriculture economy from self-sufficient ones to capitalist ones. The fourth chapter will place the agricultural development under thebackground of the industrialization, analysis the impact of the industrialization in agriculturedevelopment, and the decline of agricultural economic status, and the relationship betweenagriculture and industry. The chapter studies in the development path of northeast agriculturalin the context of the industrialization, it also analyzed the produce and development prospectof the industrialized agriculture or agribusiness in late nineteenth century.