Depression of 1807
- Thomas Jefferson encouraged agriculture and westward expansion. The Louisiana Purchase in 1803 gave farmers use of the Mississippi River waterway and even more power to keep on expanding west. (http://www.ushistory.org/us/20c.asp)
- Jefferson was able to reduce the National Debt to below $560 million.
- Embargo Act of 1807 forbade the export of all American goods so as to not fuel the warring European's need for goods; hopefully, this will help end the American goods dependent Napoleonic Wars and keep America out of the War. This was not good for the American economy due to the lack of trade. It disrupted the profit generating system of exporting more than importing. The Non-Intercourse Act of 1809 replaced the Embargo Act and had the same damaging effect on the American economy. One good thing it did was speed up American industrialization since British goods couldn't be imported.
- The Embargo Act was also one reason for the Depression of 1807-1814. The loss of the foreign market slowed business down and shifting to domestic trading would take too much time. After the War ended- the US economy recovered. (http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/dep1807.htm)