Economic Interdependence

1
Economic Interdependence

• Situations adapted from Hilarie Statons Our
  United States History Book 1 Beginnings Through
  Reconstruction. Educational Design, Inc., 2001,
  page 201.

2
Economy

• All the ways people earn a living and produce
  goods.
• Strong economy is one where people are earning a
  good living and many goods are produced (made),
  traded, and sold.

3
Interdependent

• Means that different people (or groups of people)
  in different places depend on each other. If
  something bad happens to one, it affects everyone
  else, too.

4
Core Content 22

• Personal, national, and international economic
  activities are interdependent.

5

• This means that when the economy is strong in one
  place or for one group of people, it has a
  positive effect on another place or other people.

6

• It also means that when the economy is weak or in
  trouble in one place or for one group of people,
  it has a negative effect on another place or
  other people.

7
Directions

• Each of the following slides describes an
  economic situation that could have occurred in
  the United States during the early 1800s.
• For each slide, discuss with your group the
  likely outcome and then be prepared to share with
  the class.

8
Situation 1

• Southern plantation owners sent their cotton to
  Britain on New England ships. New England ship
  owners made their money by transporting those
  bales of cotton to Britain. How would a southern
  drought which killed the cotton crop affect New
  England ship owners?

9
Situation 2

• Northwestern farmers shipped grain down the Ohio
  and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans, and then
  on ships to New York City where it was made into
  bread. What would happen to bakers in New York if
  the port in New Orleans was closed to American
  ships?

10
Situation 3

• Northeastern bankers loaned money to Northwestern
  farmers so that they could buy more land to grow
  more grain. The farmers promised to pay back the
  loans with interest when the first crops on the
  new lands came in. What would happen to the
  bankers if heavy rains destroyed the crops and
  farmers were unable to repay?

11
Situation 4

• New England factories made goods like plows and
  other tools to sell to farmers in the Northwest
  Territory. If those farmers had no money to buy
  these goods due to the heavy rains that destroyed
  crops the year before, what would happen to New
  England factory workers?

12
Writing Assignment

• In a well-developed paragraph (1/2 page minimum)
  explain the idea expressed by the core content
  statement, Personal, national, and international
  economic activities are interdependent, using
  three specific examples.