he abolition of slavery, and to
the surprise of both the North and the South "the cause of the conflict
ceased before the conflict itself," and the nation emerged from the war
freed of the greatest obstacle to its social homogeneity. To secure
revenue for the prosecution of the war, the duties on imports were
raised to an unprecedented point, and when Congress failed, after the
return of peace, to reduce the tariff schedules to their former level,
manufacturing interests found themselves protected by a tariff wall so
high that foreign competition was largely eliminated. To secure needed
aid in financing the costly struggle, Congress established the national
banking system which gave greater uniformity to the currency and
brought the financial centers of the country into closer relation. The
anxiety to connect the Atlantic and Pacific coasts by rail led the
federal government to adopt the practice of granting large subsidies to
the builders of great transcontinental railway lines. The stimulation
which the war gave to manufacturing and transportation in the North and
the shrewd manipulation of the money market during the years of the
national crisis made possible the accumulation and concentration of
large quantities of capital funds under the control of a small number
of persons.

It was inevitable that such radical changes would modify the course of
industrial progress. Because of the importance of slavery as the
underlying cause of the war, there has been a natural tendency to
regard its abolition as the most striking and significant net result of
the great conflict, but it is to be doubted whether the emancipation of
the negro had as great an effect on subsequent economic development as
the other innovations, which were so obscured by the turmoil of the war
that they received but little attention and were regarded as being of
much less significance. The complete transformation in the tariff
policy of the nation permitted the growth of manufacturing to an extent
that would have been impossible had the war not occurred; the
construction of the transcontinental railroads had an immeasurable
effect on the development of the great region west of the Missouri
river; the concentration of capital provided the means by which
industrial enterprises could be carried out on a gigantic scale; the
establishment of a uniform currency and a better banking system
accelerated the growth of industry and trade. It is in these changes
t