The Extent of the Labor Market in the United States, 1870–1914

Abstract

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the spread of railroad and telegraph networks in the United States and Europe, the introduction of steamships on transatlantic routes, and the laying of transatlantic telegraph cables initiated a period of pronounced economic integration within and between countries (Williamson 1996; Thomas 1954; Chandler 1977; Perloffet al. 1965; James 1978). This period was also characterized by a rapid pace of growth and pronounced international convergence in standards of living among the countries of western Europe, North America, and Australia (Maddison 1991). Jeffrey Williamson (1996) has recently argued that the increasing integration of factor markets, especially labor markets, in this era was a crucial factor in the pace of international convergence.