I’m a bit confused by the timing here: “Made possible by a particular government regulation, the Rural Free Delivery Act, the mail service was opened to rural areas throughout the south, areas highly populated by African Americans. This is a great example of the government helping businesses in the late 19th century expand, as it would increasingly do until the Gilded Age.” The Rural Free Delivery Act was passed in 1896, basically the height of the Gilded Age and the federal government’s ostensibly laissez-faire approach to the economy. Does this suggest that the government was more active in the economy, even during that period, than we commonly realize?
It wasn’t clear in my original diction but in the time through the Gilded Age, the way the government helped business expand was in staying out of business. The laissez-faire policy allowed businesses to grow exponentially in that time period, and I should have stated so more specifically.
I’m a bit confused by the timing here: “Made possible by a particular government regulation, the Rural Free Delivery Act, the mail service was opened to rural areas throughout the south, areas highly populated by African Americans. This is a great example of the government helping businesses in the late 19th century expand, as it would increasingly do until the Gilded Age.” The Rural Free Delivery Act was passed in 1896, basically the height of the Gilded Age and the federal government’s ostensibly laissez-faire approach to the economy. Does this suggest that the government was more active in the economy, even during that period, than we commonly realize?
It wasn’t clear in my original diction but in the time through the Gilded Age, the way the government helped business expand was in staying out of business. The laissez-faire policy allowed businesses to grow exponentially in that time period, and I should have stated so more specifically.