History of Economic Recessions
January 2nd, 2009 at 12:41 am - by admin
Depression of 1807
In 1807, the United States Congress passed an act known as the Embargo Act, in what was a lead-up to the infamous War of 1812, in an attempt to punish Britain for its attack on a United States frigate off the coast of Virginia, killing three Americans. The Embargo Act prohibited trade between the countries, resulting in what Thomas Jefferson, in power at the time, clearly ignored - a complete failure of the American export economy, which was hugely dependent on Britain at the time. Jefferson, in the last 3 days of his second term, revoked the Embargo Act, which had then snowballed in to three distinct pieces of legislation, in March of 1809; allowing the economy to slowly recover.
Seven years after the marked beginning of this recession, in 1814 the economy was considered by most economic historians to be recovered, and back towards a growing trend.
February 9, 2009 at 12:32 AM
I thought the Great Depression was 1873-1897, not 1837-1879 as mentioned in the title of your article. The article also refers to going back to Gold Standard after the Civil War as one of the causes. That was clearly not possible in 1837