American Manufacturers and Foreign Markets, 1870–1900: Business Historians and the “New Economic Determinists”

Recent diplomatic historians have explained much of American expansionism at the end of the nineteenth century as the product of domestic industrial overcapacity and the resulting need to seek foreign markets. Evidence of business behavior, however, indicates that overseas expansion and exports were...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Business history review 1973, Vol.47 (4), p.466-481
Main Author: Becker, William H.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bans
Business history
Corporations
Economic depressions
Excess capacity
Exports
Industrial market
Industrial production
Machinery
Manufacturing industries
Steels
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Summary:Recent diplomatic historians have explained much of American expansionism at the end of the nineteenth century as the product of domestic industrial overcapacity and the resulting need to seek foreign markets. Evidence of business behavior, however, indicates that overseas expansion and exports were not a very important avenue through which U.S. businessmen sought to control prices and output. Indeed, in most of the industries which did engage in significant foreign activities, their expansion was usually the result of genuine competitive advantages rather than a sign of economic ill health.
ISSN:0007-6805
2044-768X
DOI:10.2307/3113367