Texas Economy Through Time Essay

Texas Economy Through Time

Texas economy throughout the ages has become quite famous for its ever changing status. When Texas was just a young state it did not have the economy that the other states at the time possessed but it did have potential which was picked up on starting out with the livestock and cattle industry. Texas went through a rapid expansion and quickly caught up with its statehood brethren. As time carried on so did the cattle industry of Texas. Soon farming and production of cotton sparked another economic shift for Texas, which caused demand to spike as other states could not keep up with the ability Texas had to produce its cotton. Texas became popular with its cotton production. As time passed and a civil war on the brink

It wasn’t until after the civil war however that the lumber economy caused a large shift in the right direction for Texas and they hit it big. When new technologies came into circulation such as the circular saw Texas’ lumber production sky rocketed and landed the state up with the top producing states at the time. The railroad industry shortly followed behind the production of lumber and with the production of steel that started in 1855, Texas needed another form of transportation as it was not possible to transport products by boat. The river banks of Texas were too shallow for most boats at the time. So on December 16, 1836, the First Congress of the Republic of Texas planned to create the Texas railroad. When everything was finished and Texas’s economy stabilized there was a great surprise that arrived January 1, 1901. It was the discovery of oil at Spindle top. This certain event greatly advanced Texas’s standing in the American economy and it altered the states citizens even more so than the railroad system. This new product that was being pumped out of newly placed oil derricks caused families that originally found it to become stupid rich which is where the

This was the date of the order to construct the railroads. The cities of Texas needed a way to transport what they produced to where they needed the product to be in a short amount of time. One problem workers faced was while other states had steamboats Texas could not use them due to their rivers being too shallow. After the order for the railroad construction came down it wasn’t long before slaves and any able body was shipped south to help with the railroad. When the original railroad was complete it helped cut the transportation of products nearly in half the time. In 1890 James S Hogg won the Texas governorship based on his promise that he will have the railroads regulated, in 1891 the legislature established the Texas Railroad Commissioner giving it control of rates and operations of railroads, oil, gas, and express companies. In the first years that the commission was in circulation it had trouble with court decisions and lack of funds. It still had some success in the restraint of interstate freight trains. In the mid 20th century all control of gas and oil production went to the commissioner and since gas did not have much value then the companies ended up flaring or burning the gas they were producing. It was estimated to be a billion feet worth of gas production was lost a due to over flaring. The commissioner ordered a law that prohibited flaring of gas and due to him