thomas jefferson
TRANSCRIPT
Agrarian Society Jefferson’s most prominent economic views concerned the nations need for
farming and agriculture. He believed that America could only prosper through small scale farming. That
way the people could grow what they needed and not be reliant on trade withother countries.
He fought against the Federalists who pushed for large scale manufacture andindustry. Instead, he argued that the people should take advantage of Americasvast resources through agriculture.
In the Notes on the State of Virginia, he claimed that America could build up asurplus of goods through farming and then trade with other countries to gainfiner materials.
Uniform Currency In the late 1800’s Jefferson pointed the nation towards a very
new form of economy. He recommended to Congress that theyadopt a uniform system of currency, to benefit the economy.
Congress accepted his proposal in 1785 because they believedthe system was sound, simple, and easy to calculate.
This move helped to unite the states and it provided a stablebase which American economics could prosper.
Jefferson in Office
After Jefferson was elected in 1800 he started to make largechanges in the governments economic policy.
He thought that the federal government should have limitedpowers and a lot of power should be reserved for the states.
He did this by cutting almost all internal taxes and federalexpenditures. Under Jefferson, the government would onlymake a profit from land sales and customs duties. This allowedstates implement their own taxes and rules.
Louisiana Purchase Jefferson’s greatest economic feat was perhaps the
purchase of the Louisiana territory. He bought the landfrom France for around $15 million.
This decision doubled the size of America. It led to greaterexpansion and a great increase in raw materials and trade.
The land helped American economics greatly becausefarmers and traders had huge amounts of resources thatwould prove to be very valuable in trade with othercountries.
Jefferson’s Legacy
Although Jefferson is mainly remembered as a powerfulpolitician, he should also be credited with being a veryinnovative and significant economist.
Today we still use a similar uniform system of currency, andfarming in the land of the Louisiana Territory is vital to ouragriculture and food production in America.
His economic actions have been essential to the growth of thisnation.
Works Cited
1.)http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.washington.edu/uwired/outreach/cspn/Website/Graphics/LA%2520Purchase%2520Map.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.washington.edu/uwired/outreach/cspn/Website/Course%2520Index/Lessons/4/LA%2520Purchase.html&usg=__sZWzH38vU4k27Yuw_x2R_Bz0vtA=&h=336&w=550&sz=81&hl=en&start=2&um=1&tbnid=yn5iUbqEByEUiM:&tbnh=81&tbnw=133&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dlouisiana%2Bpurchase%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1
2.)http://www.rifle-fire.com/uploaded_images/Thomas-Jefferson-big-765809.jpg
3.)http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&safe=active&client=safari&rls=e
4.)http://www.usingmac.com/assets/october2008/thumbs/oct08-21.jpg